Politics double clicks on social media

By NICOLE KUTER

IT’S ‘Facebook official’. Online media is the future for the Australian political stage – grass roots governments for the next election.

Generation Y are one of the largest generation the world has seen, making up one third of the world’s population, a whole generation of first time voters who need to be cultivated.

Gen Y are the online obsessed. It has taken some time for Australian politicians to catch on but after taking a leaf out the Obama book K-Rudd has discovered Twitter.

It is a trope of media studies that politicians focus their energies on a sound grab for the six o’clock news. With less and less political news on commercial television, that energy is becoming misplaced.

Between facebookers, tweeters and bloggers there isn’t much need for Gen Y to obtain their news from traditional news outlets.

These online social networking sources may not be credible, yet according to a report released by Essential Research on March 15, nearly one fifth of Australians obtain their news online. This staggering statistic includes social networking domains.

Latika Bourke is a political radio journalist and an avid user of social networking sites. Despite her extensive participation in these online sites she has misgivings about the political popularity of these domains.

“It’s easy to get caught up in the interactiveness of new media but it’s important not to exaggerate its’ real power, and reach,” she said. “Few politicians have enough followers to deliver a simple message en masse. Exceptions, of course include ex PM Kevin Rudd. He has nearly 1 million followers.”

Policy Advisor Kathryn Reis believes Ms Bourke may be selling short the power of social networking sites.

She said Twitter and Facebook should be harnessed in order to target the power of the Gen Y vote.

“Social media tools are widely used, widely understood and many young people would view a message from a politician, especially when they know it was posted by them personally, as something positive,” she said. “It doesn’t matter that the pollie has thousands of followers, it appears personal.”

One of the highlights of Barack Obama’s political campaign was not his ability to communicate so effectively using social media. Rather, it was his ability to use social media to create millions of dollars for his campaign.

Online fundraising has barely been attempted in Australia but Ms Reis predicts we’ll be seeing a lot of it in the near future.

If social media is the preferred way to channel the short attention spans of Gen Y then Tony Abbott is yet to log in. Mr Abbott has only just over six thousand followers on a non-verified Twitter account.

Mr Abbott’s predecessor has certainly embraced the electronic era. Malcolm Turnbull announced his retirement on Twitter well before delivering the news by conventional means. Despite announcing his return in a more traditional manner.

Almost instantly traditional news publications double-clicked on the story.

Latika Bourke believes the only people who follow politics on social media devices are those who are “in the game or very close to it.”

John Warhurst, Professor of Political Science at ANU, doesn’t think Mr Abott’s lack of enthusiasm for Twitter has affected his voting pool. He said the community still gets political news from traditional media with the exception of Gen Y.

“In my opinion traditional media still rules, though the balance may be changing towards new media as cultures change and technologies spread.” He said.

Mr Warhurst does, however, agree that Gen Y is a target voting pool which has not been effectively harnessed.

Ms Bourke believes the pool of ‘undecided’ voters gets smaller every election year. This phenomenon is due to the education and awareness levels of voters are increasing.

Josh Manuatu is the press secretary for Liberal Senator Gary Humphries. He said that five years ago he was writing media releases to a grade six education level. He is now writing for grade 12 levels.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if this election was the most informed in Australian history,” he said. “In two years people seem to be more educated and more alert to the issues around them, and now more than ever are paying attention and forming their own view.”

Mr Manuatu said social media like Facebook and Twitter are very useful to people who are politically alert. They can find information quickly and easily in a format that they already know.

Emma Dawson, Policy Advisor for Senator Stephen Conroy, said that people still find traditional media outlets more authoritative.

She said the majority of Australians are not digital natives. She did however, state that there is less money going to commercial television stations for advertising from the Federal Government.

Ms Dawson said the reduction in profits has an impact on ownership of the media and this has the potential to affect the Australian political stage.

This reduction in advertising funds coincides with the reduction in political news stories on commercial television stations.

“Old people trying to keep up [with online social media] is stupid,” she said. “However the way in which politicians manage the media will have to change.”

Mr Manuatu said “The reality is that politics in an election year is all about getting every single vote that you can, so politicians of all sides will pop up everywhere and anywhere that their constituents pay attention”.

He said that if that means becoming technically savvy than that is something politicians will need to engage with. He said Senator Humphries and his team are very dynamic in moving with the times.

Senator Gary Humphries said social media is a risky but worthwhile way to communicate with his electorate.

Mr Humphries tweeted three times in the week before the election.

Ms Dawson said until we see a generational shift, social media is a risky and unnecessary enterprise for politicians.

She said this generation shift could be upon us in less than five years.

Ms Ries said as the pool of ‘undecided’ voters gets smaller so does the attention spans of these voters.

“What was once the 15 second sound grab a politician produced for radio is today the 5 second sound bite for television news which is repeated, reiterated, expanded upon, analysed and regurgitated via online media tools.”

If this generational shift occurs younger generations may be accepting the ‘friend request’ of politics in general.