Update: USU social media campaigns
Ellie Stephenson appraises how online campaigning is going so far.
(Note: Ellie is a former member of Grassroots).
Earlier this week, I brought you a first look at the USU candidates’ social media campaigns, and now I’m back with a second look. From Ada Choi finally setting up a Facebook page to the normalisation of campaign TikToks, there’s a lot to talk about!
First up: look at this graph I made of the candidates’ page likes over time - interesting stuff. I’m keen to see after the election how closely page likes correspond to the election results. It’ll also be interesting to compare the electoral value of WeChat views vs Facebook page likes. As you can see, Ruby has maintained a fairly convincing social media lead, followed by Belinda, Prudence, Nick and Ada. Ben is a little below the frontrunners, while Amir and Vikki are hovering around 100 likes. Eitan has been static on around 19 likes, and Wayne has only 5 likes (including myself).
OK, let’s go in a little more depth on these social media happenings:
Ada-vance: Ada for USU
On Wednesday evening, Ada’s Facebook page was born, and overnight it skyrocketed from 23 to 369 likes. Since then, it flatlined and even lost a like at some point yesterday morning. This rather atypical pattern of engagement, along with the fact she hasn’t posted anything yet, makes it unclear whether this corresponds to any actual support or momentum.
Ada’s cover photo is a simple situation: Ada standing in the quad with “ADA-VANCE” written in white over a pink-red background. I’m surprised Ada hasn’t gone more pink, as this colour barely stands out from the red and orange of Belinda and Ruby.
Wayne is the Way
Wayne (Jiale) Wang also made a Facebook, which, with its four likes, escaped our notice. It’s very bare bones, although does show his logo: an elaborate W. He also has put together a website: https://www.jialewayne.com, which features a couple of policies but places more emphasis on his biography.
Perhaps the best place to find details of Wayne’s campaign is on his WeChat page. There you can find a list of his policies with more explanation, including an educational explanation of the principle of equity as it relates to small clubs, like Wayne’s Chinese Martial Arts Club, which has to train in Victoria Park because they can’t afford a venue. Wayne’s page has 3051 reads.
WeChat is also home to Vikki Qin’s page, which features photos of her with her friends, an explanation of her policies and advice about how to receive financial assistance for international students. Vikki’s page has more than double the reads of Wayne’s at 6853.
Ada’s page, which is more detailed than her Facebook, launched yesterday, going from a pitiful 3 reads to 2264 reads in the time it took to write this article, and then to 5175 reads overnight.
Wayne’s equity infographic
Ruby Lotz has also ventured into the WeChat race, posting about her policy statement and how to join the USU on Friday. It received 115 reads and was posted by Nunc, a platform for Chinese students which previously hosted articles criticising last year’s candidate for SRC President, Josie Jakovac. No other domestic candidates had WeChat posts advertising their campaign, which is interesting given several of them spoke about international student rights in their interviews and policy platforms.
International student votes have proved to be particularly influential in past elections. With the reach of Wayne, Vikki and Ada’s pages, it seems likely this trend will continue. How exactly support will manifest is unclear without knowing whether they’re reaching different audiences or competing over a similar pool of voters.
Amir’s Antics
Undoubtedly the most entertaining candidate in this year’s race is Amir, whose Facebook page is getting me through these dark days. I watch it obsessively, waiting for the moment it’s revealed to be an elaborate joke. Amir’s page is where you can find the hyperbolic, the eccentric, the inexplicable. Its frenetic intertextual references to every spam-ridden corner of the internet and clickbait-minded publications are a feast for the senses.
Amir’s social media success seems to come down to two elements: a misplaced persecution complex and a penchant for the bizarre.
The persecution complex bombards the reader with a sense of urgency. “RE: READ THIS POST BEFORE FACEBOOK DELETES IT”, wrote Amir, on a post which has now lasted three days. “LOOK AT THE SKY RIGHT NOW BEFORE IT’S GONE”, he urged 7 hours ago, on a doctored (I hope?) photo of his name in skywriting above the quad. “BREAKING NEWS”, he announces, with a picture of him covered with “CENSORED”. Someone call the Sydney Tory: free speech truly is under threat at USyd.
Then there’s the bizarre. A post introducing his policies features a video of cartoon men dancing while carrying a coffin. The video’s relationship to the post is non-existent - perhaps it needs to take part in Amir’s USU dating program? Speaking of the dating program policy, I will never forget the truly unhinged post advertising it. It features a text conversation involving the dialogue:
“Hi babe, I’m so happy I met you at the USU dating program yesterday. You made my life much more meaningful x”
“Aw hi omg same. I love you so much”
Clearly the people Amir envisions as his match-making clients are terrifyingly clingy, concerningly infatuated loners with awful taste and a bad if quickly curable case of nihilism. Does this vision encourage you to participate? If so, I direct you to Dear Pulp and/or a real therapist.
While you’re at it, you can tell your therapist about some more of Amir’s video content. In this one, an emoji hand gets photoshopped into holding an emoji foot. This is, apparently, also an advertisement for the dating program. He has taken it from the instagram of @pablo.rochat. Here is another Rochat post which more aptly expresses how we feel after viewing this ad:
The TikTok trials
One aspect of the campaign that we neither needed nor wanted is the rise of campaign TikTok dances. I’m sorry, but if you have a TikTok you should probably have set up a WeChat too. Switch candidate Prudence Wilkins-Wheat created the original text in this genre (points for originality, I suppose), featuring her dancing with some of her policies. Pru is obviously commanding the faith of her campaigners, who have even made their own TikTok contributions. Nick Rigby also joined the TikTok trend, dancing, ironically, rather less enthusiastically among his plans to re-energise the USU. Perhaps the most interesting TikTok auteur so far is Belinda, who, rather than dancing, has set up bite-size policy-related jokes, like one where she mixes up a cocktail of a better University Alcohol Policy.
You can see for yourself:
SAlt vs Prudence
If you read our coverage of this week’s SRC meeting, you’ll know that Socialist Alternative is NOT a huge fan of the USU’s 40% cuts to staff hours. Awkwardly for Prudence, who is the self-styled left-wing candidate in this year’s Board race, her Honi Soit interview recorded her justifying the USU sacking staff due to COVID-19 troubles. She said, “I just don’t think it’s in my place to say that someone should have been willing to sacrifice their money in order to save the staff”. SAlt member Lily Campbell shared the interview, describing it as “appalling” and saying “101 of being left wing: don’t give cover to corporations sacking workers”.
Prudence later clarified that, in the abstract, she would pick staff cuts over the insolvency of the USU, but that she doesn’t support the current cuts and would attempt to find other ways to tackle the USU’s financial position and push for greater transparency. SAlt member Chloe Rafferty didn’t seem to buy this explanation, commenting “you were very explicit in justifying austerity in a way any board executive would”. Nonetheless, it seems unlikely this will meaningfully upset Prudence’s run, given that her progressive agenda is largely well-reflected in her policies and it seems like most of her campaigners will buy her clarification.
What is going on over at Honi?
Obviously Honi’s poor website has cracked under the stress of deciding whether it disapproves more of the USU raising revenue or cutting costs. As of the writing of this article, the URL http://honisoit.com/2020/05/usu-board-candidate-interview-2020:-ruby-lotz/ will take you to a mysterious page reading: Is the nut the seed? An interesting horticultural question sure, the answer being “most nuts are seeds, and not all seeds are nuts”. Then there’s the lyrics to Shania Twain’s ‘That Don’t Impress Me Much’ - is this the editorial position on poor Ruby’s interview? A serpentine sketch of a man worms his way across the top of the page.
It’s certainly surreal. I’ve been reloading, transfixed. I’m worried if I reload it too often I’ll summon the man drawing, and he’ll wriggle, like a character in Suspiria, around my room. The words ‘is the nut the seed?’ bounce around in my head. Much like Amir’s social media, it’s inexplicable, absurd and unclear if intentional.
Anyway, if I had to see it, you do to. Enjoy:
