Page 263 - Comparing Political Communication Theories, Cases, and Challenge

P1: JZZ/KAB P2: JZZ
0521828317c10.xml CY425/Esser 0521828317 May 26, 2004 15:5

Political Communication and Electronic Democracy

politically relevant and accessible information. In Figure 10.4 we report
the result of a content analysis, which studied the type of information
users were directed to using hypertext links.
Figure 10.4 again demonstrates that MPs use their Web sites in subop-
timalwaysacrossallthreecases.MostWebsitescontaina“welcomepage”
with a picture of the MP, a postal address for contacting the member,
and some basic information such as a biography or his or her commit-
tee assignments. Some pages also offer gimmicks such as recipes of the
members’ favorite dish. Regarding political information, press releases
arethemostfrequentcontentthatcanbefoundontheseWebsitesalmost
across all three cases. Other political information that would be of more
vital interest for constituents such as the policy positions of a member,
his or her public statements, or his or her legislative activities are in spare
supply on these Web sites across all three cases. The predominance of
press releases indicates that the mass media rather than the ordinary
citizen remain the focus for political representatives and that these Web
sites are not being used as a direct channel for political communication.
While the previous data report a suboptimal use of the Internet across
all three parliaments, they also stress differences between the U.S. House
of Representatives on the one hand and the two European national par-
liaments on the other. Most of these differences are in line with the
assumption of models of electronic democracy that pinpoint a secular
American development of democracy: While most U.S. Representatives
established a presence on the World Wide Web, only one third of their
Swedish and German colleagues did so by April 2000. A small minority
of U.S. representatives was using online surveys to poll citizens while in
neither the Riksdag nor the Bundestag could such applications be found
on personal Web sites. A majority of Swedish and German MPs had little
textualinformationontheirWebsitescomparedtoaminorityintheU.S.
House of Representatives. The median is illuminating in this respect. It is
133 for the U.S. House of Representatives, 24 for the German Bundestag,
and 1 for the Riksdag.
The American case is also different from its European counterparts
regarding the political relevance of the information that is provided on
personal Web sites. Figure 10.4 demonstrates that more U.S. represen-
tatives publish press releases, public statements, or information about
their legislative behavior than their Swedish and German counterparts.
The only finding that deviates from this pattern concerns the level of
interactivity of personal Web sites. Members of the U.S. House of Repre-
sentatives are not taking advantage of new forms of public interactivity

243