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Normalising or Equalising Party Competition? Assessing the Impact of the Web on Election Campaigning

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  • Rachel K. Gibson
  • Ian McAllister

Abstract

type="main"> A core question addressed by parties and internet scholars is whether the medium is equalising or normalising levels of inter-party competition, Are minor parties better placed to compete for voters' attention online (equalisation), or do major parties continue to dominate (normalisation)? To date, most research has supported the latter scenario through ‘supply-side’ comparisons of website content in a single election. This article re-examines the debate using Australian surveys of election candidates conducted between 2001 and 2010. As well as providing the first longitudinal study of this question, we link the supply side with voter responses and compare how well the parties recruit support through their web campaigns. Our results confirm that major parties dominate in the adoption of personal websites, although minor parties are stronger users of social media. Both strategies are effective in gaining votes, suggesting that the web may be rebalancing if not equalising party competition.

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  • Rachel K. Gibson & Ian McAllister, 2015. "Normalising or Equalising Party Competition? Assessing the Impact of the Web on Election Campaigning," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 63(3), pages 529-547, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:polstu:v:63:y:2015:i:3:p:529-547
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/1467-9248.12107
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    Cited by:

    1. Dobber, Tom & Trilling, Damian & Helberger, Natali & de Vreese, Claes H., 2017. "Two crates of beer and 40 pizzas: the adoption of innovative political behavioural targeting techniques," Internet Policy Review: Journal on Internet Regulation, Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG), Berlin, vol. 6(4), pages 1-25.
    2. José Santana-Pereira & Hugo Ferrinho Lopes & Susana Rogeiro Nina, 2023. "Sailing Uncharted Waters with Old Boats? COVID-19 and the Digitalization and Professionalization of Presidential Campaigns in Portugal," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-21, January.

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