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This paper examines the impact of the Internet, specifically the World Wide Web (WWW) and e-mail on Australian parties in two key areas: (1) party communication: what exactly are parties using their Websites for? and (2) party competition: does the Internet lower the threshold for smaller parties to communicate their message compared with the traditional media? We examine these questions with two types of data—a questionnaire of party communication staff and content analysis of a representative sample of party Websites. Our findings show, first, that Australian parties have taken a fairly cautious approach to the new medium, using it primarily as an information storehouse rather than putting it to more innovative use. Second, while almost all Australian parties have a Web presence, there is a divide between those parties with parliamentary representation and those without in terms of their site quality and visibility on the Web. The study concludes by interpreting the findings in the context of research on parties' use of the Internet worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides the first comparison of campaign coverage of candidates in an Australian federal election in the press, on radio and television, and on the Internet. It does so through analysis of a database that records the 50 most frequently cited candidates in news stories across all these media during the 2007 campaign. The analysis suggests: that although the news on the Internet placed less emphasis than television or radio on the idea of the election as a presidential contest, the Internet's emphasis on the Prime Minister compared with the Leader of the Opposition was greater; that, compared with the news provided by the older media, the Internet was more heavily skewed towards Government over Opposition candidates; and that the coverage afforded minor party and Independent candidates across all media was slight, with the Internet falling well below the coverage warranted on the basis of the candidates' share of the vote - a media, focusing more heavily on government candidates and less heavily on Labor candidates than warranted by this criterion. Far from re-ordering old hierarchies, the Internet news may have made the election a less even contest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]