Nice comment. Just to pick up on one thing arising from it - I think - or rather hypothesise - that you may be right about the way in which political engagement online skews toward particular demographics. I think some of the interest that the project has will be finding out how far we have come in online public affairs, and how broadly based the constituency for citizen journalism is in 2007. Judging by the responses we’ve had so far, there may be a few surprises in the breadth and distribution of folks who are interested in getting involved. We are trying our best to make the process of interacting with the site as straighforward as possible, so as not to actively discourage anybody.

The substance of what you say goes to important issues. After the election coverage is put to bed, I’m looking forward to the possibility of developing some outreach activities and tools that can give a broad range of people the skills and literacies they need to participate in this kind of initiative, and go towards sustaining communities for citizen journalism and online public affairs - I think that there is the possibility of outcomes that have a much broader impact than scholarly research outcomes. For example, forms of online reportage such as combined audio/still photo slideshows work well as online journalism, in giving a sense of place, and are easily put together with mass market tools and technologies (like iMovie): spreading simple online news production skills to a wide range of people is the kind of thing which could really enliven citizen journalism and its “produser base” for some time to come.

Of course, it would be nice to chat with the community as we go about what they think they need in order to pursue this kind of engagement with media, politics and citizenship. If you, Craig, or anyone else has ideas right now about expanding the public for citizen journalism, it would be great to hear them on this thread, or directly in my in-box!

As someone who teaches some citizen media stuff at QUT Creative Industries, I’m watching this one with interest. Given that (according to the Center for Policy Development):

* only 1 in 20 Australians will attend a political meeting or rally in their life, and
* only 10% of Aussies with Internet access will use the Internet to search for information on the election campaign (but half of these will only search once or twice)

anything that encourages grassroots engagement and debate will be a great thing. Best of luck with it!

Can I just say that I find that tools like:

http://www.ozpolitics.info/guide/fun/politics-test/

Where you can take a quiz to see how your own beliefs align with those of the major parties are really powerful. Of course, with a web 2.0 platform (or even an older forum/community model like the one here), you face enormous literacy challenges. That’s actually the real bias I see here - you’re biased towards web literate users, and how that intersects with political leaning / educational standard / etc is an interesting question. The vast majority of Australians won’t know how to contribute or interact with a citizen journalism site, and as such may be excluded from the discourse. Some kind of low-barrier-to-entry tools / polls / etc do well in these kinds of platforms, methinks, to cater for those “legitimate peripheral participants” such a site might attract.

Anyway, looking forward to watching this one!

Craig.

The project team does have people connected to it with right-of-centre as well as left-of-centre political views. Moreover, there are many on the conservative side of politics who see online media, blogs etc. as an alternative to what they see as left-liberal media institutional cultures (for Australia, the ABC is the obvious case). Even if the blogosphere has a leftish bias, there would be those on the political right who would see that as a challenge for their side of politics, rather than a reason for rejecting it outright.

The project would not achieve its goals if it were politically partisan. People who engage with it will no doubt have strongly held political views, but since blogs such as LP on the left and others on the right provide outlets for this anyway, it would be best to aim for a mix of views and positions, but to allow these to emerge through active engagement rather than the old ‘find someone right wing’, ‘find someone left wing’ approach.

If the project has biases, there are two that stand out. One is a bias towards the local. If Federal elctions are in part a series of electorate-based by-elections, then there are national issues that may play themselves out in different ways in different electorates. Some examples are:

* Are the politics of climate change different in seats like Calare and Capricornia, with significant coal mining communities, than they are in Wentworth and Bennelong?

* How does Australian involvement in the war in Iraq play out in a seat such as Herbert, with a big portion of the population serving in the defence forces?

* Is there more support for WorkChoices and AWAs in WA than elsewhere?

* Where exactly are ‘mortgage stress’ electorates, and how to do those under ‘mortgage stress’ respond at the ballot box?

All interesting questions, that warrant tapping into informed local journalism to get insights into, that can then relay itself nationally.

The second bias is towards new voices. There is no doubt that a project such as youdecide2007.org will produce some forms of citzen journalism that are better than others. There will be some degree of low-level filtering and editorship of this, but the prospect of a practical application of Web 2.0 possibilities to an activity such as a Federal Election, where interest in things online, political and newsworthygenerally spikes, is too good an opportunity to miss.

Or at least this is our humble opinion, and an interesting question to research.

It is actually quite a raw nerve you’ve touched there: city journalists often seem at a loss with (or ignore) rural issues.

And we rural folk no doubt are ignorant of some city matters.

It was a source of enormous pride that rural Victoria had such a clear hand in ousting Jeff Kennett. We felt ignored, he felt triumphant. We won, he lost. That’s a huge ovrsimplification, but it was an election where the city/rural difference was starkly highlighted.

I sometimes think a few city councils would be better off “twinning” with a rural town or district in their own State and arranging mutual visits (rather than a big city in China, Japan, USA, Europe). It might help to break down some barriers. If the said city councillors regarded a visit to a rural town as a “very low grade junket”, well let them come out and say so publicly!

I agree that local press around the country do a very good job, and indeed here at the project we’ve already had some great interactions with local journalists around the country who are always keen to fill us in on local issues. Like us, they often think our project is interesting because it might articulate local and national coverage, and draw more attention to local issues from a national audience. We don’t see ourselves as directly competing with their coverage, and so far, they have extended us the same courtesy.

As to manipulation, well we’re hoping for balance across the site rather than perfect objectivity in each and every story. We’re encouraging people to declare any affiliations, and we’ll offer disclaimers for particular authors on the site who are party activists.

I imagine the gents at the local pub would be a rich source of local opinion, and if some of journalists talk to people in public bars, and we’re able to get those opinions sourced (or even recorded as audio vox pops) on the site, in some ways it will be “mission accomplished”. Indeed, we are precisely trying to offer more space for grassroots opinion than national coverage is able to give.

Do you think the print media = “local rags” distort issues? The Latrobe Valley Express is very good, The Warragul Gazette somewhat limited…..
but I reckon they’d both be better, about my electorate than (say) Lavartus, or ABC radio in Melbourne, or those crazy guys at “GetUp”.

By golly, if you open it up to citizens, do you really think you’ll get anything less blinkered than the so-called “Mainstream”? You’re open to manipulation by parties, by pressure groups, by opinionated old farts such as yours truly, etc.

Take a squizz at the diatribal splurges on Lavartus, and these are at the mild end of the spectrum….. !!! Why not just leave a live microphone in the gents at a pub from 9pm every night?

Reporting Change Sceptic,
Neerim North

* Reality TV Scepticism Association
* Mainstream-Media-Bashing Sceptic (academic career)
* Radical Scepticism Sceptic
* Committee for the Sustenance of Those Who Believe Islamic Radicals Really Did Fly Those Jetliners Into Those Buildings a Few Years Ago, Without Assistance From Demolition Explosives Or Shadowy Government Forces

I see membership of that comittee proved to be an excellent career stepping stone.

BTW, (but related if you care to check, see below)…

Speaking of scrutiny of quality in highish places, ain’t it a scream that a schoolboy comprehensively got around the $84million gov’t net safety “solution”, not once, but twice, and in half an hour?

I wonder whether the CRC for Smart Internet Technology had any oversight of that tender/ contract process? Probably not, it’d surely be more a job for the CRC for Half-Smart Internet Technology, what?

I guess the SIT board will be head-hunting aforesaid schoolboy as we speak.

Also if you want to encourage coherent citizen journalism while narrowing the net for complete cranks, it wouldn’t hurt to throw a few thought-provoking and structure- suggesting briefs out there eg: “What’s wrong/right about this campaign slogan”, “My mum thinks…”, “Sending an electronic Aus election postcard to strangers in another country”, “My local member is an utter fuckwit because…”

Just trying to save you guys from either sifting through a vast mound of ranting or trying to make several dozen overly thought out responses look like a broad cross section of the electoral pulse.

And don’t forget to correlate your findings with betting data.