“THE intent is clear. The major political
parties will be embracing social media in this seven-month election campaign on
an unprecedented scale.” Explains James Griffin from The Australian.
Australian politics has been bouncing off the
media for as long as Australian’s have been reading papers and listening to
radios.
But now, with the social media never being so
strong, politics in Australia needs to take this opportunity with both hands
and spread that Red Hair’d lady party policies or that budgie smuggler wearing
dude’s plan for the future.
For the 2012
election, the US spent $78 million on their online campaign. Now, obviously
Australia doesn’t need to spend those kind of dollars, but fighting the social
media fight is not one for the weak.
Keeping in
mind, politics isn’t really my thing, however when thinking back over the last
few years of Australian politics, only a few things come to mind. Climate
change tax, the massive deficit after each yearly budget, and of course – Kevin
Rudd caught swearing his head off and then the video leaked onto youtube.com.
Boy oh boy, did I get a kick out of that. Personally, this made me like Rudd
more. It made him more personable, more human, and lets be honest, it was just
funny.
The link below
is the video of Rudd losing it – trust me, it’s worth the watch!
Without video
footage and social media, politicians do not have to be the whole package. They
can pretend through interviews and written word. I think social media has a
positive effect on our political landscape due to it having the possibility of
making people more aware of their political options.
Griffin, J, 2013, In Hyper-Local Election,
Social Media is King, viewed 18th February 2013, http://www.theaustralian.com.au/media/opinion/in-hyper-local-election-social-media-is-king/story-e6frg99o-1226574895743
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