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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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
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