GetUp is a unique political organisation in Australian politics. Since their formation in mid-2005 they have accrued over 1,000,000 members, and fundraise about $8 million annually, from mostly small donations. In 2016 they had their most successful election campaign so far, writes Ariadne Vromen, in terms of both member mobilisation and political impact

Vromen, Ariadne

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LSE Research Online

Digital	campaigning	and	the	GetUp	effect	inAustralia’s	2016	electionGetUp	is	a	unique	political	organisation	in	Australian	politics.	Since	their	formation	in	mid-2005	they	have	accruedover	1,000,000	members,	and	fundraise	about	$8	million	annually,	from	mostly	small	donations.	In	2016	they	hadtheir	most	successful	election	campaign	so	far,	writes	Ariadne	Vromen,	in	terms	of	both	member	mobilisation	andpolitical	impact.Picture:	GetUp	GetUp	is	structured	around	three	progressive	campaign	areas:	climate	change;	economic	fairness;	and	humanrights.	Early	in	2016,	after	surveying	their	membership,	they	identified	four	campaign	priorities	for	the	2016	election:1.	 Climate	change	and	renewables2.	 Hard	right	politicians3.	 Multinational	(MNC)	tax4.	 Healthcare	and	hospitalsClimate	change	is	routinely	the	most	important	issue	identified	by	their	membership	and	GetUp	had	originallyplanned	their	campaign	for	2016	as	the	‘climate	election’.	They	also	found	via	Facebook	analytics	that	climate	waspopular	and	topical	with	their	base.	GetUp	was	also	committed	to	including	economic	fairness,	predominantlyhospitals,	as	a	focus.	During	the	campaign	they	found	that	some	climate	issues	broke	through,	such	as	the	GreatBarrier	Reef	and	renewables;	but	their	election	campaign	strategy	became	much	more	tightly	focused	on	the	otherthree	areas,	especially	on	local	issues	in	electorates	with	‘hard-right’	politicians	who	they	argued	were	dominatingthe	policy	agenda.However,	focusing	only	on	GetUp’s	policy	agenda	misunderstands	the	premise	of	the	organisation.	GetUp	is	bestunderstood	as	a	hybrid	campaigning	organisation:	it	uses	both	insider	and	outsider	oriented	interest	group	tacticsfor	engaging	political	elites,	its	membership	and	the	mass	public.	It	is	also	hybrid	in	that	it	simultaneously	combinesoffline,	on	the	ground	fieldwork	with	digital	tactics.	Increasingly,	all	kinds	of	political	organisations	find	it	necessaryto	run	both	fieldwork	and	digital	campaigns,	yet	GetUp	is	part	of	a	small	group	of	‘born	digital’	organisations	thathave	reconceptualised	all	dimensions	of	campaigning,	including	membership,	fundraising	and	tactics.	This	strategicdistinction	between	traditional	political	organisations	and	hybrid	campaigning	organisations	is	often	purposefullyignored	in	political	and	media	debate.Democratic Audit: Digital campaigning and the GetUp effect in Australia’s 2016 election Page 1 of 3		Date originally posted: 2018-07-13Permalink: https://www.democraticaudit.com/2018/07/13/digital-campaigning-and-the-getup-effect-in-australias-2016-election/Blog homepage: https://www.democraticaudit.com/GetUp	pioneered	the	use	of	digital	campaigning	tools	in	Australia,	starting	from	mass	emails	and	online	petitioningover	ten	years	ago,	to	the	use	of	campaigning	system	software	like	NationBuilder,	and	recently	using	Facebook	in	atargeted	way.	David	Karpf,	in	his	book	Analytic	Activism,	points	out	that	online	campaigning	organisations	share	aculture	of	digital	testing	and	listening	that	means	a	constant	monitoring	of	an	array	of	data	collected	from	socialmedia	engagement	rates,	member	response	to	calls	to	action	in	emails,	to	profiling	volunteers	and	activists.	GetUpsuggested	that	their	use	of	digital	techniques	in	the	2016	election	was	inspired	by	the	hybrid	campaigns	run	byBernie	Sanders	in	the	USA	and	Justin	Trudeau	in	Canada.	Importantly,	most	ordinary	citizens	are	likely	to	useFacebook,	and	various	studies	consistently	show	that	it	is	the	leading	social	media	platform	for	accessing	everydayinformation	on	news	and	politics.	GetUp	has	around	400,	000	followers	on	its	Facebook	page,	and	havedeliberately	tried	to	increase	this	community	over	time,	with	many	of	their	campaigners	as	interactive	participants	inFacebook-based	conversations	and	subsequent	calls	to	action.During	the	2016	election:There	were	a	total	378,000	shares	and	656,000	likes	for	GetUp’s	274	Facebook	posts.	This	is	moreengagement	than	the	major	parties	were	receiving	on	Facebook:	the	ALP	received	312,000	shares,	theLiberal	Party	119,000	and	the	Greens	102,00010%	of	posts	had	over	10,000	people	engage	with	them	(engagement	comprises	the	sum	of	likes/reactions,shares,	and	comments	on	a	post);	with	an	average	of	4,571	people	engaging	with	any	election	post.Data	on	Reach	(the	number	of	people	who	saw	a	post)	is	not	available	but	even	if	a	simple	estimate	of	Reach	isapplied,	the	election	led	to	substantial	Facebook	engagement	for	GetUp.	That	is,	the	average	post	with	4571publicly	visible	engagements	(likes/shares/comments)	could	have	200	friends	view	it	(the	median	number	ofFacebook	friends	a	user	has)	leading	to	a	further	million	views.GetUp	told	me	about	the	high	success	for	their	calls	for	donations	via	Facebook	posts	for	their	hard-right	politicianscampaign.	Their	most	shareable	content	came	from	GetUp’s	economic	fairness	campaign	on	MNCs,	health	andhospitals,	and	the	economy	generally.	Claims	are	made	of	the	potential	for	Facebook	to	move	beyond	being	asubstitute	media	and	broadcast-only	site	to	produce	political	conversation	and	interaction.	Yet	only	a	smallproportion	of	the	overall	engagement	is	comments	and	debate.	There	was	an	average	of	300	comments	across	allelection	posts,	and	an	average	of	790	comments	for	a	subset	of	the	10%	most	popular	posts;	with	two	postsfocused	on	rightwing	politician	Peter	Dutton	attracting	the	most	debate	(around	2200	comments).	This	suggeststhat	successful	political	use	of	Facebook	is	multi-faceted:	sharing	and	liking	is	important	as	it	promotes	coremessages	and	ideas	into	a	larger	networked	community;	whereas	commenting	and	active	debate	providesincentives	for	mobilisation,	particularly	fundraising	for	campaign	work.Yet	focusing	on	posts	on	GetUp’s	public	Facebook	page	alone	is	only	part	of	why	this	was	considered	‘theFacebook	election’	for	GetUp.	Over	1,400	pieces	of	content,	that	included	Facebook	information	posts	and	shortvideos,	were	paid	for	and	shared	by	GetUp	over	the	election	campaign,	and	were	targeted	at	29	of	Australia’s	mostmarginal	lower	house	seats.	In	sum,	GetUp’s	targeted	digital	advertising	programme	reached	830,000	voters	inthese	electorates.	Most	of	these	posts	appeared	as	Facebook	sponsored	advertising	in	the	newsfeeds	of	voters	intargeted	marginal	electorates;	several	were	also	translated	into	Chinese,	Arabic	and	Vietnamese.	GetUp	saw	thisas	a	wholly	different	audience,	and	crafted	messages	that	would	not	necessarily	resonate	with	their	members	butwere	aimed	at	swinging	voters,	focused	on	economic	fairness	and	hospital	funding,	and	not	on	climate	change.They	paid	for	their	ads	to	appear	in	Facebook	newsfeeds	of	commercial	media	and	celebrities.	This	personaliseddigital	advertising	as	political	campaigning	is	important	to	understand	in	the	Australian	political	context,	and	waspurportedly	used	by	most	parties	during	the	Western	Australia	election	in	2017.Democratic Audit: Digital campaigning and the GetUp effect in Australia’s 2016 election Page 2 of 3		Date originally posted: 2018-07-13Permalink: https://www.democraticaudit.com/2018/07/13/digital-campaigning-and-the-getup-effect-in-australias-2016-election/Blog homepage: https://www.democraticaudit.com/GetUp	fundraised	and	spent	at	least	$3	million	during	the	2016	election	campaign.	This	is	a	significant	amount	for	amid-sized	third	party	organisation,	but	is	less	than	the	ACTU	who	were	estimated	to	have	fundraised	between	$10–20	million	for	their	election	campaign.	The	‘Facebook	election’	campaign	and	subsequent	success	for	GetUp	wasan	important	watershed	moment,	suggesting	that	hybrid	fieldwork	and	digital	strategies	will	be	important	for	otherAustralian	political	actors.	Indeed,	many	of	the	media	articles	written	about	GetUp	after	the	election	praised	theirtactics	and	urged	others	from	all	sides	of	politics	to	emulate	them.	This	included	Cory	Bernardi’s	call	for	aconservative	version	of	GetUp	to	revive	his	earlier	attempt	at	starting	CanDo	after	the	2010	election,	and	leaderswithin	business	lobbying	organisations,	such	as	the	Business	Council	of	Australia,	suggesting	they	had	much	tolearn.Since	the	2016	election	GetUp	has	come	under	increased	scrutiny	for	both	its	funding	sources	and	its	politicalalliances.	However,	they	are	largely	unperturbed	and	have	deliberately	used	the	increased	scrutiny	to	fundraise	forcampaigning	work	for	the	next	election	where	they	will	continue	their	strategy	of	targeting	individual	politicians	theydeem	to	be	‘hard	right’.This	article	represents	the	views	of	the	author	and	not	those	of	Democratic	Audit.	It	was	first	published	on	PopPolitics	Aus.	It	is	adapted	from	the	author’s	forthcoming	chapter	on	GetUp’s	election	campaign	in	the	book	Anika	Gauja,	PeterChen,	Juliet	Pietsch,	and	Jennifer	Curtin	(eds)	(2017)	Double	Disillusion:	the	2016	Australian	Federal	Election,	ANUPress:	Canberra.About	the	authorAriadne	Vromen	is	Professor	of	Political	Sociology	in	the	Department	of	Government	and	International	Relations	atthe	University	of	Sydney.	Her	new	book	Digital	Citizenship	and	Political	Engagement	charts	the	effect	of	GetUp	onAustralian	advocacy	and	political	campaigning.Similar	PostsOnline	voting	can	work,	but	only	if	we	design	systems	that	voters	can	have	confidence	inHow	internet	voting	could	help	to	make	more	votes	countAustralian	politics	shows	why	the	de-separation	of	political	and	administrative	careers	matters	for	democracyBook	Review	|	The	Digital	Party:	Political	Organisation	and	Online	Democracy	by	Paolo	GerbaudoDeliberative	democracy	could	be	used	to	combat	fake	news	–	but	only	if	it	operates	offlineDemocratic Audit: Digital campaigning and the GetUp effect in Australia’s 2016 election Page 3 of 3		Date originally posted: 2018-07-13Permalink: https://www.democraticaudit.com/2018/07/13/digital-campaigning-and-the-getup-effect-in-australias-2016-election/Blog homepage: https://www.democraticaudit.com/

Digital campaigning and the getup effect in Australia’s 2016 election

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Digital campaigning and the getup effect in Australia’s 2016 election

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