Bill Shorten's strategy to bypass conservative media during the election campaign always looked risky - and it ultimately failed. But not because of Rupert Murdoch or Alan Jones.

The outgoing Labor leader and his advisers audaciously bet they could ignore (and in some cases directly challenge) media outlets deemed hostile, and still get their message directly to voters through social media channels. The problem for the ALP was, the Coalition was planning a digital push of its own, and it ended up being vastly more effective with it.

Shorten did not appear on Alan Jones top rating breakfast radio program in Sydney during the campaign. He also boycotted other shock jocks including 2GB's Ray Hadley and 3AW's Melbourne based presenter Neil Mitchell, who is considered more moderate than his Sydney counterparts.

Even more striking was the campaign's approach to News Corp - the owner of a string of newspapers in Australia considered conservative, and the majority owner of pay TV platform Foxtel.  In contrast to a long list of his Labor predecessors, Shorten made no effort to cosy up to Murdoch, News Corp's billionaire controlling shareholder, his top executives, or his offspring.