The Twitterverse and the Federal election

Mamadonut.blogspot.com 28/8/13

With the Australian Federal election around the corner the prevalence of Political Microblogging is quite relevant. As a relatively new aspect of the World Wide Web and Mass Media, Twitter and any other forms of Microblogging have great potential to increase the participation in political matters by previously unengaged citizens (Castells, 2007 as cited in Larsson and Moe, 2011), when it is used by Politicians, Journalists and voters, as a platform for Political communication.

Technologies are often viewed as key drivers "of change in the electoral arena" (Gibson et al., 2008, as cited in Larsson and Moe, 2011) and the current use of Twitter in Australian Politics, and around the world is, in my opinion, no exception to this. Being Generation Y I do not actually remember (or at least was not old enough to pay attention) an election being held where Twitter, Social Media, and new technologies alike were not used by Politicians, Journalists and everyday citizens to supply us, to an extent (considering the Techno-legal Time Gap), voters with any information they and we want. 

Twitter provides a relatively democratic Public sphere that would otherwise not exist in Politics. The successful use of Twitter in Obama's US Presidential Campaign in 2008/9 helped to establish Social Media "as an integral part of the political campaign toolbox" (Tumasjan et al., 2010). While in theory Microblogging should allow the Public to communicate with Politicians who are active on Twitter, and vice versa, I would argue that it is naive to think it is possible to carry civilised conversation through medium. An example of this is when Joe Hockey, Shadow Treasurer, asked for his followers opinion on the Governments Emissions Trading Scheme. The replies inevitably moved towards attacks on both Labour and Liberal policy, and not surprisingly didn't really provide a great deal of insight into the actual thoughts on the ETS. Dare I say though, that tactics such as this are simply a ploy to seem engaged with the Twittersphere.

Despite this, I feel that Microblogging on Twitter during an election is a positive. I would call myself a semi-engaged voter, I occasionally watch Q&A (occasionally!) and I do follow Politicians on Twitter. I also, though, follow Journalists. And this is where I see the benefits. Journalists like Latika Bourke, a Political Reporter from the Canberra Press Gallery, use hashtags like #AusVotes, and links to further details to provide everyday Twitter users with information as they scroll through their daily, or hourly Social Media fix. I cannot think of another avenue that allows voters this much readily available information, even when Tweets are limited to 140 characters.

References

Larsson, A.O., and Moe, H. (2011). Studying political microblogging: Twitter users in the 2010 Swedish election campaign. New Media & Society, 14(5), 729-747. DOI:10.1177/1461444811422894 

Tumasjan, A., Sprenger, T. O., Sander, P. G., & Welpe, I. M. (2010). Predicting Elections With Twitter: What 140 Characters Reveal About Political Sentiment. Social Science Computer Review, 30 (2), 229-234. Retrieved from http://danielschiffman.com/learning/ICWSM10_Predicting_Elections_with_Twitter.pdf