Speaking in TikTok

The Prime Minister's lips are moving, but what is he actually saying?

In the era of TikTokification politicians don’t talk to people any more. They talk to algorithm, the invisible hand of the digital communications market rewarding not what is true or important, but what is most likely to hold attention.

So anyone who expected Anthony Albanese’s address the nation last week to be imbued with the gravity of, say, Robert Menzies’ 1939 declaration of war, was bound to be disappointed.

Menzies declaration of war was broadcast live on radio at 9.15 pm on a Sunday evening as an unskipable and unclipable speech, marshalling facts and logic to establish a clear case for taking the country to war.

Albanese, by contrast, moved from media grabs to search-engine optimised conglomerations of words to establish precisely nothing. He failed to build a sustained case for doing anything, while leaving competing propositions unresolved.