Nine Network political editor Chris Uhlmann describes it as one of life's little joys.

He'll post a tweet on federal politics, wait for the notifications of replies to build up on his phone's home screen, then bulk delete all of them without reading a single word.

"If I spend even a minute bothered by an abusive tweet, they win. If I don't engage and they spend all day getting worked up about it, then I win," he said.

It's an approach Uhlmann insists helps keep him sane as social media, particularly Twitter, goes into overdrive in the midst of what is shaping up as the most bitter election campaign in many years.

Vitriol spikes as campaign begins

Twitter is a double-edged sword for political journalists.

It's an invaluable source of breaking news and allows us to keep track of campaign developments in real time.

For good and bad, it's a forum for politicians to make unfiltered announcements or respond to criticism from the other side, all of which provides fodder for news stories and commentary.

Importantly, it allows voters to have their say — and this is where things are getting particularly willing.

"Twitter is a peanut gallery of hyper-partisan tools," Uhlmann laments.

"Unless you conform to their biases and beat to the death the people they hate, you're obviously not doing your job."

And, according to many veteran political journalists, this Twitter "feedback" is getting much more vicious.

The ABC's Patricia Karvelas, who had the temerity to broadcast a relevant text message from Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce during a panel chat on Insiders this week, has been taken aback by the social media uproar this campaign.

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The Courier-Mail's national affairs editor Dennis Atkins said Twitter users had certainly "amped up" over the last few weeks.

"They are shoutier, they are more tribal. They have never been great ones for considering other points of view, but now they have lost any inclination to do that," he said.

"They are quick to attack the person rather than engage in the merits of an argument."

Guardian Australia's political editor Katharine Murphy notes there's often an increase in anxiety and frustration on social media in election campaigns.

She says that's consistent with the polls that tell us voters are deeply disaffected with politics and distrustful of institutions, including media organisations.

"So most of it is that, but I also think elections bring an increase in what I suspect is organised or loosely organised trolling directed against politicians and individual journalists," she said.

"Some actors are intent on being disruptive on social platforms and picking fights as a means to that end.

"It just raises the general temperature at a time when anxieties are already heightened. So I suspect there's some of that. It's difficult to say what the ratios are."

Not for the faint-hearted

Now, journalism isn't exactly the profession for shrinking violets.

If you cover the brutal game of politics you have to be particularly robust, but the level of muck being hurled around on Twitter at the moment would test the toughest of souls.

Personally speaking, I have noticed a huge increase in abuse and petty name-calling since the election campaign began.

The free character references I've received have often been quite inventive.

They can be crude or funny, but are all hard to ignore for someone who uses Twitter constantly.

I even joked about turning Twitter off as I was about to launch into an interview with the shadow treasurer Chris Bowen on Insiders a few weeks ago, in a vain attempt to deflect the keyboard warriors (it didn't work).

When I interviewed both Scott Morrison and Bill Shorten on the first day of the campaign, they were all out in force.

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Having your professionalism questioned is never easy, but I tend not to engage with the more strident critics (usually because I have a show to present).

Others take a different approach, often retweeting the criticism (with their own pithy comments) as a dubious badge of honour.

Some even point to the equal amount of fire they receive from both sides of politics as evidence they are doing their jobs properly.

To me, it is simply evidence Twitter is getting particularly feral. I would prefer to use other benchmarks.

Murphy accepts criticism is all part of the job.

"But while I accept the right of people to criticise," she said, "I also don't just lie back and passively accept gratuitous insults or ad hominem attacks as some deep insight into my professional deficiencies."

"I know why I'm a journalist and I'm confident in my mission."

Atkins said he rarely responded to Twitter critiques.

"Engaging with most of the people on Twitter is an express train to hell. No good comes of it."

"Emotion gets the better of people and it's the social media equivalent of watching a bar room brawl."

The fury of the left

While the hyper-partisans are alert to any perceived "bias", Uhlmann believes one side is way more offensive than the other.

"While one of the memes of the early 21st century is the rise of the aggressive right, the emergence of what I would call the "post-Christian left" is much more of a worry," he said.

"They are the moralisers-in-chief and can be absolutely vicious."

The ABC's 7.30 presenter Leigh Sales has said she is constantly amazed by the level of far-left bias and abuse on Twitter towards ABC journalists.

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It's important to stress though that Twitter is not just a platform for abuse.

You also get plenty of constructive (and polite) criticism about either the conduct of political interviews or the way we approach (or neglect) certain stories and issues.

I even get the odd smattering of praise from time to time.

All of this is very welcome and helps ensure we're not operating in our own, dare I say, media bubble.

On News Breakfast, we pride ourselves on engaging with our very informed audience and social media is the perfect real-time forum for them to have their say on politics.

It gives people a voice at a time when many are feeling neglected by the political system.

"I don't assume every bit of criticism is trolling, because some of the criticism is valid," Murphy said.

"I certainly understand the frustrations of readers. I share a lot of those frustrations myself."

Uhlmann said while journalists were the constant butt of social media attacks, the online critics would be rendered speechless if it wasn't for the hard work of political reporters.

"We do the daily grind to get the stories out there," he said.

"If it wasn't for us, people wouldn't know what was going on.

"All of these 'citizen journalists' on Twitter make reporters simply seeking the truth look like saints."