TY - JOUR A1 - Römmele, Andrea A1 - Gibson, Rachel K. A1 - Ward, Stephen T1 - German Parties and Internet Campaigning in the 2002 Federal Election JF - German Politics N2 - This article examines German national parties’ use of the Internet in the 2002 federal election. Its main goals are to determine what the parties were doing in their online campaigns and how far their use of the Internet can be understood in terms of two party-specific variables – organisational size and primary goal. These questions are of significance given the relatively limited study of parties’ use of the net in Germany in the comparative literature on this topic. Also, research on parties’ use of the Web across countries has suggested that while context does produce differences in approach, party-specific factors also play a major role in determining online strategy. The article attempts to investigate these questions systematically by examining nine German parties’ use of the Internet (specifically websites, e-mail, and intra-nets) using questionnaire data from national party personnel and content analysis of web pages. Our findings show that while the divide between major and minor parties can be seen quite clearly in the German context in terms of website quality and visibility, evidence to support the impact of party outlook in shaping parties’ online strategy can also be found. In addition, the study reveals that major parties are now beginning to take the Internet very seriously as a communication tool, particularly in terms of election campaigning. Y1 - 2003 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/09644000412331307534 SN - 1743-8993 VL - 12 IS - 1 SP - 79 EP - 108 PB - Routledge ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Römmele, Andrea A1 - Gibson, Rachel K. A1 - Ward, Stephen T1 - The Future for Representative Democracy in the Digital Age T2 - Electronic Democracy? Mobilisation, Participation and Organisation via new ICTs Y1 - 2004 SP - 310 EP - 315 PB - Routledge CY - London ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Römmele, Andrea A1 - Gibson, Rachel K. A1 - Lusoli, Wainer A1 - Ward, Stephen T1 - Representative Democracy and the Internet T2 - Electronic Democracy? Mobilisation, Participation and Organisation via new ICTs Y1 - 2004 SP - 5 EP - 27 PB - Routledge CY - London ER -