| Net returns for politicians |
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In fact, the internet has eclipsed newspapers which have fallen to 12 per cent. Television, although also slipping, is still the king of campaign mediums with 60 per cent of the population relying on it for campaign news. Unsurprisingly, the internet is relied upon by a greater proportion of young Americans and more than a quarter of the 18-29 age group (27 per cent) say that they have got information about candidates and the campaign from social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook. Almost one-in-10 Americans under 30 have signed up as a friend of one of the candidates on a social networking site. Against this, even the thoroughly modern Kevin Rudd’s 24,000 friends on MySpace is a paltry achievement. According to Crikey (www.crikey.com.au): “Two million Australians have Facebook pages and 3.5 million read blogs.” These statistics are inevitably imprecise but the order of magnitude is probably about right. They suggest that new media and social networking represent a largely untapped resource in Australian politics. According to a Crikey correspondent, Stilgherrian, the problem is that Australia’s politicians “completely miss the basic concept (of social media): it’s about conversation. They’re still locked into a centrally planned one-way industrial age media model, talking at the public with a broadcast message. Political strategies are still crafted like the Soviet economy of 1948.” Some Australian attempts at incorporating social media into a campaign Strategy have been worse than useless. John Howard’s YouTube debut will probably be remembered because he started by saying “good morning” on a timeless, borderless medium. This, together with his dud MySpace site, only served to emphasise that he was not young anymore. Labor’s much vaunted Kevin07 site was notable because it actually sought and published comments. Sadly, the site was taken down the day after the election. Perhaps, once you get into government, feedback is no longer so welcome. Outgoing special minister of state Gary Nairn had been talking about using blogs as a way of involving citizens in decision-making. Progress was painfully slow. It will be interesting to see whether the Rudd government is open to the idea of using blogs and social media to improve community consultation and participation. Writing on Australian eDemocracy (democracy.nationalforum.com.au), the site’s editor Alison Orr is more generous in her assessment: “It would be an exaggeration to say the internet played a crucial or determining role in the election, but the ALP’s online campaign definitely increased Kevin Rudd’s credibility as the more ‘modern’ and forward-thinking candidate”. GetUp! (www.getup.org.au), the 230,000-member internet-based group is more upbeat, claiming a role for itself in the election outcome through its efforts to highlight “issues of difference” including climate change, Iraq, industrial relations, same sex equality and indigenous affairs. GetUp! Also attracted 7100 volunteers during the campaign and raised $1.2 million in donations. So what might change to encourage our control-freak pollies to embrace online democracy with more enthusiasm and conviction? Paradoxically, it might be old media that leads the way. Blogs with comments help to attract visitors to media sites which is critical for generating advertising revenue. Bringing together the content-generation capacities of traditional media with the audience pulling power of social media could be a winning business model. Most of Australia’s newspapers And the ABC have already started moving to embrace the two-way nature of audience engagement. Tim Brooks, managing director of the Guardian News and Media, told the London Business School’s Media Summit in November last year that the Guardian’s online revenue was growing eight times faster than that of the paper version. For Brooks, “[newspaper] survival is about content; content that is distinctive, authentic, trusted and original. That is why Rupert Murdoch bought The Wall Street Journal. But content companies also need to change because the relationship with the audience is always two-way now.” Also at the London media conference, Derek Morris, the boss of ZenithOptimedia, argued that “the web demands that some control be handed back to the user. We [marketers] need to move from an exposure to an engagement model and take a holistic approach which looks at the way people experience brands through many touchpoints. The touchpoints themselves have to be personal, interactive and experiential.” As traditional media moves to a more interactive online strategy, political parties will also have to follow, or look hopelessly out of date with increasingly demanding and sophisticated audiences. Traditional media is being joined online by publications such as Crikey, New Matilda, Online Opinion and Australian Policy Online. All of these have survived the early, risky days of web 2.0 and, for the most part, seem set to thrive, adding a new dimension and greater diversity. And, of course, the Australian blogosphere will continue to grow in quantity, quality and impact. We can also expect that Australia’s large non-government sector will get far more active online. So far, very few of these organisations have done anything like use the web to its full fundraising and advocacy potential. Following behind should come Australia’s public relations, public affairs and issues management profession. So far the corporate sector has been even slower than our politicians to embrace the internet as a vehicle for engaging in conversations. Few of Australia’s corporate communications experts have shown any leadership in this area but that will change as they see the media heading down the engagement route. As far as the political use of the internet is concerned, Australia’s 2007 election was a lot better then 2004, but there is a long way to go yet and it’s a journey every political aspirant will have to make sooner or later. Trevor Cook is a strategic communications consultant, blogger (http://trevorcook.typepad.com) and regular contributor to ABC Unleashed. David Rowe is a cartoonist with the Australian Financial Review Spread the word! Bookmark our site.           
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Politicians are off the page when it comes to the internet, writes Trevor Cook. Cartoon by David Rowe.