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CAMPAIGNING FOR CONGRESS ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB AND THE IMPLICATIONS FOR STRONG DEMOCRACY
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ii
C
AMPAIGNING FOR
C
ONGRESS ON THE
W
ORLD
W
IDE
W
EB AND THE
I
MPLICATIONS FOR
S
TRONG
D
EMOCRACY
A
BSTRACT
The growing use and accessibility of the Internet has given political candidates an additional campaign tool for communicating directly with voters. While some scholars are excited about the Internet’s ability to promote “strong democracy,” others fear that it will further exacerbate existing inequalities among candidates and within the electorate. Who is more likely to campaign on the Internet? What kind of content are candidates displaying on their campaign websites? In order to answer these questions and offer some insights into which of the two possible scenarios of democracy are emerging, an extensive content analysis was performed of every campaign website that was launched for the 2002. Major-party candidates, well-financed candidates, candidates running in constituencies with higher Internet usage challengers, candidates from highly competitive constituencies were the most likely to campaign over the Web. With regard to content, a substantial number of candidates provided the public with insights into their personal background and their professional experience and were quite active in recruiting and mobilizing web users for their campaign. Candidates did not do well in providing information that would help expand the electorate and only a handful of candidates have taken advantage of the technological advances that could enhance the communication and interaction between candidates and citizens.
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ii
C
AMPAIGNING FOR
C
ONGRESS ON THE
W
ORLD
W
IDE
W
EB AND THE
I
MPLICATIONS FOR
S
TRONG
D
EMOCRACY
A
BSTRACT
The growing use and accessibility of the Internet has given political candidates an additional
campaign tool for communicating directly with voters. While some scholars are excited about
the Internet’s ability to promote “strong democracy,” others fear that it will further exacerbate
existing inequalities among candidates and within the electorate. Who is more likely to campaign
on the Internet? What kind of content are candidates displaying on their campaign websites? In
order to answer these questions and offer some insights into which of the two possible scenarios
of democracy are emerging, an extensive content analysis was performed of every campaign
website that was launched for the 2002. Major-party candidates, well-financed candidates,
candidates running in constituencies with higher Internet usage challengers, candidates from
highly competitive constituencies were the most likely to campaign over the Web. With regard to
content, a substantial number of candidates provided the public with insights into their personal
background and their professional experience and were quite active in recruiting and mobilizing
web users for their campaign. Candidates did not do well in providing information that would
help expand the electorate and only a handful of candidates have taken advantage of the
technological advances that could enhance the communication and interaction between
candidates and citizens.
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