Category Archives: Politics
Brief historical reflections on anonymity and pseudonymity
I The arrogance journalists have lately displayed about the culture of online political discussion may be forgivable; their ignorance about their own profession and the history of publishing isn’t. In what Possum has aptly called the “faux debate” about the … Continue reading
Last word on #Groggate
Last word, and for mine, the best, goes to our marsupial friend over on Margaret Simons’s thread: There was never any “public interest” involved, it was always “journos interest”. When you have a gallery filled with rampaging egos whose intellectual … Continue reading
Grand Final reflections: News, the League and public accountability
A great Grand Final yesterday showed, once again, that Rugby League has an uncanny ability to seal up the holes punched in it and carry on, a bit like the T-1000 in James Cameron’s Terminator 2. I’ve joked before that … Continue reading
Whack a pollie
Here, perhaps, is something new in negative campaigning in Australia: a game offering you the opportunity to “whack” a Labor politician, courtesy of the Liberal Party. They’ve been kind enough to make it embeddable. Will this work, or is it … Continue reading
Two clippings on the media and election campaigns
CLIPPING 1 CLIPPING 2 The transformation in the way news organizations conceptualize their role has impacted on election coverage in a significant way. The notion of an engaged citizen needing campaign information has been largely replaced by the perception of … Continue reading
Nasty not new in political advertising
Contemporary campaigning deserves criticism, but personal attacks, emotive material and scare tactics in political advertising are not new in Western democracies. Anyone who believes they are is probably looking at the past with rose-coloured glasses on. Using a typology of … Continue reading