Citizen journalism in the 2007 Australian Federal Election

Abstract

Citizen journalists and news and political bloggers are set to have a considerable impact on journalistic coverage of the 2007 Australian federal election campaign. Already, even before the election proper has been called, the alternative viewpoints of citizen journalists and bloggers can 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 attempt at blogging the election campaign, The Poll Vault. It analyses the content and style of such initiatives, and tracks the take-up of their work across the wider Australian blogosphere and beyond (in part building on network mapping methodologies as outlined in Bruns, 2007), and on that basis presents an insight into the place of news and political blogging and citizen journalism within the wider Australian mediasphere throughout the federal election campaign