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In this series of articles we present new insight into the drivers, quality, and impact of web campaigning up to date by reflecting on the uptake, maturity, and impact of internet campaigning in elections around the world. Specifically, we use the contributions to address four key topics that have been addressed by the web campaigns literature since its origins. First, diffusion and how widespread web campaigning has become; second, the issue of normalization and how far web campaigns favour the already powerful and well resourced; third, we discuss whether campaign style is changing and becoming more interactive and participatory as a result of the new digital technology; finally, we provide new evidence on the question of voter mobilization and the extent to which the web appears to be a voter generator for political parties and candidates. While answers vary according to context it is clear that web campaigning is common practice in democratic elections, although the U.S. retains its leading role for innovation and experimentation. The bigger players still dominate but social media platforms appear to be a more equal playing field. Opportunities for interaction and participation remain under-used, which is even more of an oversight by parties given that it does web campaigns do appear linked to stronger voter support.
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.
Models explaining the rise of American-style or so-called postmodern campaigning have focused primarily on changes taking place at the systemic level. While these models help explain variance across countries where these techniques are used, they do not explain variations among individual parties. Given that not all parties adopt these tactics and techniques at the same time, the authors argue that there are party-specific variables that need to be taken into account when understanding the shift to the new campaigning era. Building on the existing literature, the authors identify the key traits of what they term professionalized campaigning and the variables that prime a party to adopt it. The article goes on to develop a causal model, based on external and internal party events or shocks, that explains why a particular party would embrace this new style of campaigning. Finally, the authors operationalize their theory and develop indicators to measure the key variables for empirical testing.
This article develops and tests a new multidimensional index — CAMPROF — that is designed to measure and compare parties' use of professionalized campaign techniques during elections. Based on the extant literature, we identify and operationalize the essential components of this new form of campaigning to create a 30-point index that is applied to the case of the 2005 German federal election. The results show the CAMPROF Index to be: (1) successful in capturing variance in parties' engagement in professionalized campaigning, and (2) capable of producing rankings that correspond to a priori expectations about how well the parties would perform. The findings are significant in that they provide preliminary confirmation of the Index's capacity to measure the concept of professionalized campaigning as well as providing new insights into the party-level dynamics that may be driving the current wave of campaign modernization. The opportunities and challenges involved in wider application of the measure to cross-national research are discussed.
Political Communication
(2008)
This paper examines the growth of high-tech campaigning techniques among local level actors in Germany by studying website adoption among parties and candidates in the 2002 federal election. Arguing that election websites form a key tool of the new high-tech campaign trade we investigate the extent of their use at the local level as well as some of the triggers to their uptake and possible longer-term effects on campaign style, in terms of interactivity and independence from central party control. Our findings reveal that this form of high-tech campaigning is prominent across Germany and is promoted by factors linked to higher levels of local campaign activity more generally, i.e., party resources, competition and incumbency. Content analysis of sites, however, reveals little support for the notion that election websites are introducing a more participatory style of campaigning. Also, while some parties appear to be inclined toward controlling local actors' message through the medium, for the most part, candidates and parties appear to be left alone to develop their online profile.
Use of the web by political parties and candidates as well as the general public is expanding. However, so far, little serious systematic analysis has taken place to examine the spread of the practice and particularly its consequences for electoral outcomes and voter attitudes. In this article, we identify some of the key reasons for the lack of attention to the ‘cause-and-effect’ questions about Web campaigning and highlight the empirical and theoretical reasons why academic study needs to do more to incorporate it into conventional election studies. We conclude by offering some guidelines for developing the tools and data that are needed for more ‘joined-up’ study of the subject to take place.