SansIcarus
Mark Riboldi’s Internet Home
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Right-wing political group Advance is in the headlines. What is it and what does it stand for?
Mark Riboldi, University of Technology Sydney Political lobby group Advance has been back in the headlines this week. It was revealed an organisation headed by the husband of the Special Envoy for Combatting Antisemitism, Jillian Segal, donated A$50,000 to the group. The news prompted outcry, though Segal denied any personal involvement. So what is Advance…
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Dr. Riboldi: State Capture by Big Business Is a Core Threat to Australian Democracy—As Elsewhere
“In this compelling conversation with ECPS, Dr. Mark Riboldi unpacks how corporate influence and elite career pathways hollow out democratic representation in Australia. From revolving doors in politics to the marginalization of community voices, Dr. Riboldi warns that without transparency and reform, “the closed loop between politics and corporate power” will persist. He also explores…
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Follow the money: the organisations that spent the most on social media during the election
Mark Riboldi, University of Technology Sydney Social media advertising is an increasingly important frontier in election campaigns. Political parties, candidates and third-party groups – such as trade unions, industry bodies and interest groups – all spend big to push their message high into the algorithms of potential voters. In the 2025 Australian federal election, this…
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My ‘hot take’ on the Greens’ 2025 election performance
A week after polling day, finally the political commentary and hot takes are starting to sound less reactionary, less pushing a pre-existing agenda, less desperately seeking a byline. I turned down a couple of media opportunities early in the week, then on Thursday I ended up in a background conversation with an ABC radio producer…
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Who holds the power? Independents, parties and accountability
(featured image appropriated from this ABC article) I like talking about power. In my experience – in politics, civil society, work, life, whatever – power dynamics impact what people do, how people respond, and generally what happens. And then, people with power often don’t like talking explicitly about the power that they have, or acknowledging…
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Who does what? Civil society organisations and federal election campaigns
What civil society organisations (CSOs) do during election campaigns depends on a lot of different factors. CSOs are typically not-for-profit, for-purpose, non-government organisations – basically we’re talking about non-market and non-state organisations (though of course those lines can get blurry, as can any theoretical categorisation). In this article, I’m going to explore some of the…
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The Truth is Out There – Civil Society Supporter Emails in the Federal Election
When Ariadne Vromen and I started talking about researching civil society organisation activity in the 2025 federal election, one of the methods of analysis that I wanted to add (from what she and Serin Loane had done in 2022) was the supporter emails these organisations send. In my mind, CSOs use emails as a key…
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Civil society campaigning in the Federal Election – Week 1 Meta Ad Spending
Having looked at YouTube activity over the weekend, I was keen to dig into what was the civil society organisations (CSOs) we are following were doing on other social media. The META Ad Library publishes information about pages that pay for advertising about ‘social issues, elections or politics’. It’s not the most open or transparent…
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Advance’s Week 1 YouTube Assault – Civil society campaigning in the 2025 Federal Election
As mentioned last week, I’m following various civil society / third sector campaigns during the 2025 Australian Federal election campaign, part of some research with Ariadne Vromen. One of the places we’re tracking activity is one YouTube. In 2024, YouTube claimed over 20 million users in Australia, was the second highest social media app used…