The Power of Media in Australian Politics: UC Essay, Semester 1

This essay examines the significant power of media in contemporary Australian politics, highlighting its role in informing citizens, influencing political agendas, and shaping election outcomes. It discusses how traditional and social media platforms are used by politicians and citizens alike to engage with political issues, promote transparency, and mobilize support. The essay also addresses the potential negative impacts of media, such as the spread of misinformation and the erosion of trust in government. Through examples like the 2010 federal election and the 2007 election where Maxine McKew defeated John Howard, the essay illustrates both the positive and negative influences of media on Australian politics. It concludes that while media can be a valuable tool for democracy, its power must be wielded responsibly to avoid undermining the integrity of the political process. Desklib offers a variety of resources, including solved assignments and past papers, for students studying political science.

Running head: Politics and Government
Politics and Government

Politics and Government 1
The power of media in contemporary Australian politics
Media is becoming increasingly involved into political practices all over the world. Media is a
means through which people like to be informed about the social, political and economic
conditions of their own and other countries. The politicians, citizens and journalists implement
new media tools to assist and complement their political goals. It is important for media to show
a true picture of the conditions of the country so that the citizens can make informed choices. In
Australia, the media has been given great freedom to verify the information to be presented and
express the truth to the people through newspaper, television and the internet. The freedom and
rights include its protection, capability to disapprove the acts of the government and right to
access the information until the rights are infringed in the procedure. With the declining trust and
participation of the Australian citizens in the federal politics, the government, political parties,
the social and political scientists have adjusted their focus on the potential of media to address
these deficits and rejuvenate politics (Prat, 2015). So, the chosen topic of this essay is the power
of media in contemporary Australian politics. It will be explained with the help of some
examples.
As per University of Canberra (n.d.) the mode through which people of Australia engage in the
politics is transforming. The older generations used to participate through the most traditional
forms of engagement such as protests, contacting parliamentary representatives and campaigning
whereas the younger generations are preferring the most contemporary forms of political
participation such as using the power of media and the online social advocacy groups to retrieve
knowledge about the current happenings in the Australian politics.
There is a great involvement between media and politics. Media is a way through which the
citizens are informed about the decision making and the formulation and implementation of the
policies of the government. Media had received new freedom and rights to ensure that the
underprivileged can access it. Also, it has promoted equality, appropriate information and has
alerted the common man about the threats opposing the government.
In the present scenario, particularly social media has been used by the parliaments, governments
and the political parties as a highly efficient tool to engage and inform the citizens about the

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public policies and the formulation of governments. The emerging power of media can highly
influence the common man as compared to any other mode of communication. It encourages
greater participation, responsibility and transparency in the delivering of information, so the
politicians use it as an effective mode to reach the young people of the country (Saldaña,
Mcgregor and Zúñiga, 2015).
The politicians can use their celebrity status in social media such as Facebook and Twitter to
attract young Australians in politics and political issues. Media has been efficient in motivating
the voters to donate their contributions in the election campaign fund raising. The
parliamentarians can use media to focus the citizen’s attention on political parties and issues, to
reply to the queries of the voters and respond to their needs.
With the increase in the public expectations of responsibility, transparency and participation, the
politicians can use them to enhance their observations and in building assistance. It can also help
them in raising funds, getting the voters to the poll and to respond on the issues of stakeholders.
Media helps in interchanging information about the issues and to enable the citizens to see that
the politicians are actively working for the benefits of the common man (Leonzi, Ciofalo and
Stefano, 2015).
Thus media is no longer a story but a means to tell a story. The transforming relationship
between the media and politics has crucial influence over the political agenda setting. The media
is emerging prominently in the political news reporting. It is using the tools and technique of
digital media for political engagement. Media offers new methods for citizens to participate in
the public affairs and elections (Sauter and Bruns, 2013). Use of computer forms of political
participation such as posting comments on a political blog and electronically subscribing to the
political mailing list have strengthened the political participation through the relative ease of
use. It helps in lowering the cost of participation as well as provides greater public access to
political elites.
Through evidences it is proved that news consumption has led to increase in the political
knowledge thereby resulting in political efficiency amongst the citizens. Additionally, the use of
media for political information has an influence on the political engagement of the people. The

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political knowledge can prompt the participation in politics amongst the citizens (McNair et al.,
2017).
Also, the use of social media is emerging in contemporary politics in Australia. Online social
networking sites have become an important platform for political participation since they
enhance the probabilities of associating politically with others. According to Caplan (2013) with
the emergence of social media as a platform for political, informational and social exchanges,
politicians have assimilated Twitter and Facebook into their election campaigns. They are
utilizing these channels of marketing and communication for setting political agendas, shaping
the results of campaigns and influencing the attitude of the public for themselves. The micro
blogging sites such as Twitter have been considered as a perfect mode for this kind of self-
promotion thereby giving the ability to the politicians to inform the people about their political
activities. The tweets which are Twitter’s short posts give the politicians the capability to have an
impact on the users (Gainous and Wagner, 2014).
Social media can be used to spread appropriate information and connect people with the
politicians so that they can create stronger federal governments. So it can be said that a media
focused government has kept the public more informed about politics , thereby allowing them to
access to constant feed of news and opinions(Vonderschmit,2012).It is crucial for the political
institutions to actively participate in the political communications on the social websites during
the election campaigns(Stieglitz and Xuan, 2012).
The power of media in contemporary Australian politics can be explained with the help of some
examples. The 2010 federal election is popularly known as the first “Twitter election “in
Australia due to the dominant role played by social media. It was due to the increase in the
engagement with political themes and discussions by the Australian public and the citizens
which was significant during this campaign.
Another example is the case of the Australian federal elections in 2007. In this case the
Australian electorate voted against the Coalition government led by John Howard who was the
longest serving Prime Minister and he was considered very hard to beat. He was defeated against
a former broadcast journalist Maxine McKew. So, the media played a crucial role in the political
campaigns in which she used her celebrity status to influence the voters to vote in her favour.

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Thus political campaigns have become media driven and more professional with the use of
media. The Australian politics has transformed entirely over the latter half of the twentieth
century because of the influence of media on politics (Sauter and Bruns, 2013).
However, it is not necessary that media has a positive impact on the political scenario always. If
its power is not utilized cautiously, it can result in damaging and eroding the base of federal
government. Through its power to operate outside the territorial limits of the country and time
constraints, it can enable the creation of communities anytime anywhere. It is the cheapest mode
of communication and can be accessed by any individual operating in the world. Media has the
power to change the direction of the information flows. Media attacks the privacy and allows the
governments and the parliamentarians to depict the information to what the public wants instead
of what they want to know. Thus it is not necessary that media may operate in the best interest
of the people in the federal government. The politicians can misuse media for their selfish
interest and to lure the people of the country.
Media can publish unreliable information about the political scenario of the country thereby
posing serious problems. According to the opinion of Chandrappa (2014) media sets the political
agenda by covering the issues which the government does not wants to target at. Thus negative
campaigning can even intensify the scepticism.
As per The University of Melbourne (n.d.) through the use of internet and social media the
common man has access to the information and the power to mobilize. It has become a powerful
platform for promoting lies. It is dangerously demoralizing the political discussions. It is being
deployed to create political violence, prejudice and arrogance.
The political campaigns are prejudiced by rumours, fake news and conspiracies which spread
around the social media. The social media posts satirical or fake news about the political
leaders .So, it is becoming difficult to separate the real news with the fake one thus polluting the
political environment of the country. Also, there are also sites with political conspiracies on
which wrong information and gossips are posted thereby misinforming the users (O’Morain,
2016).

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However, despite of its negative influence the social media is emerging as a powerful force to
influence politics in the near future. According to Nield (2017) in the election campaigns, social
media websites such as Twitter and Facebook have raised to a new level of importance .Millions
of Dollars are being spent across social networks for the campaigns between the parties. The use
of videos and chat books is expected to increase in the political campaigns for generating one to
one interactions with the voters by the politicians. Also, the data tracking and analysis will play
an important role in the future elections. With the help of data analysis, the politicians would be
able to provide information about the potential supporters, where and how to find them and their
liking and disliking about the campaigning messages. It shall also be helpful to trace how much
the voters will donate for the campaign. As much of the data is accumulated off and online and it
is tracked from the habits of the voters, it will impact to a greater extent about how the political
parties will conduct campaigns and reach the voters. So, the data analytics will influence the
ways campaigning will be done from hand shaking to social media and television (Rothman,
2015).
With the increase in the role of media in politics, a platform has been provided for the minority
parties and the common man to have their say in the political scenario of the country. In the new
social media contexts, the minority parties and the common man especially the youth can present
their views regarding the political happenings in the country. They can raise their voice against
the injustice done to them by the political parties and also appreciate the efforts made by them to
improve the status of the underprivileged (Issa, 2016).

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Hence, to conclude, the role of media is to inform the common man especially the
underprivileged. With the help of the awareness spread by the media, they can make informed
decisions which will be related to the running of the country. Mass media greatly influences the
political scenario of the country .The power of media can be an asset to the government if used
judiciously. The recent technology and the regulations related to the media have upgraded the
methods through which the public can get information. Media provides important information
which is necessary for the smooth functioning of the government in Australia.
The recent developments in the today’s world have assisted the media to depict its political
views. The television provides the chance to the political personalities to address the common
man directly. With the help of media, the politicians are utilizing the newly emerged platforms to
reach the new voters. Through Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, where the youth is active, they
are able to get their agendas heard. Thus social media has created a unique feature of
communication which can help the politics to grow to a large extent.

Politics and Government 7
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