Federal Election 2019: Helping Australians explore trends and fight misinformation

As Australians head to the ballot box in coming weeks, they are searching for information on policies, parties and candidates.

We’re working with newsrooms to help journalists access these trends and explore what voters care about this election.

This isn’t about voting intentions, but it does provide unique insights into what people are searching for and what they care about at a local level.

Here’s how we’re helping journalists to use these trends tools.

Working with newsrooms 

The Google News Initiative is working with newsrooms to provide top searched issues, related searches and questions.

To make it easier for journalists to find this data, we’ve launched Google Trends Australian Federal Election 2019 page, which includes state-level data on the top issues searched in each region, such as the economy, education and healthcare (to name a few).

All the charts from the Google Trends pages are embeddable on any site and will continue to update even after they’re placed on your site.

Fighting misinformation 

Google has also supported First Draft to tackle misinformation at a global level since 2015, and together we’re committed to stemming the flow of misinformation and disinformation by working with news organisations, especially ahead of elections.

With support from the Google News Initiative, First Draft this week launched its first bureau in the Asia-Pacific region to assist journalists and publishers unearth and expose misleading, false and untrue claims.

Led by Anne Kruger, the Bureau will be based at the Centre for Media Transition at the University of Technology Sydney and will train and work with professional journalists and student-reporters across the country to develop the skills and expertise to reveal disinformation.

First Draft will work alongside the Walkley Foundation, which is leading a training effort to educate up to 4,000 journalists and journalism students across Australia and New Zealand in digital skills and verification in 2019.

As the Election draws closer, reporters want to understand what people - right across Australia - care about. We look forward to working with them to surface insights to help tell those stories.

Explore more Google Trends at google.com/trends and learn more about the Google News Initiative at g.co/newsinitiative. And stay tuned for more updates on the election from Google!