Internet and National Elections

<p><em>The Internet and National Elections</em> provides a comparative analysis of the use of the World Wide Web in countries around the world for campaign purposes. </p><p>This ambitious study draws upon a common conceptual framework - the Web sphere and a shared methodological approach called Web feature analysis - in order to examine how the Internet is used by a variety of political actors during periods of electoral activity. Research teams around the world conducted analyses in technologically advanced nations as well as those with low Internet diffusion and a variety of countries in the middle range of network penetration and from a variety of political and cultural contexts. The book represents an important contribution towards gaining a cross-national understanding of the current and emerging impacts of the Internet on political practice. To that end the contributors to this book collect and analyze data related to the structure for political action and information provision. They examine twelve types of political actors engaged in elections including candidates parties non-governmental organizations government media and individual citizens. </p><p>Exploring the complex dynamics between politics culture and information technology at both the national and global levels this text will be of interest to students and researchers of political science communication studies international relations media and Internet studies.</p>