The Internet and National Elections: A comparative study of web campaigning

by Kluver; Randolph

• ISBN13: 9780415417365
• ISBN10: 0415417368
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-06-06
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This volume provides a comparative analysis of the use of the World Wide Web in countries around the world for political campaign purposes. Drawing upon a common conceptual framework - the ?Web sphere,? and a shared methodological approach called Web feature analysis - in order to examine how the Internet is used by a variety of political actors during periods of electoral activity. Research teams around the world conducted analyses in technologically advanced nations, as well as those with low Internet diffusion, and a variety of countries in the middle range of network penetration, and from a variety of political and cultural contexts. The book represents an important contribution towards gaining a cross-national understanding of the current and emerging impacts of the Internet on political practice. To that end, the contributors collect and analyze data related to the structure for political action and information provision. They examine twelve types of political actors engaged in elections,including candidates, parties, non-governmental organizations, government, media and individual citizens. Exploring the complex dynamics between politics, culture, and information technology at both the national and global levels, The Internet and National Elections will be of interest to students and researchers of political science, communication studies, international relations, media and Internet studies.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	p. viii
List of contributors	p. xi
Preface	p. xv
Conceptualizing and designing the project	p. 1
Introducing the Internet and Elections Project	p. 3
The Internet and Elections Project research design	p. 16
Political actors as web producers	p. 27
Finland: the European Parliament election in a candidate-centered electoral system	p. 29
The Netherlands: party and candidate websites during the 2004 European Parliament election campaign	p. 43
Slovenian online campaigning during the 2004 European Parliament election: struggling between self-promotion and mobilization	p. 60
The consequence of e-excellence: party websites in the Czech campaign for the 2004 European Parliament	p. 77
Online structure for political action in the 2004 U.S. congressional electoral web sphere	p. 92
Reaching diverse constituencies via the web	p. 105
Philippines: poli-clicking as politicking: online campaigning and civic action in the 2004 national election	p. 107
The internet in the 2004 Sri Lankan elections	p. 122
Addressing young people online: the 2004 European Parliament election campaign and political youth websites	p. 136
Two Indias: the role of the internet in the 2004 elections	p. 150
Political culture and the diffusion of technologies	p. 163
Web-based citizen engagement in the 2004 Australian federal election	p. 165
Hungary: political strategies and citizen tactics in the 2004 European Parliament elections	p. 178
Internet deployment in the 2004 Indonesian presidential elections	p. 194
Roles and regulations: boundaries on the Japanese web sphere in the 2004 Upper House election	p. 210
Web sphere analysis for political websites: the 2004 National Assembly election in South Korea	p. 226
Comparisons and conclusions	p. 241
Comparing web production practices across electoral web spheres	p. 243
Epilogue: reflecting on elections and the web	p. 261
Appendix	p. 265
Index	p. 270
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