The Wire

People on Twitter were quick to respond to the Coalition’s latest election ad featuring an actor playing a tradie, with the #faketradie hashtag pointing out the myriad of ways the tradie looked like a fake. It wasn’t a good look for Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull who is already battling perceptions of being out of touch with working class people.  The PM’s attempt to highlight his innovation image also took a battering at the leader’s debate live on Facebook on Friday night, when the video feed kept buffering as he tried to spruik his record on the NBN. The scandal over the Liberal Party’s company Parakeelia, which receives tax payer dollars via MP allowances for voter-monitoring software, has had huge traction on Twitter, but not so much in the mainstream media. But how much influence does social media have on the election? Margo Kingston is a Twitter journalist and editor of citizen journalism site, No Fibs.