ORGANIZATION AS AN IMPEDIMENT TO EFFECTIVE ICT CAMPAIGNING

Abstract

The 2007 Australian federal election has been called the ‘YouTube election’ and the moniker ‘Twitter election’ applied to the 2010 British General Election due to the use of these communication mediums by the major parties. However, while the information and communication technology campaigning of major parties has clearly improved considerably, is this also true of non-major parties such as the Australian Greens? In the early 2000s the Greens were claimed to be the equals of the major parties in internet electioneering, but much has changed since the 2001 Australian federal election. This study examines the development of electronic communication and campaign tools by the Australian Greens between the 2007 and 2010 Australian federal elections, in particular the problems and hurdles the Australian Greens, as a decentralized party, faced in developing a nationally coherent electronic campaign framework. Of particular interest is the impact the existing organizational structures of the party had upon the campaigns in 2007 and how the party overcame those structural barriers.

Keywords:

• organizational studies
• politics
• ICTs

Acknowledgement

The Author wishes to acknowledge the extensive comments provided by the referees in the revising of this paper.

Notes

Macnamara (2010) provides an extensive overview of major party use of social media during the 2010 Australian federal election, which includes some information on the Australian Greens Senators standing for re-election.