AMIC 2008
Citizen Journalism in the 2007 Australian Federal Election
Axel Bruns
- 27 March 2008 - AMIC 2008 conference, Brisbane, Australia
Citizen journalists and news and political bloggers had a considerable impact on journalistic coverage of the 2007 Australian federal election campaign. Already, even before the election proper had been called, the alternative viewpoints of citizen journalists and bloggers could be seen to have significantly disrupted the previously relatively static arrangements between government and opposition parties and the journalistic establishment, and to have challenged standard modes of reporting and interpreting political events. This paper discusses the role of citizen journalists and news and political bloggers in the 2007 Australian federal election campaign by examining four key sites of such alternative reporting, analysis, and commentary: the hyperlocal citizen journalism site Youdecide2007.org, the leading left-of-centre political group blog Larvatus Prodeo, the influential psephologist blogger Possums Pollytics, and ABC Online's attempts at blogging the election campaign.
