Page 261 - Comparing Political Communication Theories, Cases, and Challenge

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Political Communication and Electronic Democracy

allow constituents to question political representatives in public and
to engage in an interactive and open dialogue. Political representatives
rarely use these sophisticated means of interactive communication on
the Internet across all cases. In Sweden and Germany around 10 percent
and 14 percent of the analyzed Web sites are providing some kind of
discussion forum or public guestbook. In the United States, only one
single MP (0.3 percent) was providing this kind of interactive feature on
his Web site by April 2000.
The Internet also provides opportunities for individual MPs to poll
constituents on particular policy issues in a timely and cost-effective
manner. Online surveys can be used to inform constituents of pending
policy decisions and to learn about their preferences. They can also be
used in a proactive, anticipatory way by asking constituents which poli-
cies they care most about. This method of using online surveys allows
citizens to influence the parliamentary agenda. This type of communi-
cation on the Internet could only be found on 6 percent of the personal
Web sites in the U.S. House. It was completely absent on the Web sites
of Swedish and German MPs.
The political relevance of personal Web sites is also dependent upon
their textual content. Digital outlets, which provide comprehensive and
accessible policy information, educate citizens on the policy positions,
and legislative behavior of their representative and thus increase the
accountability of this office holder. In contrast, digital brochures with
colorful pictures and some general personal information have little rele-
vance in this respect. The same is true regarding Web sites that are badly
structured and do not present crucial information in accessible ways,
such as using hypertext links. Figure 10.3 looks at the quantity of tex-
tual information on personal Web sites, which could be one empirical
indicator for the former type of Web site.
The analysis of the quantity of textual information on personal Web
sites again stresses that the Internet is used in suboptimal ways across
all cases. Figure 10.3 demonstrates that in each of the three cases only
minorities of MPs take advantage of the Internet to publish massive
amounts (more than 200 pages) of textual information. Qualitative re-
searchrevealsthatthoseWebsiteswithfewerthan100standardletter-size
pages are likely to provide only passing and anecdotal information on
the political positions and behavior of MPs.
From a qualitative perspective we furthermore have to ask about the
type of information, which is provided on these personal Web sites. Even
largeamountsoftextualinformationarenoguaranteefortheexistenceof

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