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Ready for e-electioneering? Empirical evidence from Pakistani political parties’ websites
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the use of political party websites for
e-electioneering and their impact on the outcome of the elections.
Design/methodology/approach – Empirical data for the study were collected from the websites of
11 major political parties of Pakistan using modified version of the coding scheme used by Gibson,
Rommele and Ward for the evaluation of functionality and delivery of websites. Data were analysed
using web content analysis method to achieve the objectives of this study. The study also ranked the
party websites based on points scored for functionalities and delivery.
Findings – The study found that although Pakistani political parties have started using their websites
for communication with their voters during the general elections but they have not utilized the full
potential of the website functionalities for e-electioneering.
Research limitations/implications – The study focused on content analysis of political party
websites of Pakistan only. However, comparisons were made to other studies where possible to
contextualize the results of this study in international perspective. It is suggested to replicate this study
after ten years to study the changing behaviour of political parties.
Practical implications – Political parties might like to improve their websites in the light of findings
of this study to spread their message more effectively to larger voter base.
Social implications – Findings of the study will help in improving the readiness of political parties
for e-electioneering and improved websites will help voters in making an informed decision during
election. It will overall improve the electoral process in the country where democratic system is not
very strong.
Originality/value – With the advent of internet, political parties are using their websites during
elections for various purposes. This study, first ever in Pakistan on the topic, provides empirical
evidence on the use of political party websites during May 2013 general election in Pakistan and
presents its impact on the outcome of the election. The study will be valuable for political science
researchers especially those focusing on Asia and Pakistan.
... The focus of this research is a campaign in social media because this campaign could be negatively utilised by-election participants and community stakeholders to disrupt the election stages. The social media campaign is also supported by Gomez Farias et al. (2015), Martins et al. (2020) and Naseer and Mahmood (2016) who emphasise that political parties use their power in social media to assist voters in making the right decisions. ...
This research contributes to the development of knowledge, especially campaign regulation, which needs to be adjusted by optimising technology and digitisation. To elaborate on campaign issues in the general election, a qualitative method with a descriptive approach was used. The determination of informants is done by purposive sampling. The implementation of the New Public Management has been adopted in an organisational and policy manner, involving the government, the private sector, and civil society in the election campaign. The scientific tradition has been built by public institutions, adapting to changes, paying attention to the social dynamics of the society in formulating public policies. The novelty in this research is policy innovation and the application of new public management in elections and optimising the use of digital technology in campaigns.
... Drawing upon previous research on campaigning websites in Asia (Gadekar et al. 2011;Naseer & Mahmood 2016) and the utilization of social media by Indonesian political parties and politicians (Johansson 2016a;Johansson 2016b;Beers 2014;Alami 2013), this study contributes to the discussion in two ways. Firstly, it shows that Indonesian parties were not yet achieving their maximum potential in using the digital media to disseminate political messages and propaganda. ...
This is the first such study of the use of Internet by political parties in Indonesia. It also documents parties’ websites performance index and online popularity for campaigning in 2019. The purpose of this comparative study is to look at how the Internet was used by Indonesian political parties in the lead up to the 2019 elections.
Internet campaign consists of two parts: online presence through political party website, and political marketing through social media. 16 parties participating in the elections next year were examined for how they are utilizing official websites and social media platforms. We created an index based on list of website features (scoring
system) and then classify it into 4 variables (information provision, mobilization, engagement, and technological sophistication) containing 43 features. We also visualise the descriptive statistical analysis on parties’ social media accounts using RStudio software. The study found that despite half of Indonesian national population
is using the Internet; political parties were not yet achieving their maximum potential in using the digital media to disseminate political messages and propaganda. The quality of most of the websites have been subpar. In addition, the quality seems to have no relationship with the financial resources and the current parliamentary size of political parties. On average, official social media accounts run by political parties has only been used in the last 3.25 years. Well-established older parties in Indonesia continue to engage with their constituents without heavily relying on social media. Yet, this situation is very likely to change in the future as parties’ elites are now beginning to look into this platform as they seek out to the millennials for electoral support.
In this work, we consider an elliptical random field. We propose some spatial expectile predictions at one site given observations of the field at some other locations. To this aim, we first give exact expressions for conditional expectiles, and discuss problems that occur for computing these values. A first affine expectile regression predictor is detailed, an explicit iterative algorithm is obtained, and its distribution is given. Direct
simple expressions are derived for some particular elliptical random fields. The performance of this expectile regression is shown to be very poor for extremal expectile levels, so that a second predictor is proposed. We prove that this new extremal prediction is asymptotically equivalent to the true conditional expectile. We also provide some numerical illustrations, and conclude that Expectile Regression may perform poorly when one leaves the Gaussian random field setting.
Cloud computing has become an important topic to research because of the value it can provide to the business. In this article, the researcher examined how Business Intelligence (BI) can be offered to the business over the Internet as a solution. BI environments, however, require a large capital layout to implement and support the large volumes of data that needs to be analysed to identify trends. It also requires enormous processing power which places pressure on the business resources. The goal of this article is to show how BI will be offered as a Software as a Service (SaaS) solution to the business. The BI SaaS solution will allow companies to reduce cost of having a BI solution and also having access to the latest software which will give the business an edge on their competition. By making use of a literature review the researcher were able gather and present evidence to support the value that the BI SaaS solution will add to the business and how such a BI SaaS solution will look like. As part of this research paper the researcher will also identify the challenges that the business will face when making us a BI SaaS solution.
The political communication environment worldwide has been transformed by the Internet with websites providing opportunities for affordable information dissemination and reception. Internationally, a party contesting an election without a website seems impossible today. This exploratory study examines the use of websites by political parties during the 2009 South African elections and investigates the functionality offered by the websites as well as how effectively this functionality is delivered. The study analysed the websites of both large and small political parties. It is worth noting that in spite of the lower Internet penetration rates in South Africa, the majority of political parties contesting the 2009 elections had websites. The study shows that the websites of the larger parties generally offer more functionality than those of the smaller parties, supporting the view of ‘normalisation’ of party competition in cyberspace. However, an analysis of the delivery of the content does not confirm the normalisation effects.
The internet was one of the most discussed communication innovations in the French 2007 Presidential and legislative elections. In order to assess the state of online campaigning in France, this article analyzes the characteristics of the websites of 12 presidential candidates and 10 national parties during the campaign. The data reveal that, despite the media hype, online electioneering in France is still at an intermediary stage, especially in terms of participation tools. Significant differences were found among candidates and, especially, parties. The gap between large and small parties is found to be greater than in most of similar country studies, thus providing new evidence against the internet's ability to level the political playing field. Distinctive patterns of online electioneering emerge between conservative and progressive parties and candidates.
According to one theoretical point of view, the character of a political party, especially its general goals, would be reflected in the contents of its website. In this article, the plausibility of this view, which is called an ‘actor-constructivist’ view in the article, is explored by means of a twofold analysis. The Finnish parties’ opinions concerning the importance and use of their websites, and the contents of their websites, are both analysed for potential linkages to four party traits: party goals, party organisation, party size and type of voters. The data consists of a questionnaire sent to the Finnish parties’ leading information officials. Additionally, a quantitative content analysis of the party websites found in January 2006 was conducted. Two separate automatic cluster algorithms were run in order to identify groups of parties based on the questionnaire and the content analysis. These groups were then explored for potential connections to the party traits. The main findings of the study are that the Finnish parties’ internal ‘view’ of their websites does not appear traceable to any of the party traits; the view varies from party to party and can hardly be used for generalisations concerning parties in general. However, the contents of the party websites appeared related to party size inasmuch as the websites of all parliamentary parties were significantly richer on information and more sophisticated in presentation than those of the parties outside parliament. The article also serves to demonstrate the difficulty of applying the ‘actor-contructivist’ view in empirical research.
This article explores the internet's role in the Finnish 2004 European election. The first aim is to explore how different actors employed the web during the campaign. The second aim is to analyze the impact of the actors' web strategies on voters. Two circumstances make Finland interesting. First, the basic prerequisite for web campaigning is fulfilled since the northern countries, including Finland, are the most 'wired' area in Europe. Second, the electoral system is based on voters' direct choice of candidates, which encourages candidate-driven campaigning. The findings show that the main actors of Finnish campaigns, candidates and parties, dominated the on-line environment. Major party candidates, especially, campaigned on-line. Overall, the websites of all actors provided few information and engagement features. However, major party candidates made better use of the web than other candidates. Additionally, the news media's 'candidate selectors' made good use of web-specific features, and attracted relatively large voter interest. Concerning voter impact, few voters visited election-related websites. Moreover, few indicated that they obtained very/quite much information to support their voting decision from the web. Interestingly, young voters were an important exception.
The presence of an African-American candidate on the ballot running for President in 2008 raises the possibility that the election outcome might have been influenced by anti-African-American racism among voters. This paper uses data from the Associated Press-Yahoo! News-Stanford University survey to explore this possibility, using measures of both explicit racism (symbolic racism) and implicit racism (the Affect Misattribution Procedure). The parameters of multinomial logistic regression equations were estimated to test the hypotheses that racism might have behaved differently on election day than they would have had racism been eliminated. The findings suggest that racism's impact on the election outcome could have been substantial, by causing (1) people who would otherwise have voted for Obama to vote for McCain, for a nonmajor party candidate, or not to vote at all, (2) people who would not have voted to vote for McCain instead, and (3) people who would have voted for a nonmajor party candidate to vote for McCain instead.
This paper examines the websites of 11 political parties in the run up to the general election of 7th June 2001, to determine whether parties have got to grips with the Internet as a medium for information delivery and campaigning. The websites of all the parties were analysed; and their content, design, interactivity, multimedia features and currency evaluated. Overall, the parties appeared to have developed a more professional and corporate attitude to web design since 1997, and certainly made efforts to keep their web pages up to date. However, the parties tended to conform to a rather sterile design lacking in multimedia features, and mounted only predictable content. Only a few parties had made any special effort to draw users to their websites. Similarly, although interactive features were present, few of these allowed more than a token input into party policy.
The Internet has been to date used as a space for simple promotion by political parties; websites present an opportunity for the delivery of non-mediated communication directly to the online audience and nothing more. However, new patterns in usage during campaigns, particularly that of Barack Obama, aided by the technological innovations that fall under the umbrella of Web 2.0, offer new models of online political communication. Through an analysis of the websites and linked online presences of six parties that stood across the UK at the 2010 General Election, we find a dual strategy for Internet campaigning emerging. The persuasive traditions of electioneering remain a feature; however, the key emergent function is one of internal marketing to party supporters and activists. Large sections of party websites are being dedicated to harnessing supporters and converting them to being donators, promoters, and campaigners both online and offline. This suggests that the Internet is increasingly embedded within election communication and online communication strategies are becoming a feature of most of the parties' marketing communication mix.
This paper examines the impact of the Internet, specifically the World Wide Web (WWW) and e-mail on Australian parties in two key areas: (1) party communication: what exactly are parties using their Websites for? and (2) party competition: does the Internet lower the threshold for smaller parties to communicate their message compared with the traditional media? We examine these questions with two types of data—a questionnaire of party communication staff and content analysis of a representative sample of party Websites. Our findings show, first, that Australian parties have taken a fairly cautious approach to the new medium, using it primarily as an information storehouse rather than putting it to more innovative use. Second, while almost all Australian parties have a Web presence, there is a divide between those parties with parliamentary representation and those without in terms of their site quality and visibility on the Web. The study concludes by interpreting the findings in the context of research on parties' use of the Internet worldwide.
A marketing efficiency model was applied to the analysis of the use of Web sites by the three major political parties (Conservatives, Labour, and Liberal Democrats) in the UK during the 2001 general election. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews with the Web project managers of each party, supplemented by a series of electronic enquiries sent to each party’s Web address on important policy issues. The aim was to establish the overall efficiency of political Web sites in attracting members of the electorate, engaging them, involving them and ultimately retaining them as loyal supporters. The parties used their Web sites as strategic marketing tools and demonstrated an awareness of the advantages the Internet had to offer compared with other media. A number of interactive features were included in the sites designed to engage visitors’ attention and involvement. Labour, in particular, had conducted market research to inform the design of their site. All parties invited visitors to submit comments and questions and promised to respond to such communications promptly. When this promise was put to the test, however, the parties were not all equally effective in the responses they provided. The signs are that political parties have come to recognise the significant role the Internet might play in re-engaging a politically alienated electorate, but still have some way to realise the full potential of the Web.
This article examines the functional, relational and discursive dimensions of the normalization thesis in one study, for both Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 features, in a longitudinal design. It is based on a quantitative content and structural analysis of German party websites in the national elections between 2002 and 2009. The results show that the normalization thesis holds true in all its dimensions over time and in the Web 2.0 era: parties still focus on the top-down elements of information provision and delivery while interactive options are scarce. The digital divide between parliamentary and non-parliamentary parties has narrowed over time, but remains visible for all online functions in 2009. Moreover, the gap is wider in Web 2.0 than in Web 1.0. Finally, German e-campaigns increasingly reflect those patterns of traditional election coverage that have been held accountable for rising political alienation among the public, i.e. strategic news and extensive negativism.
This article examines German national parties' use of the Internet in the 2002 federal election. Its main goals are to determine what the parties were doing in their online campaigns and how far their use of the Internet can be understood in terms of two party-specific variables – organisational size and primary goal. These questions are of significance given the relatively limited study of parties' use of the net in Germany in the comparative literature on this topic. Also, research on parties' use of the Web across countries has suggested that while context does produce differences in approach, partyspecific factors also play a major role in determining online strategy. The article attempts to investigate these questions systematically by examining nine German parties' use of the Internet (specifically websites, e-mail, and intra-nets) using questionnaire data from national party personnel and content analysis of web pages. Our findings show that while the divide between major and minor parties can be seen quite clearly in the German context in terms of website quality and visibility, evidence to support the impact of party outlook in shaping parties' online strategy can also be found. In addition, the study reveals that major parties are now beginning to take the Internet very seriously as a communication tool, particularly in terms of election campaigning.
This paper examines the websites of 11 political parties in the run up to the general election of 7th June 2001, to determine whether parties have got to grips with the Internet as a medium for information delivery and campaigning. The websites of all the parties were analysed; and their content, design, interactivity, multimedia features and currency evaluated. Overall, the parties appeared to have developed a more professional and corporate attitude to web design since 1997, and certainly made efforts to keep their web pages up to date. However, the parties tended to conform to a rather sterile design lacking in multimedia features, and mounted only predictable content. Only a few parties had made any special effort to draw users to their websites. Similarly, although interactive features were present, few of these allowed more than a token input into party policy.
Purpose
The blogging phenomenon has become a primary mode of mainstream communication for the Web 2.0 era. While previous studies found that campaign web sites did not realise two‐way communication ideals, the current study aims to investigate potential differences in communication patterns between campaign blogs and web sites during Taiwan's 2008 general election, with the aim of exploring whether the blogging phenomenon can improve the process of online political communication.
Design/methodology/approach
The study used a content analysis approach, the web style analysis method, which was designed specifically for analysing web content, and applied it to an online campaign context in a different political culture, using Taiwan's general election as a case study.
Findings
Results indicated that the themes of both campaign blogs and web sites focused on “attacking opponents” rather than focusing on political policies or information on particular issues. However, campaign blogs and web sites significantly differed in all other dimensions, including structural features, functions, interactivity and appeal strategies. Overall, in terms of the online democratic ideal, campaign blogs appeared to allow more democratic, broader, deeper and easier two‐way communication models between candidates and voters or among voters.
Research limitations/implications
The current study focused on candidates' blogs and web sites and did not explore the other vast parts of the online political sphere, particularly independent or citizen‐based blogs, which play significant roles in the decentralised and participant‐networked public spheres.
Originality/value
The study illuminates the role of hyperlinks on campaign blogs. By providing a greater abundance of external links than campaign web sites, campaign blogs allowed more voters, especially younger ones, to share political information in a manner that is quite different from the traditional one‐way communication model. The paper also argues that interactivity measures should be incorporated into the web style analysis method.
Purpose
The purpose of this exploratory study is to look at how the Internet was used by political parties and candidates during the Indian parliamentary elections of 2009.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 31 web sites belonging to political parties and their candidates in the Indian states of Maharashtra and Gujarat were examined for how they were used to mobilize volunteers and voters. An online questionnaire and in‐depth interviews were administered to the web site coordinators/designers and politicians.
Findings
The study found that sites were not used to their maximum potential but instead, merely for publicity, online presence, and to explore the new medium. There was greater reliance by most candidates on traditional media such as rallies and face‐to‐face interaction. The reason may be due to the limited Internet penetration in India, which also means the Internet may have less influence on voters. Some candidates have shown the way to the potential use of the medium for fund raising and recruiting volunteers. But Indian politicians will likely continue to be cautious in using the Internet.
Research limitations/implications
This study was limited to the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat and did not consider the impact or the effectiveness of the Internet.
Originality/value
This is the first such study of the use of web sites for electioneering in India. It also documents the development in the use of the new medium for campaigning in 2009 as compared with the elections of 2004.
Purpose
– Existing literature has agreed that during elections party web sites are primarily an information tool. This study seeks to identify to what extent political parties have developed a distinctive role for the Internet as a communications channel.
Design/methodology/approach
– Research data were based on content analysis of the web sites and e‐newsletters of parties contesting the 2005 UK General Election, and interviews with party e‐campaigners.
Findings
– Party size determined whether they had an integrated online communication strategy or not. The Internet did provide a discrete role, that of recruiting new members, encouraging donations and mobilising volunteers. Whereas previous research has focused on the web as an election campaign tool, this study found that it was e‐mail, especially pass‐protected e‐newsletters to party members.
Originality/value
– The traditional view was that parties used their web sites primarily to promote information. This study suggests that they only do so partially. Parties do not use their web sites as part of an integrated communication strategy supporting the messages carried by other channels. In 2005 UK parties began to develop a positive reason for having an online presence, namely as a resource generating tool, particularly in mobilising volunteers. Previous literature had considered whether parties had entered into dialogue; this study further defined this into asymmetrical and symmetrical two‐way communication. The results suggest that it is smaller parties who are more likely to use two‐way symmetrical communication.
“People lack many things: jobs, shelter, food, health care and drinkable water. Today, being cut off from basic telecommunications services is a hardship almost as acute as these other deprivations, and may indeed reduce the chances of finding remedies to them”. By these remarks at Telecom 99 in Geneva, Switzerland, UN Secretary General Kofi Anan warned of the danger of excluding the world’s poor from the information revolution. Although the world has seen exponential progress in terms of artificial intelligence, biotechnology, genetic engineering, neural networks, neurolinguistic programming, information technology management, telematics and infonomics, trade liberalisation, space exploration—but on ground the very pace and velocity of knowledge-driven growth has left a giant crevice between the information haves and the information have-nots, giving birth to a nomenclature called—the Digital Divide. Today information has become the most vibrant force and factor of production in the new economy contrary to the four traditional factors of production. Information has become the most important source of economic activity and the link which drives the info-hungry entrepreneurs to utilise the four factors of production in the optimal manner. Not land, not labour, not capital has done for an entrepreneur which the information alone has done. The world has seen a paradigm shift from scarce economic resources to the Age of Abundance—where plenty of information is available!
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Dr Mirza Muhammad Naseer is the corresponding author and can be contacted at: mmnaseer@gmail.com Dr Khalid Mahmood is a Professor of Library and Information Science at the Deanship of Libraries
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Dr Mirza Muhammad Naseer is an Assistant Professor of Library and Information Science at the
Institute of Space Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan. He acquired Master Degrees in Political
Science and Library Science from the University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan. He received his
PhD Degree in Library and Information Science in 2012 from the same university. He has more
than 22 years' experience of teaching, research and management of academic and special
libraries. Dr Mirza Muhammad Naseer is the corresponding author and can be contacted at:
mmnaseer@gmail.com
Dr Khalid Mahmood is a Professor of Library and Information Science at the Deanship of
Libraries, University of Dammam, KSA. He was the President of the Pakistan Library
Association during the session 2012-2014. He completed his Post-Doctoral Research at the
Department of Information Studies;
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