Campaigning Online The Internet in U.S. Elections

by Bimber, Bruce; Davis, Richard

• ISBN13: 9780195151565
• ISBN10: 0195151569
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-09-11
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

After a self-assured John F. Kennedy bested a visibly shaky Richard Nixon in their famous 1960 debates, political television, it was said, would henceforth determine elections. Today, many claim the Internet will be the latest medium to revolutionize electoral politics. Candidates invest heavily in web and email campaigns to reach prospective voters, as well as to communicate with journalists, potential donors, and political activists. Do these efforts influence voters, expand democracy, increase the coverage of political issues, or mobilize a shrinking and apathetic electorate? Campaigning Online answers these questions by looking at how candidates present themselves online and how voters respond to their efforts-including whether voters learn from candidates' websites and whether voters' views are affected by what they see. Although the Internet will not lead to a revolution in democracy, it will, Bimber and Davis argue, have consequences: reinforcing messages, mobilizing activists, and strengthening partisans' views. Reporting on a wealth of new data drawn from national and state-wide surveys, laboratory experiments, interviews with campaign staff, and analysis of web sites themselves, Campaigning Online draws the most complete picture of the role of campaign websites in American elections to date.

Author Biography

Bruce Bimber is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he is also Director of the Center for Information Technology and Society Richard Davis is Professor of Political Science at Brigham Young University

Table of Contents

Figures and Tables	ix
1 The Question: Reinforcement or Renewal?	3	(10)
2 The Evolution of Candidate Communication	13	(30)
3 Candidate Approaches to Election Web Sites	43	(58)
4 The Audiences for Election Web Sites	101	(24)
5 Consequences of Election Web Sites	125	(18)
6 Reinforcement	143	(30)
Appendix	173	(18)
Notes	191	(20)
Acknowledgments	211	(2)
Index	213