Soapbox for historical view of election campaigns

By Staff Writer

As election campaigning moves online, Australian voters can ‘friend’ political leaders on Facebook and MySpace, but in 1901 Edmund Barton and George Reid used the humble soapbox to appeal to the Australian public. 

A new website called Soapbox has been developed by the University of Melbourne’s Sally Young, senior lecturer in Media and Communications and well-known commentator on the intersection of politics and the media, with assistance from researchers Stephanie Younane and Mary Helen McIroy. It brings together key historical documents and audio-visual material on election campaigns, and makes them available to students, researchers, journalists and the general public.

“The Soapbox website is an online archive that means anyone can access election materials from 1901 to now - including photographs, texts of speeches, transcripts of debates and political ads - and see for themselves the growth and development of Australian politics," Dr Young says.

While election campaigns focus on the short-term, Soapbox allows electors to see elections as a continuum; to look back over time to see what the parties and their leaders have said (and promised) in the past.

The website was designed and developed in collaboration with Educational Technology Services at the University of Melbourne.

“In the lead up to the 2007 election there is no better time to take a trip through the history of Australian federal election campaigns," she says.
“Regardless of how you vote in this election, see for yourself whether John Howard and Kevin Rudd employ the same tactics as their predecessors and check how the promises and rhetoric of the major parties have changed from their last campaign to now."

Soapbox is at http://soapbox.unimelb.edu.au/