By Kymberley Bax
THE year 2007 saw both the introduction of Kevin Rudd into the role as Australia's newest Prime Minister, and the integration of politics with cyberspace, which resulted in the birth of a fresh, new concept commonly termed as 'e-democracy'. This political advancement has proved to be beneficial for both politicians and the Australian populace as a whole. In the last couple of years, e-democracy has brought about positive changes to the political sphere on a federal, state, and local level. This impact has enhanced political participation by expanding the demographic, thus sparking political interest in audiences that were previously unreachable via traditional campaigning. The shift of politics into the online world has introduced a whole new medium of communication, which has essentially revitalized politics and connected the political circuit with the public sphere like never before.
BEFORE delving deeper into e-democracy, the term must first be distinguished in order to further explore the impact of this new concept, which, like the internet, is still in its infancy, and yet is growing by the day. In the book Internet Politics, Andrew Chadwick quotes an explanation of e-democracy and its benefits from the Hansard society, one of the key movers in operationalizing e-democracy:
'the concept of e-democracy is associated with efforts to broaden political participation by enabling citizens to connect with one another and with their representatives via new information and communication technologies' (1).
Kenneth L. Hacker and Jan van Dijk concur with this explanation in their book Digital Democracy: Issues of Theory and Practice, stating that:
'digital democracy is the use of information and communication technology and computer-mediated communication in all kinds of media for purposes of enhancing political democracy or the participation of citizens in democratic communication' (2).
A third book, Frank Webster's Culture and Politics in the Information Age, also corroborates with the aforementioned explanations, however Webster adds that digital democracy should be considered simply as an addition, not a replacement of traditional political practices (3). Nevertheless, all three texts commonly revolve around similar themes of 'connection' and 'communication', which are closely linked with 'relationships'.
THE relationships between citizens and their representatives are what hold the power to make or break a political campaign. With the introduction of e-democracy, politics have been made personal, benefitting both public and political parties by humanizing the politicians. An article from a 2007 issue of the Courier Mail studied the benefits of the personalization of politics. Journalist Rachel Hills reported that online bloggers were praising the idea, agreeing that online media would 'force politicians to become more open, accoountable and human' (4). Through FaceBook, MySpace and Twitter accounts, politicians are able to relate to their people on a more personal level, which inevitably strengthens the relationships. Furthermore, with mechanisms such as online polls, anyone with access to the internet has the opportunity to be involved in decision-making processes (6). Queensland's Premier Anna Bligh is a great example of a politician who involves her people in decision-making. She regularly sets up 'e-petitions' online, in which people can sign for or against current issues, debates and changes. One of her most recent petitions asked the public to voice their opinion about the opposition of the sell-off of public assets such as Queensland Rail's coal and freight arms [QLD NOT FOR SALE]. Following the rising popularity of the web, websites were set up to allow political parties to communicate directly with voters (5). Once again, this assists in strengthening the relationship between representative and citizen, as well as reinforcing the support behind political parties.
AUSTRALIAN politicians followed suit after past American candidates had used the internet to their advantage and came out successful. In similar fashion, both the Liberal party and Labor government went beyond social networking sites, launching election sites, too - one of which was created through google - so that the public could access candidate information, use charts to track trends, and note the electorate boundaries on Google maps. These sites also provided hyperlinks to YouTube special electorate channels, which both parties used to air quick responses to debate. 'YouTube had been used to host videos for politicians in an Australian state election earlier in 2007 but videos became a much more prominent feature in the federal election campaign' (5). By the end of it, more than 600 official candidate videos were posted on YouTube; the Labor Party's 64 videos claimed 1.5 million views across various channels and social networking sites, in contrast to the Liberal party's 140,000 views (5).
Figure 1: Why Vote Labor Party?
SUCH video feeds gave candidates further control over the image, allowing them to decide how they would present their profile (7). On the voters' side, citizens were provided with a direct point of contact, granting them the opportunity to voice their opinions from the safety and privacy of their own home. This new medium also significantly expanded the demographic, extending the campaign to previously unreachable audiences. Every Australian citizen could keep up to speed with the election through popular sites such as MySpace and FaceBook. In fact, such new uses of communication amplified Kevin Rudd's popularity so much so that his profile acquired record amounts of 'friends' and his campaign team had to request an increase on the individual friend limit (5).
JOHN HOWARD lost the election to Kevin Rudd. In contrast to the Labor party, 'the Liberal party did not have a dedicated campaign website' (5), therefore he lost the cyber demographic to the opposition. It is argued that if Howard had made better use of the internet as a campaign tool, he would have had a better chance at securing the support behind his party. On the other hand, Rudd was able to provoke further interest in his political ideas through the effective use of hyperlinks between social networking sites, YouTube, and other political channels. If the 2007 Australian federal election and the 2008 American presidential election are any indication of things to come, future candidates 'would do well to take advantage of the new digital age of democracy and utilize it in a professional manner' (8).
E-DEMOCRACY campaigning has the power to unite the nation, give a strong sense of community, and strengthen the support and involvement in political affairs. The internet could be considered the modern day parliament house, an easily accessible public forum that is also capable of positively impacting on the offline world by enhancing the appeal of political involvement. The Howard-Rudd election demonstrates the ever-increasing power and popularity of the internet, a tool that is forever expanding. The internet has the potential to 'enhance community cohesion, political deliberation, and participation through what is now commonly termend "e-democracy" (9). This shift towards the integration of politics and cyberspace is what created the concept of e-democracy, which has, as a result, enhanced civic engagement and improved the support behind traditional campaigning strategies whilst introducing politics into the mainstream.
REFERENCE LIST - Books, Articles, Journals, Websites:
(1) Chadwick, Andrew (2006), Internet Politics: States, Citizens and New Communication Technologies, Oxford University Press, New York, accessed 21st October 2009
(2) Hacker, Kenneth L., & Dijk, Jan v. (2000), Digital Democracy: Issues of Theory & Practice, SAGE Publications, London, accessed 21st October 2009
(3) Webster, Frank (2001), Culture and Politics in the Information Age, Routledge, New York, accessed 21st October 2009
(4) Hills, Rachel (04.10.2007), Politics turns to the Web, [online] http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,22530075-27197,00.html, The Courier Mail, accessed 19th October 2009
(5) Backhouse, Jenny (2008), Election Campaigning in the Era of Web 2.0 and Social Media, found in - Remenyi, Dan (2008) 4th International Conference on e-Government [online] http://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=vxs1GhszvFMC&oi=fnd&pg=PA55&dq=e-democracy+rudd+and+howard+elections&ots=imgEt_5kLZ&sig=UBthG_WgngGC3Wz-6gw87LVFoww#v=onepage&q=&f=false, accessed 19th October 2009
(6) Griffiths, Mary (2008), Participation Verite: Lessons from Australian New Media Democracy 2007-08 - found in Hahamis, Panos (2008), Proceedings of the 8th European Conference on e-Government, [online] http://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=id=KjALtIPW14AC&oi=fnd&pg=PA299&dq=e-democracy+rudd+and+howard+elections&ots=k7DZ3wTCju&sig=uRwwC4Cojd5hJjwyVPSTuJQ4cjs#v=onepage&q=&f=false, accesssed 24th October 2009
(7) Backhouse, Jenny (2007), e-Democracy in Australia: the Challenge of Evolving a Successful Model, [online - Electronic Journey of e-Government Volume 5 Issue 2] http://www.ejeg.com/volume-5/vol5-iss2/Backhouse.pdf, accessed 19th October
(8) Hague, Barry N. and Loader, Brian D. (1999), Digital Democracy: Discourse and Decision-Making in the Information Age, Routledge, New York, accessed 21st October 2009
(9) Vicktor, Mayor S. and Lazer, David (2007), Governance and Information Technology: From Electronic Government to Information Government, The MIT Press, USA, accessed 21st October 2009
ADDITIONAL REFERENCES:
(10) Dahlberg, L. and Siapera, E. (2007), Radical Democracy and the Internet: Interrogating theory and practice, Palgrave Macmillan, New York, USA, accessed 21st October 2009
(11) Fishlock, S (2007) The Internet's Role in the 2007 Federal Election [online] http://www.datalink.com.au/company/blog/ramblings/the_internet_and_the_2007_federal_election, accessed 21st October 2009
FIGURE 1:
Australian Labor Party, (06/08/2007), Why Vote Labor? Kevin Rudd tells you his plan for Australia [online] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQg34SW4Oz0&NR=1, accessed 19th October 2009
'the concept of e-democracy is associated with efforts to broaden political participation by enabling citizens to connect with one another and with their representatives via new information and communication technologies' (1).
Kenneth L. Hacker and Jan van Dijk concur with this explanation in their book Digital Democracy: Issues of Theory and Practice, stating that:
'digital democracy is the use of information and communication technology and computer-mediated communication in all kinds of media for purposes of enhancing political democracy or the participation of citizens in democratic communication' (2).
A third book, Frank Webster's Culture and Politics in the Information Age, also corroborates with the aforementioned explanations, however Webster adds that digital democracy should be considered simply as an addition, not a replacement of traditional political practices (3). Nevertheless, all three texts commonly revolve around similar themes of 'connection' and 'communication', which are closely linked with 'relationships'.
THE relationships between citizens and their representatives are what hold the power to make or break a political campaign. With the introduction of e-democracy, politics have been made personal, benefitting both public and political parties by humanizing the politicians. An article from a 2007 issue of the Courier Mail studied the benefits of the personalization of politics. Journalist Rachel Hills reported that online bloggers were praising the idea, agreeing that online media would 'force politicians to become more open, accoountable and human' (4). Through FaceBook, MySpace and Twitter accounts, politicians are able to relate to their people on a more personal level, which inevitably strengthens the relationships. Furthermore, with mechanisms such as online polls, anyone with access to the internet has the opportunity to be involved in decision-making processes (6). Queensland's Premier Anna Bligh is a great example of a politician who involves her people in decision-making. She regularly sets up 'e-petitions' online, in which people can sign for or against current issues, debates and changes. One of her most recent petitions asked the public to voice their opinion about the opposition of the sell-off of public assets such as Queensland Rail's coal and freight arms [QLD NOT FOR SALE]. Following the rising popularity of the web, websites were set up to allow political parties to communicate directly with voters (5). Once again, this assists in strengthening the relationship between representative and citizen, as well as reinforcing the support behind political parties.
AUSTRALIAN politicians followed suit after past American candidates had used the internet to their advantage and came out successful. In similar fashion, both the Liberal party and Labor government went beyond social networking sites, launching election sites, too - one of which was created through google - so that the public could access candidate information, use charts to track trends, and note the electorate boundaries on Google maps. These sites also provided hyperlinks to YouTube special electorate channels, which both parties used to air quick responses to debate. 'YouTube had been used to host videos for politicians in an Australian state election earlier in 2007 but videos became a much more prominent feature in the federal election campaign' (5). By the end of it, more than 600 official candidate videos were posted on YouTube; the Labor Party's 64 videos claimed 1.5 million views across various channels and social networking sites, in contrast to the Liberal party's 140,000 views (5).
Figure 1: Why Vote Labor Party?
SUCH video feeds gave candidates further control over the image, allowing them to decide how they would present their profile (7). On the voters' side, citizens were provided with a direct point of contact, granting them the opportunity to voice their opinions from the safety and privacy of their own home. This new medium also significantly expanded the demographic, extending the campaign to previously unreachable audiences. Every Australian citizen could keep up to speed with the election through popular sites such as MySpace and FaceBook. In fact, such new uses of communication amplified Kevin Rudd's popularity so much so that his profile acquired record amounts of 'friends' and his campaign team had to request an increase on the individual friend limit (5).
JOHN HOWARD lost the election to Kevin Rudd. In contrast to the Labor party, 'the Liberal party did not have a dedicated campaign website' (5), therefore he lost the cyber demographic to the opposition. It is argued that if Howard had made better use of the internet as a campaign tool, he would have had a better chance at securing the support behind his party. On the other hand, Rudd was able to provoke further interest in his political ideas through the effective use of hyperlinks between social networking sites, YouTube, and other political channels. If the 2007 Australian federal election and the 2008 American presidential election are any indication of things to come, future candidates 'would do well to take advantage of the new digital age of democracy and utilize it in a professional manner' (8).
E-DEMOCRACY campaigning has the power to unite the nation, give a strong sense of community, and strengthen the support and involvement in political affairs. The internet could be considered the modern day parliament house, an easily accessible public forum that is also capable of positively impacting on the offline world by enhancing the appeal of political involvement. The Howard-Rudd election demonstrates the ever-increasing power and popularity of the internet, a tool that is forever expanding. The internet has the potential to 'enhance community cohesion, political deliberation, and participation through what is now commonly termend "e-democracy" (9). This shift towards the integration of politics and cyberspace is what created the concept of e-democracy, which has, as a result, enhanced civic engagement and improved the support behind traditional campaigning strategies whilst introducing politics into the mainstream.
REFERENCE LIST - Books, Articles, Journals, Websites:
(1) Chadwick, Andrew (2006), Internet Politics: States, Citizens and New Communication Technologies, Oxford University Press, New York, accessed 21st October 2009
(2) Hacker, Kenneth L., & Dijk, Jan v. (2000), Digital Democracy: Issues of Theory & Practice, SAGE Publications, London, accessed 21st October 2009
(3) Webster, Frank (2001), Culture and Politics in the Information Age, Routledge, New York, accessed 21st October 2009
(4) Hills, Rachel (04.10.2007), Politics turns to the Web, [online] http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,22530075-27197,00.html, The Courier Mail, accessed 19th October 2009
(5) Backhouse, Jenny (2008), Election Campaigning in the Era of Web 2.0 and Social Media, found in - Remenyi, Dan (2008) 4th International Conference on e-Government [online] http://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=vxs1GhszvFMC&oi=fnd&pg=PA55&dq=e-democracy+rudd+and+howard+elections&ots=imgEt_5kLZ&sig=UBthG_WgngGC3Wz-6gw87LVFoww#v=onepage&q=&f=false, accessed 19th October 2009
(6) Griffiths, Mary (2008), Participation Verite: Lessons from Australian New Media Democracy 2007-08 - found in Hahamis, Panos (2008), Proceedings of the 8th European Conference on e-Government, [online] http://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=id=KjALtIPW14AC&oi=fnd&pg=PA299&dq=e-democracy+rudd+and+howard+elections&ots=k7DZ3wTCju&sig=uRwwC4Cojd5hJjwyVPSTuJQ4cjs#v=onepage&q=&f=false, accesssed 24th October 2009
(7) Backhouse, Jenny (2007), e-Democracy in Australia: the Challenge of Evolving a Successful Model, [online - Electronic Journey of e-Government Volume 5 Issue 2] http://www.ejeg.com/volume-5/vol5-iss2/Backhouse.pdf, accessed 19th October
(8) Hague, Barry N. and Loader, Brian D. (1999), Digital Democracy: Discourse and Decision-Making in the Information Age, Routledge, New York, accessed 21st October 2009
(9) Vicktor, Mayor S. and Lazer, David (2007), Governance and Information Technology: From Electronic Government to Information Government, The MIT Press, USA, accessed 21st October 2009
ADDITIONAL REFERENCES:
(10) Dahlberg, L. and Siapera, E. (2007), Radical Democracy and the Internet: Interrogating theory and practice, Palgrave Macmillan, New York, USA, accessed 21st October 2009
(11) Fishlock, S (2007) The Internet's Role in the 2007 Federal Election [online] http://www.datalink.com.au/company/blog/ramblings/the_internet_and_the_2007_federal_election, accessed 21st October 2009
FIGURE 1:
Australian Labor Party, (06/08/2007), Why Vote Labor? Kevin Rudd tells you his plan for Australia [online] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQg34SW4Oz0&NR=1, accessed 19th October 2009
