Getup! is a volunteer group promoting and encouraging the youth/Gen Y of Australia to register to vote and start taking a stand in Australian politics. Their clever use of new media, such as the internet, helped to get their message across in the most resent Australian Federal election. The use of parody videos that have been created to entertain and “take the mickey” of the politicians and get attention in the media arena. Most of us would have been subjected to Getup! in the past few months. Below is a parody they created to encourage the youth to enroll to vote. Quite clever use of this medium to get their message across and capture the target audience. It was aired on the “Today” show in prime time. Which didn’t cost them a dime. Just their time to create the video and loaded up onto YouTube.
The Getup! website also in engaging by inviting people to become members of the website to receive updates and to also allow them to contribute to the website on issues they are discussing. It also has the tools to let you spread the word by telling a friend about them. Because Getup! is a volunteer organisation, they receive no government funding and solely rely on generous donations from the public. They have the option on their site for people to make donations to them so they can continue to provide their service which educates people on the importance of voting and current political issues in Australia. As they are not bias to any one government you can get an honest view on the current polices and issues going through Parliament.
They also run their own campaigns where the public can make pledges towards them. A bit like an online petition. So you can have your say in an issue. You can donate towards a cause, watch videos, create, read and comment on blogs, and receive RSS feeds on them.
Getup! get’s people involved, cuts out the jargon of politics, gives you an arena to express your political view, take action and become a part of a solution and also Getup! entertains you. Their involvement in the resent election campaign is evident with the result as it invited the public to take action in what they believe in, ignore the high school antics and look into the policies on the table.
After viewing and reviewing the Getup! website, the Prime Minister of Australia website is very stale and corporate. But I spose that that is the traditional politic approach. This website is great for those who want to know the progress and the where abouts of Australia’s Prime Minister, Julia Gillard. It is good that the public can get access to this information so quickly and easily. Getting access to past speeches, media releases and interview transcripts is as easy as clicking the Media Center tab.
You can also find out who is in the Ministry and find out more about each Minister. Also you can find out about past Prime Ministers. Going through this information somewhat takes me back to the days of primary school and having to do an assignment on the current Prime Minister. How much easier would it be these days to get the information you require!
But the website also allows you to recieve newsletters, invites you to follow the PM on Twitter, Facebook and Flickr, but also get a RSS feed on updates from the PM from the website. You can also email the Prime Minister from here.
I would say that this website doesn’t really entice me to come back everyday or ever again unless I had a project on the Prime Minister again. You can get these sorts of serves from other information websites, like ninemsn.com.au, to get all your updates in politics and the Prime Minister.
REFERNCES
” YouTube – getupaustralia’s Channel .” YouTube – Broadcast Yourself. . N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Sept. 2010. <http://www.youtube.com/getupaustralia>.
“GetUp! – Action For Australia – www.getup.org.au.” GetUp! – Action For Australia – www.getup.org.au. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Sept. 2010. <http://www.getup.org.au>.
“Prime Minister of Australia.” <http://www.pm.gov.au/>.
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