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European Journal of Communication
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Innovation or Normalization in E-Campaigning?

A Longitudinal Content and Structural Analysis of German Party Websites in the 2002 and 2005 National Elections

Eva Johanna Schweitzer

Institut für Publizistik at the University of Mainz, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, Colonel-Kleinmann-Weg 2, 55099 Mainz, Germany, eva.schweitzer{at}uni-mainz.de

{blacksquare} Scholars have seldom tested the innovation and normalization paradigm of e-campaigning over time. Particularly outside the US, there is a lack of comparative analyses of candidate or party websites that deal with the concept's temporal validity and scope. The article addresses this research gap through a longitudinal content and structural analysis of German party websites in the 2002 and 2005 national elections. The results provide empirical evidence of a twofold development of federal e-campaigns: while the major party websites evolved over time in information density, interactivity and sophistication (innovation), the minor parties were throughout characterized by an underutilization of structural website functions (normalization). On the content level, however, the major parties also adhered primarily to traditional offline strategies such as metacommunication or negative campaigning (normalization). Hence, a theoretical refinement of these basic concepts emerged according to a party's political status and the unit of analysis used. {blacksquare}

Key Words: innovation • longitudinal analysis • normalization • online campaigning • party websites

European Journal of Communication, Vol. 23, No. 4, 449-470 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/0267323108096994
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