Elections, Campaigns, and Lobbying: Digital Media's Influence

This report delves into the profound impact of digital media on elections, campaigns, and lobbying, particularly within the Australian context. It highlights the shift from traditional methods, such as printed materials, to modern approaches utilizing party websites, social media, and direct email campaigns. The report discusses the crucial role of social media, including platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, in reaching voters more efficiently. It explores the psychological effects of digital communication, emphasizing its visual appeal and content variety. Furthermore, the report examines the evolution of election goals, the increased use of digital tools, and the adoption of strategies inspired by campaigns like Barack Obama's 2008 election. It also addresses the cost-effectiveness and speed of modern campaigning methods while acknowledging the continued importance of traditional media. The report provides a comparative analysis of pre-modern, modern, and postmodern campaign generations, concluding that postmodern election campaigning enables parties to create a lasting impact on voters. The report references various researchers and studies to support its arguments.

Running Head: ELECTIONS, CAMPAIGNS AND LOBBYING
Elections, Campaigns and Lobbying
Student’s Name
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Author’s Note

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Introduction
In this age of digital revolution, election campaigning is much dependent on party websites,
social media as well as direct email campaigning for faster, cheaper as well as more targeted
means of approaching the voters. The traditional Federal campaigning method of handing out
printed materials or sending them by post have become obsolete now.
Discussion
In this age of postmodern election campaigning, social media and other digital attributes of
election campaigning is playing a crucial role. In the major Federal campaigns of the past, we
have witnessed the traditional exchange of paper printed electoral information with the voters. In
comparison, we are witnessing that the Australian politicians similar to their overseas
counterparts, are gradually overcoming the use of traditional media and gradually indulging into
instagramming, Twitter handling as well as accumulating friends as well as likes on Facebook as
a part of their communication method through election campaigning. In this context, researchers
like Macnamara (2018), are of the opinion that electronic messages are likely to reach the
audience’s faster and have a more prompt impact on their minds. Psychological comparison
between impact created by traditional federal election campaigning and the the post modern
campaigning methods using digital media reviews that, the people registers the facts conveyed
by campaigners more easily and clearly when digital messages are delivered. Previously, people
did not give much importance to the paper printed messages because they were unattractive and
common place. However, in this digital age the messages conveyed to voters different each time
because of their variety of visual appeal and content illustration (Bennett, 2016). The branding
and Packaging of elections have changed permanently with the emergence of social media.
Nowadays, with the development of post modern campaigning, the candidates have two fold

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election goals. The first is to alleviate their public profiles and secondly it is to include vote
winning issues on the electoral agenda. The studies on political communication conducted in
Australia by Bleakley (2018), reveals that since the success of the Kevin 07 Electoral Campaign
by the labour party, Australian Federal politics has seen more MPs who are exaggeratedly using
digital tools. In postmodern electoral campaigning, they have been an increase of digital tools
and social media usage by 243 % between 2009 to 2016 (Barry & You, 2017). the artilleries of
public communication used during election, now it is in Australia and in other major developed
areas of the world include Facebook, personal website of the political candidates, direct emailing
ok, Twitter handling and using other favoured digital platform popular among the local
audiences. The use of YouTube videos is also on the Rise among the politicians who use
YouTube to create inspirational content for the voters in order to allure them to vote for the
candidates of a particular political party. Kevin Rudd got over 3 million views From The 51
videos that he posted during the 2013 election campaign in Australia (Carson, Dufresne &
Martin, 2016). A recent post modern development of election campaigningis that political parties
in Australia and in other countries as well as civil vote related organisations are boring from the
campaign Playbook used by Barack Obama in 2008. Political parties are mainly using this and
their websites as well as social media for accumulation of campaign funds.if the Australian
context is taken into consideration, it is not for the to mention that in the year 2013 the labour
government was able to generate funds comma worth more than Australian dollars $800000 by
means of small donations using these targeted methods. Like the primitive federal election
campaigning techniques, the campaign of post modern times, did not use time and resources to
collect small funds from individual party members or voters. On the contrary, they use the digital
platform along with online money transfer in technology to create e wallets where people could

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deposit small funds from the convenience of their homes. Besides, they also received a track of
how their donation was used for Electoral Campaign and every individual donation ever received
a thanksgiving message which was not possible to be formulated as a a strategy during the days
of traditional Federal election campaigning. Another typical example of postmodern election
campaigning was the video message of contemporary Australian Army chief David Morrison.
The content of the video was regarding the need of respecting female officers. The message was
very clear. As analysed by Barron (2018), Morrison addressed the main officers to get out from
arm forces if they did not know how to respect women. This video help him to earn the title of
the Australian of the year and also help him to generate reputation as the champion in fostering
women’s rights. Therefore, we can see that these methodologies of of post modern campaigning
is helping all politicians to develop their image, character as well as value in the mind of the
voters. For evidence the MP from Queensland, Wyatt Roy shared with his innumerable
Facebook followers the meme of one adorable baby llama. The caption of the meme:
“Baby llama Don’t Need No drama”
Hence, analysing the above mentioned factors, researchers like Glukhova (2017), are of the
opinion that post modern election campaigning methods can be cost effective as well as a faster
way of reaching the voters. How is work, in contrast other researchers like Esaiasson and
Holmberg (2017), strictly argues that traditional methods of federal election campaigning are
still vital in informing voters regarding the election issues. For instance, on the night before
which the Parliament was recalled, the ABC's Sunday Television News dedicated it’s one third
time period of the Bulletin for the upcoming election. This prime time coverage gather the
attention of over 1 million viewers and this severe editorial commitment came at least 80 days
from polling day. The usage of old as well as new media platforms for the conveyancing of

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political messages becomes more sensible when election campaigning techniques are critically
compared over time by the political scientists like Pippa Norris. Researchers like her depicts 3
distinct generations of political communication namely pre-modern, modern as well as post
modern campaign. The pre modern campaigns where conducted when television was not even
into use and at that time the main articulation of messages depended on the oratory skills of the
politicians at the time of town hall meetings in order to convey the election messages. Naturally,
McAllister and Muller (2018), argues that the campaigning outcomes where concentrated among
the people of the local communities only. That is why the local candidates engaged in rallies,
party meeting and canvassing after the organisation of town hall meetings only.
Next into comparison, comes the modern election campaigns which occurred around the later
half of 20th century. During that time political messages where centrally coordinated by the
parties and order to disperse the messages among greater population, mass media like television,
radio as well as newspapers where used only. As an outcome, the successful politicians were the
only ones who would create most news content.
In comparison with the other two, the post modern era of election campaigning uses grassroot
communication methods developed during the pre Modern eraand at the same time utilizes
professional consultants for advertising, gathering public opinion as well as conducting political
marketing for delivering messages throughout their election cycle. As observed by Fisher etal.
(2016), this hybrid campaigning technique is sophisticated and is therefore able to highly
influence the modern young age population. The political sentiment among the young voters of
the pre Modern era was much more compared to that in this post modern generation of voters.
This is why this sophisticated style of campaigning highly happens to them and voters can
associate themselves more with the election campaign of the various political parties. The 2014

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Victorian Elections victory by the Labour Party can be used as a speculative instance of the post
modern election campaign. The campaign was formed by the Community Action Network. They
were able to attract 5500 volunteers many of homework actually not members of the party.
among them they made more than 50000 phone calls and do not 170000 homes of critical
marginal voters during the time of the 8 week campaign (Flew et al. 2017). the media team who
was supporting the campaign of the leader of labour party, Daniel Andrews comma ensured that
he could calculate maximum Facebook followers compared to any other political leaders of
election campaigning at that time in Australia (McNair, 2017). In order to achieve that, regular
social media communication with the Australian voters was conducted and regularly more than
thousand messages were exchanged between the political leader and his followers on social
media, mainly over Facebook.
Conclusion
Most studies by empirical researchers reveal that the politicians in Australia and other major
parts of the world in this age of postmodern election campaigning, uses social media to
communicate and engage the voters by conversation over the social media and thereby establish
a pathway of genuine two way flow of information between the voters and the politicians. In this
context comma it is worthy of mentioning that Darryn Lyons, Rudd as well as Turnbull had
previous Carriers working as mass media managers and therefore they had the idea of
implementing potential digital campaigns which could help them to gain popular public support.
Hence, it can be finally argued that with the use of the instrument of post modern election
campaigning, the electoral parties are able to create a long lasting and permanent impact on the
mind of voters.

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Reference List
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Glukhova, A. V. (2017). Populism as a Political Phenomena and the Challenge of the Modern
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