An evaluation of the functionality and delivery of websites of political parties in South Africa
The political communication environment worldwide has been transformed by the Internet with websites providing opportunities for affordable information dissemination and reception. Internationally, a party contesting an election without a website seems impossible today. This exploratory study examin...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
AOSIS
2010-11-01
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| Series: | South African Journal of Information Management |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://sajim.co.za/index.php/sajim/article/view/453 |
| _version_ | 1819232063279071232 |
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| author | Maria Crossland Wallace Chigona |
| author_facet | Maria Crossland Wallace Chigona |
| author_sort | Maria Crossland |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The political communication environment worldwide has been transformed by the Internet with websites providing opportunities for affordable information dissemination and reception. Internationally, a party contesting an election without a website seems impossible today. This exploratory study examines the use of websites by political parties during the 2009 South African elections and investigates the functionality offered by the websites as well as how effectively this functionality is delivered. The study analysed the websites of both large and small political parties. It is worth noting that in spite of the lower Internet penetration rates in South Africa, the majority of political parties contesting the 2009 elections had websites. The study shows that the websites of the larger parties generally offer more functionality than those of the smaller parties, supporting the view of ‘normalisation’ of party competition in cyberspace. However, an analysis of the delivery of the content does not confirm the normalisation effects. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-23T11:54:54Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-76d7ddcec6d54a358d8641a71eb5ab75 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2078-1865 1560-683X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-23T11:54:54Z |
| publishDate | 2010-11-01 |
| publisher | AOSIS |
| record_format | Article |
| series | South African Journal of Information Management |
| spelling | doaj.art-76d7ddcec6d54a358d8641a71eb5ab752022-12-21T17:48:06ZengAOSISSouth African Journal of Information Management2078-18651560-683X2010-11-01121e1e5405An evaluation of the functionality and delivery of websites of political parties in South AfricaMaria Crossland0Wallace Chigona1University of Cape TownUniversity of Cape TownThe political communication environment worldwide has been transformed by the Internet with websites providing opportunities for affordable information dissemination and reception. Internationally, a party contesting an election without a website seems impossible today. This exploratory study examines the use of websites by political parties during the 2009 South African elections and investigates the functionality offered by the websites as well as how effectively this functionality is delivered. The study analysed the websites of both large and small political parties. It is worth noting that in spite of the lower Internet penetration rates in South Africa, the majority of political parties contesting the 2009 elections had websites. The study shows that the websites of the larger parties generally offer more functionality than those of the smaller parties, supporting the view of ‘normalisation’ of party competition in cyberspace. However, an analysis of the delivery of the content does not confirm the normalisation effects.https://sajim.co.za/index.php/sajim/article/view/453Information disseminationinformation receptiononline campaigningpolitical partiesvoter communication |
| spellingShingle | Maria Crossland Wallace Chigona An evaluation of the functionality and delivery of websites of political parties in South Africa South African Journal of Information Management Information dissemination information reception online campaigning political parties voter communication |
| title | An evaluation of the functionality and delivery of websites of political parties in South Africa |
| title_full | An evaluation of the functionality and delivery of websites of political parties in South Africa |
| title_fullStr | An evaluation of the functionality and delivery of websites of political parties in South Africa |
| title_full_unstemmed | An evaluation of the functionality and delivery of websites of political parties in South Africa |
| title_short | An evaluation of the functionality and delivery of websites of political parties in South Africa |
| title_sort | evaluation of the functionality and delivery of websites of political parties in south africa |
| topic | Information dissemination information reception online campaigning political parties voter communication |
| url | https://sajim.co.za/index.php/sajim/article/view/453 |
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