The 2007 Australian Federal Election on the Internet
Abstract
Media commentators and Internet evangelists have long been predicting the time when the Internet will become the main conduit not only for information but also the place where the national debate is held. Elections are traditionally a time when the media and its audience are most focussed, and so it is at election times that it is most possible to judge whether the Internet has truly overtaken other media in the role of disseminator and communicator.
The 2001 Federal election was the first election that was expected to be fought online as the Internet had become accessible at some location to a majority of the population by this time. Though there was much activity on the Internet it did not have a leading role in the election battle. The 2004 election was also widely tipped as going to produce the first Internet based election, and whilst again there was a great deal of activity – it was seemingly produced by a relatively small number of very active Internet campaigners and so did not have a major role in delivering the election to the Australian public.
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