In this the last week of the election campaign there have been some interesting trends emerging in our tracking of what Australians have been saying about election issues online both in traditional and social media. 

The Labor party commenced the week with a surge in the share of voice that they were commanding, potentially linked to the late campaign launch held, with this momentum and dominant share of voice being maintained throughout the week.

 

By contrast the share of coverage being focussed on each of the two leaders of the main political party leaders remains relatively even, despite the surge in coverage for Gillard in the earlier part of the week.

Analysis of the coverage that each leader has garnered within this last week reveals that the sentiment being expressed for Gillard is more positive in nature across all media types than that being received for Abbott.

 

However while this would seemingly suggest Gillard to be the more popular candidate, neither political figure is able to be declared as an outright front runner due to the high levels of neutral sentiment also being recorded  - thus indicating that there is still uncertainty among voters and for many a lack of clear choice.

With regard to the election issues that have been receiving the most coverage, within the last week sustainability and population continues to receive the most coverage, followed by education and health.  

 

However despite receiving only limited coverage in the early stages of the election campaign, the NBN has now emerged as a key issue with an 11% rise in share of coverage over the past week, making it the fourth most discussed topic within this period.

Reflecting the higher level of sentiment for Gillard overall, for each of these issues Gillard is also receiving a higher share of positive sentiment than is Abbott, both within traditional media and social media.

However despite this overall positive skew the proportion of negative commentary that is being received by Gillard for each of these issues is higher within social media than is apparent among traditional media sources, (with the exception of education, where the proportion of positive commentary increases within social media). While Abbott also attracts a higher level of negative commentary within social media the increase is not so marked.

Analysis of sentiment for the key election issues over the past week across traditional and social media is provided below:

Economy

 Sustainability/ Population Growth

NBN

Immigration

 

Popularity: 1% [?]