Mapping the Australian Political Blogosphere

The role of blogs and bloggers in the political process has received a great deal of attention in recent years; perhaps especially so in the context of the rise and fall of the first mainstream blogger-candidate for U.S. President, Howard Dean, and the subsequent scramble of other political players in the United States to establish blogs of their (or more frequently, their staffers’) own. U.S.-based blogs have also been seen as important in driving political issues from the demise of Trent Lott to the growing opposition to the Iraq war. The role of blogs in the political spheres of other countries is less well understood, however; indeed, for other Western countries it is often assumed that blogs will operate there in much the same way as they do in the U.S., though perhaps somewhat lagging behind the leader due to delays in adopting the technology or achieving critical mass. In order to move beyond such generic assumptions, in this chapter we explore the political blogosphere in Australia. As an English-speaking nation of comparable living standards, with similar culture, and (at the time of writing in late 2007) in a broadly comparable political situation (such as prolonged conservative rule, participation in the ‘Coalition of the Willing’ which invaded Iraq, and the politicisation of terrorism threats), it may be assumed that its political blogosphere would show some of the same characteristics as that of the U.S. – however, we have found that for historical, social, and cultural reasons Australia has developed a blogging accent of its own.