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.
Author(s): Kluver, Jankowski, Foot, Schneider
Edition: 1
Year: 2007
Language: English
Pages: 279
Book Cover......Page 1
Title......Page 4
Copyright......Page 5
Contents......Page 6
Illustrations......Page 9
Contributors......Page 12
Preface......Page 16
Part I: Conceptualizing and designing the project......Page 18
1 Introducing the Internet and Elections Project......Page 20
2 The Internet and Elections Project research design......Page 33
Part II: Political actors as web producers......Page 44
3 Finland: The European Parliament election in a candidate-centered electoral system......Page 46
4 The Netherlands: Party and candidate websites during the 2004 European Parliament election campaign......Page 60
5 Slovenian online campaigning during the 2004 European Parliament election: Struggling between self-promotion and mobilization......Page 77
6 The consequence of e-excellence: Party websites in the Czech campaign for the 2004 European Parliament......Page 94
7 Online structure for political action in the 2004 U.S. congressional electoral web sphere......Page 109
Part III: Reaching diverse constituencies via the web......Page 122
8 Philippines: poli-clicking as politicking: Online campaigning and civic action in the 2004 national election......Page 124
9 The internet in the 2004 Sri Lankan elections......Page 139
10 Addressing young people online: The 2004 European Parliament election campaign and political youth websites......Page 153
11 Two Indias: The role of the internet in the 2004 elections......Page 167
Part IV: Political culture and the diffusion of technologies......Page 180
12 Web-based citizen engagement in the 2004 Australian federal election......Page 182
13 Hungary: Political strategies and citizen tactics in the 2004 European Parliament elections......Page 195
14 Internet deployment in the 2004 Indonesian presidential elections......Page 211
15 Roles and regulations: Boundaries on the Japanese web sphere in the 2004 Upper House election......Page 227
16 Web sphere analysis for political websites: The 2004 National Assembly election in South Korea......Page 243
Part V: Comparisons and conclusions......Page 258
17 Comparing web production practices across electoral web spheres......Page 260
18 Epilogue: Reflecting on elections and the web......Page 278
Appendix......Page 282
Index......Page 287
