6533b7d8fe1ef96bd126abd9
RESEARCH PRODUCT
Election Campaigning Online
Eva Johanna Schweitzersubject
business.industryCommunication05 social sciences050801 communication & media studiesPublic relationsLanguage and Linguisticslanguage.human_language0506 political sciencePersonalizationGermanPolitics0508 media and communicationsQuantitative analysis (finance)Content analysisPolitical science050602 political science & public administrationlanguagebusinessdescription
This article presents an integrated quantitative analysis of the functional, formal and content-related aspects of German political party websites during the 2002 National Elections. The analysis is guided by the normalization hypothesis of cyberspace, which infers a transfer of ‘real-world’ features of politics to the Internet. Results provide empirical evidence of a limited normalization in German e-campaigning: indeed, German party websites primarily serve information functions while neglecting interactive features. Yet, no overall gap in professionalism is found between major and minor parties analysed. Finally, online campaigning is dominated by a high level of self-referentiality but lacks both the expected degree of personalization and characteristic differences in communication styles between incumbents and challengers.
| year | journal | country | edition | language |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005-09-01 | European Journal of Communication |