A longitudinal study of online campaigning in the most digitally advanced society in the world

Trumm, Siim; Sudulich, Laura

Abstract

The internet has become a key battleground for political parties and candidates running for office. Using data from three consecutive parliamentary elections in Estonia, spanning across the last decade, we map the extent to which candidates make use of online campaign tools. The availability of candidate survey data over time enables us to evaluate how online campaigning has evolved in a country at the forefront of digitalization. Our findings show that, despite a highly wired context, candidates still do not exploit the internet to its full potential. We observe a significant increment in candidates’ presence on the web, but the effort remains limited in terms of the range of digital campaign tools used. In addition, we find that candidates’ political profile has a limited influence on their digital proclivity, while young age and intensity of their overall campaign effort are stable predictors of it across the decade.

Citation

Trumm, S., & Sudulich, L. (2022). A longitudinal study of online campaigning in the most digitally advanced society in the world. Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties, 32(4), 960-979. https://doi.org/10.1080/17457289.2021.2009484

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Oct 19, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Dec 5, 2021
• Publication Date: 2022
• Deposit Date: Nov 16, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 6, 2023
• Journal: Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties
• Print ISSN: 1745-7289
• Electronic ISSN: 1745-7297
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 32
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 960-979
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17457289.2021.2009484
• Keywords: Online campaigning; campaign effort; parliamentary elections; candidate studies; Estonia 2
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/6726063
• Publisher URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17457289.2021.2009484
• Additional Information: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties on 05 Dec 2021, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/17457289.2021.2009484