More than ever, voters are getting their election news from their phones. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
Mobile phones, emails, podcasts, influencers, and all manner of social media have played a significant role in this federal election campaign, perhaps more so than in previous political contests in Australia.
It’s been a true spectator’s sport to discover how the various parties and candidates have taken advantage of social media during this campaign and sought to capitalise on the fact that more Australians than ever before are turning to their phones and devices for election news.
As reported earlier this week, Clive Palmer’s Trumpet of Patriots has done its best to annoy voters with a barrage of unsolicited, and largely nonsensical, text messages to the mobile phones of millions of Australians.
Also previously reported is the significant impact that influencers and podcasts had on the federal election, prompting the Australian Electoral Commission to issue guidelines on how politicians should interact with them.
It advised politicians to authorise all co-authored posts with influencers, podcasters and other content creators.
The advice focuses on authorisation statements and what can and cannot be considered political advertising on social media.
The AEC deemed it necessary to update its authorisation guidelines following its review of podcaster Abbie Chatfield’s content, which was later shared online by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Greens leader Adam Bandt.
Once that hurdle was cleared, parties and candidates embraced podcasters and social media influencers with gusto.
Here in the ACT, candidates across the spectrum have been creative with their uses of social media.
There’s a very engaging (and quite funny) Labor promotion on Facebook in the form of a chat between Senator Katy Gallagher and Senator Penny Wong about such important things like who answers more questions in Question Time, who was the best Finance Minister, who’s more likely to get lost when driving, who’s the best dresser and, oh yeah, who loves Canberra the most.
Liberal Senate candidate Jacob Vadakkedathu didn’t really put this one out himself, but there’s a social media post going round in the dying days of the election that might actually score him a few sympathy votes.
It’s using his words from an ABC Radio interview on Thursday that puts him at odds with his party’s leader, Peter Dutton, about plans to slash the public service, with all the pain being targeted at Canberra.
“Cutting 41,000 just from Canberra, it’s not realistic,” Mr Vadakkedathu said.
“I will stand up and I will strongly argue the case for Canberra, that’s why we need a Liberal senator from Canberra representing Canberrans in the party room.”
Independent Senator David Pocock has consistently demonstrated his expertise in social media messaging, and this campaign only served to further solidify that.
Other independent candidates have also shone with clever Facebook and other social media activity.
Labor Member for Bean David Smith getting ‘out and about’ in Weston Creek. Photo: David Smith Facebook.
But the social media post that has amused me the most, for its sheer laziness, is an FB post I’ve been seeing from Labor’s incumbent Member for Bean, David Smith.
Under the caption heading of: “It’s been great to be out and about around Weston Creek talking to the community about Labor’s plan for building Canberra’s future.” There is a picture of one person talking to another in a lonely alleyway.
One’s got their back to Canberra, so it could even be a staffer or a relative. Who knows?
Mr Smith has been so proud of how he’s been “out and about around Weston Creek” that he paid for that pic to be sent out as a Facebook ad repeatedly over the past couple of weeks.
It’s such a bad look that it’s gobsmacking anyone believed it a good idea to use it on social media.
The term “Nigel-no-friends’ springs to mind at first sight.
Maybe his comfortable margin doesn’t require much more effort.
What most people seeing the pic might be asking themselves, however, is “which one is David Smith?”
Original Article published by Chris Johnson on Region Canberra.
