The news started to filter out of Canberra late on Wednesday 23 June 2010 that Kevin Rudd’s Prime Ministership was under threat. By 10:15pm a spilled was called for 9am Thursday. At about 9:25am Thursday 24 June, Sky News Australia reported first that Kevin Rudd had not contested the leadership and that Julia Gillard would become Australia’s first female PM. What was Sky News’ source before any official announcement? Twitter of course.
The leadership turmoil that engulfed the Australian Labor party also demonstrated the media frenzy that we now live in, whether it be through traditional media such as TV, Radio and Print or new digital media online and mobile (an example of this was Sky News presenters on their mobile phones whilst broadcasting live).
The public were blessed with coverage. The major Australian news teams had rolling coverage of the saga right throughout the day with Sky News, Nine, Seven, ABC and Ten leading the charge. Extended bulletins at 4:30PM, 6PM & nightly current affair shows further dissected the day’s proceedings. The coverage of the Rudd downfall was enormous.
There was also international TV coverage from CNN International (who took Seven’s feed and branded the story as ‘Australia Political Revolt‘ with Australia’s Anna Coren and Stan Grant anchoring the coverage) and CNBC also provided international coverage.
On Radio there was 3AW’s Neil Mitchell who broadcast past his usual 12pm shift and 2GB’s Jason Morrison who was in Canberra. ABC Local & News Radio also had extensive coverage.
Whilst the print media could not get their hard copies out quick enough instead they utilised their online mastheads to tell the story. UK, NZ & US newspapers and television websites also carried coverage, including NBCNEWS.com and CBSNEWS.com. Non-English speaking countries such as Japan also saw online articles crop up about the events in Canberra.
No matter where you were in the last 24 hours if you wanted to find out all angles of how the leadership challenge was mounted, run and won, the information was there for the taking from a plethora of sources. Even in this digital age both old and new media were able to cover this news event and deliver the consumer the information they wanted how, when and where.
What did you think of the media coverage of Gillard’s rise to Prime Ministership?
Online Media Coverage highlights:
