Rise of the Fifth Estate: Social Media and Blogging in Australian Politics

By Greg Jericho

Using original research, this account examines the emergence of social media as a new force in the coverage of Australian politics. As it reveals who makes up the Australian political blogosphere, it tackles head-on some of its key developments: The way that Australia's journalists and federal politicians use social media and digital news, the motivations of bloggers and tweeters, the treatment of female participants, and the eruption of Twitter wars. Arguing that journalists welcome Twitter as a work tool and platform despite having to deal with vitriolic online comments, this book demonstrates how politicians, meanwhile, are finding it hard to engage genuinely with the new media. Because the new social media are here to stay, and their political role and influence are bound to increase, the real question is whether the old structures of the political world will absorb this new force or be changed by it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Scribe Publications Pty Ltd.
• Release date: Jan 1, 2013
• ISBN: 9781921942877

Greg Jericho

Greg Jericho writes a weekly blog for ABC Online’s The Drum. From 2006 to 2011 he worked as a Commonwealth public servant, mostly in the film-policy division. He has a PhD in English literature and an honours degree in economics. He also writes, blogs, and tweets as his alter-ego, Grog’s Gamut.