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The Use of Facebook in National Election Campaigns: Politics as Usual?

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Electronic Participation (ePart 2009)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 5694))

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Abstract

The uptake of online media in election campaigning is leading to speculations about the transformation of politics and cyber-democracy. Politicians running for seats in Parliament are increasingly using online media to disseminate information to potential voters and building dynamic, online communities. Drawing on an online survey of the Facebook networks of the two top candidates running for seats in the 2007 Danish Parliament election, this study suggests that the online sphere is primarily populated by users who already know the candidates through the traditional channels of party organizations, and that they do not expect to influence the policy of their candidates. Instead, users view Facebook mainly as an information channel and as a means to gain social prestige.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Applied ICT, Copenhagen Business School, Howitzvej 60, DK-2000, Frederiksberg, Denmark

    Kim Normann Andersen & Rony Medaglia

Authors
  1. Kim Normann Andersen
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  2. Rony Medaglia
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Chair of Digital Governance, Centre for Digital Citizenship, Institute of Communications Studies, The University of Leeds, LS2 9JT, Leeds, UK

    Ann Macintosh

  2. University of Macedonia, Egnatia 156, 540 06, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Efthimios Tambouris

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© 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Andersen, K.N., Medaglia, R. (2009). The Use of Facebook in National Election Campaigns: Politics as Usual?. In: Macintosh, A., Tambouris, E. (eds) Electronic Participation. ePart 2009. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 5694. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-03781-8_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-03781-8_10

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-03780-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-03781-8

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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