Digital Lessons From Down Under

UK journalists should look at the recent events in Australia to see the effects of a digitised election, claims an expert.

The impact of the blogosphere and broadband video were in evidence throughout the recent general election down under, says the director of a journalism think-tank.

Charlie Beckett, director at Polis, writes in Press Gazette that “the close cultural ties and political similarities make Australia’s experience much more relevant to the UK”.

Beckett, along with co-writer Tim Watts, asserts that online video has become particularly vital to both news providers and political campaigners who were conducting their own battles on the web.

“Lower costs mean that internet video has provided a real-life campaign test bed, where videos can either flop and fade into oblivion or strike a chord and make the jump into paid TV ads,” notes the expert, who heads the London School of Economics think-tank.

“Hundreds of thousands of Australian voters watched footage of the opposition leader eating his own ear wax, the prime minister being portrayed as a ‘farting fossil fool’ and some of the most surreal campaign advertisements in memory.”

Beckett and Watt also confirm that the Australian blogosphere played its part in providing alternative coverage.

They report that the political blogosphere actually irritated the mainstream enough to earn a disparaging editorial from The Australian, where the majority of bloggers were derided as a “one-eyed anti-Howard cheer squad now masquerading as serious online political commentary”.

In conclusion, Beckett and Watt state: “The lesson from Australia is that the internet does not (yet) decide elections, but it has a critical marginal impact.”

And all this could mean that British journalists seeking online reporting tips for this year’s anticipated election should avert their gaze from across the pond and take a virtual journey to Oz instead.