E-electioneering and E-democracy (Government 2.0) in Australia

AUSTRALIAN CENTRE FOR PUBLIC COMMUNICATION

E-electioneering and E-democracyE-electioneering and E-democracy(Government 2.0) (Government 2.0) in Australiain Australia

Studies of online citizen consultation and social media in the 2010 Australian federal election

Professor Jim Macnamara PhD, MA, FPRIA, FAMI, CPM, FAMEC


Australian federal election 2010

Macnamara, J., & Kenning, G. (2011). E-electioneering 2010: Trends in social media use in Australian political communication. Media International Australia, 139 [in print].


Methodology

Content analysis – quantitative and qualitative• Number of social media types and sites

• Blog posts

• Facebook ‘friends’, ‘likes’, ‘Wall posts’, comments, notes

• Twitter ‘followers’, ‘following’, ‘tweets’ (broadcast, responses & coded)

• YouTube video uploads, channel visits, and views

• Other networks (e.g. LaborConnect, ‘ThinkTank’, etc)

Sample (quantitative)• 206 re-standing Members of House of Reps and Senate

• 2 major political parties (Labor & Liberal)

Sample (qualitative)• Top 10 most frequent tweeters and most ‘liked’/befriended

Facebook sites

E-ELECTION 2010E-ELECTION 2010


2007 – 2010 comparisonSocial media 2007 2010 % change

Personal Web site 137 157 14.6%

Twitter 0 92 9200.0%

Facebook 8 146 1725.0%

YouTube 13 34 161.5%

MySpace 26 9 -65.4%

Blogs 15 29 93.3%

Flickr 0 9 900.0%

E-surveys 24 7 -70.8%

E-petitions 10 3 -70.0%

E-newsletter 42 78 85.7%

Total online sites/activities 275 564 105.1%



Politicians on Twitter

On Twitter45%

Not on Twitter51%

Fake Twitter accounts4%



Top 20 politician tweeters

439

158142 134

10491 90 90

75 7263 62 59 55

45 313131323434

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

500

TURNBULL

MORRIS

ON

ROBB

BURKE

LUNDY

CORMANN

HAWKE

ELLIS

GILLA

RD

HANSON-YOUNG

BIRM

INGHAM

BISHOP

BRADBURY

TURNOURHALL

GARRETT

FLETCHER

BALDWIN

JOHNSON

MIL

NE

BRIGGS



Facebook page ‘likes’ & friendsTop Twenty by Facebook Popularity

0

10000

20000

30000

40000

50000

60000

70000

80000

GILLA

RD

RUDD

BROWN

ABBOTT

TURNBULL

HOCKEY

PYNE

PLIBERSEK

HANSON-YOUNG

ELLIS

LUDLAM

MIL

NE

JENSEN

MORRIS

ON

COONAN

HUNT

RISHW

ORTH

O'DW

YER

BURKE

VAM

VAKINOU

Official Page LikesCommunity Page LikesFriends



Facebook page ‘likes’ & friendsTop Twenty by Facebook

PopularityExcl PM and Ex PM

0

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

30000

BROWN

ABBOTT

TURNBULL

HOCKEY

PYNE

PLIBERSEK

HANSON-YOUNG

ELLIS

LUDLAM

MIL

NE

JENSEN

MORRIS

ON

COONAN

HUNT

RISHW

ORTH

O'DW

YER

BURKE

VAMVAKIN

OU

SOUTHCOTT

HUMPHRIE

S

Official Page LikesCommunity Page LikesFriends

(Excl PM & ‘Rudd factor’)



Followers & following

0

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

30000

35000

40000

45000

FollowingFollowers



Followers and following

Politician Tweets Followers

Following

1. Malcolm Turnbull 439 26,943 20,498

2. Scott Morrison 158 1,978 166

3. Andrew Robb 142 1,684 1,254

4. Tony Burke 134 3,107 550

5. Kate Lundy 104 4,352 720

9. Julia Gillard 75 43,538 27,467

92. Tony Abbott 2 19,083 20



Types of tweeting

Politician Responses Broadcasts Where am I?

Attack on opponents

*

Malcolm Turnbull 248 191 81 9

Scott Morrison 33 125 48 19

Andrew Robb 1 141 17 79

Tony Burke 65 68 9 14

Kate Lundy 28 56 22 11

Mathias Corman 22 44 5 49

Julia Gillard 12 51 20 4

* Attack on opponent by name or opposition policy combined.



ALP party use of social mediaParty Social media Content & metrics SiteALP Web site http://www.alp.org.au/home

Labor TV (YouTube channel)

32 video uploads230,171 channel visits1,247,009 total views42nd most viewed in Aug

http://www.alp.org.au/labortv

Labor Blog 32 posts http://www.alp.org.au/blogs/alp-blog

Twitter account 788 tweets in period5,617 followers4,203 following1,735 total tweets

http://twitter.com/australianlabor

Facebook page 3,467 ‘likes’75 wall posts616 comments

http://www.facebook.com/LaborConnect

Labor ThinkTank 308 ideas315 comments

http://thinktank.alp.org.au/issues

Labor Connect 2,936 members http://connect.alp.org.au

MySpace 23,505 friends6 comments0 blog posts since 25/07/07

http://www.myspace.com/officiallaborspace

Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/juliagillard



Liberal party use of social media

LIB Web site http://www.liberal/org.auLiberal.TV (YouTube channel)

9 video uploads98, 373 channel visits639,111 total views83rd most viewed in Aug

Twitter account 188 tweets in period7,089 followers6,645 following1,985 total tweets

http://twitter.com/liberalaus

Facebook page 16,450 ‘likes’35 wall posts2,959 comments

http://www.facebook.com/LiberalPartyAustralia

Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonyabbott



Two-way – listening as well as talking

Dialogue Conversations Openness Democratisation of the public

sphere PRACTICES of communication are

changing/reverting – not just the technologies

Web 2.0 / social media

AUSTRALIAN CENTRE FOR PUBLIC COMMUNICATIONE-democracy/Government 2.0

E-government – service delivery E-democracy – consultation and engagement of

citizens UK Power of Information review (Mayo & Steinberg,

2007) UK Digital Dialogues report (Miller & Williamson,

2008) UK Power of Information Task Force (2009) Australian Government 2.0 Taskforce (2009)


E-DEMOCRACY E-DEMOCRACY


Methodology

Depth interviews with architects of 11 federal departments and agencies involved in online citizen consultation• Policy, IT, and communication staff

Content analysis of online citizen engagement sites• AG’s national online human rights consultation

• DBCDE blog on digital economy

• DEEWR early childhood education consultation

• ATO

• Australian War Memorial

• Australian Museum

Participation (netnography)



Findings of analysis on online consultation Lack of planning

• Clear objectives (not)• Involve IT, policy and communication

Hijack by controversial issues and lobbyists Limitations on meeting response time expectations Poor design and navigation in some cases Lack of resources to monitor and respond Culture barriers (PS regulations, attitudes) Language barriers Focus on government hosted, not independent Lack of sense-making tools (e.g. text analysis) Communities of interest / practice



Findings of analysis on online engagement Listening requires work An architecture of listening

• Policies

• Resources

• Open culture

• Tools to monitor and analyse



Will the conversation end in the ‘politics of peacetime’?

The future of ‘government 2.0’ and e-democracy?

Where to now?

AUSTRALIAN CENTRE FOR PUBLIC COMMUNICATIONT H

A N

K Y

O U

Peter Lang, New York (2010) http://bit.ly/21Cmediarevolution

Pearson Australia (2011)

E-electioneering and E-democracy (Government 2.0) in Australia

Documents

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