Chasing the Youth Vote: Kevin07, Web 2.0 and the 2007 Australian Federal Election

Abstract

The 2007 Australian federal election was the first in which the online campaign and Web 2.0 technologies moved into the mainstream. Though not the first election campaign where political parties had maintained an internet presence, it was the first in which Facebook friends of party leaders were compared in the mainstream press, the first where YouTube videos became election issues and the first where online interactions between parties and party supporters were reported as real and breaking news. Amongst all of the online campaigning, though, it was the Australian Labor Party (ALP) that was widely recognised as presenting the best and most effective online presence. With a site that embraced social networking tools, hosted online video, included regular blog posts from leading party figures and drew on user contributions for content, the ALP’s Kevin07.com.au brought the election campaign to Australia’s online community in a way that was without equal in this or any previous election. The site, widely held to be aimed at drawing young people to the ALP, was judged an unqualified success in the wake of the ALP’s historic November win where the party secured a significant majority of the youth vote. The role of the Kevin07.com.au site in drawing young people to the ALP is, however, open to debate. Indeed, when one considers pre-election polling data, it becomes clear that young voters had established firm voting intentions long before the ALP’s online campaign was launched.This paper is presented in four parts. The first presents a review of the increasingly important role played by the online elements of an Australian federal election campaign. Tracing an eleven year, four election period from 1996 to 2007, this section traces the growing focus of political parties, the mainstream media and voters on the online presence of campaigning parties. The second part of this paper presents the ALP’s Kevin07.com.au site, the centrepiece of the ALP’s online campaign for young voters. The third part of this paper offers evidence that contradicts the notion that the online campaign of the ALP was effective in winning young voters to their cause. Specifically, by considering opinion poll data from 2005 until the election in November 2007 it is clear that while there was a significant rise in support for the ALP amongst young people, this rise occurred many months before the launch of the website and can be attributed to the party’s change in leadership. A discussion section follows and the paper concludes by suggesting that – for a number of reasons – the 2007 election was an anomaly in terms of the impact of the internet on the voting intentions of Australian youth and that future campaigning online may well have a measureable and significant effect in drawing young people to a political party.