Political reporting of Australian election campaigns. Up to 40% of Australian voters decide their vote during an election campaign but most never have any direct contact with candidates and rely instead on information from newspapers, radio, television and the Internet. According to democratic theory, these media should act as a site for political information and debate to enable voters to make an informed choice. If they are not performing this role well, then as a community, Australians are mi ....Political reporting of Australian election campaigns. Up to 40% of Australian voters decide their vote during an election campaign but most never have any direct contact with candidates and rely instead on information from newspapers, radio, television and the Internet. According to democratic theory, these media should act as a site for political information and debate to enable voters to make an informed choice. If they are not performing this role well, then as a community, Australians are missing out. This project assesses the quality of election reporting to find out how well or badly we are served by those who report and comment on politics.Read moreRead less
Media Change. Political Change - Developments in Australian Newspapers' Political Reporting in the Age of Television. It is frequently asserted that the role of the press has changed since the advent of television, but there is a curious lack of data documenting the changes. This project will provide extensive, systematic and analytically-informed information about trends in newspapers' political coverage. Through an innovative combination of quantitative and qualitative research designs, it w ....Media Change. Political Change - Developments in Australian Newspapers' Political Reporting in the Age of Television. It is frequently asserted that the role of the press has changed since the advent of television, but there is a curious lack of data documenting the changes. This project will provide extensive, systematic and analytically-informed information about trends in newspapers' political coverage. Through an innovative combination of quantitative and qualitative research designs, it will chart the extent and timing of changes, and illuminate the external and internal forces driving them. The press remains central to the quality of Australian democracy and public discourse, and so there is a strong public interest in making debates about its changing performance more empirically grounded and analytically penetrating. Read moreRead less
Promissory Democratic Representation: Campaign Promises in Australia. This project aims to investigate the extent to which campaign promises made by politicians are kept or broken. It intends to conduct new research on Australian politics while advancing an established international research program. This project expects to generate and disseminate new knowledge that is urgently needed due to declining levels of trust among citizens in politicians. The expected outcomes include new theory and in ....Promissory Democratic Representation: Campaign Promises in Australia. This project aims to investigate the extent to which campaign promises made by politicians are kept or broken. It intends to conduct new research on Australian politics while advancing an established international research program. This project expects to generate and disseminate new knowledge that is urgently needed due to declining levels of trust among citizens in politicians. The expected outcomes include new theory and internationally comparative evidence on which campaign promises are kept and broken. This should provide significant benefits, such as greater public awareness of actual levels of promise keeping. It should also benefit policymakers who use campaign promises to anticipate and prepare government policies.Read moreRead less
What Australia Thinks: A History of Australian Public Opinion Polls. Opinion polls are an increasingly prominent and problematic part of politics in modern societies. This project is expected to produce an Australian history that documents and explains the diverse and changing methods, priorities and styles of the pollsters since polling was introduced to Australia in 1941. It aims to examine the growing media coverage of the polls, their impact, and the controversies they have engendered as wel ....What Australia Thinks: A History of Australian Public Opinion Polls. Opinion polls are an increasingly prominent and problematic part of politics in modern societies. This project is expected to produce an Australian history that documents and explains the diverse and changing methods, priorities and styles of the pollsters since polling was introduced to Australia in 1941. It aims to examine the growing media coverage of the polls, their impact, and the controversies they have engendered as well as the performances of polls in predicting voter behaviour. Combining archival research, oral histories and quantitative methods, the project aims to enrich our understanding of the nature, consequences and history of polling nationally and transnationally. It also aims to produce a database containing over 75 years of poll results.Read moreRead less