Research Papers

Our research analyses the websites of parties and candidates competing in the elections in Poland 2011 and France 2012. We focus on three elements: the extent to which the websites strategically target a range of audiences both professionals and citizens; the extent to which the websites attempt to build interactive communities around the campaign; and the extent to which the websites embed themselves within the online community. The first two elements are completed through an analysis of the features and content of the website and their categorisation in order to determine the overall functionality and experience offered to visitors. The third element involves web cartography analysis which maps the hyperlink structure of websites and their relationship to other political sites, news sites and independent weblogs, social networking sites and other political organisations. The data from the Polish election is currently being analysed, however as the French election does not occur until June 2012 this data is still to be gathered. Hence at this stage we are unable to give insights into our findings. However, what we propose is to focus on the following questions. How does the Internet feature as a component of party strategy, who do they target and what role do they play within election campaigns. Secondly, what opportunities are offered site visitors and are visitors permitted to deliberate and discuss issues within their sites among their supporters. Finally, to what extent were official sites linking into the campaign ecosystem, so reaching out into the websphere to extend its reach and engage with the online users.