Queenslanders go to the polls today in the State election. They get to chose between Anna Bligh, the incumbent for Labor, and Campbell Newman for the NLP who looks uncannily like my brother. Yesterday, Anna Bligh tweeted this video showing her taking on some other pollie types racing down schooners.
Today’s question is:
Tags: bligh, drinking, election, newman, queensland
Julia Gillard, Australia’s new PM and the first woman to hold the top job, has a shortish to do list of big problems to fix prior to the Federal election, which is expected to be held in August of this year.
One of her biggest challenges will be deciding whether Australia needs a great big fax to track and reduce carbon emissions.
It looks as though faxes will be a hot election issue.
Tags: carbon, election, emissions, faxes, gillard, Politics, taxes
Utilitarianism: More votes to clever people
In 1861, the philisopher John Stuart Mill wrote: the exercise of any political function, either as an elector or representative, is power over others.
We live in tumultuous times. The United State Presidential Election is scheduled to take place on November 4 this year.
The question remains relevant today: Do voters have a moral duty to be informed about politics?
The majority of Americans rely on the television for their political information, not realising that most news networks are highly partisan, owned by corporations and biased.
John Stuart Mill argued that the impact of political ignorance should be offset by giving extra votes to the most highly educated portions of the population.
Who is responsible for generating an informed population? Is it the moral responsibility of the individual? Perhaps – It’s rarely (if ever) in the interests of the political elite or governing party to educate the electorate about its shortcomings and failings.
Edmund Burke coined the term, the Fourth Estate. He is quoted in Thomas Carlyle’s book:
“Burke said that there were three Estates in Parliament, but in the Reporters Gallery yonder, there sat a Fourth Estate more important far than they all”.
Journalism is seen as having a critical role to play as an institution that holds the other institutions to account. Sadly, our society has lost faith in the media.
2b or not 2b informed
A Pew Research Centre Study found that 66 per cent of people consider the press “one sided” while only 9 percent of journalists are concerned with the media’s credibility.
Technology is challenging and transforming the Fourth Estate.
The Internet is perceived to have democratised information. It has placed the means of production in the hands of the consumer, hence User Generated Content. It has enabled the audience to engage in conversation, to provide feedback and to challenge one sided arguments and vested interests.
The Internet presents fantastic possibilities and potential as means of sharing information and mobilising communities around a cause or issue but I don’t think its safe to assume that this potential will necesarily be realised to the benefit of all.
I think we can draw parallels between free markets and de-regulation and the impact of the Internet on media and information. Recent events clearly demonstrate – if proof were needed – that a laissez-faire attitude does not always lead to a positive or sustainable outcome. Fundamentally, free markets (of information or finance) may be self correcting but often that process is too painful to bare.
We cannot claim that traditional print media has been effective in establishing an informed population (whatever one of those is) but my fear is that new media, digital media will have a downward effect on the degree to which the community as a whole is achieving an acceptable level of informed-ness.
Contained conversation
Sure, it will expose active and aware audiences to a much wider and active array of content and opinion but that’s an echo chamber. A situation in which information, ideas or beliefs are amplified or reinforced by transmission inside an “enclosed” space. This was one of the primary objections to the role of the media in the lead up to the Iraq War.
History tells us that the general public has no inclination and accepts no moral obligation to be informed about events in the world and in the world of digital media where the reader is the editor this concerns me.
For the majority of the population, the Internet means memes, it means funny videos, it means games, it means shopping, it means entertaining news and opinion. It has little or no relationship with political consciousness.
The following table captures the characteristics of traditional print media as I see them and compares them with that of digital and new media.
My fear is that if we move to a world where the characteristics of the media and the way that we engage with media reside in the right hand collumn we will utlimely become less informed and not more.
I don’t know what the solution is to this problem given the fact that media is moving irretrievably along a digital path but I think it’s worthy of discussion.
Tags: Biden, Burke, Bush, digital, election, Iraq, journalism, McCain, Media, Mill, Obama, palin, PEW, Presidential, social
Just got in from a presentation at the Australian Centre for Public Communication, a faculty within the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). Professor Jim Macnamara presented the results of a research report entitled E-Electioneering: Use of New Media in the 2007 Australian Federal Election.
The objectives of the research were to:
Overall, the level of engagement achieved had been minimal due to the failure of the politicians to use the power of social media to engage and interact. Only one of the 226 politicians studied allowed negative comments to appear on their site (this was Malcolm Turnbull). In all other cases, comments sections were either not available or carried purely fan mail i.e. positive/supportive messages. Very small numbers replied to questions submitted via Websites and social networks, completely missing the opportunity to engage in conversation and drive advocacy.
Some figures:
One of the key conclusions drawn from all of this is that “new media have not created a new public sphere of political discussion and debate where citizens can participate as equals as envisioned by Habermas (1989)”.
I take issue with this conclusion. It’s clear from the data that new media hasn’t been given the chance to create ‘a new public sphere of political discussion’ because it has been poorly applied and executed. In other words, new media hasn’t failed but our politicians and their advisors have. John Howard provides a case in point. He made little or no attempt to adapt his message or presentation for YouTube and opened his maiden YouTube appearance with ‘Good Morning!’.
There was much talk after the presentation about the fact that the majority of people that visited these types of sites where politically active and that it’s not actually these people that influence the outcome of elections.
My colleague, Ed, made a good point after the event. He said that he agreed with this conclusion but that the experience of US pollies had shown that social media could be used effectively as tool for mobilising a community of politically active advocates and supporters i.e. it does have an important role to play/does add value.
I would argued that politicians, in general, need to change the tone of their message and the way it is presented (Infotainment). This would help to engage the politically apathetic and help voters feel that they were interacting with a real person with a personality.
The report touched on the contribution of prosumers or citizens in terms of video commentary and other types of media. Macnamara made the point that much of this content was spoof material and he said that the jury was out as to whether this represented genuine political discourse. I don’t think there should be any question that it does.
My other observation related to the number of times that the audience made a point based on an assumption that only young people use social media.
Overall, it was an informative session in an academic setting and food for thought.
Tags: blog, discourse, election, facebook, federal, habermas, howard, myspace, rudd, Social media, uts, youtube
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