Archive for the 'Astroturf' Category

A tale of two books

Published
by
Kim
1 week, 3 days ago
in Advertising, Astroturf, Books, Writers & Writing and Media
. 23 Comments

With the exception of Mark Latham’s Diaries, few books on Australian politics hit the best seller list these days. Whether that’s a sign of the anodyne and airbrushed nature of political personalities Latho himself took aim at is, I guess, a matter for speculation. Perhaps it’s because the insider horse race stuff really does have a very limited audience outside those who see themselves as Insiders. But in the promotional stakes, now, it seems, forthcoming books are mined for whatever juicy tidbits (or otherwise) might actually influence the insider horse race, or at least get Insiders excited. Typically, there’s a fair bit of astroturf going on here, with rival newspaper chains Fairfax and News contending for serialisation rights and trying to extract “news” value from touting otherwise tedious memoirs or turgid accounts of political history.

Peter Costello’s forthcoming tome is being talked down by the News Limited punditariat as likely to be “boring”. In other words, he supposedly won’t be tipping a petulant bucket on John Howard, according to “insiders”. This - for the News Limited opposition cheer squad - is good news because it means that their quixotic and probably doomed quest to install Costello in the Liberal leadership can proceed. It’ll be interesting to see how the Fairfax papers - which have the serialisation rights - play the book, which in any case won’t be released for yonks.

One that will be released soon is Peter Van Onselen and Phillip Senior’s Howard’s End (the ghost of E.M. Forster should sue). Continue reading ‘A tale of two books’

Garnaut no shrinking violet

Published
by
Kim
2 weeks, 2 days ago
in Astroturf, Climate change, Emissions Trading, Energy, Environment, Garnaut Review, Markets and Media
. 54 Comments

If the ranks of columnists, pollies and industry shills lining up in battle formation to trash Ross Garnaut were thinking he was some sort of milquetoast retiring academic and policy wonk, who’d roll over in the face of the media noise machine, they’ve evidently made the wrong assumption. In fact, Garnaut seems to be doing his level best to keep the Rudd government from wobbling.

Garnaut’s retort to Michael Costa’s op/ed has the temerity to mention the elephant in the (Macquarie Street) room:

“The New South Wales [Treasurer] is a well known denier of the science,” he said.

In his article this morning, Costa called for “a sensible debate on important issues”. Decrying Garnaut as a “Chicken Little”, Costa himself painted all sorts of apocalyptic scenarios if dirty coal producers aren’t compensated.

Costa calls for “dispassionate” analysis. This from someone whose self interest - as the Treasurer responsible for the sale of electricity “assets” in a crumbling government - couldn’t be more blatant.

Continue reading ‘Garnaut no shrinking violet’

“Lefty” Tim Brunero and the PR-isation of everything

Published
by
Mark
3 weeks ago
in Advertising, Astroturf, Authoritarianism, Big Brother 2008, Ethics, Media, Sociology and Television
. 14 Comments

I gave up on the farce that is Big Brother 2008 almost before it started. But it’s been worth keeping an eye on commentary about the show, because, like it or loathe it, this particular piece of reality tv is a very good barometer of all sorts of cultural and social trends, good and bad. (The actual potential for good not evil of user-led and non platform centric content is something we have never seen leveraged in this country.) Despite all the claims that the housemates are somehow representative of “Australia”, the show has for far too long been far too much an exercise in minute by minute manipulation, and the “characters” reduced to dupes willing to play one-dimensional stereotypes or face the consequences, for it to fulfil a role that’s ritually claimed for it in op/eds published in newspapers which are also complicit in hoovering up revenue from the franchise - broadening the mind of other publics through exposure to a snapshot of youth culture or whatever. What it does reveal - in excruciating detail because the cracks can’t be papered over fast enough - is the attempt to manipulate particular demographics through their media of choice (including all the blogs, fora, “fan sites” and other intertubes spinoffs). The construction of the narrative of the day and the arc of the week always has an eye on public reaction, or better, reaction from particular and identifiable publics - and it is supported and underpinned by semi-detached “independent” “celebrities” who have a key role to play in spinning the story because of a putative relationship of trust they have with segments of the show’s audience (which should be understood to include a huge hinterland of those who don’t even watch - because our “reactions” are also important to shaping and honing the show’s brand).

Discussions of the ethics of what goes on in “the House” are actually solicited and encouraged, though the show doesn’t care tuppence for any actual ethics. The scandal is the story, and what should actually be called into question is the meta-ethics of framing incidents which are almost wholly confected as if they did pose genuine ethical issues (for “Australia”). Continue reading ‘“Lefty” Tim Brunero and the PR-isation of everything’

Marketised celebrity politics, Australian style

Published
by
Mark
1 month ago
in Astroturf, Ethics, Federal election 2007, Media, Politics, Polls and Sociology
. 22 Comments

You could be forgiven for thinking that politics in this country is a combination of astroturf and the pursuit of financial advantage, if you draw a few dots connecting stories that have had a lot of play in the media over the last couple of days. First item in point, Peter Costello - his continuing on and off political career, kept alive by polls which show him as a more popular leader than Brendan Nelson (which reflects more on Nelson than on him, but more of that later), continues to fuel speculation because, reportedly, the corporate sector hasn’t placed the value on his talents that the public spirited former Treasurer regards as his due after his “service” to the nation has come to an end. So, Costello is reduced to living just on his parliamentary salary, and since that’s insufficient apparently, touting his ghost-written memoirs to the highest bidder. One of those bidders - for the serialisation rights - is Fairfax. And today we get in The Age a story from Michelle Grattan which notes that, but goes on to say, well, nothing. There’s no news in this news. As Richard Farmer comments acerbically in Crikey’s morning wrap up of the news:

Costello memoir gives clues to future – but Michelle Grattan can give us no clue as to what the clues are.

Meanwhile, the lguanagate story gets a lease of life from claims made by a former Belinda Neal staffer, Melissa Batten. Continue reading ‘Marketised celebrity politics, Australian style’

Climate change denialism - why now?

Published
by
Kim
1 month, 3 weeks ago
in Astroturf, Climate change, Culture, Culture Wars, Masculinity, Media and Science
. 143 Comments

Time was when it was easy to see where climate change denialism was coming from - corporate astroturf and the big biz of energy politics refracted through the media and the political sphere. What’s been puzzling me for some time is why there’s still a relentless drum beat of (increasingly nonsensical) climate change denialist posts coming from the likes of “Australia’s most talked about columnist”, Andrew Bolt. When he’s not in a tizz about those pervs in the yartz, Bolta repeats and repeats and repeats the climate change denialist message. Sometimes this is valorised as being a “contrarian”, a line we also get from folks like Keith Windschuttle - as if stupidity were one of the Great Western Virtues. But it’s not obvious at all to see - beyond the “bash the Greens and teh left” angle - why this mob think this stuff still has legs.

Continue reading ‘Climate change denialism - why now?’

Talk about bad timing…

Published
by
Kim
1 month, 3 weeks ago
in Advertising, Astroturf, Authoritarianism, Big Brother 2008, Ethics, Media and Sociology
. 11 Comments

Unless it’s good timing from the point of view of Fairfax Online’s bottom feeder search optimisation strategy - soak up those google hits for Big Brother 2008 and Corey Worthington. You know they the advertisers want to.

Last night the most read story on the Sydney Morning Herald website was:

Learning to love Big Brother.

Every year, with the facile op/ed, retailing the same old arguments, with about the same level of analysis as advertorial or astroturf. But this year’s there’s a big clanger, and probably the reason why the SMH was getting its hit fix - in a season where the ratings are slipping and the show’s manipulations and its theatre of cruelty have reached all time lows.

Melinda Houston wrote:

And the freak-show element has brought its own rewards, such as the unlikely friendship blossoming between Nobbie and Travis…

Oh really? People are only reading this trash because Travis was hospitalised as a direct result of the culmination of a campaign of bullying and vilification orchestrated by the aptly-named Nobbi. Continue reading ‘Talk about bad timing…’

Class and Big Brother 2008

Published
by
Kim
2 months, 1 week ago
in Astroturf, Big Brother 2008, Blogging, Consumerism, Culture, Politics, Relationships, Sociology, Television and Women
. 107 Comments

You can’t talk about Big Brother without talking about class, it seems. Over at Troppo, Ken Parish, who should be familiar with the BB concept of the grenade lob, lobs one in comments:

Far from being careful, I’ll throw petrol on the fire. I think the phenomenon of people who should have more taste and intelligence professing to like BB is just a pretentious affectation, like ending a post with “just sayin’”. Then again, all these shows (including Ladettes to Ladies and the assorted Gordon Ramsey shows) have a certain macabre fascination, sort of like not being able to resist looking at a particularly gruesome car smash as you drive past.

The really vexing thing is that these shows are also a calculated cost-saving gambit by the free-to-air channels. It doesn’t cost all that much to make them because they don’t have to pay the actors. A truly principled lefty would boycott them (although, as Jen pointed out last night, you can make a similar point about the employment effects of blogging on professional journalists).

I don’t know about the logic of boycotting tv shows for political reasons - I suspect it’s only ever invoked in this sort of context, and one could counter with the fact that a lot of writers and other “creatives” get employed by these mega shows (which are actually far more expensive to produce, but also more lucrative, than a lot of the cut-price free to air drama that’s around). And Corey Delaney is Worth(ington) 10 grand a show apparently. Though there’d be an interesting angle in thinking about how “creatives”, anyway, are self-exploiting - freed of career paths, permanent employment, and all those other things that go with not being a contract for hire and an entrepreneurial micro-business. And the lack of reflexivity that comes with seeing one’s endeavours as a big quest for that one big break has uncanny parallels with the show’s refusal of any solidarity to its Housemates. But, whatever, Ken probably thinks I’m displaying an “affectation” - while I think that the BB hatin’ *and actually I don’t enjoy this season, I just find it interesting* is a classic “that’s for the Bogans” Distinction. Proper people, of course, go to the theatre, dahling.

In a way, though, it was ironic that John Howard was a BB hater, because the Inmates couldn’t be more aspirational and individualistic. Some might even drive utes, and you can bet they’re big alcopop drinkers. I’m sure Brendan probably feels their pain. (And I’m sure that he’d probably jump at the chance to be an intruder. Might be useful training for all those frontbench wars.) But class is at issue within the House too, as another excellent post from Eye on Big Brother shows. Continue reading ‘Class and Big Brother 2008′

Web 2.0 scary, Web 3.0 alert and alarmed

Published
by
Mark
3 months, 2 weeks ago
in Astroturf, Media, Sociology and The Web
. 11 Comments

The term ‘moral panic’ is actually one of the contributions of sociology to the wider world - it originated with Stanley Cohen’s 1972 monograph Folk Devils and Moral Panics: The Creation of the Mods and the Rockers, which if you ever get a chance, is actually quite a fascinating read. Cohen drew on the resources of anthropology and semiotics in conceiving a concept which would explain the mediated construction of a particular type of deviant - and as the title of the book suggests, its initial reference was to subcultures, particularly youth and music related ones. Probably because Cohen emphasised the role of the media in moral panics, the concept entered the realm of media and communication studies, where, unsurprisingly, the focus was on the role of the media.

But in terms of the mapping of a particular phenomenon, the sociological literature casts a broader net. Continue reading ‘Web 2.0 scary, Web 3.0 alert and alarmed’

He’s no Seven of Nine

Published
by
Mark
4 months, 4 weeks ago
in Astroturf, Media, Queensland and Television
. 24 Comments

I’ve got a feeling I’m actually responsible for dubbing Queensland Nationals leader Lawrence Springborg “The Borg”. Interesting that he’s run with it - showing off t-shirts last week at UQ O-Week emblazoned “The Borg is Back in 09″. If that’s the image he wants to present, I have a feeling he hasn’t actually watched a lot of Star Trek. Unless the Queensland Nats stand for relentless assimilation of all that exists to a hivemind. On the other hand…

I’m not the first, though, to remark that he’s running a Kevin07 style campaign, though I’d disagree with Courier-Mail columnist Margaret Lawson that style without substance is politically effective. After all, Lawrence did the ironing in a towel stunt last time around, and had the fridge magnets, but of course was dumped by his own party in effect after losing a second successive election.

Lawrence Springborg represents a new generation of Queensland leaders with youth, energy and fresh ideas on his side.

And what are these fresh ideas? Continue reading ‘He’s no Seven of Nine’

Poached eggs much tastier than scrambled eggs

Published
by
Mark
11 months, 2 weeks ago
in Advertising, Asshattery, Astroturf, Federal election 2007 and Industrial Relations
. 48 Comments

There’s a very comprehensive rebuttal of the biz “Workplace Reform” ads over at Talk It Out. Not a lot to add, except two quick points. The ads appear to be targetted to people hoping corporate profits will keep rising, and they’ll be getting fat dividend cheques. That’s odd, because as the Crosby/Textor leaked polling shows, the segments of the electorate who’ve moved against the government are, unsurprisingly, those you’d expect to have been most affected or most worried about WorkChoices:

And it tracked groups - including the so-called aspirational voters who helped elect Mr Howard in 1996 - who have shifted to Labor.

Nationally, the defections have been led by what the report calls “new Labor” - voters aged 18 to 24 whose numbers rapidly increased when Kevin Rudd took over from Kim Beazley as labor leader.

Part-time workers, voters aged 35 to 49 and “lower white/upper blue” collar workers - the middle income bracket - also were moving to Labor.

In NSW, voters who had dumped the Government included those aged 35 to 49, part-time workers, and the critical “lower white/upper blue” sector.

Any sort of advertising, political or otherwise, has to effectively target particular segments of the population. Given that the initial impetus from the ads was said to come from disgust among biz leaders at the ACTU ads that showed board members cackling over their pay rises while plotting to cut workers’ wages, I suspect the audience is actually the people who commissioned the ads. It’s feel good stuff. For them. If I were a shareholder in one of the companies indirectly funding this ineffective and self-indulgent propaganda, I’d be asking some questions.

Required reading if you intend to watch The Great Global Warming Swindle

Published
by
Paul Norton
1 year ago
in Astroturf, Climate change, Environment, Federal election 2007, Howardia, Media, Politics and Science
. 47 Comments

The greenhouse denialist documentary, The Great Global Warming Swindle, is being shown on ABC TV tonight this Thursday night (12 July). The original version shown on the BBC ran for 72 minutes. Tonight’s Thursday’s version runs to only 52 minutes as the producer, Martin Durkin, has felt obliged to delete some of the more obvious furphies in the original. Despite this, a range of eminent Australian scientists have still found much to criticise in the version to be screened tonight. The Australian Science Media Centre has assembled a range of their critiques here.

One high-profile defender of the documentary is long-time greenhouse denialist commentator Michael Duffy. In his column on the issue in last Saturday’s Sydney Morning Herald, Duffy states:

I can’t recall ABC TV devoting any significant space to questioning the greenhouse orthodoxy before.

I can. In 1998 ABC TV showed Durkin’s previous anti-environmentalist documentary, Against Nature, which was strictured by the UK Independent Television Commission for using selective editing to misrepresent and distort the views of interviewees. In the early 1990s, the ABC also showed the documentary Greenhouse Conspiracy, which was subsequently denounced in the pages of Quadrant magazine by Dr. Brian Tucker (at the time a noted greenhouse sceptic) as amateurish and incompetent propaganda.

Continue reading ‘Required reading if you intend to watch The Great Global Warming Swindle’

Free Trade©, Fair Trade® & the “Free Market of Ideas”

Published
by
Gummo Trotsky
1 year ago
in Astroturf, Developing world, Life-Levity and Markets
. 27 Comments

According to its website, the Institute of Public Affairs believes in something called the “free market of ideas”. I think that’s actually econo-babble for free and open political and public debate, otherwise known as “freedom of speech” and “freedom of expression”.

Whatever the free market of ideas is, it seems that in the view of one IPA research fellow, there’s no room in it for “fair trade” and, when it comes to the one social institution whose freedom should be paramount - the market - it shouldn’t be sullied by charities selling so-called “fair trade” products.

On Wednesday this week, the ACCC - a government organisation that exists either to protect consumers from their own laxity and stupidity or from the effects of market-distorting interventions by other government agencies - dismissed a complaint from Sinclair Davidson and Tim Wilson against Oxfam Australia for deceptive conduct and retail price fixing in the sale of Fair Trade Coffee through its web-site.

Continue reading ‘Free Trade©, Fair Trade® & the “Free Market of Ideas”’

McJob, n.

Published
by
Laura
1 year, 2 months ago
in Astroturf, Culture, International, Language and Markets
. 10 Comments

You would think McDonald’s would know a thing or two about image and marketing and how to come out more or less on top in the spin cycle. You would think that in the wake of the McLibel saga and sundry similar and related PR disasters (Super Size Me, Fast Food Nation, publicity about transfats etc), somebody high up in the company would have grasped the essential fact about bad press: jumping up and down and waving your arms around just fans the flames. Transnational corporate sooking is not only ineffectual, ridiculous and pathetic, it also makes the sooker look incredibly stupid and naive. I’m used to thinking of McDonald’s and its ilk as evil, but I always saw it as operating with a super-Machiavellian kind of smooth, skilled malevolence. Lately, though, McDonald’s media wing is acting like a n00b out of control.
Continue reading ‘McJob, n.‘

Department of Youth

Published
by
Gummo Trotsky
1 year, 2 months ago
in Astroturf, Federal election 2007 and Howardia
. 11 Comments
A six-year long research project into the Federal Government’s National Youth Roundtable has found that it’s a politically manipulated waste of time.The research will be presented today at the Youth Affairs Conference in Melbourne, which will also hear from other speakers critical of the Government’s youth policies.

But the Minister in charge [Nigel Scullion] denies that the Federal Government is ignoring the voices and needs of young Australians.

Continue reading ‘Department of Youth’

Greenhouse Denialists Moderate Themselves in Supreme Court

Published
by
Robert Merkel
1 year, 3 months ago
in Asshattery, Astroturf, Climate change, Energy, Policy and Science
. 13 Comments

With regards to the recent US Supreme Court decision describing carbon dioxide as a pollutant and requiring the EPA to again look into regulating it, it turns out that there is a fascinating side issue into what claims greenhouse denialists are actually prepared to make when their claims will be thoroughly scrutinized.

A group of denialists hazily associated with the Competitive Enterprise Institute, (the organization responsible for the unintentionally hilarious CO2 - We Call It Life advertisements) and including Patrick Michaels (who can’t tell the difference between degrees and radians), and Chris de Freitas (who publishes papers without telling his peer-reviewers), put together an amicus curiae brief in support of the EPA’s position not to regulate CO2 emissions.

Professor Ian Enting, from the University of Melbourne, was one of the lead authors of the Chapter “CO2 and the carbon Cycle” in the 1994 IPCC Report in Radiative Forcing of Climate. He has provided me with an excerpt from his forthcoming book “Why Greenhouse Denial Isn’t Science”. As he explains, it’s fascinating not so much for what it says, but what it’s not prepared to say…

Continue reading ‘Greenhouse Denialists Moderate Themselves in Supreme Court’