Politicians? Nay, Pop Stars

This week we touched on the huge phenomenon that is political campaigning by way of social media. This topic is far too extensive to be fully covered in a blog post so I am just going to mention a few interesting facts.

Firstly, with the success of social media campaigning in the 2013 Australian Federal Election (Swan and Visentin 2013) and the 2012 American Presidential Election (Kennedy 2013) it is fair to predict that this tactic will develop and potentially prevail. For campaigners, having an active and dominant presence on social media can effectively assist in winning an election (Swan and Visentin 2013).

For individuals, part of this boils down to seeing who your friends support, or as Labour’s online campaigning consultant, Jessica Stanley, puts it, “If your friends are seen to like Rudd, it makes it easier for you to like him'' (Swan and Visentin 2013).

This was interesting to me because in hindsight, I was really subjected to this during my first voting experience this year. On my Facebook I saw a lot more Labour supporters voice their support and this made me more obliged to vote left. Luckily I did some research and found the Liberal Party’s online presence more thorough and persuasive. From my point of view, Kevin had the popularity but Tony had the better presence.*

Campaigners must essentially ‘perform’ on social media platforms in order to win over the voters. I like (nay, hate) to think of campaigning as an ‘Australian Idol’ type competition where audience is the population and the three main judges are traditional media who scrutinize their performances. The campaigners must be active, interactive and personable and they must prevail on a variety of stages (YouTube, Facebook & Twitter).

 

‘Politician-Pop Stars’, Banks, O 2013 

To end on a positive note, I loved learning that the smaller political parties tend to produce more innovative and riskier ads because they have less money for mass marketing (Swan & Visentin 2013). They rely on “images or videos to be entertaining enough that people pass them on to their friends” (Swan & Visentin 2013). This fact alone makes me a little fonder of their efforts!

*This in no way is indicating my preference or that I favored one campaign over another.

References

Australian Labour Party. 2013. All In Good Time. [video online] Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAAKqP-UuXQ&feature=c4-overview-vl&list=PLy_ysNWHoI2KLtmplN9bRSySZQgsUWrAv [Accessed: 11 Dec 2013].

Kennedy, K. 2013. Use it or Lose it: Social Media in the 2012 Election. [online] Available at: http://pulitzercenter.org/reporting/social-media-role-young-voters-increase-future-US-elections-Obama-Facebook-Twitter [Accessed: 11 Dec 2013].

Swan, J. and Visentin, L. 2013. Political heavyweights are online, upfront and in your face Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2013/political-heavyweights-are-online-upfront-and-in-your-face-20130807-2rgpc.html#ixzz2pf41RdjW. [online] 8 August. Available at: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2013/political-heavyweights-are-online-upfront-and-in-your-face-20130807-2rgpc.html [Accessed: 11 Dec 2013].

Images Used to Create ‘Politician-Pop Stars’, Banks, O 2013 

Ashtar Command. 2012. Seven Stages of Life. [image online] Available at: http://www.ashtarcommandcrew.net/group/selfrisingspiritgoup/forum/topics/seven-stages-of-life [Accessed: 11 Dec 2013].

Martin, I. 2013. Rudd and Abbott. Let the battle (lines) begin. Cartoon.. [image online] Available at: http://laberal.blogspot.com.au/2013/06/rudd-and-abbott-let-battle-lines-begin.html [Accessed: 11 Dec 2013].

Perth Audiovisual. n.d. Shure 55SH Vocal Microphone. [image online] Available at: http://www.perthav.com.au/audio-visual-hire/audio-equipment/microphones [Accessed: 11 Dec 2013].