How the web shaped the Australian election

The Australian election campaign has shown the internet is becoming an integral part of the political landscape, with politicians, activists and comedians all using it to have their voice heard.

Even before the Australian election was called six weeks ago, websites such as MySpace's Impact and MyElection.au, Google's Election 2007 and Kevin07.com were up and running, in an attempt to better debate, inform and persuade the electorate.

For some, the use of the internet for political debate and discussion was overdue.

MySpace's Australian general manager, Rebekah Horne, said that after nearly 12 years of the same political party in charge, more public engagement in the political process was needed.

"There was a whole generation of people removed from the political space," Ms Horne said.

She believes the high level of political participation on social networking websites such as MySpace and Facebook has shown that we've gone some way towards reaching that goal.

Google Australia's head of corporate communications Rob Shilkin agrees.

"(This election campaign) has been notable for the amount of blogs, comments and analysis from voters and candidates alike," Mr Shilkin said.

"The volume of debate and discussion on the internet has been great."

Google, which also owns the popular video website YouTube, has provided voters with several tools for the election.

"We've found people are using Google Maps to find out more about their candidates, and what electorate they are in," Mr Shilkin said.

YouTube has proven to have been very popular for most political parties during the Australian campaign, with several policy announcements first being released online.

"(Politicians) have been actively using the YouTube channels and have been uploading stuff regularly," Shilkin said.

But while most have participated in the broadcast style of YouTube, the two-way interaction that forms the basis of Facebook and MySpace has not been as popular.

As a result, political support from the online community reflects how well each party interacted.

An online poll hosted on MySpace's election page (www.myspace.com/myelectionau) shows the coalition attracting 30 per cent support, behind Labor's 43 per cent, while the Greens have 14 per cent.

Ms Horne believes the success of Labor and the Greens has been a result of them embracing and participating with social networks.

"Kevin Rudd is as popular as the effort he puts in – that's the key to social networking. He is engaged on all social networks and he's reaping the rewards," Ms Horne said.

"I'm quite surprised that the Liberal Party haven't been as engaged."

Hill and Knowlton's digital director, Steven Noble, points to the rise of online community groups during this election campaign.

"Social media offers far more opportunities to activist groups and individual voters than it does to political parties," Mr Noble said.

"The strength (of online social networking) often lies in listening and informing online communities.

"This is what GetUp! realised when they did the micro-donation (campaign), which they used to fund their climate change advertisements during the AFL Grand Final this year."

But the big online winner for election 2007 may be satire.

The rise in the use of video on the internet has provided an opportunity for some to lampoon politicians.

Videos such as Kevin Rudd interviewing himself on the 7.30 Report and Cryius01's Bennelong Time Since I Rock and Rolled video, have given many online users a chance to laugh during an otherwise long election campaign.

One of the most popular purveyors of online election comedy has been Fairfax Media.

Fairfax Media executive producer, Damian Maher, said the decision to use comedy on the website came to them after the popularity of the viral video Obama Girl.

"That was the catalyst for us. It was so amazingly popular that we thought `let's see if we can do something like that'," Mr Maher said.

Fairfax's comic offerings have included the Axis of Awesome's Rappin' Rudd vs Hip-hop Howard and an online game called Whack-a-Poll.

"There is so much analysis and we didn't think we could really compete with that. . .so we decided to go for the comic angle. The reaction was fantastic," Mr Maher said.

He believes the internet is home to a pool of budding political comics and satirists, and he may call upon them in the future.

"They've really come to the fore in this election, because there really has been a thirst for comic relief," Mr Maher said.

"Definitely in the future I would be inclined to give these guys a call and ask them to put something together for the next big event."