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In recent years, some elaborate claims have been made about how the Internet can revolutionize politics. While the Internet is not a panacea for all problems, it does present a number of opportunities. It is fast, inexpensive, flexible, personalized, & interactive. Political parties are in complete control of their own Web sites &, unlike traditional commercial media, there is no limit on political content. Parties can provide quality in formation, communicate directly with citizens, & use the interactive features of the Internet to encourage participation. While in theory, the Internet does offer the potential to enrich our political system; the real test is how it is being used in practice. Over the past few years, a range of uses & principles for effective political Internet sites have been suggested but there has been little systematic empirical analysis of the quality of political party Web sites. In this article, an assessment of the two major Australian political parties' websites -- the Australian Labor Party (www.alp.org.au/) & the Liberal Party of Australia (www.liberal.org.au/) -- reveals how they rate. 1 Table, 38 References. Adapted from the source document.

Service organizations often use various types of penalties without fully understanding the effects on customers' evaluations. Because customers' responses to penalties are usually negative, it is important for service organizations to properly administer and manage penalties. However, little is currently known about how customers view such "punishments." This study develops an integrated framework to explain customers' responses to penalties based on concepts from attribution theory, social justice theory, and expectancy disconfirmation. The study examines the effects of penalty attributes (severity, flexibility, adequacy of an explanation), attributions (i.e., causal inference), perceived justice, disconfirmation, and emotion on customers' evaluations of penalties imposed by service organizations. This research uses a cross-sectional survey design and collects data online using the critical incident technique. The results show that penalty attributes, attributions, perceived justice, and negative emotion have significant effects on customers' responses to penalties. The study provides useful guidelines to help service organizations manage penalties.

Election reporting in the 2000s -- pt. 1. Political news audiences and outlets. The political news audience -- The elite public sphere -- The popular public sphere -- Elections and audiences -- pt. 2. Where does election news come from and what is it about? Creating election news: journalists -- The stars of the show: politicians and campaigning -- Who controls the news agenda? -- 'From the campaign trail': the framing of election news -- pt. 3. Elections in mediated times. News, political reporting and the internet -- Bias -- News, the public and democracy.

In recent years, the Australian media have come under fire for their reporting of politics and election campaigns. Political reporting is said to be too influenced by commercial concerns, too obsessed with gossip and scandal, and too focused on trivia and 'sound bites' at the expense of serious issues. There are accusations of bias, sensationalism, 'lazy' journalism and 'horse-race' reporting that is obsessed with opinion polls. How Australia Decides is the first book to put these allegations to the test. Based on a four-year empirical study, Sally Young reports the results of the only systematic, historical and in-depth analysis of Australian election reporting. This groundbreaking book shows how election reporting has changed over time, and how political news audiences, news production and shifts in political campaigning are influencing media content – with profound implications for Australian democracy

This article examines the implications of high levels of informal (or invalid) voting in Australian national elections using a social exclusion framework. The rate of the informal vote is an indicator of social and political exclusion with particular groups of Australians experiencing inordinate electoral disadvantage. Poorer voters, voters from non‐English speaking backgrounds and those with low education levels are especially disadvantaged by factors peculiar to the Australian voting experience. We begin by exploring the character and pattern of informal voting and then canvass the technical and socio‐economic factors which explain it. We conclude by considering proposed options for reducing informality, some of which are: the abandonment of compulsory voting, major structural change to the voting system as well as ballot re‐design, electoral education and community information initiatives.

AbstractResearch into political communication has grown rapidly in the past three decades, shifting from specific, quantitative and utilitarian studies to include a broad variety of research questions, methods and theoretical frameworks. Interdisciplinary work in political communication takes audiences, political actors (such as governments and politicians), and media content and media institutions as central foci. Research has traditionally focused on election campaign‐specific studies within national contexts. Emerging research, however, is now addressing broader questions about media texts and organisations and also about representations and power. This research is working to trace technological changes and developments in an era of globalised media and political communication and developing new, complex conceptions of audience agency and reception.