The Cave #10

What day is it? Which public holiday are we up to? Is it fair that a heatwave-inspired return to the beach was timed with a ludicrous consumption of chocolate and baked goods? Will we know the identity of the new Prime Minister or Pope first?

None of these questions answered, and more, in this week’s edition of the Cave.

Happy long weekend. Again.

Comms

New media for the next government

Oh look, we’re once more talking about podcasts and influencers. 

In fairness, it’s a topic that is becoming fundamental to the future of comms, politics, and society. So it probably deserves a bit of attention.

Last week, it was revealed Diamantina Media - which is co-owned by the founders of Betoota Advocate, among others - had been appointed to advise Labor on their new media strategy.

It’s the latest interesting insight into how the election campaigns are engaging with this new world, following the Libs TikTok blitz and (shudder) diss track, a Greens candidate on OnlyFans, and arguments over content creators and appropriate authorisation.

The question, as we turn our attention to the 48th parliament, is if, when, and how this will translate to comms from a sitting government. 

The public sector has stricter rules, procedures, and performance metrics than a campaign, and many departments and bodies lack the resources to bring in specialists such as Diamantina Media for a sliver of a broader program. 

But not engaging is not an option, particularly with falling trust in government. 

That’s why a Politico report on the progress of the UK’s New Media Unit (NMU) is required reading. Initially launched to much cynicism at the end of last year, it seems the team, which is centrally based in the Cabinet Office but works across departments, is showing signs of success.

From podcast interviews to creating long term relationships with content creators, the NMU has been empowered to do things differently. They’ve even managed to bring out Kier Starmer’s personality, which had previously been presumed subsumed by Colin Firth.

A similar approach in Canberra would be fascinating. We can just imagine Abbie Chatfield at the groundbreaking ceremony of HumeLink or the Inspired Unemployed covering the launch of the Standing Committee on Procedure’s report on the maintenance of the standing and sessional orders.

If the next government wants better ideas, they know where to find us 😉

Culture

Back to the source

If you haven’t watched the latest episode of The Last of Us, maybe skip this bit.

The truth is, we can't spoilt what was already spoiled. Or, more accurately, originally portrayed in the source material, a game released almost five years ago. 

The viral cultural moment which accompanied the episode is further evidence that adaptations of popular video games are the coming decade-long trend as comic book movies struggle to maintain momentum.

But here lies a problem for ambitious franchise builders. Whereas many comic books have decades of source material to mine, adapt, and bring to life in new ways, the narrative driven video game is relatively new by comparison.

This is exacerbated by the number of people with knowledge of that source material to both spoil new content, and critcise its fidelity to the original. Approximately 50 million people read comics last year. 3.32 billion are active video game players.

Of course, this hasn’t stopped adaptations of Halo, Minecraft, Sonic, Mortal Kombat, Tomb Raider, and lots, lots more. 

But it does raise the question of how long the entertainment industry can keep recycling ideas and content before consumers move away from the comfort of what they know to hanker for something they don’t.

Oh, and Pedro Pascal dies. Come on, it’s been five years.

(Campaign) Curiosities 

Early voting, late decisions

Well, here we go. As of Tuesday, you can now officially vote in Australia’s 2025 Federal Election.

In practical terms, this means that if you happen to be walking past a polling station in an electorate that swings, you’ll get more attention than a Secret Lives of Mormon Wives cast member.

Yes, it’s the return of how-to-vote cards, where volunteers explain the order in which to place candidates to secure the result they want. 

The first step, of course, is to place their preferred party first. Unless you’re Trumpet of Patriots candidate Jason Smart, who is advising voters to put him last after a disagreement with party chair Clive Palmer. At this stage, Palmer could invest his estimated $70m spend in a comedy series and fail to come up with something funnier than his campaign.

For everyone else, preferences are no laughing matter. A Guardian Essential poll found 47% of voters were either undecided or could still be turned, a huge unknown in an election that - on the surface, at least - seems to be firming up to beat the recent global incumbent curse.

With most policy bullets now fired, parties are basically reliant on a mix of ground game and vibes. 

Those vibes are incredibly hard to measure, dependent as they are on an individual's media consumption, in-built bias, and desired outcome (see Hillary Clinton 2016 and Bill Shorten 2019).

So. Nine days to go. A thousand more ToP ads to watch. A few more corflutes to steal. It’s all to play for. Watch those vibes.