The Australian ran a couple of stories today about Australian politics finding another outlet in MySpace’s ‘Impact’ website (the Australian version).
In Nicola Berkovic’s ‘Kevin has more ‘friends’ than John’, she points out that Labor is doing much better in MySpace than the Liberal Party. As Berkovic notes:
Yesterday afternoon, the Opposition Leader had more than 800 friends, while the Prime Minister had a measly seven. And most of them were fellow Liberal MPs. However, it is also a risky strategy for politicians, who are used to their minders having some degree of control over their image and political message. […]
Many of Mr Rudd’s MySpace friends are preoccupied with the issues that interest many young people: drinking, smoking and sex. […] However, Mr Rudd said, provided that people did not post defamatory or profane comments on his site, he was relaxed about losing control over his image on the internet. “It’s just life in the fast lane,” the Opposition Leader said.
I’d say Kevin Rudd’s attitude is probably a sensible one (and its not like any of the politician on MySpace are actually likely to see their own profiles). That said, in ‘MPs cast cyber net in hunt for votes’, Cath Hart points out that:
The emergence of e-campaigning in Australia is set to mirror the trend in the US, where presidential candidates have embraced the internet – for fundraising and profile building – as the 2008 race moves into full swing. Speaking at the launch of MySpace’s new political channel, Impact, yesterday, Mr Rudd described the site as the “public meeting place for the 21st century”, where his goal is “to get 50per cent … plus one more friend than Mr Howard”. “It’s a good shot in the arm for Australian democracy to keep it alive into the next century.” […]
But media and internet experts have warned Mr Rudd and the swag of other “e-MPs”, or online politicians, that social networking sites can be a double-edged sword. Internet networking expert Joanne Jacobs said the sites offered access to the “student market” of people under 24. “The trouble with these networking sites is that … they open the writer up to criticism. It also means you don’t have a moderating path to vet out unpopular comment,” she said.
Following Joanne Jacobs’ comments, I suspect the real test of Rudd’s take on social networking websites will come when he does something massively unpopular and has to deal with the backlash!
For today, thought, lets look at MySpace friends:
Labor leader Kevin Rudd, has 3382 friends;
Julia Gillard (Deputy Leader for Labor) has 687 friends.
In the middle, Bob Brown (leader of the Greens) has 173 friends, while Democrat Senator Andrew Bartlett has 163 friends (although, already being Australia’s most web2.0-savvy politician, Bartlett already blogs extensively and has clearly stated that he only has time to treat MySpace as a re-posting space for his blog);
Meanwhile, Australian Prime Minister John Howard only has 8 friends (and Peter Costello, oddly enough, isn’t one of them!). While the generation gap is clearly one factor, I strongly suspect that Howard’s camp simply aren’t checking friend requests (and thus Howard will probably never have more than 8 friends!). This is similar to what Jill mentions about politics in Norway, in that candidates are using online networks like MySpace or YouTube without having teams literate in how these websites actually work. (Another argument for the importance of digital literacies right there!)
Incidentally, the popularity of certain politicians doesn’t seem to be rubbing off on the youth arms of either major party: on MySpace the Young Liberals currently have 50 friends while Young Labor isn’t doing much better with 110 friends.
Returning to Australian Politics on Facebook discussed last week, Kevin Rudd is up to 1296 friends, while there still doesn’t appear to be a real John Howard. I’ll leave you to draw your on conclusions on that front!
(All friend counts and screenshots were taken between 3pm and 3.40pm Perth Time on 13 July 2007.)
Kev had 62 friends @ 9.30 am yesterday, up to 570 by 4 that afternoon, 1250 by that night, and looks like he’ll have added 2500 the last 24 hrs at this rate, about 30 secs between adds.
It all looks genuine, not some friendadder ‘bot script, pretty phenomonal really.
I’ll bet he’s chuffed, and the libs will be getting a bit nervous about erosion of their
Update: Furious rate continued, he gathered 4000+ in first 2 days, & they were school/work days!! Comments flowing freely, I posted a congrats to be the 500th one at 10.16am &… the site ground to a halt!!! Still is?
Check it out pls, last comment (Martin, #498) went on at 10.15am, and no friends or comments have been added since ?? Very strange … Sussex St. spooked, in over their 1.0 heads ? See today’s Bill Leak in the OZ.
Hi Danny,
Since I friended Kevin Rudd on MySpace yesterday, I went and posted a commented after yours but it went into a ‘waiting for approval’ mode. My guess is that someone has to physically approve all comments and friend requests and that someone has most of Saturday and Sunday off! We’ll probably see a flood of new friends and comments on Monday morning (or, if Rudd’s team sees the potential of this group, they might employ someone to screen friends/comments on the weekend!).
If you’re still doing counts next week, please feel free to keep commenting here on your observations! š
Sunday AM: Kev_2.0 is back on deck, 4800/598.
Re: no-add blip and effect re: your point “.. dealing with the backlash!”.
How fickle is this constituency? What are expectations? Do they get upset by newby protocol transgressions, like taking too long to add friends, or not returning comment tributes? Disconnect?
Add rate has decreased, only 700/last 24 hrs cf 4000/ prev 48.
Damn the uncontrolled variable of blip, it compromises the dataset!
Monday AM: 5500/717 11.42 aest
Adds for Sunday ~same# as Saturday.
Was thurs/fri avalanche a honeymoon/MSM announcement effect, is myspacing a weeknight activity, how long/thick will tail be?
WatchThisSpace, or is it Election 2.O worthy of a space of it’s own?
Email to follow.
Cheers, danny
Monday 5.20 pm aest 5728/717
That’s a work/school day increment … suspicious of comments not moving, doesn’t mean they weren’t submitted.
Tues 11 am aest 6058 / 813
+ 558 over 24 hrs,
Observation: half adds during 11-5 day, none of the comments, something to do with admin, rather than 2.0 supply-side behaviour?
Danny, It might be worth seeing if you can find out from Rudd’s office who is looking after his MySpace … they might be able to comment on who comments and friends are screened (or not).
tues 5.30 pm aest
6147 / 813
So now to track JH’s youtube?
weds 9.13 am aest
6723 / 873
+ 700 / 22 hrs,
Time to start plotting, the graph?
Bit of a MSM JHo Youtube/ Labor Satire bounce cf yesterday’s 500?
MSM and 2.0 mediaspaces mutuality effect, 2.0 providing the story, MSM amplifying the affect?
Prediction: today’s MSM story will be JHo admins pulling all the comments off, censorship 2.0. And the people don’t like it.
Danny, that story was partially out yesterday! (See the last link here.)
I’m referring to the JH Youtube climate change reponse video page, which was apparently purged of comments around 9 this morning.
You saying that had happened even before then?
Gosh you gotta be up early and late to catch events…need a tracker bot, any clues?
Contrasting styles of Campaign 2.0 implementation (KR v JH), or outside scope of investigation?
Cheers
Okay, the JH YouTube fiasco (kill the comments!) is here.
I’ve no idea about tracker bots … really not my sort of thing!
weds 5.50 pm aest
6841 / 853
700 adds / 24 hrs, but bit quieter with comments.
I note Kev in NovaFM radio interview http://www.alp.org.au/media/0707/riloo180.php
re: his MySpace
” Well, Iām actually just interested in their messages.”
Thurs 12.30 pm aest
7342 / 959
+ 600/ 27 hrs
So that was the first week of Election 2.0, the week where the MSM reinforced it. Lots of “professionals” extracted copy from the phenomenon, the latest and probably last word today from Piers:
” But there comes a time to move on, and when the YouTube generation starts to wonder how the world really works it may be tempted to look at some of the hard issues and ask which parties have shown themselves best equipped by dint of talent and experience to deal with them.
The answer won’t be found on YouTube, which is hardly the platform for a person of any stature or maturity to deliver messages of any substance, nor on the now ubiquitous blogs with their legions of ill-informed, hate-filled obsessives.”
Speaking of which, the JHo youtube comments were culled again this morning. I dunno what they got up to before the axe fell, but current commenters say 1000’s. Certainly it was over 1000 @ 7pm last night.
Quite the contrast with Kev’s management of the 2.0 opportunity, yes?
Fri 3.45 pm aest
7734/ 1045
+ 400 / 27 hrs
Serial purging of comments on JH youtube, users have identified certain pro-JH commentors as recent youtubers, accounts set up specifically to counter anti-jh comments, aka “stooges”. Those stooges are turning up now as trolls on KR youtube movies that have been there for months.
Trolls and fanboys, mainstream adversarial paradigm carried over into virtualised realm, is that all there is?
Sun 22/7 8.47 aest
7916 /1114
So that’s the first 10 days of the Kev’s MyCampaign, and unless they leverage it beyond mere YouthHeartK_Rudd headline story, that’s about it.
Unless there’s some major MSM reference to refresh public interest in OurKevSpace, we can expect the flow reducing to a trickle, the long tail.
Insiders this morning, or one of the other weekend magazine shows could refer to it, and start an MSM mini-cascade, but it’s unlikely with them having other cross-media events to latch onto the JWH bio, with it’s Costello and Janette whiteanting aspects. ( Lindsay Tanner is being interviewed about it now).
So that’s pretty much it for Kev_2.0, phase I. More to follow, Campaigning 2.0? We’ll see.
Thanks Tama for providing the reportage space.
PS:
I see that yesterday’s Australian
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22107158-28737,00.html
Caroline Overington reported in the story
“The kids are all Rudd’s” …
“Rudd’s MySpace page is a hit. Late yesterday, Rudd had more than 8000 friends on the site”
As reported above, I saw 7734 at 3.45 that afternoon, so does this mean there was a major add and purge between now and then, or is the MSM a bit cavalier with it’s numbers?
MORE THAN xxx is an odd way of rounding up to the next significant figure. I’ll see if I can contact Caroline to see whether there was a JHo-like purge. It would have been uncharacteristic of the traffic pattern over the last 10 days, and imply there an organised troll campaign got under the KevSpace admin radar.
Danny,
Thanks for the reportage! Great stats and the beginning of a solid exploration of ‘Election 2.0’ in the Australian sphere! When, I wonder, can we expect to see your own blog tracking the next advances in Election 2.0.au? š
Why should we vote for labour in the next election? Mr Rudd may suck the younger generation in and the community on welfare but not the people that have lived under the labour govt in the past. High interest rates, high unemployment. I can not remember a Labour govt that has done a good job when in power. All they have done is send our country into debt.
1)
Congrats Tama: what’s a blog post without a troll?
Wonder what google query led her here?
2)
But back on-topic, sort of: Did you see last night’s 7-30 report on US e-campaigning?
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2007/s1987366.htm
Carol Darr: “There is a misperception about the use of the political internet, that it’s just kids. The people who are most active in politics on the internet tend to be from about 40 to 55”.
Exactly, more or less.
3)
I’ve set up a draft/testing blog, using blogger because:
“Polls feature has graduated from Blogger in Draft, and is now an official Page Element on http://www.blogger.com! Polls lets you add a poll to your blog’s sidebar, which your visitors can vote on and see results.” Seems like a good feature for a campaign tool blog.
I’m also interested in the pltaform of choice being able to offer comments subscription/ RSS, so I’m gonna have to survey the various platforms’ feature sets. Any tips?
You should get an invite to view, (via the “restricting readership to ..” button) I’m not adding it to bloggerindex yet, hopefully that will mean google’s cache doesn’t store the draft version.
You see, up till now I’ve pretty much been a serial commenter, there’s quite a bit for me to learn about the finer points to being a purveyer, so bear with me.
Cheers, danny
So he’s reached the 10 kF (kiloFriends) milestone, it took 19 days:
Tues 31/07 11am aest
10,042 friends / 1441 comments
10K is quite impressive!
Danny – did you get the email I sent last week to your gmail account? It’s probably time to get moving forward on getting your enroled and so forth if that’s still your intent! š