Parties and the Virtual Campaign : The 2005 Election

Introduction By the time of the 2005 general election, most UK parties had been running websites and using online campaign tools for a decade or more. This was the third general election campaign in which the internet, World Wide Web (WWW) and email had played a role, but the first one where the majority of the UK electorate now had access. 1 Whilst the initial hype surrounding the democratising potential of the internet may have subsided, expectations were again raised that the net could play a crucial role in the election. Such expectations had been fostered both by technological and political developments. Since 2001, broadband connections and also use of mobile phone technology had expanded rapidly. Politically, high profile online campaigns developed in the 2004 US presidential election, notably the Howard Dean phenomena. Yet, the 2005 online campaign barely registered with the media and much of the virtual election, at least superficially, appeared to mirror the election generally-much activity, but little real change. In this paper, therefore, we examine the parties' 2005 online campaigns and place them in the context of our earlier We analyse how far party competition has become normalised on the web; whether new technologies are introducing new campaigning techniques and accelerating the existing professionalisation of electioneering; and finally, what sort of audience there is for online communication. Can the net attract the interest of parts of the electorate not reached by traditional communication routes or, does it merely reinforce existing gaps in electoral participation?