Campaigning Online: The Internet in U.S. Elections

By Bruce Bimber and Richard Davis

Book Overview

After a self-assured John F. Kennedy bested a visibly shaky Richard Nixon in their famous 1960 debates, political television, it was said, would henceforth determine elections. Today, many claim the Internet will be the latest medium to revolutionize electoral politics. Candidates invest heavily in web and email campaigns to reach prospective voters, as well as to communicate with journalists, potential donors, and political activists. Do these efforts influence voters, expand democracy, increase the coverage of political issues, or mobilize a shrinking and apathetic electorate?
Campaigning Online answers these questions by looking at how candidates present themselves online and how voters respond to their efforts-including whether voters learn from candidates' websites and whether voters' views are affected by what they see. Although the Internet will not lead to a revolution in democracy, it will, Bimber and Davis argue, have consequences: reinforcing messages, mobilizing activists, and strengthening partisans' views. Reporting on a wealth of new data drawn from national and state-wide surveys, laboratory experiments, interviews with campaign staff, and analysis of web sites themselves, Campaigning Online draws the most complete picture of the role of campaign websites in American elections to date.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195151569
• ISBN13: 9780195151565
• Release Date: September 2003
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.2" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

praise for CAMPAIGNING ONLINE

"A fascinating book on the ever-increasing role of the online campaign. Bimber and Davis provide valuable insights for students of the 2000 election cycle."--Senator Harry Reid, Nevada"This remarkable book resolves the debate about the nature of the Internet's role in election campaigns. Davis and Bimber's evidence is impeccable, and their analysis is faultless. Campaigning Online belongs on the bookshelves of election analysts and practitioners and on the required reading lists of courses on the media and campaigns."--Thomas E. Patterson, Bradlee Professor of Government & the Press, Harvard University"This empirically grounded and theoretically sophisticated analysis of the web-based American political campaign of 2000 avoids the anecdotal and typically breathless speculation about how the net will change human political behavior. Instead, this path breaking study documents how the web is becoming an integral part of the campaign process."--W. Russell Neuman, Evans Professor of Media Technology, University of Michigan"A much-needed, richly-textured empirical investigation of a key feature of online campaigning - candidate Web sites. Bimber and Davis provide a host of insights into how candidates are incorporating the Internet into their campaigns and what impact this is having on voters."--Thomas E. Mann, W. Averell Harriman Chair and Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution