New Parties, New Media: Italian Party Politics and the Internet

Gibson, Rachel; Newell, James L.; Ward, Stephen

doi:10.1080/13608740508539595

Cited by 15 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…Overall, the empirical evidence gathered thus far from parties in a variety of national contexts supports the first and second of these scenarios, but not the third. While Internet use by parties has grown rapidly in liberal democracies since 1995 (Norris, 2000) and parties are increasing the sophistication of their online campaigns, websites appear to be largely mechanisms for feeding information to activists and journalists and for symbolizing the 'cutting edge' credentials of parties, rather than providing any meaningful interaction with voters (Davis, 1999;Gibson and Ward, 1998;Gibson et al, 2000;Tops et al, 2000). Indeed, it has become commonplace to deliver scathing verdicts on parties' online efforts, condemning them for adopting a cautious and uncreative approach to the new medium (Davis, 1999;Selnow, 1997;Stone, 1996).…”

Section: Professionalization and Convergencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…More significantly perhaps, as Web technology advances the need to have full-time highly skilled Web managers and/or commercial professionals to manage a site is becoming more important, further squeezing out the smaller parties. Despite this general tendency, however, there is evidence that party systems in more 'party-centred' countries, such as the UK and Italy, offer slightly more resistance to 'normalization', with minor parties keeping better pace with design sophistication and publicity for their sites (Gibson and Ward, 2000b;Gibson et al, 2000). Moreover, ebbs and flows in competition have been identified: in election campaigns the major parties outperform their minor counterparts, spending considerably more resources on their site, but between election campaigns fringe parties sometimes match them (Gibson and Ward, 2000a, b).…”

Section: Party Competition and Campaign Outcomesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Election Campaigning on the WWW in the USA and UK

et al. 2003

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This article is a comparative analysis of British and American parties and candidate election campaigning on the World Wide Web during the Presidential and General Elections of 2000 and 2001, respectively. The central questions are twofold: (1) Do parties differ across the two systems in terms of how they use the Web as a campaign tool? (2) Does the Web promote a more balanced or equalized exposure for party messages than other media? A combination of interview data, content analysis of sites and analysis of online and offline media coverage of the election is used to investigate these questions. Conclusions are drawn about the similarity of Web campaigning across the two countries and about the increasing dominance of the major parties, particularly in the UK.

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Section: Professionalization and Convergencementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Party Competition and Campaign Outcomesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Election Campaigning on the WWW in the USA and UK

et al. 2003

Self Cite

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show abstract

“…Very often the role of NGOs, governments and the media has been neglected, as most scholarly attention has focused on political parties and party candidates, predominantly in Anglo-Saxon countries (e.g. [11,19,22,29,44]). Even intuitively, however, one would expect some variation in the extent and style of online campaigns across nations.…”

Section: Framing New Media In the 2004 Ep Electionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Internet and the European Parliament elections: Theoretical perspectives, empirical investigations and proposals for research

Lusoli

2006

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This article reviews the existing literature on the study of on-line aspects of elections along three well-rehearsed theoretical frameworks: equalisation vs. normalisation, information vs. engagement, and mobilisation vs. reinforcement. It then examines the contribution of this volume to the field, first by direct reference to existing literature, then more generally, touching upon the notion of the 'comparative'-theoretical, geographical and empirical. I examine the contribution of the articles, considered as a collective effort, in relation to the increasing specialisation in the study of on-line aspects of elections. Then the framing of issues and the evidence presented within and across individual articles are used to assess the import of the internet for election campaigns with respect to increasing pluralism, professionalisation, and audience activity (or the lack thereof). It will be argued that this theme issue represents a first, necessary contribution towards gaining a cross-national understanding of the growing role of the internet for electoral practice. The last section further elaborates on possible future directions of online campaign studies, drawing on the study of the 2004 EP online election.

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“…While some scholars assert that the internet and social media, with their low entry costs and their affordances for unmediated communication, are powerful means to strengthen the position of traditionally marginalized groups and interests in the political field (e.g., Bene, 2021;Gibson & McAllister, 2015;Gibson et al, 2000;Morris, 2001), others posit that the internet, as it evolves, reproduces the offline political power structure, with major actors asserting their dominant position (e.g., Margolis et al, 1999). For instance, regularly updating content on social networking sites is more resourceintense than often assumed, and follower numbers often resemble the offline power structure (see Bene, 2021;Spierings & Jacobs, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Level Playing Field or Politics as Usual? Equalization–Normalization in Direct Democratic Online Campaigns

Fischer

Gilardi²

2023

MaC

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Are digital technologies leveling the playing field or reinforcing existing power relations and structures? This question lies at the core of the equalization vs. normalization debate. The equalization thesis states that the affordances of digital technologies help less-powerful political actors to compete with their more resource-rich counterparts, thereby overcoming structural disadvantages inherent to the political landscape. The normalization thesis, in contrast, suggests that more powerful and resource-rich political actors outperform their weaker competitors in the digital sphere by establishing a more sophisticated online presence, thus reproducing existing power imbalances. An overwhelming majority of studies on the equalizing vs. normalizing effect of digital technologies focus on electoral campaigns or non-electoral periods. Direct democratic campaigns have not been adequately considered in previous studies. This study exploits the regularly held and institutionalized character of direct democratic votes in Switzerland. Specifically, it investigates political actors’ level of activity and generated engagement on Facebook and in newspapers during all direct democratic campaigns from 2010–2020. Applying the equalization vs. normalization lens to Swiss direct democratic campaigns over an 11-year timespan provides new insights into the status-quo preserving or altering effects of digital technologies. We find a tendency toward equalization in terms of Facebook activity and user engagement, and in a comparative perspective: Facebook campaigns are, on average, more balanced than newspaper advertisement campaigns, particularly since 2014.

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New Parties, New Media: Italian Party Politics and the Internet

Cited by 15 publications

References 4 publications

Election Campaigning on the WWW in the USA and UK

Election Campaigning on the WWW in the USA and UK

The Internet and the European Parliament elections: Theoretical perspectives, empirical investigations and proposals for research

Level Playing Field or Politics as Usual? Equalization–Normalization in Direct Democratic Online Campaigns

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