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Chapter Two: Literature Review
Introduction
This thesis investigates the impact of the Web on local level political
campaigns in the UK. The end goal is to develop an improved
understanding of the role of the Web in local campaigning, placing
the effects of the Web in the context of existing literature and
creating a typology that describes how the effects of the Web
manifest in local level campaigns across different campaign types.
The development of the Web as an element of local campaigninghas so far, not been investigated in either the local campaigning
literature or online campaign literature and so little is known about
how online campaigns are affecting local level campaigns. This
poses interesting questions as local campaigns retain significant
influence over the outcome of elections in the UK despite the
apparent dominance of the national level campaign (Denver &
Hands, 1997, Johnston & Pattie, 1995). Their relevance also looks
set to increase as parties seek to rationalise their campaign efforts,
concentrating on key battleground seats, in a limited way becoming
more locally orientated (Norris, 2000). At the same time local
campaigns are growing in significance the Web is playing a larger
role in everyday life, with political campaigning no exception. As
well as a larger role, the character of the Web itself is thought to be
changing, with the emergence of new services based around an
architecture of participation often referred to Web 2.0. (OReilly,
20050 These new services open up opportunities for campaigns to
interact with electors online and possibly have ramifications for
campaign organisation overall. This further underscores the need to
develop an understanding of how the Web is affecting local levelcampaigns.
This research conceptualises the effect of the web on local
campaigns as manifesting in three areas:
Firstly the campaign mode through creating new ways for
campaigns to reach electors. In essence this area deals with
the choice of tools by campaigns, i.e. what they use to contact
electors
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Secondly by affecting the style of campaigns i.e. how
campaign modes are used to contact electors
Finally, by affecting campaign organisation i.e. the
organisational relationships between the campaign,
supporters, electors, and national and regional parties
Although there is a possibility the Web is forming a distinctive new
campaign type unrelated to what has gone before, it is the position
of this research that online campaigns at the current time, are more
likely to use the Web to augment existing campaign types rather
than replace them. So how the Web affects these different areas of
the campaign is likely to vary dependent on the type of campaign
they are located in. Previous work on local campaigning in the UK
has given rise to a number of campaign types, of which Fisher andDenver's (2009) indices of traditionalism and modernisation provide
the starting point for this analysis. The index of traditionalism
describes a traditional campaign, built on doorstep canvassing,
window posters and local organisational support. The second index
measures a campaigns modernisation, based on the use of
telephone canvassing, direct mail and centrally supplied tools such
as lists of voters and party software.
The overall argument of this thesis is that offline campaign type,either traditional or modernised, will be a significant factor in
predicting how the Web affects local level campaign mode, style
and organisation. With campaigns using the Web to augment and
further the decisions they have already made about their
campaigns.
In the context of the traditional campaign online campaigns are
predicted to be based on Web 2.0 modes of campaigning, be
interactive in style, and decentralised in organisation. In the case of
modernised campaigns they are predicted to use Web 1.0 modes,focus on information provision styles and centralised organisation.
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Fig X: Hypothesised effects of web use on local campaigns and how
they relate to research questions
Mode Style Organisation
Offline Traditional Doorstep canvas,
Public meetings
Dialogue, face to face Strong, independent local
organisation
Modern Direct mail, Phone
banks
Monologue, printed
word, video,
advertising
Strong central party
organisation and
influence
Online Traditional Web 2.0 platforms,
Architecture of
participation
Dialogue, online
interaction
Strengthen local
networks,
decentralisation
Modern Web 1.0, vanilla
websites
Monologue, online
information provision
Strengthen central party
control, centralisation
Research Question 1 Research Question 2 Research Question 3
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In order to test these hypotheses, this research aims to answer
three research questions, each of which relates to a specific area -
campaign mode, style and organisation. The results of these
research questions will then form the basis of a typology of local
level online campaigns which will add to our understanding of how
the Web affects i.e. manifests itself, in different types of local
campaigns. If the empirical evidence supports the overall argument,
that campaign type will predict the effects of the online campaign
type, then there is a basis for creating a typology based on existing
campaign types, traditional online campaigns and modern online
campaigns (and possible hybrids of these ideal types). Should some
other factor prove more influential then it will be necessary to
reconsider this argument as a basis for understanding the effects ofthe Web. There also exists the potential for an entirely new type of
local campaign, unrelated to previous categorisations, new and
distinct in of itself that may be the case if online campaigns are
completely unrelated to any other measureable factors.
RQ1 How did offline campaign type affect the adoption
of Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 modes of online
campaigning in local campaigns at the 2010 UK
general election?
The first question aims to create a statistical model of Web 1.0 and
Web 2.0 adoption in local level campaigns in the UK, controlling for
factors highlighted by previous research as being influential in the
adoption of the Web overall and adding in campaign type as an
explanatory variable.
Should offline campaign type be shown to be influential, this will
support the hypothesis that the effect of the web in terms of new
campaign modes is driven, in whole or in part by their existing
campaign type. Should this prove to be the case then it will justify a
typology of local level online campaigns based on traditional and
modern campaign types. Should campaign type not prove to be a
significant factor then the central argument of the thesis, that
campaign type is tempering the effects of the Web in local level
campaigns, will need to be re-evaluated based on what factors are
shown to be significant. If no factor is shown to be significant then
there may be a case for saying that modes of online campaigning
are emerging independently of existing, measureable factors.
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This question will be answered by using data from the 2010
Electoral Agent Survey and the 2010 British Representation Study,
which provide a range of variables which have been shown in
previous work to be predictors of campaign web adoption overall.
The Electoral Agent Survey also contains the variables required torecreate the indices of traditional and modern campaigning
developed by Fisher and Denver. The resulting model will then be
analysed to see if it provides support for the hypothesis that
campaign type is a predictor of the adoption of Web 1.0 and 2.0
modes of online campaigning.
RQ2 How did offline campaign type affect the style of
Web use by campaigns at the local level in the 2010
UK General Election?
This question seeks to create another statistical model, but in this
instance the outcome variable is based on the style of the online
campaign, not the mode. The outcome variables in these models
will be based on measures of interactive and information provision
in campaign web presences.
This question essentially acts as a check on the assumption that
Web 2.0 modes of campaigning are inherently interactive whilst
Web 1.0 modes of campaigning are based around informationprovision. This is not always the case, as Web 2.0 platforms can be
closed down, or used in a non-interactive way, whilst Web 1.0 sites
can be upgraded to encourage user contributions e.g. by adding a
forum. If support can be found for an effect from campaign type on
online campaign style, then it can be added to the final typology. If
on the other hand campaign type is not found to be predictive, then
again there may be reason to re-evaluate the basis for
understanding the effect of the Web on local level campaigns.
This question will be answered by using data collected byresearcher observation of online campaigns in the North West of
England during the 2010 General Election. This is smaller data set
than available for RQ1, but it offers a far more textured
understanding of online campaigns, including measures of feedback
mechanisms, the regularity of updates and requests for support.
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RQ3 How did the Web affect campaign organisation at
the local level in the 2010 UK General Election in
different kinds of campaign?
The final question aims to evaluate the effect of the Web oncampaign organisation across different campaign types.
There are a number of hypothesised scenarios about the Webs
impact on political organisation, ranging from acting as a
decentralising force to encouraging centralisation. It is in this, more
than any other area that the Web has the potential to be
transformative.
As with other online campaign mode and style, online campaign
organisation is hypothesised as being heavily related to offlinecampaign type with modernised campaigns being more centralised
and traditional campaigns less so. Where this question differs from
the ones before it is that it is not possible to isolate the effects of
the online campaigns as easily. Online campaign modes and style
are restricted to the online realm, but organisation deals with the
totality of the campaign. In this instance a purely quantitative
approach would be difficult as it would be difficult to isolate the
effect of the Web on the whole of campaign organisation. A more
case study approach however would allow for the various nuancesof campaign organisation to be investigated from multiple
perspectives.
This necessitates a qualitative approach to the question. Answering
this question will be done through a series of case studies of highly
modernised and highly traditional campaigns. It may be possible at
this point to also draw on the results of questions one and two in
order to target these case studies to campaigns that may represent
the archtypes of any final typology. So for instance, if the results of
questions one and two support the hypotheses that onlinecampaigns of traditional campaigns will be Web 2.0 based and
highly interactive, then one of the case studies will be a highly
traditional offline campaign which is Web 2.0 based and interactive
online campaign. Similarly, these criteria can vary if questions one
and two support different conclusions.
Wider impacts
The overall goal is to build towards a better understanding of how
the Web is affecting local campaigns, and how these effects are
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manifested in both traditional and modern campaigns. In the final
analysis it is hoped that a working typology of local web campaigns
can be developed which will allow for a better understanding of how
online campaigns manifest at the local level.
In addition, this research brings together two areas of study that
have previously been isolated from one another, local level
campaigns and online campaigns. Not enough is known about how
these two fields overlap and interact. It is hoped by drawing on both
these literatures this research will allow them to speak more directly
to one another.
The discussion of online campaigns and their impact on organisation
also fits squarely in the midst of the party decline literatures. As
parties have struggled to adapt to social change in the late 20th andearly 21st century, they have seen party rolls fall and partisanship
amongst voters decrease. Whether this has come about through
parties own actions, or has driven parties to respond, the end result
has been a professionalisation and a centralisation of power in
political parties that has further affected incentives to participate in
political parties. The end point of this process is disputed however,
with an acknowledged danger that parties will begin to lose their
legitimacy. In the UK, a system where parties have a strong role in
the running of government, a loss of faith in parties may welltranslate to a loss of faith in the system as a whole.
One possible solution to the issue of party decline is to improve
parties responsiveness to their membership and wider supporters. If
party supporters feel they have greater efficacy then this may go
some way to encouraging participation by providing enhanced
incentives. In part, motivations for participation in campaigns come
from a sense of contribution to a wider aim, the exclusion of
supporters from the day to day running of parties as they have
adopted a more professionalised and centralised approach is one
possible explanation of a lack of interest in political parties. E-
campaigning is only a small part of the wider picture, but the ability
of supporters to open dialogues with candidates and campaigns
through technology creates the potential for a more interactive and
responsive form of campaigning.
There also remains a question of causality inherent in this thesis, is
the Web actually leading to more grassroots campaigns, or are
more grassroots campaigns using the Web? This thesis adopts asocial shaping position on this question, arguing that Web use will
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be primarily a product of existing campaign factors i.e. that
campaigns that are more grassroots use the Web to this end, hence
the predicted link between campaign type and web use. However
this question needs to be investigated in more depth as it is
conceivable that Web use may be driving campaigns to behave in amore grassroots orientated way, particularly where Web use has
unforeseen or unintentional consequences for campaigns. For
instance, it may be difficult for a campaign that sets up a web
presence with the intention of using it in a top-down way to ignore
the resulting outputs in the form of comment and criticism, in
particular where these outputs are public. In such a way it is
conceivable that campaigns will be forced to respond even where
they had no intention of responding when they created the
presence. This would be, in part, an example of a more
technological determinist argument, with the characteristics of the
technology determining its use to some degree. This thesis can also
speak to (by no means definitively) to this wider debate about the
role of technology and its relationship to politics.
Overall, it is hoped that by developing a working typology of local
online campaigns this thesis will provide an opportunity to redress
some of the outstanding questions at the confluence of
comparative, local and online campaign literatures. The end result
of which will be one step closer to understanding the futuredirection of campaigns as the Web continues to grow in both scope
and importance.
Structure of literature review
This review is structured in six parts:
Part one will discuss the development of local level campaigns and
provide some overall context for the research. This will show that
the local level remains a relevant and possibly increasingly relevantlevel of analysis for political campaigns. Drawing on literature from
both comparative and local level accounts of campaigning, the
review will outline how the local level remains relevant to the overall
election, and in particular how the study of the local level offers
significant advantages over national level approaches to the study
of online campaigns.
Part two will outline the conceptualisation of local level campaign
types, using the work of Fisher and Denver (2009) to classify
campaigns as being either traditional or modern. This forms the
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basis for the overall approach to the question of the Webs effect on
local level campaigns, contextualising the study in previous
research.
Part three will then discuss the literature relevant to question one,
the measure of the effect of the Web on campaign mode,
specifically how campaigns are adopting different modes of online
campaigning, be they Web 1.0 or Web 2.0 in nature. It will evaluate
previous attempts to model Web adoption by local level campaigns,
discussing a variety of cases.
Part four will look at the question of the effect of the Web on
campaign style, specifically how the new modes of campaigning are
being used, either to promote dialogue between campaigns and
electors, supporters and workers, or alternatively to pursue amonologue, a single unified message. Using a number of accounts
of online campaigning this section will aim to develop a more
textured understanding of how online campaigns use the Web and
how these differing styles might relate to the kind of campaign,
either traditional or modernised.
Part five will address RQ3, the question of the Webs effect on
campaign organisation in different campaign types. It is here more
than in other areas that the Web may potentially make the biggest
impact on local level campaigning. There is a wealth of literature
both theoretical and empirical that advances arguments about the
Webs effect on campaign organisation. Much of this literature is in
fields other than political campaigning, but it still holds relevant
lessons for local political campaigns. There is evidence to support
both the hypothesised scenarios, that the Web will decentralise
party organisation, or centralise it.
The final section will discuss the wider ramifications of this thesis
and locate the thesis within the context of a wider literature. Firstand foremost this thesis seeks to bring together literatures on local
campaigning and online campaigning, creating a working typology
that links the offline and the online campaign at the local level. This
work also speaks to other question however, most notably those of
the continuing decline or transformation parties and the effect on
party legitimacy, and the question of the Webs inherent political
properties (if any). This section draws on the significant body of
literature that deals with the party decline thesis.
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Why study local level online campaigns?
In the first instance, why is the study of online campaigns at the
local level worthwhile and why is it necessary to know more about
how the Web is layering on top of local level campaigns? There arethree key reasons that make this level of analysis an important topic
both for the study of campaigns in general and the study of online
campaigns in particular: The continued relevance of the local
campaign, the emergence of the post-modern campaign, and the
possibilities of local online campaigns.
The continued relevance of the local level campaign
The post war period is categorised by Norris (2000) as being the era
of the 'modern' political campaign, during which time the nationalparty leadership begins taking a greater hand in planning and co-
ordinating election campaigns. Up until this point the local level had
been largely dominant, but it now begins to take a back seat to
national level machinations (Denver & Hands, 1992, 1997).
The arrival of television in the post-war era further shifts attentions
to the national campaign, with the focus of campaigns now firmly on
leaders in a battle to dominate the nightly news as opposed to local
candidates attempting to connect with individual voters. Attendance
at public meetings, the old staple of local candidates began to
dwindle (Denver & Hands, 1997), and the activities of the local
campaign became relegated to the status of ritual rather than a
meaningful contribution to the overall campaign.
'Since 1959 election campaigns have become evermore
centralised, dominated by national television, focussed on
party leaders, directed by professional experts in public
relations and conditioned by the result of national public
opinion polls'
Denver & Hands, 1997, p16
Contrary to the national centric approach however, research from
1992 onwards that focussed on local level political campaigns in the
UK has shown that the local level often makes a significant
contribution to the overall election result. Denver and Hands
developed a measure of campaign intensity based on survey data
and found a significant positive correlation (.281) between the
combined campaign intensity and the change in turnout between
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1987 and 1992 general elections (Denver & Hands, 1992, p543).
They also looked at the change in vote share and found more mixed
results, with the Conservative Party campaign intensity actually
reducing their change in vote share, this they attribute to a lack of
specific targeting by the Conservatives who tended, they claimed tocampaign strongly everywhere, meaning that in some cases the
Conservatives expended significant amounts of effort in seats they
were destined to lose from the start. Where campaigns were
targeted (in Labour and Lib-Dem campaigns), they identified a
positive correlation, suggesting that campaign intensity did have a
positive impact by as much as two percentage points (Denver &
Hands, 1992).
Further debate ensued over the factors that might account for the
uneven distribution of the effect of campaigning. Pattie andJohnston used campaign spending as a proxy for campaign effort in
their analyses of campaigns. They found that incumbency was a
major factor in predicting the effectiveness of local campaigning,
something refuted by Denver and Hands (Johnston and Pattie,
1997). Despite these controversies within the literature however,
what was clear was that there was a relevant level of analysis
largely ignored by national level approaches to political
campaigning.
Despite the shift in attention, local campaigns never stopped being
relevant to the outcome of elections, and by extension many other
areas as well. From an organisational perspective for instance the
idea of a national campaign is not very meaningful as most party
members, supporters and voters can only engage with any one local
level campaign.
The emergence of the post-modern campaign
There is also good reason to think also that local level campaignsmay also grow in importance. The study of national campaigns has
also begun to pay more attention to the local level.
There are a number of differing accounts of the state of the national
campaign, varying from Americanized (Scammell, 1995), Phase IV
(Farrell & Webb, 2000), Professionalization (Gibson & Rommele,
2009) and Post-Modern (Norris, 2000). To some extent there is
common ground between them, with the idea that campaigning has
become infused with ideas drawn from professional marketing.
Scammel (1995) points to the 1979 Conservative manifesto as an
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example of the influence of marketing ideas on political campaigns,
with market research not just testing the ideas within the manifesto,
but also being used to inform and generate policies. The idea that
the marketers were not only in the room, but also held substantive
sway over policy formation seems to mark a departure, even fromthe centralisation and unification of modern campaigns that
occurred post-war.
Other accounts have focussed instead on concepts of
professionalisation. Gibson and Rommele (2009) for instance
developed an index of campaign methods (CAMPROF) aimed at
measuring just how far the professionalisation of campaigning had
gone.
'Overall the new style of political campaigning has seenparties increasingly compared to business and commercial
entities. Parties exist to make and sell their products, i.e.
policies to an increasingly fickle audience of voters or
consumers'
Gibson and Rommele, 2009, p266
However, the concept of professionalisation has drawn some
criticism, with the term professional being used seemingly to
embrace anyone with a semblance of media management (Lilleker& Negrine, 2002). Arguably however the emergence of a
professional cadre of political marketers at the heart of UK political
campaigns is an observation of note, suggesting that campaigns are
destined to grown organisationally more centralised.
Despite difficulty over establishing a coherent terminology,
agreement has been reached about the techniques that underpin
this new form of campaigning on the ground. In general, it is seen
as a centralisation of campaign organisation, with campaigns relyingon newly available techniques such as direct mail, telephone
canvassing. Techniques which had previously been the mainstay of
the campaign such as television coverage are arguably less
effective today as media markets have fragmented (Norris, 2000).
The unmediated nature of techniques such as direct mail means
that campaigns can bypass this problem, appealing directly to the
voters. Obviously the recent TV debates in the UK show that
mainstream television appearances are still important tools for
campaigning parties, but how long this will remain the case in the
face of pressure from on-demand television is hard to say.
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Despite a strong narrative of nationalised campaigning there are
hints that parties may be in part renewing their focus on local level
campaigning. Norris (2000) argues that parties are increasingly
recognising that the targeted use of resources at the local level
holds advantages for campaigns, allowing them to campaignhardest where it will be of greatest advantage. This realisation
would certainly explain developments such as the Labour Party's
Key Seats Unit that strictly controlled the allocation of resources
prior to the 1997 campaign, cutting off funding for all but the most
vital constituencies (Whitely & Seyd, 2003).
The possibilities of local online campaigns
The local level offers significant advantages to the study of online
campaigning as well. Conceptualising campaigns as being nationalinherently limits the scope and explanatory power of national level
accounts of online campaigns. Accounts such as Coleman (2001)
can only ever be anecdotal as they lack the basis for a meaningful
comparison between cases. Breaking an election into its component
parts offers a far higher number of cases, and therefore offer the
possibility of a cross sectional comparison with other cases located
within the same electoral system. This enables a far more
systematic approach to the study of online campaigning than is
possible at the national level.
The focus on national level has also precluded the possibility of
small-scale change in campaigns as a result of the Web. The
constant search for the internet election has meant that
meaningful changes that occur in specific constituencies and
campaigns are potentially being missed. This is a common problem
with work relating to the Web, many of the original cyber-utopians
(Negroponte, 1995; Rheingold, 1993) predicted such widespread
changes that when they failed to manifest themselves smaller scale
changes could only ever be disappointing. Studying local level
campaigns allows for the possibility that even small changes in how
campaigns organise themselves using the Web may add up to
significant impacts at the local level. It also allows for the
identification of exception cases, the outliers in the sample that may
not be generalizable to the overall population, but hold interesting
lessons for the future of local campaigns in an increasingly online
era.
Finally, the link between local campaign literature in the UK andonline campaigning has not yet been made, and so there is a gap
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that needs to be filled.
Overall, the local level is an appropriate level of analysis for local
campaigns as:
Despite the academic and political focus on national level
campaigning the local level has always remain relevant to the
study of campaigns
There is evidence that national campaign organisations are
becoming increasingly locally focussed in their approach to
campaigning in order to maximise their use of resources
The study of online campaigns provides opportunities for a
more systematic and detailed study of online campaigns, andto make a greater contribution than an alternate nationally
focussed approach
Traditional and modern campaigning
So far this chapter has shown why the local level is a relevant unit
of analysis for the study of online campaigns. This thesis
conceptualises local level campaigns as falling somewhere on two
differing scales of campaigning, traditional and modern, acategorisation that is based on the work of Fisher and Denver
(2009).
A number of approaches to categorising local level campaigning in
the UK have been investigated, mainly as offshoots of earlier work
establishing the importance of the local level campaign and still
very much aimed at explaining variations in effectiveness of the
local level campaign (Fisher et al, 2006; Fisher & Denver, 2008,
2009; Johnston & Pattie, 1995; Denver et al, 2003).
Johnston & Patties (1995) use of spending data as a proxy for
campaign activity is on the face of it a promising approach to
classifying campaigns, but faces difficulty in identifying the source
of money. In cases were candidates are independently rich they
may well be subsidising campaigns out of their own pocket,
campaigns that may attract little or no other sources of funding.
Secondly, there is no clear picture of what money is actually being
spent on. For our purposes it is necessary to look at the campaign
techniques being employed in order to gauge their impact on the e-campaign, but spending data cannot tell us what kinds of
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techniques are being used. Although approximations of the relative
costs of face to face campaigns and marketing orientated
campaigns are known, it is conceivable that a very intensive face to
face campaign may cost as much as a cheaper marketing orientated
campaign.
Fisher et al (2006) study of centralisation as a predictor of vote
share used a measure of campaign centralisation that attempts to
capture the relationship between the local, regional and national
party. They admit that the measure fails to capture a number of
important aspects of centralisation, but this measure remains of
interest from the perspective of e-campaigns. Although the central
contention of this thesis is that online campaigns are influenced by
offline campaign types, the organisation of offline campaigns is
likely to be a factor in that relationship, if not a distinctivecharacteristic of campaign type. Campaign types that rely heavily
on impersonal campaign techniques are at least in theory likely to
have a closer relationship with the central party organisation, given
that centrally administered campaign techniques such as direct mail
require greater co-ordination than where campaigns are working
independently of the central party. The focus however
unquestionably remains on the techniques used by offline
campaigns but there may be scope for incorporating measures of
centralisation either in the measure of offline type, or in the form ofan interaction effect between organisation offline campaign type.
The approach used in this analysis is that of Fisher and Denver
(2009) which consists of twin indices of traditionalism and
modernisation in campaigning measured as follows:
Traditionalism Modernisation
No. of posters distributed per elector Use of computers
No. of leaflets delivered per elector Use of computerised electoral register
% electorate canvassed on the doorstep Used party software
No. Public Meetings Rough level of telephone canvassing
Mean nos of campaign and polling-day workers Used computers for knocking up
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Level of manual activity on polling day (including
delivery of last minute leaflets, knocking up,
proportion of the electorate covered by last minute
number-takers)
Use of direct mail
% electorate canvassed by telephone
Source: Fisher & Denver (2009) p198
Based on these measures they found that local level campaigns in
the UK increasingly fell into the modernised as opposed to the
traditional bracket. In contrast to this however, they found that
traditional campaign techniques were found to be the most effective
in terms of encouraging electors to vote for that party, however, inthe face of declining party memberships modernised campaigns
were increasingly becoming the best the parties had to offer (Fisher
& Denver, 2009)
Overall, it is felt that this approach most closely captures the traits
likely to explain the effect of the Web, providing a mixture of
campaign mode and style as well as campaign organisation in the
measure. Other advantages to this approach include the fact that
this index was constructed using data that is the same as the EAS
data being used in this study, and so can be re-created with a great
deal of fidelity in the analysis. The measures have also been tried
and tested to some extent which further adds to their validity.
The principal drawback of this approach is the inclusion of a number
of variables under the heading of modernisation that relate to
technology, creating a possible co-linearity problem in the analysis.
Campaigns that use computers, may be more likely to develop
online modes of campaigning simply because they have access to
the technology. The inclusion of computer use as a measure ofmodernisation is perhaps symptomatic of an assumption that
technology is always inherently modernising. As counter-intuitive as
it may sound, with the development of Web this may be less likely.
Previously technology has presented itself first in the hands of an
elite, be it television, print, radio, automobiles, they have always
been manifest in a few select campaign before becoming
ubiquitous. Web 2.0, represents not a new technological elite, but
operates by the very fact that it is none-exclusive, cheap and easy
to use. In many ways Web 2.0 is the technological version of thedoorstep campaign, traditional, based on dialogue, and run locally.
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For this reason it is correct to question the inclusion of computer
use in this measure.
However, at no point does the measure include an actual measure
of Web use, and the computer is a diverse tool, one that can still be
used to increase co-ordination with central party organisations as
easily as it can be used to go online. The fact that Fisher and Denver
have concentrated on this kind of computer use (e.g. the use of
party software, computerised voter lists) suggests that they are
capturing something different to and distinct from Web use.
Although careful attention needs to be paid in the final analysis, the
existing index of traditionalism and modernisation probably best
captures different approaches to the local level campaign.
Although it is not perfect, traditionalism and modernisationrepresents the most viable approach for this research to use as a
basis for investigating the effects of the Web. Although it may be
viable to develop a new measure specifically for this thesis, of
separate measures to cover each of the areas investigated. These
would however lack the overall unifying concept of being either
traditional and modern which would risk the conceptual clarity that
these indices provide. For the purposes of this thesis, traditional and
modern are the bedrock on which further analysis is built.
The effect of the Web on campaign mode
Question one deals with the effect of the Web on campaign mode
(meaning the tools and media used by local level campaigns to
reach electors) in different campaign types. This question aims to
show how traditional and modern campaigns can differ in their
approach to online campaign modes by constructing two statistical
model of campaign Web adoption, one for Web 1.0 campaign
modes, the other for Web 2.0.
The Web opens up two new modes of campaigning for local level
campaigns, they can use conventional websites (termed here Web
1.0) of the style familiar to most web users. These sites tend to be a
series of pages hosted on a campaigns own domain, or one supplied
by the local party or in some case the national party. Altering these
sites is difficult without specific knowledge of html, or an expensive
content management system common only in professionally built
sites. These sites tend towards being non-interactive and limiting
the ability of the user to get involved, although here we are
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principally concerned with the mode of campaigning, not the style
(discussed later). The alternative approach is to use one of the
many Web 2.0 platforms that have emerged in the last few years.
These include social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter,
and may also be thought to include services such as Flickr and YouTube. These sites, much like Web 1.0 sites can be used to
display information, but their use is greatly simplified, as they
require little knowledge to use. They are also usually free to use as
well, often funded by adverts, making Web 2.0 a good option for
campaigns that are unable to fund a more expensive Web 1.0 style
site. It should not be forgotten however that while Web 2.0 is free to
use, keeping social networking presences updated still has a
resource cost for campaigns. Every supporter monitoring a
Facebook page for instance is not out on the doorstep.
This is perhaps the key reason why we would expect to see a
different manifestation between traditional and modernised local
campaigns in this instance. Where modernised campaigns are able
to utilise modern modes of campaigning despite the expense they
represent, traditional campaigns are based more around shoe
leather, a more time intensive but often a far cheaper option. There
is an implied difference in resource availability in campaigns that
draws clear connections to Web based modes of campaigning. A
Web 2.0 approach seems far more likely in a traditional campaign,where as a Web 1.0 mode seems more likely in a modernised local
level campaign.
Before these links can be confirmed however, there are a number of
other factors relating to the adoption of the Web that need to be
considered and controlled for in an analysis. A number of empirical
studies have looked at the issue of Web adoption amongst differing
campaigns and found conflicting reports as to what factors are key.
This section outlines these finding and highlights what factors need
to be taken into consideration as part of statistical model.
The existing studies however have not yet been linked to the local
campaigns literature, so the type of local campaign being fought in
the area has yet to be included in any of these models. In addition,
much of the research pre-dates the emergence of Web 2.0 as a
possible campaign mode. Key Web 2.0 services for campaigning
such as Facebook and Twitter, were not viable campaigning options
as recently as 2006 and so the distinction between Web 1.0 and
Web 2.0 is not evident in many of these accounts, suggesting thatthere is need for further work in this area before we can fully
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understand the adoption of new campaign modes by local level
campaigns.
There are three categories of factors that need to be considered in
analysing campaign web adoption, factors related to the
constituency, the campaign and the candidate (Herrnson et al,
2007)
Constituency factors
Constituency factors are the characteristics of any given
constituency, and have included variables that measure the age of
the population, education and affluence. There is an acknowledged
gap in Web use based on demographics, often referred to as the
Digital Divide. The annual Oxford Internet Institute survey confirmsthat disparities are still widespread in the UK. 97% of Households
earning over 40,000 per year report using the Web compared to
only 38% of households earning less than 12,500. Those who
attended higher education report 42% higher web use than those
with only a basic education, and A and B social grade households
report 88% access to the Web whilst only 46% of D and E grade
households have access. Age is also a potent factor, there is a 72%
fall in web use between the youngest and oldest respondents
(Dutton et al, 2009). From a campaigns perspective, there is little
point to an online campaign in constituencies were Web access is
limited. If campaigns take this into account when deciding to
campaign online or not, then we can expect to see factors such as
income, education, and age play a big role in predicting the use of
the web.
Carlson & Djupsund (2001) examined the adoption of websites
during the 1999 Finnish Parliamentary election campaign, using a
similar set of explanatory variables (partisanship, gender, age,
constituency and incumbent status) finding that constituencyfactors were of some relevance in the Finnish case:
'The general tendency is that the use of the Web is slightly
more common in areas of higher development, but there are
some exceptions to be found (e.g. the constituencies of Oulu
and Kuopio). These represent the third kind of area mentioned
above (i.e., a highly developed city with a university). Hence,
we might state that generally candidates' use of the Web is
high all across the country. The differences that are to be
found seem to be linked to the general level of development,
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education and the size and density of the population.'
Carlson & Djupsund, 2001, p76
Herrnson et al (2007) reported similar findings in a large scale study
of US campaigns on a mixture of levels (state-wide). The findingsbear out the assumptions of the digital divide, with constituencies
that feature a higher number of black voters, voters over 55 having
a significant negative effect on the likelihood of candidates
establishing a website. A higher percentage of college educated
electors however increased the likelihood (Herrnson et al, 2007).
Campaign factors
As well as factors related to the constituency, we can also consider
factors related to the campaign such as party affiliation,
competitiveness and incumbency. Claims have been made in the
past that there is an ideological affinity between the Web and some
parties. In the US, the dominance of the right wing blog sphere in
particular has seemed to point towards an ideological effect.
Whether this is down to ideology, or some parties simply being
quicker to adopt new technologies in unclear. We can also consider
the risk involved in taking a campaign online, in particular for
established candidates that are already well embedded in their
seats. Would a veteran incumbent be as quick to go online as achallenger looking to build a public profile?
Findings in this area have also been contradictory. In the 2004
Australian elections Gibson & McAllister (2006) found that party
affiliation had a profound impact on a parties likelihood of going
online, although this effect was seemingly limited to the far right
party. Conversely Herrnson et al (2007) reported very little effect
from party affiliation on web adoption.
There is also a mixed picture surrounding incumbency and political
experience. Two studies included some measure of a campaigns
position in the race (Carlson & Djupsund, 2001; Zittel, 2009). In the
Finnish case, incumbents were more likely to use the Web than
challengers (Carlson & Djupsund, 2001), in the German case
incumbency was not shown to be a factor. This is surprising given
the reputation the Web has accumulated in terms of being an
outsiders medium.
Other studies have included measures of political experienceinstead of measures of incumbency. Herrnson et al (2007) identified
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that the number of years in politics was a significant negative factor
on a campaigns likelihood to establish a campaign website. Gibson
& McAllister (2006) found legislative experience not to be a
significant factor.
We can also look at the closeness of the race, or the likelihood of
victory as being possible determinants of a candidates use of the
Web. Zittel (2009) found the closeness of the race not to be a factor
in the decision to use the Web., whilst Herrnson et al (2007) found a
close race to be far more likely to feature websites. Again the two
cases are in apparent contradiction.
Candidate factors
Finally, we might consider that the digital divide applies tocandidates as much as it does constituencies. Candidates that are
more likely to use the Web in themselves are more likely to
campaign online, i.e. younger, wealthier and better educated
candidates.
Candidate gender has been included in a number of models of web
uptake, in one case it was not found to be factor campaigns (Gibson
& McAllister, 2006), in another it was observed that female
candidates were actually more likely to use the Web, although no
statistical significance was attached to this (Carlson & Djupsend,2001).
A candidates age has been found to have conflicting levels of
significance in models of Web use. Age was included as variable in
both the Finnish and Australian model. In the Australian example a
candidates age was not found to have bearing on the their adoption
of the Web (Gibson & McAllister, 2006). In the Finnish case however,
age was found to be a factor, with a clear cut pattern with regard to
a candidates age and presence on the Web, with youngercandidates more likely to use the Web (Carlson & Djupsund, 2001).
Candidate educational attainment has featured as a variable in the
Gibson & McAllister (2006) model, in that instance it was not shown
to be a relevant factor either for or against the adoption of the Web
(Gibson & McAllister, 2006). In the German case however,
candidates born after 1965 were far more likely to have a personal
website (Zittel, 2009). Only Gibson & McAllister included a
candidates education as variable, where it was not considered to be
significant (Gibson & McAllister, 2006).
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Overall, the picture is one of a complete mixture. There is no
seemingly identifiable pattern between the significance of
constituency, campaign and candidate factors in this data, no one
factor seems to dominate. This is perhaps reflective of the individual
contexts of these studies, all of which come from different locationsand times. A further limitation of this data in the context of this
research is the concentration on Web adoption rather than making a
distinction between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 modes of campaigning.
Although many of the studies do go further than simple web
adoption and attempt to include aspects of online campaign such as
online contacting (this fits in better with campaign style as opposed
to campaign mode) none of the studies really get to the heart of
what modes of online campaigning these campaigns feature.
Web 2.0 adoption
Web 2.0 has been included in one forthcoming study based in the
UK in a limited fashion. Suddelich et al (forthcoming) included
Facebook use (as three separate states, a page, a profile and a
group) in a model of web adoption based on the 2010 UK general
election. Suddelich et al were specifically interested in a me too
effect, that is the likelihood of Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 adoption when
campaigns in the same constituency were using similar tools. They
noted that party affiliation was a significant determinant of web use(both Web 1.0 and Web 2.0). As well as this they found that
campaigns considered the front runner in the area were more likely
to develop a web page, but not a Facebook page. The difference in
the adoption of Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 tools they ultimately attribute
to resource costs, with Facebook pages (Web 2.0) being completely
free and websites requiring investment, and therefore only open to
campaigns that have access to significant resources.
Despite the exclusion of other Web 2.0 platforms, most notably
Twitter from the analysis, and an acknowledged issue with data
collection this study represents the first glimpse of a statistical
model of Web adoption that includes Web 2.0.
Conclusion
Where this thesis can innovate is not only by including a separate
measure of Web 1.0 and Web 2.0, but by also including measures of
traditional and modern campaigning in the analysis, something
which has not been done to date.
As part of developing a fuller understanding of how the Web is
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manifest at the local level, RQ1 sets out to build on this body of
work and create a statistical model of Web adoption as a whole, and
two further analyses of Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 adoption, all of which
include offline campaign type as conceptualised by Fisher & Denver
(2009) as an explanatory variable. These models will be able toexplain how the adoption of Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 modes of
campaign differs (or remains the same) in different offline contexts.
In other words what kind of campaign modes are used in different
contexts. Should offline campaign type be shown to be significant,
this will support the hypothesis that the effect of the Web on local
campaigns will vary depending on what kind of campaign it is, either
traditional or modern.
This is one part of the wider explanation of the effects of Web use
on local campaigns, in different circumstances. This research willthen go on to look at how the Web is affecting campaign style, and
campaign organisation in traditional and modern campaigns in the
next two sections, before showing how this study speaks to wider
questions about political parties and the use of technology in politics
in the final sections.
The effect of the Web on campaign style
RQ2 aims to create a similar statistical model as in RQ1, however,
the outcome variable in this instance is that of campaign style
rather than campaign mode. This question is not concerned with
what tools campaigns are using in their online campaigns, but more
how they are using them.
This distinction is required as although Web 1.0 and 2.0 modes of
campaigning are nominally information providing and interactive
respectively, this is an assumption that needs to be verified. A Web
1.0 site may, through the inclusion of functions such as a discussionforum or a feedback section, be interactive, while a Web 2.0 site
may be run only as a tool for information provision by shutting down
interactive functions, or simply not responding to user contributions.
The possibility for variation in the use of online campaign modes
highlights the need to go beyond a simplistic conception of Web 1.0
and Web 2.0 modes as being sufficient to identify specific campaign
styles. For a more in depth understanding it is necessary to break
down e-campaigns into their component parts and examine how the
Web is being used.
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In the wider context, campaign style is the second area in which the
Web may affect local level campaigns examined in this research. As
well as offering new services, the emergence of Web 2.0 has offered
new styles of campaigning, which may theoretically increase
electors involvement with campaings, enabling electors andcampaigns to interact online as well as on the doorstep.
Alternatively, the Web can also be seen as a continuation of
modernised campaigns styles orientated towards specifically
targeted provision of information as opposed to interaction. Testing
the hypothesis that campaign type will influence the style of the
online campaign will enable us to populate another area of the
typology, further adding to our understanding of online campaigns
at the local level.
In answering this question we can conceptualise online campaignstyle as being either information provision or interaction. Using this
as an outcome variable, it will be possible to test the same factors
as in RQ1, but this time with a much more textured understanding
of Web use (but with a far reduced sample size). The resulting
model will allow any links between campaign type and campaign
style to be drawn out as well as any other characteristics that prove
to be a factor. The data to develop this measure of information
provision and interactivity comes from researcher observation of
campaigns in the North West of England over the course of the 2010UK General Election.
Based on the overall argument that offline and online campaigns
are linked, we can hypothesise that traditional campaigns will have
be more interactive in style, whilst modernised campaigns will be
more likely to adopt information provision styles.
Conceptualising online campaign styles
At a basic level, the Web allows for two processes, receiving andsending information or downloading and uploading. Political
campaigning online is no exception, with campaigns able to either
use the medium to send information to electors, or they can in turn
accept information from electors, and if they choose to reply by
sending further information, this becomes a dialogue, campaigns
and electors have the ability to interact online. This basic
interpretation of the Web remains solid in the face of much of the
technical innovation that has taken place over the last decade.
Gibson et al (2003) conceptualised the difference between styles as
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being that of information provision compared to participation. The
term participation is problematic in this sense as it raises questions
around what it means to participate politically online. This is not the
subject of this research, and including participation as a measure
would undoubtedly complicate the issues in question. In order toavoid this the heading participation is re-termed here to interaction,
but the basic behaviours remain largely the same.
Information Provision Participation (Interaction)
Party history
Organisation structure
Programme/policies
Media/Press room
Biographies
Calendar of events
FAQ
Specialist group pages
Leader focus
Downloading screensaver
Search engines
Games
Online shopping
Email contacts
Opinion polls
E-postcards
Donate/volunteer
Chat rooms
Q&A session
Source: Gibson, Ward & Lusoli, 2003, p169
In the left hand column are the things we would normally associate
with political campaign material, both offline and on, including
information about the candidate, the party, party leaders and policy.
The right hand column contains the more interactive elementspossible online, most notably chat rooms and Q&A sessions.
Although since 2003 there are a number of other activities that
could be added, at the essential level these activities remain the
same, the uploading and downloading of information.
Campaign style in Web 1.0
Based on this conception of online campaign styles, it is possible to
see two distinct trends in online campaigning. The earliest Web
campaigns concentrated heavily on information provision, withinteractivity largely absent from candidates campaigns (Coleman,
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2001). This lack of interactivity in campaigns is not exclusive to the
UK, with work from Germany (Schweitzer, 2005) and the US
(Druckman et al, 2007) highlighting candidates preferences for
none-interactive e-campaigns.
Contrary to this a study of national campaign websites in 2000 by
Norris found that there were a large number of possible
communication activities available online, and certainly enough for
Norris to argue:
'Moreover, these websites are not simply 'top-down' channels
of information or party propaganda, instead, contrary to the
American studies, in Europe they also facilitate 'bottom-up'
communication from citizens to parties and elected officials.'
(Norris, 2003, p43)
However, it should be clear here that Norris was dealing with
national level websites, often ones that have a good deal more
resources expended on them than local level campaign sites.
Studies of local sites in the UK during the 2001 election campaign
revealed that only 8% of sites contain any level of interaction
beyond that of a simple e-mail address (Gibson & Ward 2003,
p198). Local sites were found to vary little in their contact,containing a largely standardised menu of items including candidate
biographies, standard policy lines, appeals for volunteers, news
items and links to the national party (Gibson & Ward, 2003)
There are perhaps good reasons for campaigns to avoid where
possible interacting online. Stromer-Galley (2001) observed that
there were distinct disadvantages for political figures seeking to
campaign online. Namely that it was burdensome, represented a
loss of control over their online realm, and finally that it could
possibly result in a loss of ambiguity. Stromer-Galley proceeds to
argue that campaigns are in large part built on a cloak of ambiguity
that limit the discussion of difficult or controversial issues in order to
maintain support. She argues that online interaction threatens this
for candidates, where they can be forced to reveal information,
policies or opinions, that may prove to be unpopular. Coupled with
the time it takes to engage online, and the ever-present danger that
interactive features may be hijacked or defaced, interactive
campaign styles seem like a poor choice for political campaigns.
As a result for much of their existence, online campaigns,
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particularly at the local level have been little more than the
extension of campaign leaflets, leading Ward to brand campaign
websites as brochure-ware. If we accept Stromer-Galleys
argument that campaigns want to avoid interactivity then it is easy
to see why online campaigns have focussed so heavily oninformation provision compared to interaction. However, as
discussed before, the Web is not a static system, it is constantly
changing and developing. Most notably, the emergence of Web 2.0
as an idea has qualitatively changed the Web, and arguably is going
to have an effect on campaign style also.
Campaign style in Web 2.0
This chapter has already discussed Web 2.0 in terms of campaign
mode, that there have been a series of new services available topolitical campaigns in 2010 that were not available in 2005. These
services are distinct as they are based on what OReily (2005) terms
the architecture of participation that is, they are built by the user
rather than the developer. Whereas in Web 1.0 interaction of any
kind required technical ability and specialist knowledge that was
either time-consuming to learn or expensive to buy, the Web 2.0
paradigm is that interaction is built into the Web at a core level.
Campaigns with a Facebook profile for instance will automatically be
able to host forum discussions, accept public comments on postedmaterials and send messages. Further more, the explosive spread of
this technology has created an electorate which to some extent
expects to be able to engage with campaigns the way they engage
with one another and increasingly other services as well. The logic
of Stromer-Galleys argument remains solid, campaigns have more
to lose by developing interactive styles of campaigning, but
arguably the cheapness and ubiquity of these new styles, coupled
with their popularity and theoretical potential will likely persuade
some campaigns to test the waters.
Investigation of Web 2.0 is in its infancy, which is one of the reasons
that makes this a worthwhile subject for research. There is a body of
anecdotal evidence that suggests that on a national level
interactivity may become more important in online campaigns. The
2008 Obama campaigning in particular has been seen as totemic for
interactivity in online campaigning, and has also been seen as
influential over other campaigns, in particular the UK Conservative
party drew inspiration from Obama before the 2010 campaigns,
something that can be seen in the similarities between theirrespective online campaign platforms MyBO and MyConservatives
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(Crabtree, 2010).
How important an interactive style was to the Obama campaign is
open to discussion however. Lilleker & Jackson (forthcoming)
maintain that:
The key element is not the mobilisation of activists, but that
he encouraged participation in the form of sharing and acting
as an advocate online through providing feedback to the
campaigning.
Lilleker & Jackson, forthcoming, p2
Arguably however, the key area of innovation in the Obama
campaign was not in style, but organisation, with the fund raising
capabilities of the Web being harnessed obviously very effectively,
but then the results being ploughed into conventional campaign
methods, most notably TV advertising. Not only an offline campaign
technique, but a notably modernised one, squarely in the
information provision column and not part of some new
commitment to interactive campaign styles.
Lessons from earlier US campaigns certainly seem to suggest that
where the Web has had the greatest effect in US campaigns is in the
back office. Hindman maintains that the real effect of the Web inthe 2004 Dean primary campaign, the previous peak of Web
campaigning was not in the website itself which he dismisses as
preaching to the converted, but in organising existing supporters
(Hindman, 2009).
Empirically, there are a number of studies that have looked at the
style of online campaigns with specific reference to Web 2.0. Most
notably, from a political communication perspective, Jackson and
Lilleker have developed a framework for measuring interaction
online which is extremely detailed, based on a thirty point scale,
with 1 representing a closed off monologue with low receiver
control, to 30 which represents a public discussion (Jackson &
Lilleker, 2009). They used this framework to investigate the
interactivity present in online political websites and profiles on
social networks in November 2007, concluding that:
Political parties still seek to a significant extent to control
their communication process and to inform rather than
interact. As a result, in only a limited number of social mediasites can we identify politicians joining in with these new
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interactive communities; rather the conditioning of the
Westminster community, where a more Burkean, top-down
communication strategy prevails, seems to dominate
behaviour.
Jackson & Lilleker, 2009 p247
Other contexts have revealed a similarly mixed response to Web
2.0, with seemingly little disruption in Korea (Lee, 2009) and Norway
(Kalnes, 2009). So it is decidedly unclear as to whether or not the
theoretical potential of Web 2.0 is translating into new campaign
styles.
There is however an important difference between the research
outlined above and this thesis, the unit of analysis. The abovestudies have considered Web 2.0 in round, national terms as
opposed to looking at its effect on individual candidates. In practice
however this is where we may see the greatest impact, with the
interactive style described here being a direct parallel in some
respects of the traditional UK campaign, fought on the doorstep and
face to face with voters. If local campaigns are exploiting this link to
embrace new campaign styles has yet to be seen. Certainly the
2010 election represents the first chance to examine this in the UK.
Conclusion
This section has developed an understanding of online campaign
style as being distinct from the campaign mode. Using Gibson et als
distinction between information provision and participatory online
behaviours (re-termed here as interactive) we can show that online
campaigns thus far have concentrated on information provision as
opposed to offering interaction. Many campaign sites are considered
to be little more than brochures or online campaign materials, with
candidates avoiding interaction out of a fear of the ramifications.The emergence of Web 2.0 however has provided new capabilities
and new opportunities that may alter campaign styles, possibly
allowing them to become more interactive. Although preliminary
studies in the UK have so far not shown this to be the case,
anecdotal evidences suggests that more interactive styles may have
been deployed at the 2010 UK General Election in part inspired by
the US example.
With this classification in mind, it is possible to add a second
dimension to our understanding of local level online campaigns,
going a step beyond the nature of the tools used by campaigns
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considered in RQ1, to look at how these tools were used, either
interactively, or for information provision. As with campaign mode, it
is expected that information provision behaviours are likely to be
associated more strongly with modernised campaigns, whilst
traditional campaigns are likely to be more interactive, using theWeb to engage with electors, supporters and workers in dialogue
rather than monologue.
The effect of the Web on campaign
organisation
The previous two questions have considered the tools that local
level campaigns use and how they use them and they have
developed an understanding of these areas based on an existing
approach to local level campaigns, traditional and modern. The final
area considered by this thesis is that of campaign organisation.
RQ3 aims to evaluate the impact of the Web on campaign
organisation at the local level, through a series of in depth case
studies located in different campaign archetypes uncovered in RQ1
and RQ2. These case studies will consider campaign organisation,
and attempt to isolate the effect of the Web in this particular
context.
As well as being the final area considered, local level campaign
organisation is potentially the most transformative. Campaign mode
and style are interesting phenomena in of themselves, but an effect
on campaign style would speak to broader questions about the use
of the Web in local campaigns, specifically the expected
consequences of the Web for the overall position of parties in the
UK, their relationship with members and supporters, and in the final
analysis their legitimacy as political organisations in the face of
social and political change.
The selection of case studies will be based in large part on the
results of RQ1 and RQ2. The factors found to be relevant in the
adoption of the Web and in determining how it is used are also likely
to provide a valid starting point for its effect on campaign
organisation. Selected studies will then be investigated through a
series of semi-structured interviews with candidates, agents,
workers and supporters, designed to provide a systematic approach
to considering the question of campaign organisation.
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The existing literature on campaign organisation reports two
possible scenarios for the impact of the Web on campaign
organisation, termed here centralising and de-centralising. They
could also be viewed as optimistic or pessimistic, but to do so
introduces a normative dimension to the conceptualisation that isbest avoided if this is to be rigorous research. Much of the research
is not specific to local level campaigns, focusing instead on either
organisation of political groups (not necessarily parties) and in some
cases specifically on party activities.
Decentralising
Much has been made of supposedly in-built tendency in the Web
(and the Internet at large) to be orientated toward networked
formed of organisation as opposed to traditional hierarchicalmodels. The concept of a network is remarkably simple, meaning
simply two points connected by a link, with no specification what
that link should be, or what those points should represent (Kahler,
2009). As Kahler goes on to point out, networks are indeed
ubiquitous, even in hierarchical organisations. An army for instance,
an extremely hierarchical organisation can be expressed in network
form.
So more than simply creating networks, the Web can be seen as
creating flatter networks. In his original memo detailing the
information storage system that would eventually become the Web,
Berners-Lee expressed his desire to avoid a hierarchical tree system
for storing information, preferring instead to create a system where
all information could be connected to all other information though
hyperlinks, reducing the need to know where information was stored
before it could be retrieved (Berners-Lee, 1989).
A concept as ubiquitous as a network is not limited to the Web, or
pre dependent on it. Toffler provided one of the clearest examplesof networked organisation (and its potential advantages) in his
description of a production line in a steel mill. In a hierarchical
system, a breakdown of machinery would require the production
workers to notify a manager, who in turn would notify the manager
of the maintenance staff, who would only then notify the
maintenance team. In a networked system, production and
maintenance staff would be able to notify one another directly, in
theory at least flattening the organisation by allowing
communication between two branches that would have beenseparate in a hierarchy (Toffler, 1970).
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Despite its independence of the Web, several writers have seen the
increased availability of communication of the Web as being linked
with networked organisation forms. For Castells, the new availability
of information contributes to a fundamental re-ordering of the fabric
of society, creating what he describes as a new economy that isinformational, global and networked (Castells, 1996). For others too,
networked organisational forms represent a distinct remoulding of
the economy, allowing actors to behave more independently and
achieve more without the aid of hierarchical structures that
characterised the industrial age (Benkler, 2006).
So how do new organisational forms translate to politics? On a
general level there have been a number of studies that have
examined none party based, but certainly political activities to draw
out cases in which organisation has been based on decentralised,sometimes trans-national networks. These range from groups such
as diverse as Mexican revolutionaries (Cleaver, 1998), anti-war
groups (Gillan & Pickerill, XXXX), anti-globalisation protests (Khan &
Kellner, 2004) and citizens of Los Angeles concerned about changes
to the telephone system (Lin & Dutton, 2003). Although none of
these groups is even remotely close to a political party in as we
understand them, it is worth taking note of the widespread nature of
networked organisation. Chadwick (2007), in discussing MoveOn, a
US campaign group closely associated with the Democratic party,goes so far as to suggest a concept of Organisational Hybridity,
arguing that MoveOn represents a campaign group in between
elections, but during elections it shifts into the campaigning wing of
the democratic party. So while campaign organisations and parties
should not be confused, it might be relevant in terms of parties
taking note of and attempting to replicate these successes.
There has been some work on what theoretical conceptions of what
a more networked party organisation might look like, although it is
again important to keep in mind that this refers to the party as a
whole and not the campaign. Foremost, Margetts theorised that a
number of factors would drive parties towards a more online model,
including an acknowledged reluctance to join party organisations,
the growth of single issue groups and the increasing prevalence of
the Net. Suggesting that:
An alternative response might be another ideal type of
political party, with its origins in developments in the media
and information and communication technologies, particularlythe Internet, combined with new trends in political
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participation and the de-institutionalisation of political parties:
the cyber party.
(Margetts, 2001, p8)
As part of this new type, Margetts envisaged a changing role forparty members, with organisations becoming less formal and less
rigid, with a greater role for supporters in candidate selection and
policy formation. The party was seen as potentially a more catholic
organisation, with a wide variety of factional interests unified by a
single front and, an interactive Web platform. Key in this analysis is
the role of party membership, moving from the formal, to a grey
status, where formal designations were less important and access to
networks was more so. Margettes was clear in pointing out that the
cyber party was an ideal type of party, and that no party will everbe entirely cyber. But this is an interesting theoretical benchmark
from which to proceed.
Other conceptions of the effect of the Web on party organisation
have concentrated to a far greater extent on what has come before.
Lofgren and Smith (2003) identified differing ICT (Information
Communication Technology) strategies based on existing party
organisational type, linking conceptions such as the mass party
(Duverger, 1954) Cartel (Katz & Mair, 1995) Consumerist (roughly
analogous to the catch-all or electoral professional model)
(Kircheimer, XXXX; Panebianco, 1988) and finally a grassroots
strategy which is describes the most decentralised campaigns. As
with Margettes, Lofgren and Smith paint a picture of a grassroots
online party as being discursive and informal.
Applying these concepts to campaign organisation, requires a
consideration of how the organisational properties of the party
trickle down to the specific area of campaigning. There is little
research in this area to provide a guide, so we must exercisecaution in transposing these concepts to the campaign, but it is not
difficult to imagine a decentralised campaign as one that is less
formal and allows greater factionalism, dissent and discussion
amongst its participants, be they formal party members, or more
likely it seems informal supporters.
We can also view Web 2.0 as further supporting these arguments
that the Web will affect local campaign organisation by making it
more decentralised. Based on a view of Web 2.0 that views new
technologies and services, rather than adding new capability to the
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Web, simplifying it for the masses, then we can view all of these
arguments as being accelerated by the advent of Web 2.0 as more
and more users are able to join the cyber party
Centralisation
There does exist however a counter argument, that says the Web
will not drive decentralisation, but instead support further
centralisation of political organisation and by extension campaigns.
Going back to the early theorists, many included in their accounts
warnings about the possibilities for increase surveillance that
accompanied the Web. A favoured concept was that of the
panopticon, a structure in which the participant is never sure
whether or not they are being observed common in prisons
(Rheingold, 1993).
The predictions do serve to highlight the premise that the two-way
flow of information online, whilst enhancing the information
available for the elector, also gives the party unprecedented access
to electors. The stratification of society using marketing techniques
was a big feature of the modernisation of campaigning (Norris,
2000, Gibson & Rommele, 2003). This is certainly the role envisaged
by Lofgren & Smith (2003) when they envisaged the consumerist
strategy in which parties would use the Web in order to intercept
and adopt the positions they felt the electorate wanted them to, in
effect an ultra-effective catch-all political party.
There is also an associated false consciousness argument with the
use of the Web. Street (1997) argued that the kind of democracy
offered by the Web was particularly limited as it reduced
involvement, relegating decision making to push button ranking of
preferences. Rheingold (1993) also warned that the online realm
could simply become a substitute for meaningful political
participation. This does raise the question, how seriously do partiestake the Web? Especially considering the rhetoric associated Web
2.0. It is perfectly possible that parties will adopt the appearance of
networked organisation, using interactivity as lure, but the not
engage in open dialogue. In any investigation into campaign
organisation care must be taken to ensure that any decentralised
tendencies are not simply just a straw man, created by parties with
the intention of talking the talk, but reluctant to walk the walk.
There is perhaps as good a reason to see the Web as a possible
force for centralisation as for decentralisation. It is not beyond the
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realm of possibility that the networked party will, far from being
discursive and open, be in fact be hierarchical, with the central
party having access to ever greater amounts of information, and
able to use the ease of communication to co-ordinate and control
supporters, members and candidates.
Empirical approaches
In terms of empirical evidence, there is no conclusive evidence that
either of these scenarios is occurring. Although there has been little
to suggest that any parties have experienced the kind of radical
decentralisation thought possible, neither have any parties
seemingly become a cyber dictatorship either.
Gibson and Ward (1999) examined the effect of the Web on partyorganisation in the UK, through a series of mail and email surveys.
Mainly the study focussed on the effects of internal computer
communication systems (ICCS), which, although they arguably differ
from the Web, represent the form of internal communication that
replicates much of the functionality of the Web. They found that
overall parties were not using ICCS for communication or feedback,
but instead viewed in utilitarian and strategic terms (Gibson &
Ward, 1999, p351). In other words, these were not tools for debate
or dissent, principally they were there to disseminate information.
Pederson and Saglie (2005) found that in Danish and Norwegian
parties, the use of technology overwhelmingly favoured the party
elites as opposed to the rank and file, with few members accessing
the party website on a regular basis, receiving emails from the
central party office, and sending emails to other party members.
When asked to rank the importance of the Internet as a source of
information, Norwegian party members and delegates both strongly
favoured more traditional forms of information, most notably TV,
radio and the newspapers (Pederson & Saglie, 2005)
A survey of Liberal Democrat members use of information
communication technology (ICTs) found limited reason to expect
further developments in party organisation, with ICTs (Ward et al,
2002). Although ICTs were playing a limited role in increasing
member activism, they speculated that this was masking a larger
increase in low level activism.
A further survey of party activists in Labour and the Lib Dems
reported in 2004 that:
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Rather than parties being swept aside by a technological
revolution they are likely to adapt and incorporate
technologies to reflect their pre-existing characteristics and
goals. Hence, our survey indicating very modest participatory
boosts from technologies is, in part a reflection of the cautiousways in which mainstream UK parties have used the
technology
Lusoli & Ward, 2004, p467
This last argument in particular makes strong claims that the
organisation effect of the Web will be in large part whatever the
parties want it to be. Despite the potentially disruptive effects of the
Web on campaign organisation, the successful exploitation of
networks by other political groups, party organisation will ultimatelyhave the final say over how they are organised. From the
perspective of the typology of local campaigns, then it seems very
appropriate to link campaign organisation to the existing
organisational trope the campaign fits into, in the case of this
research this is traditionalism and modernisation.
Again, the literature falls short on two accounts in the context of this
question. The level of analysis is national level party organisation,
not local level and not campaigns. The above research speaks more
to the organisational affect of the Web over the totality of the party
remit as opposed to the single are of local level campaigns.
Secondly, the above studies all predate the emergence of Web 2.0
in 2005, which arguably holds a great deal of potential for altering
organisational forms, a key development that is not captured by
current knowledge.
Conclusions
RQ3 aims to complete the typology outlined in the introduction ofthis document by investigating the effect of the Web on the
organisation of local campaigns, in both traditional and modernised
campaigns. As with campaign mode and campaign style, the central
argument is that the effect of the Web on campaign organisation
will be dicta