DOCSLIB.ORG

Political Polling in Asia-Pacific

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Political Polling in Asia-Pacific POLITICAL POLLING IN ASIA-PACIFIC EDITED BY ALASTAIR CARTHEW AND SIMON WINKELMANN Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Singapore Media Programme Asia Political Polling in Asia-Pacific Edited by Alastair Carthew and Simon Winkelmann Copyright © 2012 by the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, Singapore Publisher Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung 34 Bukit Pasoh Road Singapore 089848 Tel: +65 6603 6181 Fax: +65 6603 6180 Email: [email protected] www.kas.de/medien-asien/en/ All rights reserved Manuscript offers, review copies, exchange journals, and requests for subscription are to be sent to the publisher. The responsibility for facts, opinions and cross references to external sources in this publication rests exclusively with the author and his interpretation do not necessarily reflect the views of the policy of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung. Layout and Design Hotfusion 7 Kallang Place #04-02 Singapore 339153 www.hotfusion.com.sg Foreword 7 By Paul Linnarz Chapter 1 Importance of political polls in political communication 9 By Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Donsbach Chapter 2 Opinion Polls and the Political Process 19 By Dr. Norman Abjorensen Chapter 3 How polls are shaping the political process 31 By Dr. Norman Abjorensen Chapter 4 Focus groups: Myth or reality 39 By Stephen Mills Chapter 5 Is Asia-Pacific ready for online political polling? 51 By Rainer Faus Chapter 6 Media and its relationship to polling institutions: Uneasy bedfellows? 65 By Alastair Carthew Chapter 7 Emerging technologies in the polling business 79 By David Black and Arina Dafir Chapter 8 Do public opinion processes change through social media? 91 By Philip Behnke Chapter 9 How the media and government agencies make use of polls: Insider’s observation and perspective 101 By Noppadon Kannika Chapter 10 Singapore maturing? Polls and politics in Singapore 121 By Kirpal Singh About the authors 127 Foreword The use of political polling varies greatly across countries of the Asia-Pacific. From sophisticated methodologies constantly tracking political opinion in Australia and New Zealand, through to virtually non-existent polling in Singapore and some innovative methods in Malaysia and Singapore. Whatever the pace of evolution of polling as a legitimate tool in the political armoury, it is clearly now an essential component in the political sphere. It is therefore worth researching and analysing political polling and presenting the information in book format to underscore political polling’s maturity within civil society in the Asia-Pacific. This book, therefore, casts a critical, expert eye over how political polling has evolved and become an integral part of the political process in most democratic countries, since George Gallup first used scientific methods to predict the election of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936. These methods demonstrated how a targeted, sophisticated sampling of a relatively small group of potential voters could beat a large scale, unscientific “straw poll,” which, up until then was the prevailing means of testing voter opinion. We have employed a new method in compiling the chapters, not previously used by Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung’s Asia Media Programme. In April, we brought together a group of pollsters from Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and Germany, to brainstorm content for the book. We were not sure if this method of producing a book would work. Nonetheless, with an outline produced in one day, most of the attendees then volunteered to write a chapter, and, in some cases, contribute to other chapters, to bring a book together by the end of 2011. The result is a book that garners a wide variety of analysis and opinion, that we are confident will serve as a useful academic, journalistic and general guide to, as some people say, the ‘dark art’ of political polling. The first chapter is a learned outline of how political polling has evolved and its importance in the political process today. The author, Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Donsbach, professor of Communication at Technische Universität Dresden in Germany, is a previous president of the World Association for Public Opinion Research and the author of many books and research papers on communication. Prof. Dr. Donsbach sets a high standard. 7 Political Polling in Asia-Pacific Stephen Mills, arguably New Zealand’s pre-eminent political pollster and Dr. Norman Abjorensen, experienced journalist turned academic, respectively contribute soundly argued, cogent pieces on focus groups – long a subject of debate in the polling community - and how polls shape the political process. As a former political reporter of long standing in New Zealand, Alastair Carthew identifies some disturbing and ongoing tensions between pollsters and the media, who, in the last few decades have become dominant players in the political polling arena. No book on media today would be complete without a chapter on the impact of new technology - particularly social media – and political polling is no exception. Rainer Faus examines the question whether Asia-Pacific is ready for online polling and David Black and Arina Dafir look at the new technologies being employed in polling. While online polling has definitely arrived, in Asia it has not emerged as a powerhouse method as quickly as anticipated. This will change as the Internet and smart phones continue their rapid rollout to general constituencies and as more sophisticated database collection, for example, becomes possible through the new technologies. Asian-based pollsters and academics have also contributed. Noppadon Kannika, Thailand’s pre-eminent pollster of the ABAC POLL Research Center, Assumption University, delivers a unique overview on the accuracy of polls, particularly exit polls, using the 2011 Thailand election as a case study and, further, an analysis of how the media makes use of the polls. Kirpal Singh, Director of the Wee Kim Wee Centre, at Singapore Management University, asks if Singapore is maturing in its approach to polls and politics. All of these contributors bring their own special knowledge and experience to the task of creating a book that we believe will serve as a valuable reference and academic tool for many years to come. I strongly recommend the book to everyone interested in this continually evolving, influential and fascinating part of the political arena. Paul Linnarz Director Media Programme Asia Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung e.V. 8 Political Polling in Asia-Pacific CHAPTER 1 Importance of political polls in political communication by Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Donsbach Introduction Four things had to emerge and come together for modern public opinion research as we know it today: counting human beings, using humans’ answers to questions as a source of scientific evidence, the principle of sampling, and thinking in variables. What is common to us today has been a long, and often rough, process. There were religious obstacles against seeing ‘God’s creature’ as a carrier of variables, academic doubts against the laws of statistics, and, first of all, political barriers against the possibility of indicating the will of the people. It would be naive to think that all these threats to political opinion polls, belong to the past. They are still with us, although with different salience in different areas of the world. The search for patterns or ‘laws’ behind people’s thinking and behaviours, is still often seen as a blasphemy to the individuality of man and the idiosyncrasy of his acts. Many people still doubt that we can ask a thousand to infer the opinions of millions. And, most troublesome, in some areas of the world laws still exist, or are in the making, to prohibit free public opinion research. All this is happening more than 70 years after George Gallup’s famous victory over the large scale straw poll by the Literary Digest. The poll predicted the wrong president on the basis of 2.3 million postcards, while Gallup was on target with just 3000 respondents, selected by a scientific method. This was the breakthrough for the survey method, although surveys had been conducted before, in Europe as well as in the United States of America. But it needed such a symbolic proof. Soon after this event George Gallup published his book, co-authored with Saul Rae, The Pulse of Democracy1 and started his regular column, America Speaks, 1 Gallup, George & Saul F. Rae (1940). The Pulse of Democracy: The Public Opinion Poll and How it Works. New York: Simon and Schuster 9 Importance of political polls in political communication in hundreds of American newspapers. These were the claims that came with modern public opinion polling: that it can measure the true will of the people and through the polls, they get a real voice in between elections and on all kinds of issues. Today, we can say that two institutions have changed the political process more than anything else: the media, in particular television, and the polls. Television has popularised politics, personalised politics, created a new breed of politicians, and totally changed the rationale of political marketing. We even talk of the “mediatization of politics” and a new political system called “mediaocracy”. Public opinion polls, on the other hand, have made the most important element of democracy, i.e. public opinion, measurable – also they have changed political marketing, have become a major media content, and can, under certain circumstances, change the political behaviour of citizens and politicians. Four challenges of polls in democracy While today, a democracy is not conceivable without regularly published opinion polls in the news media, the debates about their existence as well as their performance have not ceased. The discussions circle around four main points: (1) the validity of opinion polls, (2) their accuracy, (3) their effects on the political system, and, most of all, (4) their effects on the electorate. Depending on their viewpoint of each of these dimensions, writers either see polls as a menace or a blessing for democracy.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • New Row Looms in South Australia Over School Sex Abuse | the Australian
    New row looms in South Australia over school sex abuse | The Australian ACTIVITY NEWS.COM.AU FOX SPORTS CAREERONE CARSGUIDE REALESTATE NETWORKRANKIE NEWS OPINION BUSINESS NATIONAL AFFAIRS SPORT TECHNOLOGY ARTS EXECUTIVE LIVING TRAVEL HIGHER ED MEDIA POLITICS NEWS OPINION BLOGS STATE POLITICS POLICY NEWSPOLL IMMIGRATION INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS DEFENCE CAPITAL CIRCLE New row looms in South Australia over OPINION 2 OF 6 RUPERT MURDOCH 'Investing in human capital is the best school sex abuse bet for Australia's future prosperity' MICHAEL OWEN | THE AUSTRALIAN | SEPTEMBER 11, 2013 2:35PM SHARE YOUR FRIENDS' ACTIVITY Hi Frankie Discover news with your friends. Give it a try. To get going, simply connect with your favourite social network: Advertisement IN NATIONAL AFFAIRS Jakarta to haul in ambassador PETER ALFORD AND BRENDAN NICHOLSON Retired Supreme Court justice Bruce Debelle conducted an inquiry into sex abuse in public schools. JAKARTA will call in Source: News Limited Australia's envoy, demanding an explanation of allegations the embassy was involved in tapping THE ALP in South Australia has opened up a new stoush with parents over in Indonesia. the Weatherill government's disclosure policy for school sex abuse cases by saying a peak school parents' association declined to take part in a royal ALP's post-mortem to spotlight Rudd commission. TROY BRAMSTON Although this is noted in the report of the royal commission into school sex abuse, LABOR'S national executive is the statements today by Labor failed to disclose the reasons, which royal today expected to initiate a sweeping "operational review" of commissioner Bruce Debelle said was because the association found “notice was the party's election campaign.
    [Show full text]
  • How Australia Got a VAT (C) Tax Analysts 2011
    How Australia Got a VAT (C) Tax Analysts 2011. All rights reserved. does not claim copyright in any public domain or third party content. By Susan C. Morse Susan C. Morse is an associate professor at the University of California Hastings College of the Law. This project was supported by a Hackworth Grant from the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University. Many thanks to Neil Warren and Richard Eccleston for helpful discussion and review; to participants in the April 2010 Northern California Tax Roundtable and to Chris Evans, Kathryn James, Rick Krever, and Dale Pinto for useful comments and references; and to Erin Phillips and Gadi Zohar for able research assistance. Australians, like Canadians and New Zealanders, call their VAT a goods and services tax, or GST, but their GST fits the VAT mold: it is a credit-invoice method, destination-based consump- tion tax with fairly limited tax base exclusions.1 Although all OECD countries aside from the United States have value-added taxes, external pressures like those resulting from preconditions for European Union membership2 or for financial support from organizations such as the World Bank or International Monetary Fund3 have played a role in many countries’ VAT enactment 1See Liam Ebrill, Michael Keen, Jean-Paul Bodin & Victoria Summers, The Modern VAT 2 (2001) (defining a VAT). This paper uses the term tax base ‘‘exclusion’’ to mean ‘‘a situation in which the rate of tax applied to sales is zero, though credit is still given for taxes paid on inputs’’ which is called ‘‘GST-free’’ in Australia and ‘‘zero-rated’’ elsewhere.
    [Show full text]
  • Copyright and the Digital Economy Foxtel Response
    COPYRIGHT AND THE DIGITAL ECONOMY FOXTEL RESPONSE TO ALRC DISCUSSION PAPER 79 JULY 2013 Page 0 of 23 INTRODUCTION Foxtel welcomes the opportunity to make a submission to the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) in response to its discussion paper number 79, Copyright and the Digital Economy, dated May 2013 (Discussion Paper). Foxtel's submission is focused on the issues of most concern to Foxtel in the Discussion Paper. It does not respond to every proposal and question in the Discussion Paper. Foxtel’s submission is structured as follows: 1. Retransmission of free-to-air (FTA) broadcasts (Chapter 15 of the Discussion Paper). 2. The case for fair use in Australia (Chapter 4 of the Discussion Paper). 3. Third parties and private and domestic use (Chapters 5 and 9 of the Discussion Paper). 4. Contracting Out (Chapter 17 of the Discussion Paper). EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Australian copyright law sets a fair and finely struck balance between the interests of rights holders and those of end users. To ensure ongoing investment, the existing balance must not be disrupted unless there is clear evidence of the benefits offered by any proposed amendments. Foxtel is strongly opposed to the introduction of a broad fair use defence. The introduction of such a broad exception is a radical change to the current law. Any such change can not be made in isolation without properly considering the costs of introducing this type of change and the flow on impact to both industry and consumers as a result of such a significant change. Foxtel is also strongly opposed to any changes to the current retransmission arrangements.
    [Show full text]
  • The Sydney Morning Herald
    Forget polling voters, just ask the punters - Opinion - smh.com.au http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/forget-polling-voters-just-ask-the... Home » Opinion » Article Forget polling voters, just ask the punters John Garnaut February 9, 2007 THIS week three years ago, David Cox, Labor's slightly dishevelled member for the Adelaide seat of Kingston, stopped to contemplate his fortune in the parliamentary corridor. His party had surged to a 6 percentage point lead in the opinion polls, after years of wretched irrelevance. Publicly, Labor had been talking with caution and humility; privately it was a different story. Cox, a hard-headed economist and strategist, allowed a schoolboy grin to spread across his usually deadpan face. "It's amaaaaazing," he said. That was February 2004. Nine months later, voters threw Cox out of his seat and gave his party another thrashing. Now, Labor is led by a cautious workhorse with none of Mark Latham's fissile characteristics. John Howard has aged three years; and with Iraq, climate change and perhaps interest rates, the times that famously suited him appear to have shifted. Labor's opinion poll lead is now 10 points, not six. Yet there is none of the premature celebration that marked Labor three years ago, and only a hint of the panic that rippled through the Coalition. Chastened by their Latham exuberance, press gallery reporters are falling over themselves to show sagacious restraint and predict a Howard comeback. The pundits now know better than to be swept around by opinion polls. As economists such as Justin Wolfers and Andrew Leigh have shown, polls can have almost zero predictive value so far out from an election.
    [Show full text]
  • LETTER from CANBERRA OM Canberraand Beyond
    LETTERSavingLETTERSaving you you time. time.LETTERSaving A A monthly monthly you time. newsletter newsletter A monthly distilling distilling newsletter public FROMpublicFROM distilling policy policy and andpublicFROM government government policy and decisions decisions government CANBERRACANBERRA which which decisions affect affect CANBERRA business businesswhich affect opportunities opportunities business in opportunitiesin Australia Australia and and in beyond. Australiabeyond. and beyond. LETTERSaving you time. A monthly newsletter distilling publicFROM policy and government decisions CANBERRA which affect business opportunities in Australia and beyond. 2323 JULY JULY to to 2313 13 JULYAugust August to 201013 2010 August Issue Issue 2010 No. No. 27: 27:Issue Campaign Campaign No. 27: EditionCampaign Edition Edition This week’s Morgan Polls suggest LetterLetter from from Canberra, Canberra,Letter established establishedfrom Canberra, 2008, 2008, established is is a asister sister publication 2008,publication is a sisterof of Leter Leter publication From From Melbourne, Melbourne, of Leter Fromestablished established Melbourne, 1994 1994 established 1994 ‘hung’ Parliament - Pages 9 - 12 OOUURR EXPECTATIONS EXPECTATIONSOUR EXPECTATIONS INSIINSIDDEE INSIDE EditorialEditorial by by Alistair AlistairEditorial Urquhart Urquhart by Alistair Urquhart PunchPunch and and counter counterPunch punch. andpunch. counter punch. WeWe have have raced raced to Weto get get have this this raced edition edition to to getto you you this at at editionthe the start start to of you of the the at last thelast week start week of of thethis this last five five week weekweek of federal thisfederal five election election week federalcampaign. campaign. election campaign. GillardGillard regains regainsGillard miner miner regains poll poll miner poll ThisThis edition edition could couldThis well well edition become become could something something well become of of a a keep-sake.something keep-sake.
    [Show full text]
  • Non-Mainstream Media Coverage Peter Chen
    20 Non-Mainstream Media Coverage Peter Chen From a media diversity perspective, Australia’s standing as an established democracy is not strong. When compared with peer democracies, Australia has the most concentrated media system in the world (Australian Collaboration 2015). The causes of this are various, but include comparatively small market size, ‘dumping’ of English-language content into the Australian market and lacklustre media policy that has facilitated media conglomerates to consolidate their market share (Winseck 2008). As part of this story, the popularisation of the internet over the last two decades has been an exacerbating factor and corrective: undermining the economic basis of established commercial media and eroding domestic regulatory capacity, while at the same time providing the capacity for the establishment of ‘new presses’. This chapter focuses on the conduct and performance of these ‘new presses’ in the 2016 federal election campaign. While the majority of these new media groups happens to be an internet-based press, the emphasis of this chapter is not on the technological basis of supply per se, but on their relative newness into the Australia marketplace. This breaks with a traditional tendency to see ‘new media’ as internet-based media, an increasingly meaningless classification tool given the increasing incorporation of new technology into the established media, as discussed by Andrea Carson and Brian McNair (Chapter 19, this volume). 453 DOUBLE DISILLUSION Method The primary research method employed for this chapter is the content analysis of articles published in 10 ‘new’ Australian-based1 publications— each less than seven years old2—that published material during the formal election period from 8 May to 1 July 2016 inclusive.
    [Show full text]
  • National Polls, Marginal Seats and Campaign Effects Murray Goot
    5 National Polls, Marginal Seats and Campaign Effects Murray Goot The most widely remarked feature of the national polls for the House of Representatives was how close their final two-party preferred figures were to the two-party preferred vote. Given anxieties about the validity of the pollsters’ sampling frames and falling response rates, the poor performance of the polls in Britain and the media’s increasing inability to invest large sums in polls (thanks to a decline in revenue from both advertisers and audiences; see Carson and McNair, Chapter 19, this volume; Chen, Chapter 20, this volume), the accuracy of the polls, on this measure, generated relief all around. Based on the two-party preferred vote—the share of the vote going to the Labor and non-Labor parties after the distribution of minor party and Independent preferences—the polls throughout the campaign were able to anticipate a ‘close’ result. But, however ‘close’, even a 50–50 two-party preferred meant that the Coalition was more likely than Labor to form a government. Less prominently discussed than the two-party preferred vote were the estimates of the major parties’ first preference votes. Here, the polls were less accurate. While the spread of two-party preferred results—from the most favourable to the Coalition to the least favourable—reported by the polls was 2 percentage points, the spread of first preferences for the Liberal–National parties, for Labor, for the Greens and for Others was 3 percentage points. Among journalists and others, the failure of most of 107 DOUBLE DISILLUSION the polls to report the level of support for any of the minor parties other than the Greens—only two organisations estimated the level of support in the House for the Nick Xenophon Team—passed without notice.
    [Show full text]
  • Population, Immigration and Asylum Seekers: Patterns in Australian Public Opinion
    May 2011, 2010–11 Population, immigration and asylum seekers: patterns in Australian public opinion Professor Murray Goot and Dr Ian Watson, Macquarie University Executive summary Surveys show that issues to do with population—migrant numbers, asylum seekers and, to a lesser extent, population size—are matters of growing concern, though whether opposition to a bigger Australia is greater now than twenty or thirty years ago is doubtful. While the majority of respondents over the last thirty years have opposed the idea of a bigger population, the extent of the opposition reported in the surveys also reflects the way questions are framed, the kinds of questions that precede these questions, the range of possible responses the questions allow, and so on. They may also reflect mode effects, especially differences between online polls and polls conducted face-to-face, by telephone or via the mail. Opposition to population growth reflects environmental more than economic concerns; economic concerns are the main reason for supporting population growth. In responses to the question of whether migrant numbers should be increased, maintained or reduced three things stand out. First, since 2005, the proportion of respondents saying too many migrants are coming to Australia has increased. Second, while opposition to immigration may be on the increase, levels of opposition in recent years have been lower than those recorded in the first half of the 1990s or in the 1980s. Third, the polls reporting the highest levels of opposition—all conducted online—have framed the questions in ways that appear to encourage responses opposed to immigration. If one reason why the level of opposition to the immigration program is relatively low is that unemployment is relatively low, the level of opposition to the program may be on the rise because of the growing concern about the government’s handling of unauthorised boat arrivals.
    [Show full text]
  • The Production and Circulation of Propaganda
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by RMIT Research Repository The Only Language They Understand: The Production and Circulation of Propaganda A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Christian Tatman BA (Journalism) Hons RMIT University School of Media and Communication College of Design and Social Context RMIT University February 2013 Declaration I Christian Tatman certify that except where due acknowledgement has been made, the work is that of the author alone; the work has not been submitted previously, in whole or in part, to qualify for any other academic award; the content of the thesis is the result of work which has been carried out since the official commencement date of the approved research program; any editorial work, paid or unpaid, carried out by a third party is acknowledged; and, ethics procedures and guidelines have been followed. Christian Tatman February 2013 i Acknowledgements I would particularly like to thank my supervisors, Dr Peter Williams and Associate Professor Cathy Greenfield, who along with Dr Linda Daley, have provided invaluable feedback, support and advice during this research project. Dr Judy Maxwell and members of RMIT’s Research Writing Group helped sharpen my writing skills enormously. Dr Maxwell’s advice and the supportive nature of the group gave me the confidence to push on with the project. Professor Matthew Ricketson (University of Canberra), Dr Michael Kennedy (Mornington Peninsula Shire) and Dr Harriet Speed (Victoria University) deserve thanks for their encouragement. My wife, Karen, and children Bethany-Kate and Hugh, have been remarkably patient, understanding and supportive during the time it has taken me to complete the project and deserve my heartfelt thanks.
    [Show full text]
  • Newspoll Vs Facebook - the Effect of Social Media on Opinion Polling
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Flinders Academic Commons FJHP – Volume 29 – 2013 Newspoll vs Facebook - The Effect of Social Media on Opinion Polling Simon King I was recently leafing through the latest copy of Monthly Magazine and I came across an advert for the Adelaide Festival of Ideas, more specifically for a debate to be held at the Adelaide Town Hall with the question ‘The Internet is Evil Discuss’. This indirectly got me thinking about two recent conversations with colleagues and friends about the federal election and the general state of politics. The first was about the relative merits of the ABC election tool ‘Vote Compass’. We talked about the way that the site allowed someone, upon answering a series of questions on subjects such as taxation, asylum seekers, climate change and education to name a few, to determine their political orientation. I agreed that it was useful and he suggested I should write a piece about this. The second conversation came from my friends on Facebook. Looking at my page and the amount of discussion on the relative merits of Kevin Rudd – Labor but generally acceptable and Tony Abbott – untrustworthy and ready to take Australia back to the 1950s. I quickly realised the amount of conversation, argument and reposting of election commentary and editorials that was taking place. It got me thinking about the role that social media plays in modern politics, but more importantly, given that my doctoral thesis is about public opinion and opinion polling in Australia, how the proliferation of social media and alternate forms of information transfer have impacted upon pollsters and their work.
    [Show full text]
  • 2. Playing Possum: Straws in the Wind of the Blogosphere
    THE PUBLIC RIGHT TO KNOW 2. Playing possum: Straws in the wind of the blogosphere ABSTRACT ABSTRACT This article discusses the blog Possum Pollytics that became very well regarded by its readers, other bloggers and journalists over the course of the 2007 Australian federal election campaign, and examines it for harbingers of the impact of new media on journalists and their publics. The article commences with an account of the main features of the blog, with special reference to its analysis of the voting trends evident in the pre-election opinion polls. It then discusses two issues with respect to the challenge posed by new media uses to professional journalism: firstly, the way that the anonymity highlights the challenge by some bloggers on behalf of publics to the brandname mastheads and journalistic personalities, particularly in the challenging circumstances of no business model for new media; and secondly, that Habermas’ early theorising of the public sphere might re-emerge as a valuable way to understand the current developments. Keywords: blogging, opinion polls, political journalism, public sphere CHRIS NASH Monash University ossum Pollytics (possumcomitatus.word- press.com) is the name of an Australian Pblog that emerged in May 2007 as an independent blog, linked initially to the well- known ozpolitics blog of Brian Palmer (www. ozpolitics.info/blog/). It rose to prominence during the 2007 federal election campaign, over the course of which Possum Comitatus became recognised as one of the best of the psephological bloggers (those who analyse and interpret political opinion polls)—or ‘psephs’ for short. His charts PACIFIC JOURNALISM REVIEW 14 (2) 2008 15 THE PUBLIC RIGHT TO KNOW and interpretations were picked up and republished in the mainstream media, and he participated in the altercation with The Australian newspaper in July and August when the editor-in-chief Chris Mitchell and political editor Dennis Shanahan (The Australian, 12 July 2007, p.
    [Show full text]
  • Marlo Bodzick
    what brand <are you?> reconnoitering happiness Dissertation for the diploma of Master of Fine Arts College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales By: Marlo Bodzick Sydney November 2005 Abstract Today desires are often confused with needs. As a result, we in the so-called highly developed countries cause ourselves unnecessary unhappiness by holding ourselves up to increasingly higher standards. These standards often seem inescapable, yet a thoughtful and deeper look would immediately identify them as mostly virtual. In what brand <are you?>, reconnoitering happiness, I explore personal happiness in today’s consumer society and our emotional relationship with objects, through an experimental documentary. This hybrid documentary uses classic elements of the interview driven genre such as contrasting vox pop with professional interviews to produce the story. At the same time it incorporates an aesthetic that crosses broadcast journalism and MTV music videos. By using this fast paced digital aesthetic based in motion-graphics, coupled with split as well as multiple screens, I reference the hyper-reality created by advertising and bestowed upon brands. In my video I raise, and sometimes provoke, questions such as: What is our ‘brand’ as people? Are we too, objects that can and should be branded? How do we feel about that? Why do we attach ourselves so strongly to certain things or brands? Do we believe it will make us happy? Where does happiness exist for us? What does happiness mean today on a personal level and in broader terms? what brand <are you?> is a moving portrait of today, whose value lies in the questions raised—prompting the viewer to reflect their significance on a personal level—and the meaning that can arise from the contemplation of their answers.
    [Show full text]