Week 5 - Labor's Campaign Launch

2 articles: ABC and news.com.au - 16/08/10

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/08/16/2983933.htm

http://www.news.com.au/features/federal-election/julia-gillard-launches-labor-campaign-in-brisbane/story-e6frfllr-1225905777085

There were multiple articles in the news covering Labor’s campaign launch today but these two, which compared Julia Gillard’s slogan “Yes, we will” to Barack Obama’s “Yes, we can”, caught my eye.

The ABC News article documented the events at the launch, with more than half of the article referring to Gillard’s speech. It also pointed out that the campaign was low-key, that Gillard did not mention the war in Afghanistan nor foreign affairs, and that only a passing mention was made to climate change.

Quirky quotes by Bob Hawke - likening the election to a horse race - and by Wayne Swan form the latter part of the article. A mention of Gillard’s partner’s attendance ends the story on a light note.

A wealth of related multimedia is provided via a photo slideshow containing photos from the campaign launch, a video, two radio clips, two related stories and a link to special election coverage. There is also a comments section.

Unlike the ABC article, the news.com.au story offers a link to Gillard’s full campaign speech transcript. The news.com.au article is longer and more comprehensive, including more coverage and quotes from the event. It also mentions the nominal reference made by Gillard to climate change, but also quotes The Greens’ critical response. This, along, with a comparison to The Liberals’ campaign launch, inject more vitality into the article.

The news.com.au article ends strongly with the latest poll results. In terms of multimedia, there is a vast amount – links to related coverage, multiple hyperlinks throughout connecting to election-related articles and information, a photo slideshow, a video, and most strikingly a “Vote A-Matic 2.0”. This quiz feature requires readers to answer 15 questions and then reveals, via percentage points, which political parties they are most and least likely to vote for. The quiz may be unscientific but it is entertaining, allows readers to linger on the page and I found my results to be accurate!

I believe the news.com.au article to be more engaging for an online medium. The comments section, with over 300 comments from readers, is testament to the popularity of the article.