This study presents data from content analyses of the websites of all parties that stood in the 2009 European parliamentary elections in France, Germany, Great Britain and Poland. It cross-nationally examines the main functions of the websites, the adoption of Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 features, and the political and cultural factors that determine parties’ online communication. The findings show that while the main website function varies across countries, Web 1.0 is still the dominant mode of campaigning. Moreover, offline inequalities within and between nations determine differences in parties’ individual online strategies: specifically, major parties in states with long histories of democracy and EU membership lead the way and offer more interactive and innovative modes of campaigning. On the other hand, minor parties, particularly in Poland, remain in a more Web 1.0, information-heavy mode of communication. This supports the so-called normalization thesis on both the meso and the macro level.
This article examines the functional, relational and discursive dimensions of the normalization thesis in one study, for both Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 features, in a longitudinal design. It is based on a quantitative content and structural analysis of German party websites in the national elections between 2002 and 2009. The results show that the normalization thesis holds true in all its dimensions over time and in the Web 2.0 era: parties still focus on the top-down elements of information provision and delivery while interactive options are scarce. The digital divide between parliamentary and non-parliamentary parties has narrowed over time, but remains visible for all online functions in 2009. Moreover, the gap is wider in Web 2.0 than in Web 1.0. Finally, German e-campaigns increasingly reflect those patterns of traditional election coverage that have been held accountable for rising political alienation among the public, i.e. strategic news and extensive negativism.
A B S T R A C TScholars have seldom tested the innovation and normalization paradigm of e-campaigning over time. Particularly outside the US, there is a lack of comparative analyses of candidate or party websites that deal with the concept's temporal validity and scope. The article addresses this research gap through a longitudinal content and structural analysis of German party websites in the 2002 and 2005 national elections. The results provide empirical evidence of a twofold development of federal e-campaigns: while the major party websites evolved over time in information density, interactivity and sophistication (innovation), the minor parties were throughout characterized by an underutilization of structural website functions (normalization). On the content level, however, the major parties also adhered primarily to traditional offline strategies such as metacommunication or negative campaigning (normalization). Hence, a theoretical refinement of these basic concepts emerged according to a party's political status and the unit of analysis used.
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