Did a targeted social media campaign run on peanuts help secure a safer future for our ABC?

The ABC Alumni is but a tiny speck of people compared with our allies, the mighty Friends of the ABC. We are around 200 people who’ve worked at or with the ABC as journos, producers, techs, execs, film-makers and digital creatives, so we are at least good at ferreting out the root of a problem, making content and meeting a deadline (on crumbs).

Late last year, with the Federal election looming dateless, in the shadow of Trump’s attack on public broadcasting, accountability and facts, and Peter Dutton parroting much of his cant, the ABC Alumni Board decided the problem might be Dutton getting in, and we started hammering out an election campaign. We communicated closely with ABC Friends throughout, sharing data, ideas and strategies between us..

There were 3 scenarios-a majority Coalition, or Labor, victory, or ( most likely, we thought) a minority government with the Independent playing a large role in deciding the funding and role of the ABC into the future. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had given some assurance about ABC funding, Peter Dutton refused to answer our repeated attempts to seek funding security, so we decided to focus on the all-important Independents, those likely to be crossbenchers, to interact with and influence them and their communities of voters, and to use social media to do it- greater amplification of message at least cost.

Brilliant former ABC factual producer Chrissie McIntyre was lured gratis into our team, and a recent Master of Journalism graduate from Melbourne University, Jerome Des Preaux, was hired as a consultant who knew reach from views and tiles from videos. We were fortunate indeed to have a former ABC foreign correspondent now living in the USA donate almost enough to underwrite the campaign.

Our focus was to invite the Independents themselves to speak about what was most important for them about the ABC, and to provide verbal support. This they did in spades, and were inspiring.

Chrissie and her editor Peter Somerville (and a generous and well-known graphic designer) produced 54 short videos, and 2 infographics to be used on instagram, Facebook, X and YouTube. You can see them here (insert hyperlink).

These grabs were taken from 28 filmed interviews and /or selfie videos of 15 Independent candidates, a sitting MP ( same hyperlink), ten regional Vox pops (stop in the street interviews); and two influential experts - Greg Mullins (AO AFSM, former Commissioner Fire & Rescue NSW, and founder of Emergency Leaders for Climate Action) and Alan Kohler (AM, Australian financial journalist, television personality, and former newspaper editor). 

We developed tag lines and style guides in concert with ABC Friends and all the videos were made available for distribution by Friends.

We paid to ‘boost’ some of our content on Facebook (to increase its visibility). We also used good old-fashioned letters, emails and calls; and Chrissie’s personal calls to the Independents, mobilising their goodwill and intent, was priceless.

So - did our social media campaign actually make a difference?

We certainly reached a vastly greater number of people than we could have without social media; our content was viewed on Facebook over 122,000 times and 97,693 unique accounts saw our content at least once. The most popular were Alan Kohler, Kate Chaney, David Pocock, Helen Haines, and our infographics of ABC funding.

We cannot yet quantify our impact. All but one of the Independents we filmed and put on social media are now MPs and in a position to make good on their stated passion for the ABC.

And there is no measurement on the enhanced quality of our relationship with these decision-makers, by using this strategy. We all have our fingers crossed that the government delivers for the ABC.

Dr Gael Jennings AM Board Member ABC Alumni May 10 2025