Journal Articles

A tale of two e-parties: Candidate websites in the 2008 US presidential primaries

---

The Internet has become a relevant campaign tool in the United States and the 2008 presidential elections have marked a turning point in the recognition of its potential. This study analyzed candidate websites during the 2008 presidential primaries through a quantitative coding frame supplemented by latent trait analysis and meta-analysis of coding frames employed by seven earlier studies. The online competitive scenario was found to be less affected by offline dynamics than normalization theory suggests, as the money raised by candidates was not significantly correlated with the amount of features on their websites. However, the websites of candidates who already were in public office other than the Presidency had more features than those of out-of-office aspirants; by contrast, the number of years candidates had spent in public office was negatively correlated with the number of features on their websites. Moreover, Democratic candidates' websites were found to offer substantially more features than Republicans', particularly with respect to engagement tools, thus providing the challenger party with a sizeable competitive advantage.

---

Availability

No copy data

Detail Information

Series Title

Party Politics

Call Number

-

Publisher

Thousand Oaks : Sage Publications., 2013

Collation

-

Language

English

ISBN/ISSN

1354-0688

Classification

-

Content Type

-

Media Type

-

Carrier Type

-

Edition

Volume 19, Nomor 1, 2013, p. 19-40

Subject(s)

Presidential primaries
candidate websites
Internet and elections
Internet politics
online campaigning

Specific Detail Info

-

Statement of Responsibility

-

Other version/related

File Attachment

Comments

---

You must be logged in to post a comment