My name is Dr Peter John Chen and I'm a senior lecturer at the University of Sydney.My work focuses on media and politics, and public policy. This includes the communication of politics by the media as well as the politics of the media. I begun my research interests in the area of new media regulation in Australia. Since then I've expanded to new media politics more generally, and backed into the future by becoming interesting in traditional media channels.I also work on animal welfare policy, animals in media, and vegan ethnography.I generally teach media and policy and the University of Sydney. Phone: +61 4 32 845766 Address: Room 263 Merewether Building (H04) University of Sydney Sydney NSW 2006
The first completely customisable, open access textbook on Australian politics, Australian Politi... more The first completely customisable, open access textbook on Australian politics, Australian Politics and Policy provides a unique, holistic coverage of politics and public topics for use in junior and senior university courses. With an online database of 40 chapters, the book innovatively enables instructors to compile a bespoke edition to suit their teaching needs, or to include individual chapters in course readers.
With contributions from Australia’s leading politics and public-policy scholars, the textbook includes material on Australian political history and philosophy, key political institutions, Australian political sociology, public policy-making in Australia, and specialised chapters on a range of key policy domains.
Each chapter was subject to anonymous and rigorous peer-review to ensure the highest standards. The textbook comes with additional teaching resources including review questions and lecture slides.
The first completely customisable, open access textbook on Australian politics, Australian Politi... more The first completely customisable, open access textbook on Australian politics, Australian Politics and Policy provides a unique, holistic coverage of politics and public topics for use in junior and senior university courses. With an online database of 40 chapters, the book innovatively enables instructors to compile a bespoke edition to suit their teaching needs, or to include individual chapters in course readers.
With contributions from Australia’s leading politics and public-policy scholars, the textbook includes material on Australian political history and philosophy, key political institutions, Australian political sociology, public policy-making in Australia, and specialised chapters on a range of key policy domains.
Each chapter was subject to anonymous and rigorous peer-review to ensure the highest standards. The textbook comes with additional teaching resources including review questions and lecture slides.
Double Disillusion: The 2016 Australian Federal Election, 2018
This book provides a comprehensive analysis of the 2016 Australian federal election. Won by the L... more This book provides a comprehensive analysis of the 2016 Australian federal election. Won by the Liberal–National Coalition by the slimmest of margins, the result created a climate of political uncertainty that threatened the government’s lower house majority. While the campaign might have lacked the theatre of previous elections, it provides significant insights into the contemporary political and policy challenges facing Australian democracy and society today.
In this, the 16th edited collection of Australian election studies, 41 contributors from a range of disciplines bring an unprecedented depth of expertise to the 2016 contest. The book covers the context, key battles and issues in the campaign, and reports and analyses the results in detail. It provides an evaluation of the role of political actors such as the parties, independents, the media, interest groups and GetUp!, and examines election debate in the online space. Experts from a range of policy fields provide an analysis of election issues ranging from the economy and industrial relations to social policy, the environment, and gender and sexuality. Each of the chapters is written on the basis of in‑depth and original research, providing new insights into this important political event.
The issue of animal welfare has become an increasingly significant part of the policy and politic... more The issue of animal welfare has become an increasingly significant part of the policy and political landscape in Australia in recent decades. Activists and welfare organisations have become progressively more vigorous in promoting a new ethical relationship between humans and animals, and in highlighting industrial production systems they identify as inhumane. In 2011 this agitation culminated in the temporary suspension of cattle live exports, with significant economic and political implications for Australia. Similar campaigns have focused on domestic food production systems and the use of animals in entertainment.
Yet despite this increased interest, the policy process as it relates to human–animal relations in Australia is poorly understood. Animal Welfare in Australia is the first Australian book to examine the topic in a systematic manner. Without taking a specific ethical position on the treatment of non-human animals, Chen draws on a wide range of sources – including activists, industry representatives and policy elites – to explain how policy is made and implemented. He explores the history of animal welfare in Australia, as well as contemporary public opinion and media coverage of animal-welfare issues. In the process, he comprehensively maps the policy domain, demonstrating the complexity of policy-making networks and the difficulty of pinning down public opinion on animal-welfare issues.
Animal Welfare in Australia: Politics and policy will be of interest to scholars and practitioners of public policy, those interested in issues of animal welfare, and anyone wishing to understand how diverse sets of social and economic interests interact in the contemporary Australian policy landscape.
Information and communications technologies are increasingly important in the Australian politica... more Information and communications technologies are increasingly important in the Australian political landscape. From the adoption of new forms of electoral campaigning to the use of networking technology to organise social movements, media technology has the potential to radically change the way politics is conducted and experienced in this country. The first comprehensive volume on the impact of digital media on Australian politics, this book examines the way these technologies shape political communication, alter key public and private institutions, and serve as the new arena in which discursive and expressive political life is performed. Employing a range of theoretical perspectives, empirical data, and case examples, the book provides insights on political behaviour of Australia’s elites, as well as the increasingly important politics of mirco-activism and social media. Energetic and fast-paced, the book draws together a wide range of Australian and international scholarship on the interface between communications technology and politics. Crossing several genres, the book will find a wide audience amongst scholars of both politics and communication, among public relations professionals, and with members of the media themselves.
The objective of this guide is to equip public sector managers to assess the value that new commu... more The objective of this guide is to equip public sector managers to assess the value that new communications and computing technology may bring to their interactions with a range of potential stakeholders. It is written for managers who have an interest in expanding their approach to public engagement, rather than information technology professionals.
Over the last 20 years, advanced communication technologies, like computer networks and mobile telephones, have become pervasive throughout Western society. These technologies have not only revolutionised the delivery of public and private services, they have shaped consumers’ expectations about service quality. These technologies can also play an important role in assisting public sector managers to consult, involve and engage members of the community in the development, implementation, management and evaluation of public policy.
This guide focuses on ‘electronic engagement’, which we might define as: ‘the use of Information Communication Technologies by the public sector to improve, enhance and expand the engagement of the public in policy-making processes’.
This monograph does not advocate a specific methodology for electronic engagement. There is no single model that guarantees effective eEngagement. Instead, this guide emphasises the need to select, or develop a methodology that optimises four factors: issue, audience, technology and timeframe.
The incredible flexibility of new technologies provides the progressive public sector manager with a wide array of options for expanding their consultative and decision-making processes with key stakeholders. Public sector managers, however, need to consider a number of practical issues, including which approaches to electronic engagement are most appropriate to: (a) different management styles or roles; or (b) different points in the policy cycle. In so doing, managers might be well advised to catalogue the range of potential methodologies in a way that clearly sets out their advantages and limitations.
As a starting point for the development of an electronic engagement strategy, the guide discusses:
motivations and reasons for expanding existing engagement strategies to incorporate new technologies; problems of definition and conceptualisation of these ideas, against the wider backdrop of the ‘information society’ and emerging ‘electronically-facilitated democracies’; and management considerations, from initiation, development and implementation, to post-implementation review and assessment.
The guide includes a range of examples and references to other relevant manuals.
The aim of this focused audit is to review the impacts that new computing and communications tech... more The aim of this focused audit is to review the impacts that new computing and communications technologies have had on democratic processes and participation in Australia. The review includes consideration of ‘obvious’ new media technologies, like the popularisation of the internet, World Wide Web, and electronic mail, as well as the more pervasive use of computer technology in political and government institutions and organisations. This bundle of systems and services represents a significant change to the technological backdrop of Australian society. The past 20 years have seen the acceleration and intensification of the use of computers and other digital communications technologies, with significant impacts on the economic and social life of Australians, as well as having considerable implications for political participation and democracy. Within this broad area of public debate two strong theoretical positions can be located. On the one hand, there are arguments that these tools have specific structural impacts such as increasing access to information at low cost—a technologically determinist point of view. On the other hand, there is the social shaping of technology view—that technologies reflect the people and politics that create them. While these debates are ongoing, the impacts of information and communications tools on democratic cultures can be both positive and negative, reflecting the nature of Australia’s wider political culture, logics of political life, and the creativity of individuals and organisations in the application of these tools. To assess these impacts this audit focuses on four key areas of democratic life in Australia and the implications of new technology therein: Australia’s system of party and representative rule; elections and campaigning; non-government organisations and civil society institutions; and the public sector that serves government and the citizenry. A complex pattern emerges in relation to each of these areas, drawn from quantitative and qualitative studies, and the use of case analysis. Overall, the audit demonstrates that new media technologies have not, in themselves, led to a dramatic opening up of democratic institutions or organisations in Australia. Key aspects of the political system such as parties, parliaments and the public service, are no more open to public participation following the introduction of these technologies than they were prior to their advent. In part, this reflects the fact that, in themselves, computers and communications technologies have no direct political implications. Whereas these systems provide numerous possibilities for greater, wider, or deeper public participation, parties, parliaments, and government departments have not been particularly proactive in taking on these opportunities to enhance participation. This represents the relatively conservative nature of the Australian political system and culture, rather than a necessary failure of the technologies to deliver some promised new era of openness. Again, however, it must be recognised that this generalisation is only part of the overall—and ongoing—process of adaptation to what has been called the ‘information age’. Numerous examples are presented in this audit of actions taken to open up the political system: either through increasing the amount of information available to individual citizens about the views, operations, or decisions of major political institutions, or in the direct provision of new points of access into the political arena. Thus, a balanced finding of the implications of technological change is presented, and in each of the five focal areas explored, we can see positive and progressive use of new technology, as well as cynical or anti-democratic activities. Some particularly positive examples include: • Innovations in political parties, particularly the minor parliamentary parties, to facilitate greater participation in their operations and greater exposure to their views outside the mainstream commercial media; • New forms of direct communication between the public and individual representatives and candidates; • Enhanced forms of participation by government organisations through the provision of information online, explicit use of online systems that allow the public to comment on policy making processes, electronic voting systems, and the development of community access projects to enhance the wider availability of new technologies to the community; and • The active and innovative role of some parts of civil society in developing alternative news and media vehicles, virtual protest and pressure groups, and the mobilisation of citizens into political action. Negatives include: • The general avoidance of direct communication by government and government agencies with members of the community, particularly in processes of policy development. While new media represents an opportunity for the political elite of Australia to engage the community in new ways, this opportunity has been largely unrealised; • The limited role that new communications technology has had on electoral competition and the ongoing dominance of political communication by large, but highly concentrated mass media; • The resource barriers preventing greater use of new technology by Australia’s civil society in fostering grassroots participation and access to the policy processes (their own, and to government); • The increasing use of technology to monitor citizens’ behaviour (online and offline), and the recent tendency towards Australia becoming a ‘surveillance society’; and • A general reluctance in the wider Australian community to engage politically using the variety of new communications channels available. Overall the audit notes that the process of developing an information society remains an ongoing project. Many Australians still remain relatively excluded from the new opportunities brought by technology, and political actors (in and outside of government) continue to learn and experiment with the technologies and the possibilities they bring. Given the high speed of change in our digital age, there remains the distinct possibility that we are on the cusp, rather than in the midst, of more significant democratic implications.
Acceptance of the concept of replacement, refinement, and reduction (the 3Rs) and the need for th... more Acceptance of the concept of replacement, refinement, and reduction (the 3Rs) and the need for their implementation is widespread in the research community, and is also backed by local governance requirements in many key jurisdictions. Yet concerns about underutilization of these concepts and practices remain. From a survey of animal welfare officers (AWOs) in Australia, the attitudes to, and the adoption of, 3Rs in Australian public universities is explored. The survey finds that Australian AWOs have considerable concerns about 3R uptake, with 44% agreeing that '3R possibilities often remain unused'. At the same time, these officers see access to relevant information, and the implementation of the 3Rs, as comparatively easy. Thus, a problem of under-implementation appears to exist. A number of explanations for this are put forward. AWOs are comparatively junior professional staff in the Australian university system, constrained from going beyond basic regulative functions a...
This paper examines the relationships between vegans living in Australia and their tattoos. While... more This paper examines the relationships between vegans living in Australia and their tattoos. While tattooing has become an increasingly popular part of mainstream consumer culture, vegans often identify their tattoos in terms of major life events (of which catalysts to become vegan and vegan transition are but one), marks of remembrance or aides-mémoire, and tools to signal to other vegans and begin conversations with non-vegans. Defying simple classification, many of the tattoos sported by vegans are overlaid with multiple meanings. While some aspects of tattoo culture are found within this subset of tattooed people, practice behaviours such as ingredient checking shape tattoo acquisition practices, while the notion of veganism as an ‘final state’ has implications for the way tattoos are commonly seen as marking the ongoing flow of life events. Significantly, a high proportion of vegans’ tattoos express vegan themes implicitly or explicitly, with a significant minority seeing them as part of practices of activism and/or proselytisation. I conclude that this practice is non-trivial and represents an important political practice for many, but certainly not all, of my research participants.
In 2017 the Australian Government undertook a national survey to determine public support for the... more In 2017 the Australian Government undertook a national survey to determine public support for the legalisation of same‐sex marriage. This raised concerns the ‘plebiscitary' act may create harms to two groups: LGBTI people and those religious people with strong attachment to heteronormative marriage. Justifying the process, the Government advanced the possibility of civil dialogue generative of understanding. While instances of hate speech in public spaces were reported, this paper examines comparatively private speech during the period. Based on an analysis of posts to relevant Facebook pages, this analysis found opponents to same‐sex marriage were more highly mobilised online, and considerable differences in the character of online debate for and against the proposed changes. Importantly, while uncivil and ‘hate' speech were part of online conversations, the overall quantum of this uncivil discourse was lower than many feared. Additionally, the process did not generate considerable democratic dialogue around policy alternatives and rationales, particularly among ‘Yes' campaign supporters who were more homogenous in their acceptance of dominant campaign framing of the issue than their opponents. Significantly for ongoing public debates about public values like educational access and freedom of expression, opponents to change focused their arguments against same‐sex marriage around a subset of unrelated issues: free speech, religious freedoms, and diversity in public schools.
This article critically examines the role new media can play in the political engagement of young... more This article critically examines the role new media can play in the political engagement of young people in Australia. Moving away from “deficit” descriptions, which assert low levels of political engagement among young people, it argues two major points. First, that there is a well-established model of contemporary political mobilisation that employs both new media and large data analysis that can and have been effectively applied to young people in electoral and non-electoral contexts. Second, that new media, and particularly social media, are not democratic by nature. Their general use and adoption by young and older people do not necessarily cultivate democratic values. This is primarily due to the type of participation afforded in the emerging “surveillance economy”. The article argues that a focus on scale as drivers of influence, the underlying foundation of their affordances based on algorithms, and the centralised editorial control of these platforms make them highly participative, but unequal sites for political socialisation and practice. Thus, recent examples of youth mobilisation, such as seen in recent climate justice movements, should be seen through the lens of cycles of contestation, rather than as technologically determined.
Acceptance of the concept of replacement, refinement, and reduction (the 3Rs) and the need for th... more Acceptance of the concept of replacement, refinement, and reduction (the 3Rs) and the need for their implementation is widespread in the research community, and is also backed by local governance requirements in many key jurisdictions. Yet concerns about underutilization of these concepts and practices remain. From a survey of animal welfare officers (AWOs) in Australia, the attitudes to, and the adoption of, 3Rs in Australian public universities is explored. The survey finds that Australian AWOs have considerable concerns about 3R uptake, with 44% agreeing that ‘3R possibilities often remain unused’. At the same time, these officers see access to relevant information, and the implementation of the 3Rs, as comparatively easy. Thus, a problem of under-implementation appears to exist. A number of explanations for this are put forward. AWOs are comparatively junior professional staff in the Australian university system, constrained from going beyond basic regulative functions and to the training and promotion of the 3Rs. When compared with their international counterparts, Australian AWOs spend less time providing information and advice on the 3Rs to researchers working in their institutions. Significantly, while AWOs tend to see themselves as being well supported institutionally, they have comparatively poor relationships with active researchers who are using animal models. The implications of this are examined, with recommendations for research institutions, as well as for further research.
This movement event analysis reports on field interviews collected at the end of August 2014 at t... more This movement event analysis reports on field interviews collected at the end of August 2014 at the Sydney “March in August” (MiA) March Australia protest. March Australia represents one of a new generation of social movement organisations: wholly based on social media, without a formal, legal constitution, yet able to display considerable effectiveness in mobilisation. In the last few years, a number of significant protest events (various Occupy collectives, the “Convoy of No Confidence”) have been organised largely via new media channels and without the support of pre-existing parties, groups or organisations. This may reflect the tendency of new media to facilitate “swarming” or social flocking behaviour (Moe and Schweidel, 2014). This event analysis provides an overview of the demographic, and political behaviour of MiA participants, before examining the role of new media and specific policy issues in mobilisation.
Global Media Journal: Australian Edition, Dec 2014
This article provides an overview of the use of new media by Australian political parties and ind... more This article provides an overview of the use of new media by Australian political parties and individual candidates in the 2013 federal election. It updates research undertaken over the past decade on institutional responses to new technological affordances in electoral campaigning. Using content analysis, interview and third-party data, the paper demonstrates that the major political parties in Australia have increased their use of new media in their overall communications mix, with a heightened focus on advertising in social media, the integration of various online channels, and through creative fundraising strategies. It is argued that the major parties considerably professionalised their management of new media for the 2013 campaign, and the lessons from this election will endure into future electoral contests. The data from the content analysis suggests that the online visibility of minor parties and individual candidates appears to be declining, outside of gaffs, and the novelty reporting of ‘quirky’ candidates. The exception to this remains the Australian Greens, because of their natural affinity with voters most likely to be heavy users of new media. The increasing sophistication of data-driven, targeted advertising further reinforces the capacity of the two major Australian parties to dominate the new media environment due to their disproportionate access to electoral resources. This appears to provide further, but not unambiguous, evidence of the ‘normalisation hypothesis’ of institutional new media adoption in Australia.
Occupy is a formative social movement that has gained considerable attention in Europe and North ... more Occupy is a formative social movement that has gained considerable attention in Europe and North America. Beginning circa early May 2011 in Spain ('the Indignants' or '15-M' movement) and growing in response to the domestic effects of the economic crisis sweeping through parts of Europe (Der Spiegel International, 2011), the Movement's ideas and concerns were picked up in the United States, initially via the activist magazine Adbusters (Schwartz 2012) under the banner 'Occupy Wall Street' in mid-September. Under the construction of 'Occupy [location]', the social movement spread throughout North America and globally. The style of the Movement has tended to focus on the establishment, where possible, of permanent encampments to act as a base of operations, focus of solidarity and media (making and reporting). The emphasis on the occupation of public space has been attributed to inspiration from the 'Arab Spring' uprisings in the Middle-East (Hall, 2011), as well as reflecting concerns about civic participation and access to sites for democratic expression.
The first completely customisable, open access textbook on Australian politics, Australian Politi... more The first completely customisable, open access textbook on Australian politics, Australian Politics and Policy provides a unique, holistic coverage of politics and public topics for use in junior and senior university courses. With an online database of 40 chapters, the book innovatively enables instructors to compile a bespoke edition to suit their teaching needs, or to include individual chapters in course readers.
With contributions from Australia’s leading politics and public-policy scholars, the textbook includes material on Australian political history and philosophy, key political institutions, Australian political sociology, public policy-making in Australia, and specialised chapters on a range of key policy domains.
Each chapter was subject to anonymous and rigorous peer-review to ensure the highest standards. The textbook comes with additional teaching resources including review questions and lecture slides.
The first completely customisable, open access textbook on Australian politics, Australian Politi... more The first completely customisable, open access textbook on Australian politics, Australian Politics and Policy provides a unique, holistic coverage of politics and public topics for use in junior and senior university courses. With an online database of 40 chapters, the book innovatively enables instructors to compile a bespoke edition to suit their teaching needs, or to include individual chapters in course readers.
With contributions from Australia’s leading politics and public-policy scholars, the textbook includes material on Australian political history and philosophy, key political institutions, Australian political sociology, public policy-making in Australia, and specialised chapters on a range of key policy domains.
Each chapter was subject to anonymous and rigorous peer-review to ensure the highest standards. The textbook comes with additional teaching resources including review questions and lecture slides.
Double Disillusion: The 2016 Australian Federal Election, 2018
This book provides a comprehensive analysis of the 2016 Australian federal election. Won by the L... more This book provides a comprehensive analysis of the 2016 Australian federal election. Won by the Liberal–National Coalition by the slimmest of margins, the result created a climate of political uncertainty that threatened the government’s lower house majority. While the campaign might have lacked the theatre of previous elections, it provides significant insights into the contemporary political and policy challenges facing Australian democracy and society today.
In this, the 16th edited collection of Australian election studies, 41 contributors from a range of disciplines bring an unprecedented depth of expertise to the 2016 contest. The book covers the context, key battles and issues in the campaign, and reports and analyses the results in detail. It provides an evaluation of the role of political actors such as the parties, independents, the media, interest groups and GetUp!, and examines election debate in the online space. Experts from a range of policy fields provide an analysis of election issues ranging from the economy and industrial relations to social policy, the environment, and gender and sexuality. Each of the chapters is written on the basis of in‑depth and original research, providing new insights into this important political event.
The issue of animal welfare has become an increasingly significant part of the policy and politic... more The issue of animal welfare has become an increasingly significant part of the policy and political landscape in Australia in recent decades. Activists and welfare organisations have become progressively more vigorous in promoting a new ethical relationship between humans and animals, and in highlighting industrial production systems they identify as inhumane. In 2011 this agitation culminated in the temporary suspension of cattle live exports, with significant economic and political implications for Australia. Similar campaigns have focused on domestic food production systems and the use of animals in entertainment.
Yet despite this increased interest, the policy process as it relates to human–animal relations in Australia is poorly understood. Animal Welfare in Australia is the first Australian book to examine the topic in a systematic manner. Without taking a specific ethical position on the treatment of non-human animals, Chen draws on a wide range of sources – including activists, industry representatives and policy elites – to explain how policy is made and implemented. He explores the history of animal welfare in Australia, as well as contemporary public opinion and media coverage of animal-welfare issues. In the process, he comprehensively maps the policy domain, demonstrating the complexity of policy-making networks and the difficulty of pinning down public opinion on animal-welfare issues.
Animal Welfare in Australia: Politics and policy will be of interest to scholars and practitioners of public policy, those interested in issues of animal welfare, and anyone wishing to understand how diverse sets of social and economic interests interact in the contemporary Australian policy landscape.
Information and communications technologies are increasingly important in the Australian politica... more Information and communications technologies are increasingly important in the Australian political landscape. From the adoption of new forms of electoral campaigning to the use of networking technology to organise social movements, media technology has the potential to radically change the way politics is conducted and experienced in this country. The first comprehensive volume on the impact of digital media on Australian politics, this book examines the way these technologies shape political communication, alter key public and private institutions, and serve as the new arena in which discursive and expressive political life is performed. Employing a range of theoretical perspectives, empirical data, and case examples, the book provides insights on political behaviour of Australia’s elites, as well as the increasingly important politics of mirco-activism and social media. Energetic and fast-paced, the book draws together a wide range of Australian and international scholarship on the interface between communications technology and politics. Crossing several genres, the book will find a wide audience amongst scholars of both politics and communication, among public relations professionals, and with members of the media themselves.
The objective of this guide is to equip public sector managers to assess the value that new commu... more The objective of this guide is to equip public sector managers to assess the value that new communications and computing technology may bring to their interactions with a range of potential stakeholders. It is written for managers who have an interest in expanding their approach to public engagement, rather than information technology professionals.
Over the last 20 years, advanced communication technologies, like computer networks and mobile telephones, have become pervasive throughout Western society. These technologies have not only revolutionised the delivery of public and private services, they have shaped consumers’ expectations about service quality. These technologies can also play an important role in assisting public sector managers to consult, involve and engage members of the community in the development, implementation, management and evaluation of public policy.
This guide focuses on ‘electronic engagement’, which we might define as: ‘the use of Information Communication Technologies by the public sector to improve, enhance and expand the engagement of the public in policy-making processes’.
This monograph does not advocate a specific methodology for electronic engagement. There is no single model that guarantees effective eEngagement. Instead, this guide emphasises the need to select, or develop a methodology that optimises four factors: issue, audience, technology and timeframe.
The incredible flexibility of new technologies provides the progressive public sector manager with a wide array of options for expanding their consultative and decision-making processes with key stakeholders. Public sector managers, however, need to consider a number of practical issues, including which approaches to electronic engagement are most appropriate to: (a) different management styles or roles; or (b) different points in the policy cycle. In so doing, managers might be well advised to catalogue the range of potential methodologies in a way that clearly sets out their advantages and limitations.
As a starting point for the development of an electronic engagement strategy, the guide discusses:
motivations and reasons for expanding existing engagement strategies to incorporate new technologies; problems of definition and conceptualisation of these ideas, against the wider backdrop of the ‘information society’ and emerging ‘electronically-facilitated democracies’; and management considerations, from initiation, development and implementation, to post-implementation review and assessment.
The guide includes a range of examples and references to other relevant manuals.
The aim of this focused audit is to review the impacts that new computing and communications tech... more The aim of this focused audit is to review the impacts that new computing and communications technologies have had on democratic processes and participation in Australia. The review includes consideration of ‘obvious’ new media technologies, like the popularisation of the internet, World Wide Web, and electronic mail, as well as the more pervasive use of computer technology in political and government institutions and organisations. This bundle of systems and services represents a significant change to the technological backdrop of Australian society. The past 20 years have seen the acceleration and intensification of the use of computers and other digital communications technologies, with significant impacts on the economic and social life of Australians, as well as having considerable implications for political participation and democracy. Within this broad area of public debate two strong theoretical positions can be located. On the one hand, there are arguments that these tools have specific structural impacts such as increasing access to information at low cost—a technologically determinist point of view. On the other hand, there is the social shaping of technology view—that technologies reflect the people and politics that create them. While these debates are ongoing, the impacts of information and communications tools on democratic cultures can be both positive and negative, reflecting the nature of Australia’s wider political culture, logics of political life, and the creativity of individuals and organisations in the application of these tools. To assess these impacts this audit focuses on four key areas of democratic life in Australia and the implications of new technology therein: Australia’s system of party and representative rule; elections and campaigning; non-government organisations and civil society institutions; and the public sector that serves government and the citizenry. A complex pattern emerges in relation to each of these areas, drawn from quantitative and qualitative studies, and the use of case analysis. Overall, the audit demonstrates that new media technologies have not, in themselves, led to a dramatic opening up of democratic institutions or organisations in Australia. Key aspects of the political system such as parties, parliaments and the public service, are no more open to public participation following the introduction of these technologies than they were prior to their advent. In part, this reflects the fact that, in themselves, computers and communications technologies have no direct political implications. Whereas these systems provide numerous possibilities for greater, wider, or deeper public participation, parties, parliaments, and government departments have not been particularly proactive in taking on these opportunities to enhance participation. This represents the relatively conservative nature of the Australian political system and culture, rather than a necessary failure of the technologies to deliver some promised new era of openness. Again, however, it must be recognised that this generalisation is only part of the overall—and ongoing—process of adaptation to what has been called the ‘information age’. Numerous examples are presented in this audit of actions taken to open up the political system: either through increasing the amount of information available to individual citizens about the views, operations, or decisions of major political institutions, or in the direct provision of new points of access into the political arena. Thus, a balanced finding of the implications of technological change is presented, and in each of the five focal areas explored, we can see positive and progressive use of new technology, as well as cynical or anti-democratic activities. Some particularly positive examples include: • Innovations in political parties, particularly the minor parliamentary parties, to facilitate greater participation in their operations and greater exposure to their views outside the mainstream commercial media; • New forms of direct communication between the public and individual representatives and candidates; • Enhanced forms of participation by government organisations through the provision of information online, explicit use of online systems that allow the public to comment on policy making processes, electronic voting systems, and the development of community access projects to enhance the wider availability of new technologies to the community; and • The active and innovative role of some parts of civil society in developing alternative news and media vehicles, virtual protest and pressure groups, and the mobilisation of citizens into political action. Negatives include: • The general avoidance of direct communication by government and government agencies with members of the community, particularly in processes of policy development. While new media represents an opportunity for the political elite of Australia to engage the community in new ways, this opportunity has been largely unrealised; • The limited role that new communications technology has had on electoral competition and the ongoing dominance of political communication by large, but highly concentrated mass media; • The resource barriers preventing greater use of new technology by Australia’s civil society in fostering grassroots participation and access to the policy processes (their own, and to government); • The increasing use of technology to monitor citizens’ behaviour (online and offline), and the recent tendency towards Australia becoming a ‘surveillance society’; and • A general reluctance in the wider Australian community to engage politically using the variety of new communications channels available. Overall the audit notes that the process of developing an information society remains an ongoing project. Many Australians still remain relatively excluded from the new opportunities brought by technology, and political actors (in and outside of government) continue to learn and experiment with the technologies and the possibilities they bring. Given the high speed of change in our digital age, there remains the distinct possibility that we are on the cusp, rather than in the midst, of more significant democratic implications.
Acceptance of the concept of replacement, refinement, and reduction (the 3Rs) and the need for th... more Acceptance of the concept of replacement, refinement, and reduction (the 3Rs) and the need for their implementation is widespread in the research community, and is also backed by local governance requirements in many key jurisdictions. Yet concerns about underutilization of these concepts and practices remain. From a survey of animal welfare officers (AWOs) in Australia, the attitudes to, and the adoption of, 3Rs in Australian public universities is explored. The survey finds that Australian AWOs have considerable concerns about 3R uptake, with 44% agreeing that '3R possibilities often remain unused'. At the same time, these officers see access to relevant information, and the implementation of the 3Rs, as comparatively easy. Thus, a problem of under-implementation appears to exist. A number of explanations for this are put forward. AWOs are comparatively junior professional staff in the Australian university system, constrained from going beyond basic regulative functions a...
This paper examines the relationships between vegans living in Australia and their tattoos. While... more This paper examines the relationships between vegans living in Australia and their tattoos. While tattooing has become an increasingly popular part of mainstream consumer culture, vegans often identify their tattoos in terms of major life events (of which catalysts to become vegan and vegan transition are but one), marks of remembrance or aides-mémoire, and tools to signal to other vegans and begin conversations with non-vegans. Defying simple classification, many of the tattoos sported by vegans are overlaid with multiple meanings. While some aspects of tattoo culture are found within this subset of tattooed people, practice behaviours such as ingredient checking shape tattoo acquisition practices, while the notion of veganism as an ‘final state’ has implications for the way tattoos are commonly seen as marking the ongoing flow of life events. Significantly, a high proportion of vegans’ tattoos express vegan themes implicitly or explicitly, with a significant minority seeing them as part of practices of activism and/or proselytisation. I conclude that this practice is non-trivial and represents an important political practice for many, but certainly not all, of my research participants.
In 2017 the Australian Government undertook a national survey to determine public support for the... more In 2017 the Australian Government undertook a national survey to determine public support for the legalisation of same‐sex marriage. This raised concerns the ‘plebiscitary' act may create harms to two groups: LGBTI people and those religious people with strong attachment to heteronormative marriage. Justifying the process, the Government advanced the possibility of civil dialogue generative of understanding. While instances of hate speech in public spaces were reported, this paper examines comparatively private speech during the period. Based on an analysis of posts to relevant Facebook pages, this analysis found opponents to same‐sex marriage were more highly mobilised online, and considerable differences in the character of online debate for and against the proposed changes. Importantly, while uncivil and ‘hate' speech were part of online conversations, the overall quantum of this uncivil discourse was lower than many feared. Additionally, the process did not generate considerable democratic dialogue around policy alternatives and rationales, particularly among ‘Yes' campaign supporters who were more homogenous in their acceptance of dominant campaign framing of the issue than their opponents. Significantly for ongoing public debates about public values like educational access and freedom of expression, opponents to change focused their arguments against same‐sex marriage around a subset of unrelated issues: free speech, religious freedoms, and diversity in public schools.
This article critically examines the role new media can play in the political engagement of young... more This article critically examines the role new media can play in the political engagement of young people in Australia. Moving away from “deficit” descriptions, which assert low levels of political engagement among young people, it argues two major points. First, that there is a well-established model of contemporary political mobilisation that employs both new media and large data analysis that can and have been effectively applied to young people in electoral and non-electoral contexts. Second, that new media, and particularly social media, are not democratic by nature. Their general use and adoption by young and older people do not necessarily cultivate democratic values. This is primarily due to the type of participation afforded in the emerging “surveillance economy”. The article argues that a focus on scale as drivers of influence, the underlying foundation of their affordances based on algorithms, and the centralised editorial control of these platforms make them highly participative, but unequal sites for political socialisation and practice. Thus, recent examples of youth mobilisation, such as seen in recent climate justice movements, should be seen through the lens of cycles of contestation, rather than as technologically determined.
Acceptance of the concept of replacement, refinement, and reduction (the 3Rs) and the need for th... more Acceptance of the concept of replacement, refinement, and reduction (the 3Rs) and the need for their implementation is widespread in the research community, and is also backed by local governance requirements in many key jurisdictions. Yet concerns about underutilization of these concepts and practices remain. From a survey of animal welfare officers (AWOs) in Australia, the attitudes to, and the adoption of, 3Rs in Australian public universities is explored. The survey finds that Australian AWOs have considerable concerns about 3R uptake, with 44% agreeing that ‘3R possibilities often remain unused’. At the same time, these officers see access to relevant information, and the implementation of the 3Rs, as comparatively easy. Thus, a problem of under-implementation appears to exist. A number of explanations for this are put forward. AWOs are comparatively junior professional staff in the Australian university system, constrained from going beyond basic regulative functions and to the training and promotion of the 3Rs. When compared with their international counterparts, Australian AWOs spend less time providing information and advice on the 3Rs to researchers working in their institutions. Significantly, while AWOs tend to see themselves as being well supported institutionally, they have comparatively poor relationships with active researchers who are using animal models. The implications of this are examined, with recommendations for research institutions, as well as for further research.
This movement event analysis reports on field interviews collected at the end of August 2014 at t... more This movement event analysis reports on field interviews collected at the end of August 2014 at the Sydney “March in August” (MiA) March Australia protest. March Australia represents one of a new generation of social movement organisations: wholly based on social media, without a formal, legal constitution, yet able to display considerable effectiveness in mobilisation. In the last few years, a number of significant protest events (various Occupy collectives, the “Convoy of No Confidence”) have been organised largely via new media channels and without the support of pre-existing parties, groups or organisations. This may reflect the tendency of new media to facilitate “swarming” or social flocking behaviour (Moe and Schweidel, 2014). This event analysis provides an overview of the demographic, and political behaviour of MiA participants, before examining the role of new media and specific policy issues in mobilisation.
Global Media Journal: Australian Edition, Dec 2014
This article provides an overview of the use of new media by Australian political parties and ind... more This article provides an overview of the use of new media by Australian political parties and individual candidates in the 2013 federal election. It updates research undertaken over the past decade on institutional responses to new technological affordances in electoral campaigning. Using content analysis, interview and third-party data, the paper demonstrates that the major political parties in Australia have increased their use of new media in their overall communications mix, with a heightened focus on advertising in social media, the integration of various online channels, and through creative fundraising strategies. It is argued that the major parties considerably professionalised their management of new media for the 2013 campaign, and the lessons from this election will endure into future electoral contests. The data from the content analysis suggests that the online visibility of minor parties and individual candidates appears to be declining, outside of gaffs, and the novelty reporting of ‘quirky’ candidates. The exception to this remains the Australian Greens, because of their natural affinity with voters most likely to be heavy users of new media. The increasing sophistication of data-driven, targeted advertising further reinforces the capacity of the two major Australian parties to dominate the new media environment due to their disproportionate access to electoral resources. This appears to provide further, but not unambiguous, evidence of the ‘normalisation hypothesis’ of institutional new media adoption in Australia.
Occupy is a formative social movement that has gained considerable attention in Europe and North ... more Occupy is a formative social movement that has gained considerable attention in Europe and North America. Beginning circa early May 2011 in Spain ('the Indignants' or '15-M' movement) and growing in response to the domestic effects of the economic crisis sweeping through parts of Europe (Der Spiegel International, 2011), the Movement's ideas and concerns were picked up in the United States, initially via the activist magazine Adbusters (Schwartz 2012) under the banner 'Occupy Wall Street' in mid-September. Under the construction of 'Occupy [location]', the social movement spread throughout North America and globally. The style of the Movement has tended to focus on the establishment, where possible, of permanent encampments to act as a base of operations, focus of solidarity and media (making and reporting). The emphasis on the occupation of public space has been attributed to inspiration from the 'Arab Spring' uprisings in the Middle-East (Hall, 2011), as well as reflecting concerns about civic participation and access to sites for democratic expression.
Journal of Information Technology & Politics, Jan 1, 2011
This article examines the use and impact of digital media in the 2008 Canadian federal election. ... more This article examines the use and impact of digital media in the 2008 Canadian federal election. It examines the extent to which different digital media were employed by candidates and parties. The research informs a wider debate between competing schools of thought on the democratizing potential of the Internet. The article demonstrates a mixed role of digital media in the election. Structural, human, and financial resources can be identified as advantaging established parties access to both conventional and online media. The pattern of adoption of different forms of digital media is also significantly affected by factors internal to professional politics.
Australian Political Studies Association, July, Jan 1, 2009
This article examines the role of digital media in three recent national election campaigns:
Aust... more This article examines the role of digital media in three recent national election campaigns: Australia in 2007 and Canada and New Zealand in 20081. Examining the process of technology adoption and strategic use by parties and individual candidates, it explores similarities and differences in the use of these evolving campaigning channels. Against the current literature on variables influencing technology adoption, specific attention is given to the use of different communication channels as tools to target specific audiences, the adoption of a wide variety of technologies to ensure broad (‘mass’) reach, and the co-ordination of messages across different platforms. The analysis aims to identify structural, organisational, technological and cultural determinants of variation in the adoption and deployment of these technologies.
This article examines the use and impact of an array of established and
emerging digital media on... more This article examines the use and impact of an array of established and emerging digital media on the 2008 Alberta provincial election. Based on data collected from a range of methods, we explore the application of digital media by candidates focusing on the role of digital media in overcoming the media access gap between the dominant political party and other oppositional parties (democratization). As a source of comparison, data from the 2008 national election is employed. The article argues that the evidence supporting democratization is weak. Although there are indications that digital media is one area of campaigning that suffers from the lowest gap in rates of adoption and use different political parties and actors, we identify structural, human and financial factors that advantage the dominant parties' access to both conventional and digital media. This appears significant given the electoral success of the ruling Progressive Conservative Party, and the continued decline in voter participation. The inability of digital media to reinvigorate Alberta democracy lies in political, historical, social, and economic factors.
This paper examines the use of the video clip sharing website www.youtube.com by major Australian... more This paper examines the use of the video clip sharing website www.youtube.com by major Australian political parties during the 2007 national election. Set against a background of high expectations for this popular new channel, the paper provides empirical data on the form and content of election material posted to the site. Based on a content analysis of uploaded content, the paper argues that: The extent of use of the service by members of the public is limited, a fact that does not change the significance of this form of campaign tool in differentiating parties to the polity; There are considerable differences between the use of the channel by established and emerging parties, and; That the use and sequencing of the release of online content shows higher levels of self-conscious awareness of the remediative aspects of new media than previously encountered in ICT-related election research within Australia.
In October 2007, Hugh Atkin uploaded a video called Howard and Rudd - War of the Ads to YouTube (... more In October 2007, Hugh Atkin uploaded a video called Howard and Rudd - War of the Ads to YouTube (2007). A stab at modern political campaigning (Cornwall, 2007), this 'mashup' of campaign advertising, online content, and news footage showed the two leaders locked in an infinite recursive loop of claim and counter-claim. While the clip was emblematic of a campaign that would be dominated by humour, attempts at humour and offensiveness presented as humour, the clip reached that pinnacle where satire becomes astute observation. The internet has taken some time to penetrate Australian society. While a minority of Australians had access in 2001, by Census 2006 this was reversed: with 63% online (ABS, 2007, p.18). This is skewed a number of ways, including a strong correlation with urban living and educational attainment. Importantly for the ALP, the promotion of the internet as an essential tool for education has seen a very high growth in its use among the exemplar of the middle ground whose interests were to play a significant part in the 2007 election: 'working families' (ACMA, 2007, p. 48). Recent years have also seen a steady replacement of slow, periodic dial-up connections with 'always on' faster services (40%; ABS, 2007, p.9). The shift tends to increase individuals' time online, use of electronic personal communication, and the range of activities undertaken (Anderson and Raban, 2005, p.11). In an electoral context this coincides with a shortening of the news cycle, allowing internet users to maintain a lock step with breaking news and opinion, with significant implications for the way the internet's role should be considered in the political environment. The conventional emphasis on the analysis of internet media in electoral campaigns has been to examine these channels in vacuo, however, the pervasive nature of digital media has encouraged high levels of interaction between media channels. Within in this media ecosystem, new social functions of media are emerging alongside innovative means by which old formats are delivered and revitalised (Deuze, 2007, p.78). The strategic use of media, has expanded beyond matching messages to audiences, but also the selection of appropriate channels which reflect key 'brand' characteristics, and the expectation that media consumers may also be producers: grabbing content to be recycled, repurposed, and reedited. The tensions with a political culture characterised by 'control' are clear. This Chapter examines the use of digital communication within the national political campaign. While it remains difficult to say what effect 'the internet' had on 'the election', it can be argued that the 2007 federal election saw a more mature use of new media by some parts of the Australian political class, with resulting influences on the outcome of the election.
Networks have been promoted as a valuable governance
model because of their flexibility and trust... more Networks have been promoted as a valuable governance model because of their flexibility and trust-based relation- ships. Looking at one example of a regulatory environment based in network governance, this paper argues the Internet has become increasingly subject to market and hierarchical governance forms over the last fifteen years. The reasons behind this are tied to the conceptual limitations of its initial design as a tool for a small, self-regulating professional com- munity. While the value of loose governance structures was integral to effective operation, limitations in ensuring an orderly environment when the online community pluralised have been highlighted by issues such as domain name rights, intellectual property, censorship and SPAM. Overall, the decline of network governance illustrates that trust relation- ships can be facilitated by hierarchical power structures to limit information costs and govern transactions, and that a new version of domestic sovereignty online is the only optimal co-ordinating arrangement given current problems associated with the exploitation of this electronic commons.
Based on a survey of 366 podcasters and videobloggers, this paper examines these emerging cultura... more Based on a survey of 366 podcasters and videobloggers, this paper examines these emerging cultural practices from aspect of production, with specific interest in producer motivations, production methods, the relationship between formats, and audience numbers. The exploratory research findings – largely limited to English language producers – illustrates a number of interesting features about this area of activity. These include: Podcasts and videoblogs exhibit many similarities in terms of their content and production, and therefore can be conceptualized in similar ways, with some notable exceptions, The research identified a relatively limited demographic range of producers (dominated by educated men from North America in their mid-thirties). Overall, there is a significant disparity in participation by women in the production of both podcasts and videoblogs, Surprisingly, a significant number of podcasts and videoblogs are undertaken for explicitly commercial or quasi-commercial purposes, but with an emphasis on advertising over other revenue models, Most shows are produced with some reference to third party input and the inclusion of third party content, The use of guests or experts is relatively common in many shows (as opposed to associated website commentary and discussion) demonstrates a clear “gatekeeper role” by producers more akin to television and radio production than the associated phenomena of blogging, and There appears to be opportunities for the providers of supporting technologies (production software, hosting and directory services, and media clients) to further support show producers through increasing the ease of production, better audience metrics, and peering options. In addition, a number of interesting relationships between audience size and show characteristics are examined. Some key findings include: Episode frequency exerts a strong influence on audience size, with the release of daily episodes demonstrating the highest average audience size. Presently, most shows are produced on a weekly basis, There are few specific production-side determinants on popularity (including production time per episode), with the exception of collaborative shows, where there is a significant positive correlation between the number of staff or collaborators and show popularity, and There appears to be an emerging negative relationship within the podcasting production community between the prevalence of shows in some genres and lower average audience sizes. While this relationship is not significant, it may indicate that the market in some genres is saturating and further efforts need to be undertaken to expand the overall size of the market. In the final discussion, some additional comments are provided on issues of copyright and other legal concerns, policy considerations to address gender inequality, and questions associated with definitional inspecificity.
Thus summary document presents the findings of a survey of members of the Australian Adult Indust... more Thus summary document presents the findings of a survey of members of the Australian Adult Industry undertaken in the first quarter of 2002. The aims of the research project were to determine the impact of the Broadcasting Services Amendment (Online Services) Act 1999 on commercial operators of adult services and product sales in Australia. Overall, while the total response rate to the survey as was low, sixty respondents participated in the research project, comprised of companies from all parts of the Australian Adult Industry.The research found that, in relation to Internet censorship: · Awareness of the law was reasonably high · Limited action was taken in response to the law · The law had limited impact on the industry In Addition, with regards to the use of new media by commercial operators: · Website growth rates remain steady · Advertising remains the primary function of adult industry websites · The ratio of eCommerce providers to non-providers continues to rise · Continued growth in eCommerce is anticipated
This document is based on a survey of Australian elected representatives undertaken during the fi... more This document is based on a survey of Australian elected representatives undertaken during the first half of 2002. The aims of the research were to examine the use of, and interest in, new media technologies, such as the Internet, by Australia’s elected officials across four levels of government: Commonwealth, State and Territory parliamentarians, Local Government councillors, and councillors of the Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander Commission. Of the population universe of approximately 6,767 elected representatives, 1,321 responded to the survey, representing a total response rate of just under twenty percent. The survey was distributed directly to elected representatives, by electronic mail for those representatives with publicly-available electronic mail addresses (thirty percent of the population universe) and via personal letter for those without electronic mail addresses. The survey consisted of eighteen, mainly multiple-choice questions which attempted to determine: - The current use of new media technologies across a range of forms; - The importance of these technologies on the overall work life of representatives; - The interest of elected representatives in the technology, now and over the next two years; - The extent to which elected representatives use new media technology for democratic consultation; - The importance of new media for consultation; - Enablers of the use of new media; - The relative importance of new media when compared with traditional “off line” communications media; and - Interest in online voting.
E-Governance: Taking the Next Step at the Local Level proposes ways that Victoria’s local govern... more E-Governance: Taking the Next Step at the Local Level proposes ways that Victoria’s local government sector can exploit information technology to fulfil its governance responsibilities. This application of technology is termed E-Governance – and, compared with the way that technology has changed local government service delivery, there is little evidence of its use in fulfilling the important governance functions of local government. The reasons for this relate to the complex nature of governance. This has meant that governments have had difficulty realising the potential of technology in this area. However, the same pressures that led to changes in service delivery will make the introduction of E-Governance processes increasingly imperative for all tiers of government. This report addresses these issues. It has evolved from a year’s research[1] that included an Australia-wide survey of governance practitioners. Preliminary results of that research were delivered as part of a multimedia presentation to the Municipal Association of Victoria’s Online Demonstration Conference in September, 2003. During the progress of the team’s research Brisbane City Council, Australia’s largest municipality, expressed interest in becoming involved in the project as a significant case study. This has resulted in a fruitful collaboration due to the extent and depth of Brisbane’s work in the area of technology assisted initiatives designed to improve citizen participation in council decision-making. Reflecting on this body of research, this report identifies four strategic issues for consideration by the Victorian local government sector. It then provides a range of practical and targeted initiatives that respond to these governance challenges. The strategies, initiatives and case studies presented here are directed at promoting discussion and facilitating action on E-Governance issues. The sector’s diversity means that one size will never fit all. Nor do we wish to suggest that these initiatives can only be applied in one form. Rather, we hope that their variety and pertinence will stimulate governance practitioners to examine the possibilities that the new information communication technologies, or ICTs[2], offer local government to fulfil these crucial functions for their organisations and their communities.
To that end this report has been constructed in three discrete and largely self-contained segments to enable readers to refer to the relevant sections as needed.
Utilising three similar, but slightly different Australian general political email discussion lis... more Utilising three similar, but slightly different Australian general political email discussion lists, this paper examines the degree to which these lists, as a new form of 'public sphere' (Dahlberg, 2001) can be seen to undertake, or fulfil, the 'traditional' functions of political associations (formal and specifically: political socalisation, aggregation, and mobilisation. informal), Using a combination of content analysis, observation, and network analysis to examine the content of messages travelling over these lists and the social community they embody, this paper concludes that these lists do fulfil important political socialisation functions, but do not provide the means by which political interlocutors can turn this social bonding and education into practical political expression. While each list had significant similarities, it appears that important "bracing" factors lead to the success or otherwise of lists as lively places for debate. In particular, the role of moderation and promotion is critical in the establishment of political discussion lists that develop enough 'critical mass' to sustain a community of interest large enough to appear self-replicating. The research points to the important relationship between online political forms of expression and extant political organisations, structures, and institutions for further research.
This paper examines arguments about “gov 2.0” by looking at the underlying ideological
basis of t... more This paper examines arguments about “gov 2.0” by looking at the underlying ideological basis of the concept. While commonly framed in terms of civic empowerment and participation, I argue that gov 2.0 rests on a particular model of the liberal state and subject that reveals its roots in the political and economic culture of the United States. These assumptions are largely unrecognised or undiscussed by advocates, which makes their political implications opaque when taken out of context. In addition, the definitional ambiguity of the term in popular use has limited lesson drawing from other government ICT initiatives (e-service delivery and e-democracy). Viewing the transformation of government from a set of institutions and processes to a “platform” is predicated on a positive notion of liberty that shares little with the contemporary expectations of government as a pro-active provider of services, and agent of last resort. The notion draws uncritically on two traditions: that of Habermas's public sphere, and the free market as an optimal regulator. Both have a improverised notion of human agency and capacity, which stem from their bias towards an utopian notion of publicity and citizenship.
Social Policy in Australia Understanding for Action, 2020
In addition to how ideas and processes shape policy design (Chapters 2 and 3), the realisation of... more In addition to how ideas and processes shape policy design (Chapters 2 and 3), the realisation of social policy is heavily influenced by the institutions that make and administer it. ‘Institutions’, in this context, represent both formal and informal organisations, which possess resources, procedures, and cultures (values, norms and history; Béland 2019, p. 15that ‘shape the aspirations and assumptions of those who work within them, structure the problems they meet and determine the values and solutions available for consideration’ (Weller 2000, p. 4). As social policy is a product of ongoing collaborations between public, private and non-profit institutions, the institutional context affects how change occurs, including power relationships between different key actors, and what is achievable at any point of time. The mixed model of service delivery prevalent in policy design today sees matching capacity and resources of multiple organisations as a core part of the way policy is realised. This changes the types of actors operating in social policy, as well as the basic relationships that exist and the way collaborations and contracts are envisaged and managed. This chapter first considers the roles and relationships of the different non-government groups and organisations relevant to contemporary social policy. It then examines the government legal and organisational arrangements in more detail. This provides insight into their roles as the developers, advocates, implementers and critics of Australian social policy.
Double Disillusion: The 2016 Australian Federal Election, 2018
As editors, we called the 2016 federal election volume ‘Double Dissolution’ to highlight the lack... more As editors, we called the 2016 federal election volume ‘Double Dissolution’ to highlight the lacklustre nature of the campaign, the failure of the election to produce a decisive result despite both houses of parliament being dissolved, as well as disaffection with the major parties and their limited capacity to pursue the policy challenges facing contemporary Australian society. These sentiments are poignantly captured in findings from the 2016 Australian Election Study (see Bean, Chapter 10), which show that, in contrast to the previous four elections, fewer people cared about which party won the election and those paying close attention to the campaign through traditional media sources continued to decline. In this section of the chapter, we return to some of these themes and, in the section that follows, reflect on the implications of the 2016 federal election for the 43rd Parliament.
Double Disillusion: The 2016 Australian Federal Election, 2018
This chapter focuses on the conduct and performance of these ‘new presses’ in the 2016 federal el... more This chapter focuses on the conduct and performance of these ‘new presses’ in the 2016 federal election campaign. While the majority of these new media groups happens to be an internet-based press, the emphasis of this chapter is not on the technological basis of supply per se, but on their relative newness into the Australia marketplace. This breaks with a traditional tendency to see ‘new media’ as internet-based media, an increasingly meaningless classification tool given the increasing incorporation of new technology into the established media, as discussed by Andrea Carson and Brian McNair.
Double Disillusion: The 2016 Australian Federal Election, 2018
The title Double Disillusion also reflects the fact that, for many political commentators, the un... more The title Double Disillusion also reflects the fact that, for many political commentators, the uncertainty of election night and Turnbull’s lacklustre and somewhat sullen speech compounded what was regarded as a ‘surprisingly formulaic’ (Kenny 2016) and dull campaign—‘one defined by extreme boredom and a lack of mistakes’ (Australian 2016). While the campaign itself did not provide the theatre many had hoped for, it did produce a dramatic result with seemingly little capacity to resolve the political deadlock that had arisen in the previous parliament. Not only had a first-term government lost a net 14 seats and was reduced to a majority of one in the House of Representatives, the strength of the minor party vote in the Senate ensured that seven different parties would be represented on the new crossbench.
This chapter focuses on the relationship between policy structures and changing popular attitudes... more This chapter focuses on the relationship between policy structures and changing popular attitudes to animal welfare in Australia, to explain resultant impacts on welfare policy. Australia presents a complex context for the consideration of animal welfare issues and serves to illustrate the complexityintricacy of political change within this complex and variegated policy domain. Change, and its absence, is explained by two sets of counter-veiling forces: The Australian polity is, at the same time, one of the world's most urbanised nations, while maintaining a strong agricultural sector. Farmers have sustained strong and exclusive relationships with agricultural Ministries, focusing governance away from welfare regulation towards industry-development policies. This closed, ‘iron triangle’ of policy making has traditionally benefited from the majority of the population's insulation from the realities of farm practice. Significantly, Australia maintains a federal system without a federal culture. While this can be associated with ‘laboratory’ or competitive federalism associated with uneven policy innovation in policy domains associated with high levels of civic mobilisation, the concealed nature of farm practices has combined with the conservatism of national standards processes to retard significant policy changes. This has led to a slow process of policy change regarding animal welfare when compared with Northern America and Western Europe.
Abbott’s Gambit: The 2013 Australian Federal Election , Jan 21, 2015
This chapter examines the role of new media in the
2013 campaign, focusing on the use of online ... more This chapter examines the role of new media in the
2013 campaign, focusing on the use of online media channels by central party campaign teams and in the news media. Following Gibson and Cantijoch’s (2011) question about the role of new media in the 2010 election, I argue that new media has finally ‘arrived’ as an essential element of the contemporary electoral practices of Australian political parties, with visible and significant impacts on the conduct of the 2013 election and elections to come. This has significant political implications for the competitiveness and representation of electoral politics, albeit constrained by Australia’s two-party system. The chapter identifies the way established parliamentary parties are able to rapidly adopt new techniques and co-opt practices from civil society groups, entrenching the political status quo in a changing media landscape. In other words, the chapter provides evidence of the ‘normalisation hypothesis’ of political adoption of new technology (Gibson and McAllister 2011). At the same time, interesting developments in the reporting of elections are occurring within parts of the Australian news media that may be challenging the way parties are able to act as ‘primary definers’ of policy issues.
This study assesses the value of two analytical models explaining particular
contemporary politic... more This study assesses the value of two analytical models explaining particular contemporary political events. This is undertaken through the comparative evaluation of two international models: the Advocacy Coalition Framework and Rhodes's model of Governance. These approaches are evaluated against an single case study: the censorship of computer network ("online") content in Australia. Through comparison evaluation, criticism, and reformulation, these approaches are presented as useful tools of policy analysis in Australia. The first part of the thesis presents the theoretical basis of the research and the methodologies employed to apply them. It begins by examining how the disciplines of political science and public policy have focused on the role of politically-active "interest" groups in the process of policy development and implementation. This focus has lead to ideas about the role of the state actors in policy making, and attempts to describe and explain the interface between public and private groups in developing and implementing public policies. These, largely British and American, theories have impacted upon Australian researchers who have applied these ideas to local conditions. The majority of this part, however, is spent introducing the two research approaches: Paul Sabatier's Advocacy Coalitions Framework and Rod Rhodes's theory of Governance. Stemming from dissatisfaction with research into implementation, Sabatier's framework attempts to show how competing clusters of groups and individuals compete for policy "wins" in a discrete subsystem by using political strategies to effect favourable decisions and information to change the views of other groups. Governance, on the other hand, attempts to apply Rhodes's observations to the changing nature of the British state (and by implication other liberal democracies) to show the importance of self-organising networks of organisations who monopolise power and insulate the processes of decision making and implementation from the wider community and state organs. Finally, the methodologies of the thesis are presented, based on the preferred research methods of the two authors. The second part introduces the case serving as the basis for evaluating the models, namely, censorship of the content of computer networks in Australia between 1987 and 2000. This case arises in the late 1980s with the computerisation of society and technological developments leading to the introduction of, first publicly-accessible computer bulletin boards, and then the technology of the Internet. From a small hobbyists' concern, the uptake of this technology combined with wider censorship issues leads to the consideration of online content by Australian Governments, seeking a system of regulation to apply to this technology. As the emerging Internet becomes popularised, and in the face of adverse media attention on, especially pornographic, online content, during the mid to late 1990s two Federal governments establish a series of policy processes that eventually lead to the introduction of the Broadcasting Services Amendment (Online Services) Act 1999, a policy decision bringing online content into Australia's intergovernmental censorship system. The final part analyses the case study using the two theoretical approaches. What this shows is that, from the perspective of the Advocacy Coalition Framework, debate over online content does not form a substantive policy subsystem until 1995, and within this three, relatively stable, competing coalitions emerge, each pressuring for different levels of action and intervention (from no regulation, to a strong regulatory model). While conflict within the subsystem varied, overall the framework's analysis shows the dominance of a coalition consisting largely of professional and business interests favouring a light, co-regulatory approach to online content. From the perspective of Governance, the issue of online content is subject to a range of intra- and inter- governmental conflict in the period 1995–7, finally settling into a negotiated position where a complex policy community emerges based largely on structurally-determined resource dependencies. What this means is that policy making in the case was not autonomous of state institutions, but highly dependent on institutional power relations. Overall, in comparing the findings it becomes apparent that the approaches lack the capacity to fully explain the role of key sovereigns, defined here as those individuals with legal authority over decision making in the policy process, because of their methodological and normative assumptions about the policy process. By showing these individuals as part of wider networks of power-dependencies, and exploring the complex bundle of real, pseudo, symbolic, and nonsense elements that make up a policy, the role of Ministers as "semi-sovereign sovereigns" can be accommodated in the two approaches.
To cite this article: Chen, Peter John and Vromen, Ariadne. Introduction to special issue on new ... more To cite this article: Chen, Peter John and Vromen, Ariadne. Introduction to special issue on new media and election 2010 [online]. Communication, Politics & Culture, Vol. 44, No. 2, 2011: 1-3. Availability:< http://search. informit. com. au/documentSummary; dn= ...
In Mid 2006, the State Government of Victoria (ALP) introduced a piece of legislation into the Le... more In Mid 2006, the State Government of Victoria (ALP) introduced a piece of legislation into the Legislative Assembly to empower the Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC) to undertake a limited experiment in electronic voting in the forthcoming State election. This legislation, Electoral and Parliamentary Committees Legislation (Amendment) Bill ("the Bill"), sets out a range of requirements and specifications for the introduction of electronic voting (including new offences related to the implementation of this technology). In short, the Bill, when assented, will: Empower the VEC to implement electronic voting machines for use by electors with a visual impairment. This provision will not be regarded as a right (e.g. an elector can not demand to have a facility provided for them in their electorate, nor demand to use a system). Specify a range of performance requirements for the software of the system implemented, essentially to ensure that the system provides the same level of utility as the existing system (preferential voting, capacity to lodge an informal vote, ability to review the vote prior to casting the ballot, etc.). While the legislation is ambiguous in that it provides for electronic voting to be available through a limited number of designated electronic voting centres (similar to the voting "super centres" employed by the VEC in previous elections to offer additional services to disabled voters), it is clear that the intention of the legislation is to provide the legal basis for stand alone (or local area networked) electronic voting machines to be implemented rather than the more controversial use of internet-based voting systems. The advantage of these systems are that they allow complete physical control over the electronic voting system (if implemented correctly) by electoral officials and therefore significantly reduce the risks of vote tampering that have been hypothesised around internet-based systems.
In Mid 2006, the State Government of Victoria (ALP) introduced a piece of legislation into the Le... more In Mid 2006, the State Government of Victoria (ALP) introduced a piece of legislation into the Legislative Assembly to empower the Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC) to undertake a limited experiment in electronic voting in the forthcoming State election. This legislation, Electoral and Parliamentary Committees Legislation (Amendment) Bill ("the Bill"), sets out a range of requirements and specifications for the introduction of electronic voting (including new offences related to the implementation of this technology). In short, the Bill, when assented, will: Empower the VEC to implement electronic voting machines for use by electors with a visual impairment. This provision will not be regarded as a right (e.g. an elector can not demand to have a facility provided for them in their electorate, nor demand to use a system). Specify a range of performance requirements for the software of the system implemented, essentially to ensure that the system provides the same level of utility as the existing system (preferential voting, capacity to lodge an informal vote, ability to review the vote prior to casting the ballot, etc.). While the legislation is ambiguous in that it provides for electronic voting to be available through a limited number of designated electronic voting centres (similar to the voting "super centres" employed by the VEC in previous elections to offer additional services to disabled voters), it is clear that the intention of the legislation is to provide the legal basis for stand alone (or local area networked) electronic voting machines to be implemented rather than the more controversial use of internet-based voting systems. The advantage of these systems are that they allow complete physical control over the electronic voting system (if implemented correctly) by electoral officials and therefore significantly reduce the risks of vote tampering that have been hypothesised around internet-based systems.
"The film version of Moore and Lloyd's V for Vendetta is worthy of mention as an interesting, and... more "The film version of Moore and Lloyd's V for Vendetta is worthy of mention as an interesting, and at first glance unsuccessful, adaptation of the original graphic novel. I’m not
convinced that the film is unsuccessful as an adaptation, albeit the necessity of some minor and major changes to the original material motivated by:
the nature of the film’s primary market (the US),
the inevitable limitations of taking a novel and compressing it into a film, and
maintaining the relevancy to wider political events that motivated the original work.
Overall, my key argument will be that it is this final point – the contextual relevance of the material – that redeems the film project from the status of failed adaptation which
some have argued the film to be. As a mainstream release (particularly) the relevance of the content of the film to wider political issues makes this an interesting and timely
film project, and one that – possibly – could not have been realised without the industry clout of Andy and Larry Wachowski."
Physical protests are an important tactical tool employed by activists. These events are performa... more Physical protests are an important tactical tool employed by activists. These events are performative and communicative. In recent years, considerable attention has been turned to the role that social media plays in organizing protest activities, and the types of messaging created by participants. This paper employs interviews of social media creators to examine how and why they engage in media production in and around protest events. Using survey and interview material, this paper creates a typology of creators and unpacks their understandings of the production of social media around protests using a mixed epistemology that includes agency and media affordances. This analysis considers their reflexive views on interaction and documentation forms of 'protest grammars' employed in their social media posts to achieve personal and group objectives; how technological affordances shape their practices, and; issues associated with the way social media mediates their relationships with the collective, time, and audiences.
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With contributions from Australia’s leading politics and public-policy scholars, the textbook includes material on Australian political history and philosophy, key political institutions, Australian political sociology, public policy-making in Australia, and specialised chapters on a range of key policy domains.
Each chapter was subject to anonymous and rigorous peer-review to ensure the highest standards. The textbook comes with additional teaching resources including review questions and lecture slides.
With contributions from Australia’s leading politics and public-policy scholars, the textbook includes material on Australian political history and philosophy, key political institutions, Australian political sociology, public policy-making in Australia, and specialised chapters on a range of key policy domains.
Each chapter was subject to anonymous and rigorous peer-review to ensure the highest standards. The textbook comes with additional teaching resources including review questions and lecture slides.
In this, the 16th edited collection of Australian election studies, 41 contributors from a range of disciplines bring an unprecedented depth of expertise to the 2016 contest. The book covers the context, key battles and issues in the campaign, and reports and analyses the results in detail. It provides an evaluation of the role of political actors such as the parties, independents, the media, interest groups and GetUp!, and examines election debate in the online space. Experts from a range of policy fields provide an analysis of election issues ranging from the economy and industrial relations to social policy, the environment, and gender and sexuality. Each of the chapters is written on the basis of in‑depth and original research, providing new insights into this important political event.
Yet despite this increased interest, the policy process as it relates to human–animal relations in Australia is poorly understood. Animal Welfare in Australia is the first Australian book to examine the topic in a systematic manner. Without taking a specific ethical position on the treatment of non-human animals, Chen draws on a wide range of sources – including activists, industry representatives and policy elites – to explain how policy is made and implemented. He explores the history of animal welfare in Australia, as well as contemporary public opinion and media coverage of animal-welfare issues. In the process, he comprehensively maps the policy domain, demonstrating the complexity of policy-making networks and the difficulty of pinning down public opinion on animal-welfare issues.
Animal Welfare in Australia: Politics and policy will be of interest to scholars and practitioners of public policy, those interested in issues of animal welfare, and anyone wishing to understand how diverse sets of social and economic interests interact in the contemporary Australian policy landscape.
Over the last 20 years, advanced communication technologies, like computer networks and mobile telephones, have become pervasive throughout Western society. These technologies have not only revolutionised the delivery of public and private services, they have shaped consumers’ expectations about service quality. These technologies can also play an important role in assisting public sector managers to consult, involve and engage members of the community in the development, implementation, management and evaluation of public policy.
This guide focuses on ‘electronic engagement’, which we might define as: ‘the use of Information Communication Technologies by the public sector to improve, enhance and expand the engagement of the public in policy-making processes’.
This monograph does not advocate a specific methodology for electronic engagement. There is no single model that guarantees effective eEngagement. Instead, this guide emphasises the need to select, or develop a methodology that optimises four factors: issue, audience, technology and timeframe.
The incredible flexibility of new technologies provides the progressive public sector manager with a wide array of options for expanding their consultative and decision-making processes with key stakeholders. Public sector managers, however, need to consider a number of practical issues, including which approaches to electronic engagement are most appropriate to: (a) different management styles or roles; or (b) different points in the policy cycle. In so doing, managers might be well advised to catalogue the range of potential methodologies in a way that clearly sets out their advantages and limitations.
As a starting point for the development of an electronic engagement strategy, the guide discusses:
motivations and reasons for expanding existing engagement strategies to incorporate new technologies;
problems of definition and conceptualisation of these ideas, against the wider backdrop of the ‘information society’ and emerging ‘electronically-facilitated democracies’; and
management considerations, from initiation, development and implementation, to post-implementation review and assessment.
The guide includes a range of examples and references to other relevant manuals.
electronic mail, as well as the more pervasive use of computer technology in political and government institutions and organisations.
This bundle of systems and services represents a significant change to the technological backdrop of Australian society. The past 20 years have seen the acceleration and intensification of the use of computers and other digital communications technologies, with significant impacts on the economic and
social life of Australians, as well as having considerable implications for political participation and democracy.
Within this broad area of public debate two strong theoretical positions can be located. On the one hand, there are arguments that these tools have specific structural impacts such as increasing access to information at low cost—a technologically determinist point of view. On the other hand, there is the social
shaping of technology view—that technologies reflect the people and politics that create them. While these debates are ongoing, the impacts of information and communications tools on democratic cultures can be both positive and negative,
reflecting the nature of Australia’s wider political culture, logics of political life, and the creativity of individuals and organisations in the application of these tools.
To assess these impacts this audit focuses on four key areas of democratic life in Australia and the implications of new technology therein: Australia’s system of party and representative rule; elections and campaigning; non-government
organisations and civil society institutions; and the public sector that serves government and the citizenry.
A complex pattern emerges in relation to each of these areas, drawn from quantitative and qualitative studies, and the use of case analysis. Overall, the audit demonstrates that new media technologies have not, in themselves, led to a dramatic opening up of democratic institutions or organisations in Australia.
Key aspects of the political system such as parties, parliaments and the public service, are no more open to public participation following the introduction of these technologies than they were prior to their advent.
In part, this reflects the fact that, in themselves, computers and communications technologies have no direct political implications. Whereas these systems provide numerous possibilities for greater, wider, or deeper public participation, parties, parliaments, and government departments have not been particularly proactive in taking on these opportunities to enhance participation. This represents the relatively conservative nature of the Australian political system and culture, rather than a necessary failure of the technologies to deliver some promised new era of openness.
Again, however, it must be recognised that this generalisation is only part of the overall—and ongoing—process of adaptation to what has been called the ‘information age’. Numerous examples are presented in this audit of actions taken to open up the political system: either through increasing the amount
of information available to individual citizens about the views, operations, or decisions of major political institutions, or in the direct provision of new points of access into the political arena.
Thus, a balanced finding of the implications of technological change is presented, and in each of the five focal areas explored, we can see positive and progressive use of new technology, as well as cynical or anti-democratic activities. Some particularly positive examples include:
• Innovations in political parties, particularly the minor parliamentary parties, to facilitate greater participation in their operations and greater exposure to their views outside the mainstream commercial media;
• New forms of direct communication between the public and individual representatives and candidates;
• Enhanced forms of participation by government organisations through the provision of information online, explicit use of online systems that allow the public to comment on policy making processes, electronic voting systems, and the development of community access projects to enhance the wider availability of new technologies to the community; and
• The active and innovative role of some parts of civil society in developing alternative news and media vehicles, virtual protest and pressure groups, and the mobilisation of citizens into political action.
Negatives include:
• The general avoidance of direct communication by government and government agencies with members of the community, particularly in processes of policy development. While new media represents an opportunity for the political elite of Australia to engage the community in new ways, this opportunity has been largely unrealised;
• The limited role that new communications technology has had on electoral competition and the ongoing dominance of political communication by large, but highly concentrated mass media;
• The resource barriers preventing greater use of new technology by Australia’s civil society in fostering grassroots participation and access to the policy processes (their own, and to government);
• The increasing use of technology to monitor citizens’ behaviour (online and offline), and the recent tendency towards Australia becoming a ‘surveillance society’; and
• A general reluctance in the wider Australian community to engage politically using the variety of new communications channels available. Overall the audit notes that the process of developing an information society remains an ongoing project. Many Australians still remain relatively excluded from the new opportunities brought by technology, and political actors (in and outside of government) continue to learn and experiment with the technologies and the possibilities they bring. Given the high speed of change in our digital age, there remains the distinct possibility that we are on the cusp, rather than in the midst, of more significant democratic implications.
With contributions from Australia’s leading politics and public-policy scholars, the textbook includes material on Australian political history and philosophy, key political institutions, Australian political sociology, public policy-making in Australia, and specialised chapters on a range of key policy domains.
Each chapter was subject to anonymous and rigorous peer-review to ensure the highest standards. The textbook comes with additional teaching resources including review questions and lecture slides.
With contributions from Australia’s leading politics and public-policy scholars, the textbook includes material on Australian political history and philosophy, key political institutions, Australian political sociology, public policy-making in Australia, and specialised chapters on a range of key policy domains.
Each chapter was subject to anonymous and rigorous peer-review to ensure the highest standards. The textbook comes with additional teaching resources including review questions and lecture slides.
In this, the 16th edited collection of Australian election studies, 41 contributors from a range of disciplines bring an unprecedented depth of expertise to the 2016 contest. The book covers the context, key battles and issues in the campaign, and reports and analyses the results in detail. It provides an evaluation of the role of political actors such as the parties, independents, the media, interest groups and GetUp!, and examines election debate in the online space. Experts from a range of policy fields provide an analysis of election issues ranging from the economy and industrial relations to social policy, the environment, and gender and sexuality. Each of the chapters is written on the basis of in‑depth and original research, providing new insights into this important political event.
Yet despite this increased interest, the policy process as it relates to human–animal relations in Australia is poorly understood. Animal Welfare in Australia is the first Australian book to examine the topic in a systematic manner. Without taking a specific ethical position on the treatment of non-human animals, Chen draws on a wide range of sources – including activists, industry representatives and policy elites – to explain how policy is made and implemented. He explores the history of animal welfare in Australia, as well as contemporary public opinion and media coverage of animal-welfare issues. In the process, he comprehensively maps the policy domain, demonstrating the complexity of policy-making networks and the difficulty of pinning down public opinion on animal-welfare issues.
Animal Welfare in Australia: Politics and policy will be of interest to scholars and practitioners of public policy, those interested in issues of animal welfare, and anyone wishing to understand how diverse sets of social and economic interests interact in the contemporary Australian policy landscape.
Over the last 20 years, advanced communication technologies, like computer networks and mobile telephones, have become pervasive throughout Western society. These technologies have not only revolutionised the delivery of public and private services, they have shaped consumers’ expectations about service quality. These technologies can also play an important role in assisting public sector managers to consult, involve and engage members of the community in the development, implementation, management and evaluation of public policy.
This guide focuses on ‘electronic engagement’, which we might define as: ‘the use of Information Communication Technologies by the public sector to improve, enhance and expand the engagement of the public in policy-making processes’.
This monograph does not advocate a specific methodology for electronic engagement. There is no single model that guarantees effective eEngagement. Instead, this guide emphasises the need to select, or develop a methodology that optimises four factors: issue, audience, technology and timeframe.
The incredible flexibility of new technologies provides the progressive public sector manager with a wide array of options for expanding their consultative and decision-making processes with key stakeholders. Public sector managers, however, need to consider a number of practical issues, including which approaches to electronic engagement are most appropriate to: (a) different management styles or roles; or (b) different points in the policy cycle. In so doing, managers might be well advised to catalogue the range of potential methodologies in a way that clearly sets out their advantages and limitations.
As a starting point for the development of an electronic engagement strategy, the guide discusses:
motivations and reasons for expanding existing engagement strategies to incorporate new technologies;
problems of definition and conceptualisation of these ideas, against the wider backdrop of the ‘information society’ and emerging ‘electronically-facilitated democracies’; and
management considerations, from initiation, development and implementation, to post-implementation review and assessment.
The guide includes a range of examples and references to other relevant manuals.
electronic mail, as well as the more pervasive use of computer technology in political and government institutions and organisations.
This bundle of systems and services represents a significant change to the technological backdrop of Australian society. The past 20 years have seen the acceleration and intensification of the use of computers and other digital communications technologies, with significant impacts on the economic and
social life of Australians, as well as having considerable implications for political participation and democracy.
Within this broad area of public debate two strong theoretical positions can be located. On the one hand, there are arguments that these tools have specific structural impacts such as increasing access to information at low cost—a technologically determinist point of view. On the other hand, there is the social
shaping of technology view—that technologies reflect the people and politics that create them. While these debates are ongoing, the impacts of information and communications tools on democratic cultures can be both positive and negative,
reflecting the nature of Australia’s wider political culture, logics of political life, and the creativity of individuals and organisations in the application of these tools.
To assess these impacts this audit focuses on four key areas of democratic life in Australia and the implications of new technology therein: Australia’s system of party and representative rule; elections and campaigning; non-government
organisations and civil society institutions; and the public sector that serves government and the citizenry.
A complex pattern emerges in relation to each of these areas, drawn from quantitative and qualitative studies, and the use of case analysis. Overall, the audit demonstrates that new media technologies have not, in themselves, led to a dramatic opening up of democratic institutions or organisations in Australia.
Key aspects of the political system such as parties, parliaments and the public service, are no more open to public participation following the introduction of these technologies than they were prior to their advent.
In part, this reflects the fact that, in themselves, computers and communications technologies have no direct political implications. Whereas these systems provide numerous possibilities for greater, wider, or deeper public participation, parties, parliaments, and government departments have not been particularly proactive in taking on these opportunities to enhance participation. This represents the relatively conservative nature of the Australian political system and culture, rather than a necessary failure of the technologies to deliver some promised new era of openness.
Again, however, it must be recognised that this generalisation is only part of the overall—and ongoing—process of adaptation to what has been called the ‘information age’. Numerous examples are presented in this audit of actions taken to open up the political system: either through increasing the amount
of information available to individual citizens about the views, operations, or decisions of major political institutions, or in the direct provision of new points of access into the political arena.
Thus, a balanced finding of the implications of technological change is presented, and in each of the five focal areas explored, we can see positive and progressive use of new technology, as well as cynical or anti-democratic activities. Some particularly positive examples include:
• Innovations in political parties, particularly the minor parliamentary parties, to facilitate greater participation in their operations and greater exposure to their views outside the mainstream commercial media;
• New forms of direct communication between the public and individual representatives and candidates;
• Enhanced forms of participation by government organisations through the provision of information online, explicit use of online systems that allow the public to comment on policy making processes, electronic voting systems, and the development of community access projects to enhance the wider availability of new technologies to the community; and
• The active and innovative role of some parts of civil society in developing alternative news and media vehicles, virtual protest and pressure groups, and the mobilisation of citizens into political action.
Negatives include:
• The general avoidance of direct communication by government and government agencies with members of the community, particularly in processes of policy development. While new media represents an opportunity for the political elite of Australia to engage the community in new ways, this opportunity has been largely unrealised;
• The limited role that new communications technology has had on electoral competition and the ongoing dominance of political communication by large, but highly concentrated mass media;
• The resource barriers preventing greater use of new technology by Australia’s civil society in fostering grassroots participation and access to the policy processes (their own, and to government);
• The increasing use of technology to monitor citizens’ behaviour (online and offline), and the recent tendency towards Australia becoming a ‘surveillance society’; and
• A general reluctance in the wider Australian community to engage politically using the variety of new communications channels available. Overall the audit notes that the process of developing an information society remains an ongoing project. Many Australians still remain relatively excluded from the new opportunities brought by technology, and political actors (in and outside of government) continue to learn and experiment with the technologies and the possibilities they bring. Given the high speed of change in our digital age, there remains the distinct possibility that we are on the cusp, rather than in the midst, of more significant democratic implications.
parties. The research informs a wider debate between competing schools of thought on the democratizing potential of the Internet. The article demonstrates a mixed role of digital media in the election. Structural, human, and financial resources can be identified as advantaging established parties access to both conventional and online media. The pattern of adoption of different forms of digital media is also significantly affected by factors internal to professional politics.
Australia in 2007 and Canada and New Zealand in 20081. Examining the process of technology adoption and strategic use by parties and individual candidates, it explores similarities and
differences in the use of these evolving campaigning channels. Against the current literature on variables influencing technology adoption, specific attention is given to the use of different
communication channels as tools to target specific audiences, the adoption of a wide variety of technologies to ensure broad (‘mass’) reach, and the co-ordination of messages across different platforms. The analysis aims to identify structural, organisational, technological and cultural determinants of variation in the adoption and deployment of these technologies.
emerging digital media on the 2008 Alberta provincial election. Based on data
collected from a range of methods, we explore the application of digital media
by candidates focusing on the role of digital media in overcoming the media
access gap between the dominant political party and other oppositional parties
(democratization). As a source of comparison, data from the 2008 national
election is employed. The article argues that the evidence supporting
democratization is weak. Although there are indications that digital media is one
area of campaigning that suffers from the lowest gap in rates of adoption and
use different political parties and actors, we identify structural, human and
financial factors that advantage the dominant parties' access to both
conventional and digital media. This appears significant given the electoral
success of the ruling Progressive Conservative Party, and the continued decline in
voter participation. The inability of digital media to reinvigorate Alberta
democracy lies in political, historical, social, and economic factors.
The internet has taken some time to penetrate Australian society. While a minority of Australians had access in 2001, by Census 2006 this was reversed: with 63% online (ABS, 2007, p.18). This is skewed a number of ways, including a strong correlation with urban living and educational attainment. Importantly for the ALP, the promotion of the internet as an essential tool for education has seen a very high growth in its use among the exemplar of the middle ground whose interests were to play a significant part in the 2007 election: 'working families' (ACMA, 2007, p. 48).
Recent years have also seen a steady replacement of slow, periodic dial-up connections with 'always on' faster services (40%; ABS, 2007, p.9). The shift tends to increase individuals' time online, use of electronic personal communication, and the range of activities undertaken (Anderson and Raban, 2005, p.11). In an electoral context this coincides with a shortening of the news cycle, allowing internet users to maintain a lock step with breaking news and opinion, with significant implications for the way the internet's role should be considered in the political environment.
The conventional emphasis on the analysis of internet media in electoral campaigns has been to examine these channels in vacuo, however, the pervasive nature of digital media has encouraged high levels of interaction between media channels. Within in this media ecosystem, new social functions of media are emerging alongside innovative means by which old formats are delivered and revitalised (Deuze, 2007, p.78). The strategic use of media, has expanded beyond matching messages to audiences, but also the selection of appropriate channels which reflect key 'brand' characteristics, and the expectation that media consumers may also be producers: grabbing content to be recycled, repurposed, and reedited. The tensions with a political culture characterised by 'control' are clear.
This Chapter examines the use of digital communication within the national political campaign. While it remains difficult to say what effect 'the internet' had on 'the election', it can be argued that the 2007 federal election saw a more mature use of new media by some parts of the Australian political class, with resulting influences on the outcome of the election.
model because of their flexibility and trust-based relation-
ships. Looking at one example of a regulatory environment
based in network governance, this paper argues the Internet
has become increasingly subject to market and hierarchical
governance forms over the last fifteen years. The reasons
behind this are tied to the conceptual limitations of its initial
design as a tool for a small, self-regulating professional com-
munity. While the value of loose governance structures was
integral to effective operation, limitations in ensuring an
orderly environment when the online community pluralised
have been highlighted by issues such as domain name rights,
intellectual property, censorship and SPAM. Overall, the
decline of network governance illustrates that trust relation-
ships can be facilitated by hierarchical power structures to
limit information costs and govern transactions, and that a
new version of domestic sovereignty online is the only
optimal co-ordinating arrangement given current problems
associated with the exploitation of this electronic commons.
motivations, production methods, the relationship between formats, and audience numbers. The exploratory research findings – largely limited to English language
producers – illustrates a number of interesting features about this area of activity. These include:
Podcasts and videoblogs exhibit many similarities in terms of their content and production, and therefore can be conceptualized in similar ways, with some notable
exceptions,
The research identified a relatively limited demographic range of producers (dominated by educated men from North America in their mid-thirties). Overall, there is a
significant disparity in participation by women in the production of both podcasts and videoblogs,
Surprisingly, a significant number of podcasts and videoblogs are undertaken for explicitly commercial or quasi-commercial purposes, but with an emphasis on
advertising over other revenue models,
Most shows are produced with some reference to third party input and the inclusion of third party content,
The use of guests or experts is relatively common in many shows (as opposed to associated website commentary and discussion) demonstrates a clear “gatekeeper
role” by producers more akin to television and radio production than the associated phenomena of blogging, and
There appears to be opportunities for the providers of supporting technologies (production software, hosting and directory services, and media clients) to further
support show producers through increasing the ease of production, better audience metrics, and peering options.
In addition, a number of interesting relationships between audience size and show characteristics are examined. Some key findings include:
Episode frequency exerts a strong influence on audience size, with the release of daily episodes demonstrating the highest average audience size. Presently, most
shows are produced on a weekly basis,
There are few specific production-side determinants on popularity (including production time per episode), with the exception of collaborative shows, where there is a
significant positive correlation between the number of staff or collaborators and show popularity, and
There appears to be an emerging negative relationship within the podcasting production community between the prevalence of shows in some genres and lower
average audience sizes. While this relationship is not significant, it may indicate that the market in some genres is saturating and further efforts need to be undertaken
to expand the overall size of the market.
In the final discussion, some additional comments are provided on issues of copyright and other legal concerns, policy considerations to address gender inequality, and
questions associated with definitional inspecificity.
The aims of the research project were to determine the impact of the Broadcasting Services Amendment (Online Services) Act 1999 on commercial operators of adult
services and product sales in Australia.
Overall, while the total response rate to the survey as was low, sixty respondents participated in the research project, comprised of companies from all parts of the Australian
Adult Industry.The research found that, in relation to Internet censorship:
· Awareness of the law was reasonably high
· Limited action was taken in response to the law
· The law had limited impact on the industry
In Addition, with regards to the use of new media by commercial operators:
· Website growth rates remain steady
· Advertising remains the primary function of adult industry websites
· The ratio of eCommerce providers to non-providers continues to rise
· Continued growth in eCommerce is anticipated
Of the population universe of approximately 6,767 elected representatives, 1,321 responded to the survey, representing a total response rate of just under twenty percent. The survey was distributed directly to elected representatives, by electronic
mail for those representatives with publicly-available electronic mail addresses (thirty percent of the population universe) and via personal letter for those without electronic mail addresses. The survey consisted of eighteen, mainly multiple-choice questions which attempted to determine:
- The current use of new media technologies across a range of forms;
- The importance of these technologies on the overall work life of representatives;
- The interest of elected representatives in the technology, now and over the next two years;
- The extent to which elected representatives use new media technology for democratic consultation;
- The importance of new media for consultation;
- Enablers of the use of new media;
- The relative importance of new media when compared with traditional “off line” communications media; and
- Interest in online voting.
The reasons for this relate to the complex nature of governance. This has meant that governments have had difficulty realising the potential of technology in this area. However, the same pressures that led to changes in service delivery will make the introduction of E-Governance processes increasingly imperative for all tiers of government.
This report addresses these issues. It has evolved from a year’s research[1] that included an Australia-wide survey of governance practitioners. Preliminary results of that research were delivered as part of a multimedia presentation to the Municipal Association of Victoria’s Online Demonstration Conference in September, 2003.
During the progress of the team’s research Brisbane City Council, Australia’s largest municipality, expressed interest in becoming involved in the project as a significant case study. This has resulted in a fruitful collaboration due to the extent and depth of Brisbane’s work in the area of technology assisted initiatives designed to improve citizen participation in council decision-making.
Reflecting on this body of research, this report identifies four strategic issues for consideration by the Victorian local government sector. It then provides a range of practical and targeted initiatives that respond to these governance challenges.
The strategies, initiatives and case studies presented here are directed at promoting discussion and facilitating action on E-Governance issues. The sector’s diversity means that one size will never fit all. Nor do we wish to suggest that these initiatives can only be applied in one form. Rather, we hope that their variety and pertinence will stimulate governance practitioners to examine the possibilities that the new information communication technologies, or ICTs[2], offer local government to fulfil these crucial functions for their organisations and their communities.
To that end this report has been constructed in three discrete and largely self-contained segments to enable readers to refer to the relevant sections as needed.
functions of political associations (formal and specifically: political socalisation, aggregation, and mobilisation.
informal), Using a combination of content analysis, observation, and network analysis to examine the content of messages travelling over these lists and the social community they embody, this paper concludes that these lists do fulfil important political socialisation functions, but do not provide the means by
which political interlocutors can turn this social bonding and education into practical political expression.
While each list had significant similarities, it appears that important "bracing" factors lead to the success or otherwise of
lists as lively places for debate. In particular, the role of moderation and promotion is critical in the establishment of political discussion lists that develop enough 'critical mass' to sustain a community of interest large enough to appear self-replicating. The research points to the important relationship
between online political forms of expression and extant political organisations, structures, and institutions for further research.
basis of the concept. While commonly framed in terms of civic empowerment and
participation, I argue that gov 2.0 rests on a particular model of the liberal state and
subject that reveals its roots in the political and economic culture of the United States.
These assumptions are largely unrecognised or undiscussed by advocates, which makes
their political implications opaque when taken out of context. In addition, the definitional
ambiguity of the term in popular use has limited lesson drawing from other government
ICT initiatives (e-service delivery and e-democracy). Viewing the transformation of
government from a set of institutions and processes to a “platform” is predicated on a
positive notion of liberty that shares little with the contemporary expectations of
government as a pro-active provider of services, and agent of last resort. The notion
draws uncritically on two traditions: that of Habermas's public sphere, and the free market
as an optimal regulator. Both have a improverised notion of human agency and capacity,
which stem from their bias towards an utopian notion of publicity and citizenship.
As social policy is a product of ongoing collaborations between public, private and non-profit institutions, the institutional context affects how change occurs, including power relationships between different key actors, and what is achievable at any point of time. The mixed model of service delivery prevalent in policy design today sees matching capacity and resources of multiple organisations as a core part of the way policy is realised. This changes the types of actors operating in social policy, as well as the basic relationships that exist and the way collaborations and contracts are envisaged and managed.
This chapter first considers the roles and relationships of the different non-government groups and organisations relevant to contemporary social policy. It then examines the government legal and organisational arrangements in more detail. This provides insight into their roles as the developers, advocates, implementers and critics of Australian social policy.
2013 campaign, focusing on the use of online media channels by central party campaign teams and in the news media. Following Gibson and Cantijoch’s (2011) question about the role of new media in the 2010 election, I argue that new media has finally ‘arrived’ as an essential element of the contemporary electoral practices of Australian political parties, with visible and significant impacts on the conduct of the 2013 election and elections to come. This has significant political implications for the competitiveness and representation of electoral politics, albeit constrained by Australia’s two-party system. The chapter identifies the way established parliamentary parties are able to rapidly adopt new techniques and co-opt practices from civil society groups, entrenching the political status quo in a changing media landscape. In other words, the chapter provides evidence of the ‘normalisation hypothesis’ of political adoption of new technology (Gibson and McAllister 2011). At the same time, interesting developments in the reporting of elections are occurring within parts of the Australian news media that may be challenging the way parties are able to act as ‘primary definers’ of policy issues.
contemporary political events. This is undertaken through the comparative evaluation of
two international models: the Advocacy Coalition Framework and Rhodes's model of
Governance. These approaches are evaluated against an single case study: the
censorship of computer network ("online") content in Australia. Through comparison
evaluation, criticism, and reformulation, these approaches are presented as useful tools
of policy analysis in Australia.
The first part of the thesis presents the theoretical basis of the research and the
methodologies employed to apply them. It begins by examining how the disciplines of
political science and public policy have focused on the role of politically-active "interest"
groups in the process of policy development and implementation. This focus has lead to
ideas about the role of the state actors in policy making, and attempts to describe and
explain the interface between public and private groups in developing and implementing
public policies. These, largely British and American, theories have impacted upon
Australian researchers who have applied these ideas to local conditions. The majority of
this part, however, is spent introducing the two research approaches: Paul Sabatier's
Advocacy Coalitions Framework and Rod Rhodes's theory of Governance. Stemming
from dissatisfaction with research into implementation, Sabatier's framework attempts to
show how competing clusters of groups and individuals compete for policy "wins" in a
discrete subsystem by using political strategies to effect favourable decisions and
information to change the views of other groups. Governance, on the other hand,
attempts to apply Rhodes's observations to the changing nature of the British state (and
by implication other liberal democracies) to show the importance of self-organising
networks of organisations who monopolise power and insulate the processes of decision
making and implementation from the wider community and state organs. Finally, the
methodologies of the thesis are presented, based on the preferred research methods of
the two authors.
The second part introduces the case serving as the basis for evaluating the models,
namely, censorship of the content of computer networks in Australia between 1987 and
2000. This case arises in the late 1980s with the computerisation of society and
technological developments leading to the introduction of, first publicly-accessible
computer bulletin boards, and then the technology of the Internet. From a small
hobbyists' concern, the uptake of this technology combined with wider censorship issues
leads to the consideration of online content by Australian Governments, seeking a
system of regulation to apply to this technology. As the emerging Internet becomes
popularised, and in the face of adverse media attention on, especially pornographic,
online content, during the mid to late 1990s two Federal governments establish a series
of policy processes that eventually lead to the introduction of the Broadcasting Services
Amendment (Online Services) Act 1999, a policy decision bringing online content into
Australia's intergovernmental censorship system.
The final part analyses the case study using the two theoretical approaches. What this
shows is that, from the perspective of the Advocacy Coalition Framework, debate over
online content does not form a substantive policy subsystem until 1995, and within this
three, relatively stable, competing coalitions emerge, each pressuring for different levels
of action and intervention (from no regulation, to a strong regulatory model). While
conflict within the subsystem varied, overall the framework's analysis shows the
dominance of a coalition consisting largely of professional and business interests
favouring a light, co-regulatory approach to online content. From the perspective of
Governance, the issue of online content is subject to a range of intra- and inter-
governmental conflict in the period 1995–7, finally settling into a negotiated position
where a complex policy community emerges based largely on structurally-determined
resource dependencies. What this means is that policy making in the case was not
autonomous of state institutions, but highly dependent on institutional power relations.
Overall, in comparing the findings it becomes apparent that the approaches lack the
capacity to fully explain the role of key sovereigns, defined here as those individuals with
legal authority over decision making in the policy process, because of their
methodological and normative assumptions about the policy process. By showing these
individuals as part of wider networks of power-dependencies, and exploring the complex
bundle of real, pseudo, symbolic, and nonsense elements that make up a policy, the role
of Ministers as "semi-sovereign sovereigns" can be accommodated in the two
approaches.
undertake a limited experiment in electronic voting in the forthcoming State election.
This legislation, Electoral and Parliamentary Committees Legislation (Amendment) Bill ("the Bill"), sets out a range of requirements and specifications for the introduction of
electronic voting (including new offences related to the implementation of this technology). In short, the Bill, when assented, will:
Empower the VEC to implement electronic voting machines for use by electors with a visual impairment. This provision will not be regarded as a right (e.g. an elector
can not demand to have a facility provided for them in their electorate, nor demand to use a system).
Specify a range of performance requirements for the software of the system implemented, essentially to ensure that the system provides the same level of utility as
the existing system (preferential voting, capacity to lodge an informal vote, ability to review the vote prior to casting the ballot, etc.).
While the legislation is ambiguous in that it provides for electronic voting to be available through a limited number of designated electronic voting centres (similar to the voting
"super centres" employed by the VEC in previous elections to offer additional services to disabled voters), it is clear that the intention of the legislation is to provide the legal
basis for stand alone (or local area networked) electronic voting machines to be implemented rather than the more controversial use of internet-based voting systems.
The advantage of these systems are that they allow complete physical control over the electronic voting system (if implemented correctly) by electoral officials and therefore
significantly reduce the risks of vote tampering that have been hypothesised around internet-based systems.
undertake a limited experiment in electronic voting in the forthcoming State election.
This legislation, Electoral and Parliamentary Committees Legislation (Amendment) Bill ("the Bill"), sets out a range of requirements and specifications for the introduction of
electronic voting (including new offences related to the implementation of this technology). In short, the Bill, when assented, will:
Empower the VEC to implement electronic voting machines for use by electors with a visual impairment. This provision will not be regarded as a right (e.g. an elector
can not demand to have a facility provided for them in their electorate, nor demand to use a system).
Specify a range of performance requirements for the software of the system implemented, essentially to ensure that the system provides the same level of utility as
the existing system (preferential voting, capacity to lodge an informal vote, ability to review the vote prior to casting the ballot, etc.).
While the legislation is ambiguous in that it provides for electronic voting to be available through a limited number of designated electronic voting centres (similar to the voting
"super centres" employed by the VEC in previous elections to offer additional services to disabled voters), it is clear that the intention of the legislation is to provide the legal
basis for stand alone (or local area networked) electronic voting machines to be implemented rather than the more controversial use of internet-based voting systems.
The advantage of these systems are that they allow complete physical control over the electronic voting system (if implemented correctly) by electoral officials and therefore
significantly reduce the risks of vote tampering that have been hypothesised around internet-based systems.
convinced that the film is unsuccessful as an adaptation, albeit the necessity of some minor and major changes to the original material motivated by:
the nature of the film’s primary market (the US),
the inevitable limitations of taking a novel and compressing it into a film, and
maintaining the relevancy to wider political events that motivated the original work.
Overall, my key argument will be that it is this final point – the contextual relevance of the material – that redeems the film project from the status of failed adaptation which
some have argued the film to be. As a mainstream release (particularly) the relevance of the content of the film to wider political issues makes this an interesting and timely
film project, and one that – possibly – could not have been realised without the industry clout of Andy and Larry Wachowski."