Sunday, 22 September 2013

Politics & Twitter

Twitter has changed the way Australian politics can be discussed by the general population.  As Bruns and Burgess point out  'while the 2007 Australian federal election was notable for the use of social media by the Australian Labor Party in campaigning, the 2010 election took place in a media landscape in which social media (especially Twitter) had become much more embedded in both political journalism and independent political commentary' (2011, p.1).  2007 had the first online campaign with the whole 'Kevin 07' tagline, but it wasn't until 2010 and 2013 that we really saw the rise of the tweet.  

Twitter. Via twitter.com
Twitter allows anyone with an account to enter the political debate and encourages online participation.  Nowadays news programs all contain twitter hashtags, and there are none more prominant than Q and A on the ABC.  Throughout the program, the small bar on the bottom of the screen is constantly displaying tweets on the topics being discussed by the panel.  The public and the politcians can see what the people are thinking by viewing these tweets.  

Tony Jones on Q and A.  Via abc.com.au
Twitter also allowed the people to see how the politicians themselves represented themselves online.  Everyone remembers when Kevin Rudd posted his shaving selfie on instagram via his twitter, and Tony Abbotts twitter is filled with pictures on him on the campaign trail with his daughters.  It seems wherever we look during an election campaign, twitter is everywhere and inescapable.  



References

Bruns, A., Burgess, J., Highfield, T., and Nicolai, T. 2011 ‘Mapping the Australian Networked Public Sphere’, Social Science Computer Review, vol. 29, no. 3, pp. 277-287.  
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5 comments:

  1. Unknown25 September 2013 at 01:11

    Tim, I really enjoyed the way you discussed politics in relation to new social media platforms and how it has changed the political sphere. Twitter has definitely made a strong impact on helping people decide who they are going to vote for and with the election occurring only a few weeks ago, I found that this post was relevant and kept me intrigued. I also liked how you showed how a prominent television show which discusses politics utilises Twitter to keep their audience involved and how politicians and potential candidates can use it as a tool to see what viewers are thinking. I found that your blog could have been a little bit longer and I would have appreciated some more facts and statistics about Twitter and how it is used specifically in the political arena.

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  2. Unknown25 September 2013 at 01:12

    Tim, I really enjoyed the way you discussed politics in relation to new social media platforms and how it has changed the political sphere. Twitter has definitely made a strong impact on helping people decide who they are going to vote for and with the election occurring only a few weeks ago, I found that this post was relevant and kept me intrigued. I also liked how you showed how a prominent television show which discusses politics utilises Twitter to keep their audience involved and how politicians and potential candidates can use it as a tool to see what viewers are thinking. I found that your blog could have been a little bit longer and I would have appreciated some more facts and statistics about Twitter and how it is used specifically in the political arena.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Unknown25 September 2013 at 16:01

    Hi Timothy,
    I like your post and how you talk about micro blogging and social networks, being used for political discussions and debates about certain topics. Nowadays twitter is a powerful weapon of convincement and interaction between politicians and viewers. It is impressing to see how comments with a hash tag can go viral in minutes, making people change their minds or change their point of view. It might be good to mention in your post how also political parties create fake accounts to talk about their own parties and pretend to have followers.

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  4. Makoto B26 September 2013 at 05:59

    Hey Tim,

    While I found this post relatively short, I enjoyed your opinion on how social media platforms have changed the political sphere. I too agree that social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and even YouTube is effecting people decide who they want to vote for. I think this piece flowed well, however more links, information and references could have helped the posts main argument.

    Overall, I found this post short and sweet, thanks for the great read!

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  5. Ryan Warren29 September 2013 at 21:12

    Timmy, although a short blog post, a thoroughly good read! I too, enjoy the use of Twitter and Facebook in the new political atmosphere. Shows like Q & A, which incorporate the viewers tweets into the program, even accepting questions via Twitter allow for greater viewer interaction, along with more personal interaction between the public and the politicians who represent them in parliament.

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