The Essay: Power Of Media In Australian Politics.

The Role of Media in Australian Politics

Discuss about 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 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).

Contemporary Forms of Political Engagement

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 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).

The Emergence of Social Media in Australian Politics

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.  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.

Examples of the Power of Media in Australian Politics

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).  

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).

Positive and Negative Effects of Media on Australian Politics

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.

References

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Chandrappa, K. (2014) The Influence of the Media in Politics - Campaigns and Elections. International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR).3(12),pp. 2310-2312.

Gainous, J. and Wagner, K.M. (2014) Tweeting to Power: The Social Media Revolution in American Politics. OUP USA.

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