A quick look at the Courier Mail’s election section answers that pretty quickly.  While most coverage is given to the two major party’s leader’s campaigns at least three stories are given prominent placement for Pauline.  The trouble is that none of them are about her positions or policies, they are all about the alleged nude photo scandal that has popped up during the campaign.

That is a lot of coverage for an independent candidate.  That in itself would be encouraging if it was substantitive coverage and not gossip about what is potentially a manufactured scandal with no truth behind it.

There are many independent candidates running in this election and none of them are receiving this kind of media coverage.  Perhaps they are not fortunate enough to have some nude photos floating around, or perhaps they aren’t savvy enough to fake such a scandal as has been suggested of Pauline.

One of three things is true here:

1. The scandal was manufactured by the alleged ex-boyfriend and the Courier Mail has fallen for it and considers it newsworthy and relevant enough to the election to cover it in depth.
2. The scandal was manufactured by Pauline or her campaign staff and the Courier Mail has fallen for it and covered it in depth.
3. The pictures are real and the Courier Mail thinks 30 year old nude pictures taken in private are relevant enough to the election to cover it in depth.

Meanwhile I’m sure some substantitive, issue-based campaigning is going on as the two major parties campaign across the state.  On the other hand, the Courier Mail is still giving a lot of page space to the mugshot of the ALP candidate who can’t be bothered campaigning in his electorate.  Must be a pretty slow election for the media.

I’m not a party member, nor do I consistently vote for one party or another.  Each election (local, state, or federal) I do my best to find out what the important issues are for the electorate and for myself and vote for the party or candidate I feel will best achieve what I think is right.

I am also busier than ever before.  At no previous election did I have as much going on both professionally and personally as I do this year, particularly right now during the campaign cycle.  The basic outcome is I am very time poor, and that means limited time to seek out election news and find out which party is best suited to receive my vote at the polls on March 21st.

Television advertising doesn’t cut it.  The parties spend their biggest TV ad dollars during prime time, which is a time I am very unlikely to be watching TV.  For the odd show I record and then watch later it means the campaign ad is seen at 12x or 30x normal speed as I fast forward through commercials.  Tip for campaign marketing teams – test your ads at 30x speed and see if your message still gets through.  If I don’t realise its a campaign ad there is no chance of me stopping to watch it at normal speed, and I don’t want to stop to watch a negative campaign ad either.

Media coverage is a mixed bag.  I rarely catch the evening news (which is good since voting based on soundbites is not my style) but try to hit the Courier Mail website once a day to see what is happening.  My memory of the last state election is of a special Courier Mail website section dedicated to election coverage, and prominently linked to from the front page of the website.

This year there is none of that, and election coverage can quickly be pushed off the front page by other breaking news.  I took this screenshot a short while ago and there is no election coverage on the front page at that time.

Clicking through to the Queensland section reveals little more election coverage, but only two stories (and the Anna Bligh story is the only one above the fold, so the LNP misses out for the lazy internet visitor.

Billboards and road-side signs may as well not exist for me.  I don’t drive often and catch public transport to and from work.  Has any party managed to work out how to put their banners up where train commuters will see them?

I considered signing up to the LNP newsletter but could not find an archive of recent editions to see if it was a format I’d be able to digest quickly and easily.

One method I do use to try and keep up with the election is by following the campaign on Twitter.  I currently follow Anna Bligh, Lawrence Springborg, the Qld Greens and another other individual candidates I can find on Twitter.  No matter how busy I am I can keep my Twitter client open on my computer and click through on anything that catches my eye as being important to me for the election.

Some candidates got off to a rocky start on Twitter.  Some are finding their feet slowly but not really using it as a tool to communicate their campaign message.  Doing a better job of it are Anna Bligh and the Qld Greens, each using their Twitter account to notify followers about campaign events and policy, but it is clear Anna Bligh’s team is blowing everyone out of the water with regards to Twitter output.

So what does this mean for busy voters?  If you are an undecided like me then your vote is likely to go towards the party best able to get its message in front of you, provided that message is not something you outright disagree with. We all seem to be getting busier and are less tuned in to traditional marketing methods.  Public speeches, TV ads, news soundbites, billboards, and letterbox drops will hit fewer and fewer targets each election.  The party that understands this best and adjusts their strategy to include new mediums that connect them to busy people will win over many undecided voters and likely win the election.

Lawrence Springborg’s dancing effort while impressing the electorate while on Cairns radio is just such an effort (oh how I wish I could find some video online of this – I’m sure it will come). As is Anna Bligh’s press conference with no content, but for the entirely opposite reason. Where are the (supposedly) ever-present spin doctors and media coaches in this election race? Why is the opposition leader dancing whilst attempting to answer serious questions about the LNP campaign? Why is the premier speaking to the press and not telling them anything? Who’s in charge here?

This is all is stark contrast to both candidate’s federal leaders during the national election in 2008. Kevin Rudd went from geek to… geek chic. John Howard got the pretty suits and ties out, pressed the flesh, offered the Liberal answers. This time around we’re getting the standard “Anna in a helmet”; “Lawrence shaking hands”; “Anna kissing babies (somewhat awkwardly)”; “Lawrence re-hashing the Kippa-Ring railway (again)”; “Anna getting shouted at from a distance at a Uni O-Week meet the people”; “Lawrence shaking hands (again)”. No sign of any real reason to turn up to these media calls other than to: (a) see the candidates say something, hopefully screw it up for it to be really newsworthy; or (b) hope one of the candidates offers something interesting in the way of policy. Long gone are the days of Premier Pete and his always entertaining press conferences – and his hate/hate/love/hate relationship with the media (taken straight from the book of Jeff Kennett).

Of note is who is working hard to update their video feeds with what’s going on for their key candidate. The ALP are popping every ad, video blog and news article almost as quickly as they happen on their YouTube channel. Comparatively the LNP haven’t touched their YouTube channel in 4 months. However, and I can only suppose this is because of the differential limitations offered by the terms of use, both the LNP and the Borg are becoming more active in posting ads, rebuttals, etc via their specific DailyMotion channels. Perhaps whoever is supporting the LNP online should take the big YouTube logo off and replace it with the more correct DailyMotion logo pointing at their channel – it would certainly save potential embarrassment when people go looking for the latest video offerings of the Borg.

The Greens, other parties and independents are yet to offer anything in the way of specific Election ’09 video content. One can only hope Pauline Hanson might offer up a re-hash (or someone may offer a mashup – hint hint) of her infamous “if you see this video, I’m dead” missile.

Tech/media score to date:
ALP – 2
LNP – 0
Ind/Others – 0

The last few days has seen Brisbane traffic in true gridlock. Accidents, train issues, road works – you name – we have seen it, and when you put it all together you get a day like today.

On Tuesday, Shadow Transport Minister Fiona Simpson made a media release on the ongoing problems faced by Queensland’s South East.

“…the legacy of 11 years of Beattie-Bligh Labor Governments was a city in gridlock with transport failures regularly shutting major city arterials and rail links for hours on end.”

A friend of mine who actually works in Uban Planning and Development spoke of the current plans offered by Anna Bligh’s government as “too little too late” and that Fiona Simpson was “right.”

It doesn’t take much for a run to work to become a nightmare.

I commuted from the Gold Coast to Brisbane for a little over two and a half years before relocating to Brisbane Central. In that time I saw trains reaching capacity – even the 6am train from Helensvale station was standing room only before we hit Beenleigh. At night, it was pointless even attempting to get on a train before 6.30pm unless you wanted to stand for at least half of your journey. Fold out camp chairs are still common sites in backpacks down Creek and Edward streets as the distance commuters make their way from Central Station. To vary it up, I would sometimes drive to Upper Mt Gravatt  for Park and Ride – but I couldn’t obtain a park if I arrived after 6.50am. The buses were packed by then as well – and don’t even get me started on trying to do the drive every day. After moving to Brisbane Central, I became a walker and bus taker. If I caught a bus after 7.30am it would generally take a couple before one was not full.

These days I drive against the traffic to the far Western suburbs – against the traffic. However road works (which are important and had long been ignored) have turned a 25  minute journey to an average of 35mins – and blow outs to maximum of 55 minutes.

Curious about what the LNP’s position was on Transport/Infrastructure I checked out their policy. On the surface it certainly seems like some good ideas, even some are tack ons from Labour’s policies. $414m over four years is not something to be sneezed at – but unless I missed it I don’t remember anything about the River (eg. CityCats).

Only being a layperson, albeit one who is directly impacted on a daily basis, I asked another friend who is actually passionate about Transport Infrastructure and is currently undertaking a career change in Urban Planning and Development because of all the issues we face. He was less than enthusiastic about the LNP’s polices, suggesting that do nothing more than “exacerbate” the problems.

Certainly on the surface many of these sound pretty good, until you start thinking about it in the big picture. Between 6am-7am some of the trains are already packed (especially as they are reduced cars). The real problem isn’t those people living in Zone 1, but those in outlying zones working on getting into Zone 1 – CBD Fringe.  Yes some feeder buses will help, but Park and Ride is a self fulfilling prophesy from congestion and failure. Not to mention the whole question of where the extra space is going to come from, if not up.

The Bligh Government has certainly made a mad dash to try and get things done. I don’t think there are many people out there who felt that no enough was done over the past 5+ years to keep pace, but at least something is happening – even if they are currently rather inconvenient.  Unless things have changed with regards to the availability of CityCats and Buses, they are already going into use as fast as they can be made. I for one love the idea that the bus I travel on was assembled in the State where it is being utilised (even if they sometimes catch fire).

My major concern with this and all other LNP policies is that we are being asked to wait a “couple of weeks” for an explaination of where the money is coming from.  A couple of weeks lands us right before the election.

Breaking News – Anna Bligh announced a $12M traffic congestion plan moments ago at the Gateway Duplication Project. Let’s just hope it isn’t “too little too late.”

Given the success Obama had in using things like YouTube and Facebook through his election campaign, you’d offer these tools are now as important as having the website (right, Anna?) ready to go to support your tilt. With the surge in support and awareness now of things like Twitter, both parties have ensured their leaders are all set to Twit (or at least someone on their behalf). The differential, however, lies in the content…

The LNP and Team Borg are somewhat slow on the upkeep of their website, YouTube, Facebook pages, etc and particularly his Twitter account (with the latter noting only one entry from Jan 24 offering he’s “just getting into Twitter”). The ALP and the Blighster, however, use all these various mediums to fill into their website. The Anna4Queensland Twitter account gets constant, daily use, alerting followers to the latest updates or policy announcements or photo ops, or whatever. Anna’s YouTube account is setup to show off all their policy and promos, where as Lawrence’s just has a few videos listed. Anna’s facebook account has her correctly listed as a politician, so anyone can browse the info and there are links back to her YouTube entries for all of that content. Lawrence’s facebook account is extremely limited unless you request friendship… and then wait for that to be approved.

As for the others…
The Greens have a website (and Ronan Lee, noted ALP defection, has his own too). No social networking or other official internet media to speak of. Pauline Hanson, while only just throwing her hat in the ring, has a website however it was last updated nearly a year ago. As nominations don’t close until 03 MArch, there’s more time for others to weigh in. The Courier Mail has a better online presence (and better budget), allowing you to both track the movements of the main pollies via GoogleMap, and analysing speeches by both key candidates with a very web 2.0 tag word cloud. No candidates for the DS4SEQ party, but their website is at least current, and they have the mandatory Facebook group.

I’m confident that no matter who has the best online presence, this will not be the keystone that gets either team elected as a part of QldVotes09. The flip side is that if both the LNP and ALP (or any of the other candidates) want to connect with the younger, web-centric, socially networked voter and ensure they are across the important policy issues, then one camp certainly needs to sort out their act poste haste.

Tech/media score to date:
ALP – 1
LNP – 0
Ind/Others – 0

According to some pundits, Queensland Labour Party has 300 in the spin team – perhaps LNP should hire one to oversee what their current team is approving if today’s news story on the Brisbane Times website is anything to go by.

LNP’s candidate for Mt Coot-tha, John Pollard, has had solar panels placed on his campaign office. Great huh? Well it is, ‘kinda.’ The only ‘minor’ problem with these solar panels which are clearly visible from the street is that they are South facing. While they will provide sufficient power in Summer, in Winter they will be nothing more than roof art.

I can understand Pollard’s desire to be seen as a Green candidate (no not a candidate for the Green party but a candidate with Green leanings) in an electorate that is heavily environmentally focused, but window dressing, while pretty is still window dressing. Perhaps their pride of place, helps to remind his potential voters that while his leader may think global warning, Pollard takes it a little more seriously, at the appearance of it anyway.

I reside in Brisbane Central, but if I resided in Mt Coot-tha and the environment was my most important issue I would vote for someone who actaully was concerned with more than window dressing – Larissa Waters.

I would love to know if Pollard had his system installed under the Bligh Government solar program scheme.

The Courier Mail has used TagCrowd to analyse the transcripts of the two party leaders’ first campaign speeches, and unsurprisingly the economy has been revealed as one of the key themes of both speeches.

The TagCrowd analysis of Courier-Mail reports of both Ms Bligh’s and Mr Springborg’s first campaign speeches shows “economic” was a key word in both.

Source

Of more interest though is what each speech revealed as the main message of each party.

The terms “crisis”, “financial” and “global” were also dominant in Ms Bligh’s speech.

In Mr Springborg’s speech, key words included “credit” and “rating” (Mr Springborg attacked the Government’s downgraded credit rating), and “standards”.

Source

The Premier is pushing the message that times are going to get tougher and Labor is the party to lead Queensland through this global crisis.  Meanwhile the LNP Leader is targeting the current government’s performance and the need for fresh ideas from a new government.

Both campaign themes are familiar to voters.  The ALP ran their last election campaign based on their track record and experience managing Queensland, while the LNP (then the National/Liberal coalition) attacked the government’s performance on health and water issues.

The first Newspoll results released today show Labor ahead 53-47 on a two-party-preferred basis, not yet enough for the LNP to win government.