AUSTRALIAN NEWSPAPER HISTORY GROUP NEWSLETTER ISSN 1443-4962 No. 59 October 2010 Publication details Compiled for the Australian Newspaper History Group by Rod Kirkpatrick, 38 Gingham Street, Glenella, Qld, 4740. Ph. 61-7-4942 7005. Email:
[email protected]/ Contributing editors: Victor Isaacs, of Canberra, and Barry Blair, of Uralla, NSW. Deadline for the next Newsletter: 3 December 2010. Subscription details appear at end of Newsletter. [Number 1 appeared October 1999.] The Newsletter is online through the ePrint Archives at the University of Queensland at http://espace.uq.edu.au/ EDITOR’S NOTE: Victor Isaacs laid the foundation for this issue by editing the Newsletter for a month until mid-August. Thank you, Victor. This month’s historic picture appears in 59.3. 1 – CURRENT DEVELOPMENTS: NATIONAL & METROPOLITAN 59.1.1 FEDERAL ELECTION AND THE NEWS MEDIA Election date set: Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced on 17 July that a Federal election would be held on 21 August. Gillard had deposed Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister on 24 June. Internet and Twitter: Dennis Atkins, the Courier-Mail’s national affairs editor, discussed the impact of the internet and Twitter, in particular, on the Federal election campaign even before Julia Gillard had announced the election date (Mediaweek, 19 July 2010, p.10). Atkins is now based in Brisbane, but reports from Canberra during weeks where Federal Parliament sits. Atkins started his professional life in politics during the 1980 campaign as an adviser to Nick Bolkus, a Labor senator from South Australia. He then worked for Labor legend Mick Young before being hired by the Herald and Weekly Times to run its Canberra bureau.