Is the news on the Internet different? Leaders, frontbenchers and other candidates in the 2007 Australian election

This article provides the first comparison of campaign coverage of candidates in an Australian federal election in the press, on radio and television, and on the Internet. It does so through analysis of a database that records the 50 most frequently cited candidates in news stories across all these media during the 2007 campaign. The analysis suggests: that although the news on the Internet placed less emphasis than television or radio on the idea of the election as a presidential contest, the Internet's emphasis on the Prime Minister compared with the Leader of the Opposition was greater; that, compared with the news provided by the older media, the Internet was more heavily skewed towards Government over Opposition candidates; and that the coverage afforded minor party and Independent candidates across all media was slight, with the Internet falling well below the coverage warranted on the basis of the candidates' share of the vote - a media, focusing more heavily on government candidates and less heavily on Labor candidates than warranted by this criterion. Far from re-ordering old hierarchies, the Internet news may have made the election a less even contest.12 page(s