Julie Bishop's Role In Australian Media

Summary:

Australian media and political personality Julie Bishop is the minister for foreign affairs, and is a regular tweeter. Being a political personality, her twitter has become a platform to connect with the general public, as well as a platform to PR her views, her whereabouts, and evidence of connections with general public, through photos of her activities and duties as minister of foreign affairs.

As with any political figure Bishop creates some discussion of political matters and issues which face Australia. Such an example is Australia’s welcome of Iran nuclear negotiations framework agreement, were she posted a link to a press realise. As expected her 117k followers will have various options on the matter. However Bishop herself

only follows 1,027.
Even though Bishop shares her work life, and does to some extent allow for discussion on her account, and in no doubt her followers have an interest in what she is posting, Bishop doesn’t really provide a strong platform to be discussed beyond the twitter sphere.

Bishop tweets on average 8 times a day, if not everyday every second day, depending on the importance of the events of her day, and if her followers need to know some breaking news.
This is shown in the recent example of Bishops business trip to Tonga, were she tweeted 12 times. She posted photos of herself, playing netball with locals, exchanging gifts with PM of Tonga, at a centre for Tonga women’s and children’s crisis centre, exploring Tonga, working and doing business, and retweets of things people have tweeted about her.

Findings/Analysis:

The type of Twitter Bishop has created is professional, which the prime focus is to keep public informed, connect with the public, and to publicise herself to the public, as being a public figure.

This can be seen by her profile picture which looks professional and even her header, to her personal website.

Bishop’s Twitter page is a promotional tactic to advertise all the things which she is doing to “make Australia better”, and could be a way to “connect with the next generation of voters.” (Nick Clegg,2010)

Despite this attempt to connect with the younger audience by politicians such as Bishop, and the potential to transform their relationships with the public, as a blogger by the name of Democratic audit, “ The reality of our political communications environment seems entombed with old media model of top down.”

An example of this is, the foreign ministers recent tweet:

Rather than inviting discussion, it seems to simply report what has already been decided. Rather then using Twitter to establish two-way dialogue, which is the aim of these social media sights, Bishop merely reinforces the old one-way communication and self

promotion.

However, to Bishop’s credit, the public image which she is trying to convey, comes out in her tweets, and even in the mainstream media. Bishop wants to be seen as someone, that does what she does in the interest of all Australians. An example of this is all the trips which are seen Bishop take, and is conveyed as she has a big interest in the community and general public-such as this tweet:

As being the only women is cabinet, I would have to imagine that she would feel the need to work harder then the gentlemen in the cabinet. As Lint WIltt, Gienna Mathews and Karen Paget, explore this may be because she believes or thinks that she needs to prove herself, thus feel the need to work twice as hard. This may be one factor for her self promotion.

The overall public image of Bishop is supported by her twitter activity, as the things she posts provides the framework for the image Bishop, as I can only speculate wants to portray herself as.

Recommendations:

Bishop’s twitter activity has enhanced her image,as being in contact with the general public, and has given her the “human” aspect, which some politicians don’t get seen as. Meaning that Bishop does a good job of making it seen that she is a people person and is down to earth. Such an example is a photo posted of her signing a condolence book to pay respect to the first and ex prime minister of Singapore:

Bishop also has a good way of promoting her work, as well as herself.

She wants to communicate the image of ‘wanting what is the best for Australia’, and does a good job to help people get connected and want to discuss issues which surround Australia. Such as the example of her a link to her Speech Australia’s term on UNSC. In that sense Bishop does a good job of Promoting herself.

However, what I would suggest that Bishop approve is even though you see her connecting with everyday people in photos, she should make more effort of connecting with people in the Twitter sphere as it is limited, and have more room for discussion like Australian personality Derryn Hinch, who encourages people opinion, and makes an effort to connect with his followers.

It is also recommended that even though Bishop evokes some discussion, it is recommended that she continues to increase number of responses and discussion from her followers on her twitter profile.

It promotes the human headline, as she can further discuss her opinions especially if the topic raised is controversial and stimulating to

readers.

Another recommendation for Bishop is that even though it is good for her to be promoting herself, and showing her followers what she is doing, it may in some way come out as narcissistic to some people. Though it is understood that twitter is built for the purpose of promoting self and connecting, especially if a public figure like Bishop.

Although all these recommendations Bishop does well in promoting herself and making a platform for people to feel connected to a political figure, which some politicians don’t make an effort to do, in turn in a way dehumanising them.