Equal Access, Unequal Success — Major and Minor Canadian Parties On the Net

Abstract

The Internet has been heralded as the most revolutionary technology since the printing press. Within political science, much work centres around the democratizing potential of the Internet. Cyber-optimists argue that the Internet has the capacity to equalize political competition for parties. Other scholars argue that the Internet will not dramatically change the status of minor parties. Politics on the Internet will be `politics as usual'. Empirical support for both theories is mixed. Research has shown that party-centred countries are more likely to become equalized as a result of the Internet than candidate-centred countries. Using data from the 2004 federal election, this article argues that the Internet has not led to an equalization of party competition in Canada. The websites of nine political parties show that despite equal access to the Internet, there is unequal success in cyberspace for Canadian parties.

Between Broadcasting Political Messages and Interacting With Voters

“…Research from the 2001 and 2005 UK General Election campaigns showed that online campaigns tended to replicate the one-way communicative patterns that we have become familiar with in offline campaigning (Coleman 2001;Jackson 2007). However, with the rise of social media, scholars have once again envisioned its potential as a possible 'equalizer' for democracy, from levelling the playing field between established and new political parties (Small 2008), to bridging the gap between politics and the public (Coleman 2005b;Coleman & Blumler 2009). …”

Online Opposition and Elections in Malaysia

“…In brief, the parties with more resources both in terms of money and people are more likely to dominate minor parties at election time (Chen, 2010). Research findings in more 'party-centred' countries showed that internet politics in those countries are slightly more resistant to political 'normalization' than in countries where the electoral system is centred on individuals (Small, 2008). It was found that even minor parties managed to keep pace with design sophistication and publicity to remain attractive to users.…”

“…This view claims that parties who gain most from new media are those who are already powerful and politically active, while weak parties, who are silent offline, remain quiet online. (Norris, 2003) Major parties have the resources and motivations to build a successful online presence that attracts users, and come to dominate cyberspace (Small, 2008). Instead of creating a more equitable political culture, new media reinforces 'politics as usual'.…”

An online electoral connection? How electoral systems condition representatives’ social media use

“…A debate in media and communication studies pits a so-called equalisation thesis against a normalisation thesis (Small, 2008). The equalisation thesis posits that innovations such as websites and social media present a cheap avenue for small parties to make up ground on larger, better funded ones.…”

“…Furthermore, given social media's ease of use and free-of-cost nature, we seek to address whether social media as a new tool upsets traditional campaigning dynamics (see Small, 2008). Therefore, we examine whether established, major parties are more active on social media than smaller ones.…”