Israeli Representatives' Use of and Attitudes Toward Web Applications

Inthelastdecade,therehasbeenamajorincreaseinthetechnologythatenablesrepresentativesand voterstoconnectwithoneanother.Representativescanuseemail,theirpoliticalparty’swebsite, personalwebsites, Facebook, e-newsletters,weblogs andTwitter simultaneously to bypass the traditionalpoliticalmedia.Theauthorasks,whataretheusagepatternsofthesewebapplications? Whatarethecharacteristicsoftherepresentativeswhousethesetechnologies?Whataretheirattitudes abouttheiruse?Mostpreviousstudieshaveconcentratedononeperspective(representativesorvoters) orusedoneresearchmethod(questionnaires,interviews,harddata).Thisarticleisuniqueinthatit combinesseveralresearchmethods:interviewswithrepresentativesregardingtheirattitudestoward thenewtechnologyandharddatafromtheIsraeliKnesset’swebsiteregardingtheMKs’useofweb applications.The findingsdemonstrate that the Israeli representativesarenodifferent than their colleaguesinotherparliaments.YoungMKsandjuniorMKsaremorelikelytousewebapplications thanolderMKsandthosewithmoreseniority.However,coalitionMKsusewebapplicationsdifferently thanoppositionMKs.Furthermore,therepresentativeshavepositiveattitudestowardtheuseofweb applicationsandconsiderthemusefulforcommunicatingwiththevoters. KEyWoRdS Legislature, Political Communication, Representatives, Web Applications