The use of the Web in U.S. political campaigns has developed dramatically                  over the course of the last several election seasons. In Web Campaigning, Kirsten                  Foot and Steven Schneider examine the evolution of campaigns' Web practices, based                  on hundreds of campaign Web sites produced by a range of political actors during the                  U.S. elections of 2000, 2002, and 2004. Their developmental analyses of how and why                  campaign organizations create specific online structures illuminates the reciprocal                  relationship between these production practices and the structures of both the                  campaign organization and the electoral arena. This practice-based approach and the                  focus on campaigns as Web producers make the book a significant methodological and                  theoretical contribution to both science and technology studies and political                  communication scholarship.Foot and Schneider explore the inherent tension between                  the desire of campaigns to maintain control over messages and resources and the                  generally decentralizing dynamic of Web-based communication. They analyze specific                  strategies by which campaigns mitigate this, examining the ways that the production                  techniques, coproducing Web content, online-offline convergence, and linking to                  other Web sites mediate the practices of informing, involving, connecting, and                  mobilizing supporters. Their conclusions about the past decade's trajectory of Web                  campaigning point the way to a political theory of technology and a technologically                  grounded theory of electoral politics.A digital installation available on the web                  illustrates core concepts discussed in the text of the book with examples drawn from                  archived campaign Web sites. Users have the opportunity to search these concepts in                  the context of fully operational campaign sites, recreating the Web experience of                  users during the election periods covered in the book.

Web Campaigning (Acting with Technology) PDF

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