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Web Sites in the European Elections

Web Sites in the European Elections. Carlo Hagemann Nijmegen Institute for Communication Research Radboud University Nijmegen. European Union. EU is governed by: Council Commission Parliament Parliament is the only directly representative institution

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Web Sites in the European Elections

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  1. Web Sites in the European Elections Carlo Hagemann Nijmegen Institute for Communication Research Radboud University Nijmegen

  2. European Union • EU is governed by: • Council • Commission • Parliament • Parliament is the only directly representative institution • Parliament’s power is confined to co-decision

  3. Legitimacy of European Parliament • European Parliament is considered to be • Intransparent • Invisible • Highly relevant or…. • Low voter turnout • Second order national elections (Hix)

  4. Second order national elections • European elections are considered not too relevant • European elections are considered a mega-opinion poll • Fringe parties benefit • Government parties lose

  5. Research Question • To what degree, and in what manner do political parties incorporate their electoral strategies into the Internet Web sites? • More specifically: • In what manner can ideological and national-cultural influences on campaign style and material be discerned? • Even more specifically: • In what manner can campaign style and material be seen as meant for a second order national election campaign?

  6. Ideology or National-Culture • Since European elections are considered second-order national elections: • Hypothesis: European campaign is equal to national campaign • Only little attention for Europe • National issues instead of European issues • Hypothesis: If campaign issues and frames differ, it is between countries, not between ideologies

  7. Research Design • Content analysis • Archive of Web sites prior to the European Elections • Two-stage-analysis • Features: recording unit = Web site • Issues and Frames: recording unit = ‘Article’ about European Union

  8. General observations • Web sites supplement the rest of the campaign • Information provision • Interactivity is mainly one way • Web sites are rather sophisticated • Most features are present on all Web sites, but: • No fundraising in the Netherlands and Ireland • Opinion polling reserved for the UK

  9. Europe in Ireland www.finegail.ie Candidates

  10. www.labour.org.uk Europe in the UK

  11. Europe in the Netherlands www.vvd.nl

  12. Europe in Germany www.spd.de Eurokampa.de

  13. Features: National and ideological

  14. Issues

  15. Frames

  16. Summary • Features do not correlate with ideology. If they correlate, it is with nationality • Issues: • Social issues are Social Democrats’, whereas finance is Christian Democrats’ and Liberals’ • Expansion of EU is a Dutch and German issue • Frames: • National frame is UK’s and Social Democrats’ • UK’s campaigns are least about political substance

  17. Plans for Further Research • Comparison with other elections, and off-election years • Expanding on second order national elections • Seeking for more theoretical substance in political science literature • Archiving, and securing data • Content Analysis could be more rigorous (and more tedious)

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