How Kevin fell (on Twitter) by John Bergin

We can all vividly remember the night when former prime minister, Kevin Rudd, was ruthlessly toppled out of office in what was one of the most momentous days in Australian political history. John Bergin, the digital news director for Sky News Australia, recounts the events on the night of Wednesday June 23, 2010, and how they unfolded before a new audience – on the Twitterverse. Comments, speculation, insights, questions, analysis and witty jokes flooded Twitter, with most using the #spill hashtag to join the conversation.

This 2010 Walkley magazine piece looks at the events that transpired and how ‘Twitter was informing its users of happenings in Canberra’s halls of power at a speed television, radio and print couldn’t hope to match’. This illustrates how social media sites are increasingly being used to rapidly disseminate information and provide opinion and insight in real-time. It also underlines how more and more people are turning to social media when big news breaks.

A strength of this article is the way Bergin presents a diverse range of views from journalists and academics discussing whether social media will reshape the political news agenda and change political timeframes.

Will future election campaigns be covered in a whole new way? And how will social media transform political participation and coverage, including engagement between politicians, voters, analysts and the media?

Giulio Di Giorgio is a final-year Bachelor of Journalism student at La Trobe University and is part of upstart’s editorial team. You can follow him on Twitter: @gdigiorgio

Follow John Bergin on Twitter: @theburgerman

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