Title: Initial objectives behind US and Swedish political parties' web presence: communication professionals' perspectives

Authors: Robert Ankomah Opoku, Edem Bart Williams

Addresses: Department of Management and Marketing, College of Industrial Management, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, P.O. Box 259, KFUPM, Dhahran 31261, Saudi Arabia. ' Consumer Finance Unit, UniBank Ghana Limited, P.O. Box AN 15367, Accra-North, Ghana

Abstract: This study presents empirical evidence to help better comprehend how political parties are using their websites to achieve different objectives. A qualitative approach was used to investigate this phenomenon in a comparative cross-national perspective. Findings from the study indicate that there are many objectives for political party websites, which go beyond communication and information as suggested in the literature and also encompass support and awareness creation. This study represents an attempt to strengthen the theoretical underpinnings of why political parties go online and to ground more thoroughly our understanding of cyber politics through an empirical study.

Keywords: political parties; Sweden; USA; United States; websites; world wide web; internet; web presence; communication professionals; cross-national perspectives; information provision; party support; awareness creation; online politics; cyber politics; cyberpolitics; Democratic Party; Republican Party; Moderate Party; Swedish Social Democratic Party; Social Democrats; Modaraterna; electronic governance; e-governance.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEG.2010.036903

International Journal of Electronic Governance, 2010 Vol.3 No.3, pp.296 - 318

Published online: 15 Nov 2010 *

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