Exploring a post-truth referendum: Australia's Voice to Parliament and the management of attention on social media

Abstract

This article examines the circulation of unverified and misleading information during the 2023 Australian Voice to Parliament referendum, focusing on X (formerly Twitter). Adapting Harsin's concept of Regimes of Post-Truth and a participatory perspective of propaganda, we analyse over 224,000 posts, exploring the interplay of Voice-related discussions on X and campaign messaging. We find that the Yes campaign employed a traditional messaging approach, emphasising public support and presenting historical facts and statistics. In contrast, the No campaign's disciplined messaging style mobilised pan-partisan attention, fostering a collaborative ‘truth market’ on X about the constitutional amendment that eclipsed the Yes campaign's more conventional approach. A proliferation of conspiratorial assertions fostered collaborative work from No campaigners as well as participatory efforts from Yes campaigners to debunk and criticise them. We conclude that the No campaign cultivated a series of public relations-induced realities about the referendum, effectively managing attention within a hybrid media system.