Twittering pollie lands gig on MasterChef

It was reported yesterday morning that the Queensland Premier is going on Celebrity Master Chef. Well, where do I begin? Is Peter Beattie’s ‘media tart’ status under threat? Given that that the Premier appears to be using her status (and her leave) to raise money for charity perhaps it is not.

That the Murdoch papers appear to have taken the story directly from the Premier’s Twitter (although it is doubtful that she personally twitters), points to the changing nature of political communication in Australia. Twitter was a significant component of the Queensland ALP’s election campaign. The Premier’s status updates probably enhanced her popularity. One could ask the question, who actually uses and interacts with a politician (or the politician’s minder) via Twitter? Clearly some journalists do. Who reads these Twitters? Can we think in similar terms to the categorisation of political bloggers into ‘political junkies’ and ‘big brother’ watchers (e.g., Coleman 2003; Bruns 2008)? ‘Political junkies’ are those people who are highly politically literate and have well-defined political beliefs. ‘Big Brother’ watchers are ‘politically apathetic’. While they are ‘deeply involved’ in the show and ‘vote for their favourite housemates’, they are not ‘committed to their electoral choices in the political contest’ (Bruns 2008). Thus political junkies are deeply knowledgeable about and interested in politics. They are committed to a particular candidate or party. Big Brother watchers are largely apathetic. This said, in the past 24 hours since the announcement that Premier Bligh would appear on MasterChef, the number of followers on her Twitter has increased by approximately 200.

As the Premier asked for recipe suggestions, might I suggest Weasel Word Stew (slow cooked of course) or Spin Soufflé.

Where are the women?

Possum Comitatus (http://blogs.crikey.com.au/pollytics/) and the folks at Crikey ask where are the female political (including psephologist) bloggers? This question certainly needs to be asked. Those who have reached national prominence and are discussed in the academic literature are largely all men. Indeed, it would seem that the typical political blogger is a highly educated male in his 30s.  As a newcomer to the world of blogging, I am interested in finding out where women blog about politics. Over at Larvatus Prodeo (http://larvatusprodeo.net/), Anna Winter has some ideas. Winter argues that the issue is not that there are few female political bloggers, it is that they are not being recognised by their male contemporaries and that what women consider to be ‘political’ might not be what men consider to be ‘political’. Winter also suggests that women stay away from ‘hard political blogging’ because of the sexism that they encounter.

Here are the female political bloggers that I am aware of:

• Margot Kingston – Your Democracy, etc
• Anna Winter – Larvatus Prodeo
• Ronda Jambe – Ambit Gambit.

Possum lists:

• The Kings Tribune
• Daiskmeliadorn
• Hexpletive
• Tellmeyourpolitik
• North Coast Voices
• Bernice Balconey.

Do you have any other people who could be added to the list?