DEWHA appoints a New Media head

The Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts has become the first Australian Federal Government agency to my knowledge to appoint a New Media head.

I've previously commented on the rising trend in governments overseas to acknowledge the importance of online and new media by appointing New Media and Social Media Directors, and the US President has renamed the Public Relations Office as the a Public Engagement office, however up until now no Australian Federal Department to my knowledge had recognised the importance of the medium in this fashion.

Both Forrester and Nielsen have reported that they are the most used media for Australians, as has AGIMO's Interacting with Government Report, which found that online was the preferred channel for engagement with government and in 2008 the internet became the number one channel last used by the Australian public to interact with government.