Edited by PAULO SERRA, EDUARDO CAMILO AND GISELA GONÇALVES POLITICAL PARTICIPATION AND WEB 2.0

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3 Edted by PAULO SERRA, EDUARDO CAMILO AND GISELA GONÇALVES POLITICAL PARTICIPATION AND WEB 2.0

4 Lvros LabCom Sére: Pesqusas em Comuncação Drecção: José Rcardo Carvalhero Tradução: Ru Vtorno Azevedo Tom Wllams Desgn da Capa: Crstna Lopes Pagnação: Flomena Matos Covlhã, UBI, LabCom, Lvros LabCom ISBN: Título: Poltcal Partcpaton and Web 2.0 Autores: Paulo Serra, Eduardo Camlo and Gsela Gonçalves (Orgs.) Ano:

5 Contents Introducton 1 The research project New meda and poltcs: ctzen partcpaton n the webstes of Portuguese poltcal partes 5 ICITIZENSHIP AND POLITICAL PARTICIPATION 16 Freedom as partcpaton n Isaah Berln Antóno Fdalgo 19 From brochureware to MyBo : an overvew of onlne electons and campagnng Rachel Gbson 31 Notes on the constructon of the journalstc event: from a poltcally actve ntellectual to the advent of Web 2.0 Govandro Ferrera 43 II POLITICAL PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY 57 Partcpaton and alternatve democracy: socal meda and ther contngences Peter Dahlgren 61

6 New bottles, old wne? New meda and poltcal partes Carlos Jalal 87 An alternatve approach: portuguese assocatvsm and trade unon assocatvsm Danela Fonseca 105 III POLITICAL COMMUNICATION IN THE INTERNET AGE 118 Sound bte: poltcs n frames Nuno Francsco 121 Challenges to ntermeda agenda-settng: reflectons on Pedro Passos Coelho s outburst Eduardo Camlo and Rodolfo Slva 135 Poltcal communcaton 2.0: new challenges for an old art Elsa Santos and Rosála Rodrgues 163 IV THE WEBSITES OF POLITICAL PARTIES (ANALYTICAL MODELS) 193 Onlne party communcaton: webstes n the non-electoral context Catarna Slva 197 Type, vsblty and functonng of partcpatory resources on the webstes of Portuguese poltcal partes: a prelmnary analyss Joaquín Lopez del Ramo 243 CONTRIBUTORS Web 2.0 and Poltcal Partcpaton 273

7 Introducton Despte t beng a debated ssue n recent decades, there s n fact no consensus regardng the potentaltes of the Internet for the strengthenng of ctzens poltcal partcpaton and by extenson of democracy tself. Nonetheless, ths new medum, and, n partcular, ts Web 2.0 verson has become the cornerstone of communcaton strateges for both poltcal partes and ther canddates. Several questons emerge from the debate about the mpact of the nternet on poltcal partcpaton. Frst of all, the very concept of poltcal partcpaton. Despte ts mportance n the theory of democracy, ths concept s not always easy to defne wth rgor partcularly when t comes to the form and boundares of such partcpaton. Actually, the ultmate ssue s whether we are currently wtnessng a crss of partcpaton or qute the contrary, the rse of alternatve forms thereof. Secondly, the debate about the so-called crss of democracy s also central when thnkng about poltcal partcpaton n our tmes. Democratc socetes are experencng a democratc defct, to a large extend a crss of confdence n tradtonal poltcal partes, by whch ctzens feel msrepresented and hence alenated from rghteous partcpaton n ther poltcal destny. These and smlar questons are the pllars of an ongong research project, enttled New meda and poltcs: ctzen partcpaton n the webstes of Portuguese poltcal partes. Developed by a team of researchers from Lab- Com a communcaton scences research center located at the Unversty of Bera Interor, ths 3-year research project s funded by FCT, the Portuguese Foundaton for Scence and Technology. We consder that n the new meda context, poltcal partes webstes mght very well be a mcrocosm worthy of analyss. The webstes have evolved through varous stages and t s m- 1

8 2 Poltcal Partcpaton and Web 2.0 portant to establsh how these steps can be characterzed and what the man dfferences to be found between them are. We antcpate to fnd that Web 2.0 contrbuted to a radcal change of/n the structures and functonng of poltcal partes webstes; nevertheless, the ultmate queston s whether Web 2.0 dd ndeed change the way ctzens use those webstes and ultmately how we partcpate n the buldng of our poltcal destny. The man objectves, methodology and expected results of the project are presented n the very frst chapter of ths book, whch gves the motto for the followng 11 chapters. It s worth mentonng that the majorty of the chapters have resulted from the nternatonal conference held at UBI, on the th of October Wth the selected papers n ths volume, we attempt to keep alve the debate that began n that conference a very mportant mlestone n our research project, and to foster the work of the LabCom research team as well. Poltcal Partcpaton and Web 2.0 s organzed nto four man parts. The frst part of the book, Ctzenshp and poltcal partcpaton, s dvded nto three chapters. Antóno Fdalgo, from the Unversty of Bera Interor/LabCom, reflects on the concept of Freedom as Partcpaton. In lne wth the thought of Isaah Berln, n partcular, the concept of postve and negatve freedom, the drector of LabCom debates how under the banner of freedom, both rght and left, lberalsm and socalsm, justfy opposng poltcal deologes. The followng chapter, From Brochureware to MyBo : An Overvew of Onlne Electons and Campagnng, authored by Rachel Gbson from the Unversty of Manchester, provdes an overvew of key fndngs and debates that have emerged n lterature regardng onlne campagnng. In partcular, whether modern-day electoneerng s becomng a more partcpatory and grass-roots affar, and whether use of dgtal tools can actually affect the outcome of a race. The ctzenshp and poltcal partcpaton theme s also central n the chapter of Govandro Ferrera, from UFBA, the Federal Unversty of Baha. In hs text, the Brazlan researcher dscusses how Web 2.0 strengthens and ncreases the partcpaton of ctzens. He hghlghts how ctzens, agents that go beyond the usual ntellectuals and journalsm professonals, partcpate n the collectve act of constructng a journalstc event, n the current publc space of meda.

9 Paulo Serra, Eduardo Camlo e Gsela Gonçalves (Edt.) 3 The second man part of the book focuses ts attenton on Poltcal partes and democracy. The frst chapter, Partcpaton and alternatve democracy, s authored by Peter Dahlgren, emertus professor at Lund Unversty (Sweden), who looks at some key contngences of poltcal economy, technology, and soco-cultural patterns and how they mpact the spaces of onlne partcpaton and the forms of dentty that they foster. Dahlgren notes n partcular the emergence of what he calls the solo sphere as a mode of partcpaton that has debltatng consequences for alternatve poltcs. The followng chapter explores the relatonshp between partes and new meda, wth a partcular focus on Portugal. Carlos Jalal, from the Unversty of Avero, argues that new meda may consttute new means for partes to overcome ther weakenng socal tes, but that s by no means an nevtable outcome. Rather, the usage of new meda by poltcal partes can also reproduce the types of nteracton seen n other contexts, reflectng the supply-sde constrants generated by contemporary party systems. Whle these strateges may be ratonal for poltcal partes ndvdually, the externaltes n terms of the qualty of democracy are far from postve. The qualty of democracy s also central to the chapter by Danela Sampao, from the Unversty of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro. In lne wth Robert Putnam s thess that the greater the assocatve partcpaton of ctzens the stronger the Democracy s, the author presents a pcture of Portuguese assocatvsm stressng ts weak actvty, and dscusses ts relaton wth the phenomenon of the new socal movements. In the 3 rd part of the book specal attenton s pad to Poltcal communcaton n the Internet Age. All three chapters ncluded are authored by researchers from LabCom and are all both theoretcally and emprcally drven. Nuno Francsco presents a reflecton about the sound bte : an expresson used to characterze a bref statement wth an mmedate and precse mpact, created to ft perfectly as a newspaper ttle or headlne or as the perfect measure to open the televson news. The author wonders how new meda contrbute to a new era of poltcal communcaton, wthout medaton from the journalstc sphere. Eduardo Camlo and Rudolfo Slva use a case-study approach to debate the exstng relatons between new meda and tradtonal meda wth regard to how the opnon publshed n dgtal envronments can transform tself nto an opnon publshed n an edtoral envronment of the journalstc feld. Elsa Smão and Rosála Rodrgues developed a content analyss of the Lvros LabCom

10 4 Poltcal Partcpaton and Web 2.0 two man Portuguese party webstes used n a campagn perod n order to reflect about the new 2.0 communcatve possbltes and challenges. Fnally, the 4 th and last part of ths book presents two dfferent Models of analyss on the Portuguese webstes of poltcal partes wth parlamentary representaton. By studyng the poltcal partes webstes n relaton to the nformaton, nteracton, moblzaton and sophstcaton dmensons, Catarna Slva, from the Unversty of Avero, nferred a relatonshp n the use of onlne pages wth a partsan typology. In the last chapter, Joaqun del Ramo, from the Unversty of Rey Juan Carlos, Madrd, also presents a multple dmensonal analyss of the partcpatory tools avalable on webstes. Hs prelmnary fndngs show the exstence of several partcpatory tools, whch are generally smple to use, although ther vsblty could be sgnfcantly mproved but also that the levels of user partcpaton are low. Overall, we consder that ths book acheves our man goal: to enrch the debate and add knowledge to the study of poltcal partcpaton and Web 2.0. We have to thank all the contrbutors to ths book that made ths frst output of our research project possble. To conclude, some words of thanks are also due to the LabCom Edtoral Team, who from the very begnnng supported the edton of ths book. The book s funded by the FCT Foundaton for Scence and Technology, wthn the project PTDC/CCI-COM/122715/2010. The Edtors, UBI, Covlhã, March

11 The research project New meda and poltcs: ctzen partcpaton n the webstes of Portuguese poltcal partes Research coordnator: Joaqum Paulo Serra Research team: Antóno Fdalgo, Anabela Gradm, Amérco de Sousa, Eduardo Camlo, Gsela Gonçalves, Ivone Ferrera, João Canavlhas, Rosála Rodrgues & Tto Cardoso e Cunha. Labcom, Unversdade da Bera Interor, Covlhã, Portugal 1. Summary The am of ths project s to nvestgate f the partcpaton allowed to ctzens by the webstes of Portuguese poltcal partes meets ctzens expectatons. In fact, wth the advent of the Web 2.0, the webstes of the poltcal partes started offerng a wde range of tools and forms of partcpaton that allow ctzens to create and share contents, and get nvolved n socal networks. As we should expect, there are ctzens that correspond to ths offer, especally durng poltcal campagns. The problem, however, s to know f those tools and forms of partcpaton: ) Are effectvely at stake durng the normal 5

12 6 Poltcal Partcpaton and Web 2.0 perods,.e., the perods between electoral campagns, whch correspond to lmted and specfc occasons; ) Consubstantate a real poltcal partcpaton, wth some mpact and consequences on the poltcal partes agenda (themes, actvtes) or, on the contrary, a mere smulaton of partcpaton wth mere propagandstc ntentons. The ultmate goal of ths project s to gather and provde knowledge, both theoretcal and practcal, allowng poltcal partes and ctzens to amelorate poltcal communcaton through the webstes. Although the webstes of the poltcal partes have been adaptng to web 2.0 demands, n realty, no one knows f that corresponds to what ctzens want, and no one knows f they feel represented and satsfed wth the tools avalable. Ths project ams to shed some lght onto such questons, producng data whch can, n turn, be used to sharpen the communcaton strateges of the partes. The specfc objectves of ths project are: () To analyse the tools and forms that the webstes of Portuguese poltcal partes offer to ctzens partcpaton, namely n what refers to the creaton and sharng of contents, and the nvolvement n socal networks (Smth & Rane, 2008); ); ) To pratcally test the way poltcal partes answer (or not) to ctzens use of those tools and forms of partcpaton; () To know the opnon of the Portuguese poltcal leaders and the responsble for the webstes of the poltcal partes about such partcpaton and, more specfcally, f ths partcpaton leads to changes n the poltcal party agenda (themes, actvtes); (v) To know the Portuguese ctzens opnon about the tools and forms of partcpaton that the webstes of the poltcal partes offer them. Our man hypothess s that there s a lack of correspondence between the partcpaton the webstes of the Portuguese poltcal partes allow ctzens and ctzens expectatons about that. Pnpontng and descrbng that gap would provde new ways of brdgng t. The reason to state ths hypothess s that, even f poltcal partes gve a greater mportance to the ctzens partcpaton than they dd some years ago, when they prvleged the nformatve functon (Gbson, Ward & Lusol, 2003; Gbson, Margols, Resnck & Ward, 2003; Schwetzer, 2005), ths partcpaton s predomnantly seen n an nstrumental way, to project an mage of credblty and/or arouse voters sympathy, n a top-down logc (Rolfe, 2008). The nvestgators of the Laboratory of On-lne Communcaton (www. labcom.ub.pt), a research centre fnanced by FCT and that s classfed as

13 Paulo Serra, Eduardo Camlo e Gsela Gonçalves (Edt.) 7 Very Good, have been studyng the Internet and the Web snce 2003, havng publshed several woks about onlne journalsm, onlne persuason, blogs and onlne poltcal communcaton. To answer our problem we ll rely on a mult-method approach. The research wll begn wth an extensve lterature revew about the state of the art of the ctzens partcpaton n the webstes poltcal partes. Based on that lterature revew, we ll do a content analyss to examne the tools and forms of ctzens partcpaton avalable n the webstes of the fve Portuguese poltcal partes wth Parlamentary representaton. Ths analyss wll be supplemented by testng the effcacy of those tools and forms of partcpaton, usng them. To know the opnons of the man agents of the producers and users of the webstes, we shall have sem-structured ntervews wth the leaders of the fve poltcal partes, as well as wth the responsble for the management of the webstes, namely to know f the ctzens partcpaton nfluences the party agenda. In what refers to ctzens, we shall conduct an onlne survey of a sample of users of the webstes. These research methods and phases wll allow us to know what ctzens can do n the webstes of the poltcal partes, and to compare what ctzens thnk about what they can do there wth what the leaders and other responsble of the poltcal partes thnk on the same matter. As man result of the project, we ll have a deeper knowledge about the ctzens use of the tools and forms of partcpaton offered by the webstes of Portuguese poltcal partes. Ths knowledge wll may allow poltcal partes to mprove the relatonshp wth ctzens and, dong so, mprovng Portuguese democracy. 2. Lterature revew Democracy s the realm not only of the Modern negatve lberty, but also of the Ancent postve lberty of ctzen s partcpaton n poltcal decsons (Berln, 1969). In modern western socetes, ths partcpaton mples the exstence of meda, namely the press, and free speech (Tocquevlle, 1835; Habermas, 1989; Serra, 2007). Acceptng Habermas thess that the advent of the mass meda brought along a re-feudalzaton of the publc sphere, some authors saw the brth of Internet as the rse of a new publc sphere (Dahlgren & Sparks, 1997), a Lvros LabCom

14 8 Poltcal Partcpaton and Web 2.0 new publc space (Ferry & Wolton, 1998). The Internet could be, n some way, the soluton to the llnesses of democracy, allowng the vrtual communty (Rhengold, 1993), the vrtual democracy (Scheer, 1994), and radcal new ways of lvng (Dertouzos, 1997). Aganst these technophlc vews, some crtcs of the nformaton socety saw t as the result of the deology of communcaton that emerged n the post-war II (Breton & Proulx, 1991), an alleged a-poltcal utopa (Breton, 1995) whose result would be the cyberocracy (Ronfeldt, 1992), or even the end of the len socal (Wolton, 1999). Bearng on ths same crtcal perspectve, other authors defended the normalzaton thess, the thess that poltcs on the Internet s nothng but poltcs as usual, domnated by the tradtonal, off-lne players (Margols & Resnck, 2000). Whatever our perspectve about the potentaltes of Internet as a tool for enhancng democracy and ctzens poltcal partcpaton, the new medum has become central n the communcatve strateges of poltcal partes and canddates. In fact, accordng to Norrs (2000), we may consder three dfferent communcaton stages, namely durng campagns: Pre-modern (from the mddle of the XIX century to the end of the decade of 1950), Modern (snce the end of the eghtes) and Post-modern (snce the begnnng of the decade of 1990). If the modern perod poltcal communcaton s domnated by televson (Blumler & Kavanagh, 1999), the post-modern has seen the emergence of the Internet as a relevant, new player, contrbutng to transform the mass meda campagn n a hypermeda campagn (Howard, 2006). In what refers to the USA, Internet begns to take a key role n the presdental campagn of 1996 (Clnton vs. Dole), whose campagn webstes became a central, ntegrated tool (Wllams, Trammell, Postelncu, Landrevlle & Martn, 2005); outsde USA, the move to the Internet took place more or less about the same tme (Gbson, Ward & Lusol, 2003). In contrast wth the normalzaton thess, several authors have stressed the novelty and democratc potentaltes of the poltcal partes communcaton on the Internet as a tool for enhancng poltcal trust, pluralsm and partcpaton (Norrs, 2003; Curtce & Norrs, 2004; Gbson, Ward & Lusol, 2003, 2005), and for the horzontal communcaton that s central n cvc nteracton (Dahlgren, 2005). However, one of the man conclusons of the comparatve analyss that Gbson et al. (2003) made about the poltcal partes webstes n the USA and n the UK was that provdng nformaton and

15 Paulo Serra, Eduardo Camlo e Gsela Gonçalves (Edt.) 9 generatng resources were predomnant functons over promotng partcpaton and the establshment of electronc networks nsde and outsde the party; and that the nteractvty, when present, tended to be top-down, from the partes to the ctzens. In a very smlar way, Schwetzer (2005) mentoned that all studes about on-lne campagns emphassed the fact that the majorty of poltcal partes and canddates webstes prvleged the nformatve functon over the nteractve and partcpatve functons (on-lne dscussons, surveys, on-lne pettons, etc.). Dd the Web 2.0 (O Relly, 2005), and the new tools t offers to ctzens poltcal partcpaton, altered ths stuaton? And, f that s the case, what were the man alteratons? As t s generally admtted, the poltcal communcaton 2.0 began n the 2004 presdental campagn, when the canddates (e.g. Howard Dean) used the blogosphere to rase money, moblze volunteers, and spread ther message (Wllams et al., 2005), leadng Wllams and Tedesco (2006) to characterze ths presdental campagn as the Internet electon. In 2007, Hlary Clnton and John Edwards announced ther bds for the presdency of the USA on YouTube and through e-mal (Rolfe, 2008). However, t was n the presdental campagn of Obama, n 2008, that the Web 2.0 and ts tools took a decsve role as a means for poltcal campagnng. In fact, a report by the Pew Internet & Amercan Lfe Project on ths campagn ndcated that the nternet, emal or SMS had been used by 46% of Amercans to get news about the campagns, share vews and moblze others, and even more sgnfcant that about one n ten Internet users had made an onlne donaton to a canddate. Accordng wth the same report, the bloggng, the nvolvement n socal networks, and the vewng of YouTube vdeos had become mportant actvtes durng the campagn (Smth & Rane, 2008). However, these and other studes don t tell us what s the degree of correspondence between ctzens expectatons about ther partcpaton n the poltcal partes webstes and the forms of partcpaton they offer to them. They tell us manly what are the new exstng communcatve possbltes (Canavlhas, 2009). In other words: do ctzens get what they want when they partcpate n the poltcal partes webstes? Or s that partcpaton a mere smulaton wth persuasve f not propagandstc objectves? May we conclude, wth Gbson and Römmele (2008), that despte all the statements and forecasts about the potental of the Internet, the actual mpact of Web 2.0 [... ] remans to be seen? Lvros LabCom

16 10 Poltcal Partcpaton and Web Research plan and methods Startng from the central thess of the uses and gratfcaton theory that states that askng what do people do wth the meda? s more mportant than askng what do meda do to the people (Katz, 1959), the problem we ntend to nvestgate s what s the degree of correspondence between, on one sde, the partcpaton that the webstes of the Portuguese poltcal partes allow ctzens and, on the other sde, ctzens expectatons about ther partcpaton. In ths context, and partly followng Smth and Rane (2008), we understand partcpaton as the actons performed by ctzens usng the tools of the Internet, especally Web 2.0 (blogs, myspace, facebook, flckr, etc.), and through whch they may create and share poltcal content and get nvolved n socal networks. Accordngly wth the same authors, these two categores nclude actvtes such as: ) Poltcal content sharng and creaton: forwardng or postng someone else s poltcal commentary or wrtng; sgnng an onlne petton of the poltcal party; forwardng or postng someone else s poltcal audo or vdeo recordngs; postng hs own poltcal commentary or wrtng to the poltcal party webste; creatng tags for news, nformaton, or photos about the poltcal party; creatng or postng hs own poltcal vdeo or audo recordngs; ) Involvement n socal networks: gettng nformaton about the poltcal party; sgnng up as a frend of the poltcal party; startng or jonng a group supportng the poltcal party. However, and as shown n the lterature revew, f there s today a great amount of studes about the role of the webstes of the poltcal partes durng electoral campagns (for example the Obama presdental campagn), we know very lttle about what happens durng the normal perods,.e., the perods between campagns snce campagns, n spte of all ther mportance, correspond to very specfc and lmted perods of the lfe of the poltcal partes. So, our study wll focus n those normal, between-campagns perods. To answer our problem, we must answer the followng specfc research questons: 1. What are the tools and forms of partcpaton that the webstes of Portuguese poltcal partes provde to ctzens n order they may create and share poltcal content, and get nvolved n socal networks? More specfcally, we ntend to answer questons lke the next ones:

17 Paulo Serra, Eduardo Camlo e Gsela Gonçalves (Edt.) 11 () What knd of contents do ctzens create and share? () In what knd of communcatve actons and socal networks do they partcpate? () Does ctzens partcpaton depend on the poltcal-deologcal orentaton (rght/left) of the partes? (v) What are the constrants and the opportuntes n what refers to tools, themes, actvtes, etc. to the ctzens partcpaton? (v) Is ctzens partcpaton determned by ther prevous, exstng poltcal atttudes (the already convnced )? (v) What poltcal atttudes and tendences do the ctzens (users) reveal about themselves through ther partcpaton? 2. What s the opnon of the leaders of Portuguese poltcal partes and the responsble for the management of ther webstes about the ctzens partcpaton n those webstes? Does ths partcpaton nvolve any change n the poltcal party agenda (themes, actvtes)? 3. What s the ctzens opnon about ther own partcpaton n the webstes of the poltcal partes? How do they evaluate that partcpaton? Do they suggest alternatve forms of partcpaton? Our problem, and the ssues t entals, s relevant for three sets of reasons. The frst s the growng mportance that nternet, and specally Web 2.0 envronments, has on poltcal partes actvtes and strateges. The second s the fact that there s not yet a stablzed model of the webstes of the poltcal partes desgned to allow the ctzens poltcal partcpaton. The thrd s that there s stll a lack of knowledge about how the ctzens explore the partcpaton tools that the webstes of the poltcal partes offer them. In what concerns the expected results, the man hypotheses that, n Popper s terms, we want to falsfy, are the followng ones: 1. The ctzens partcpaton tends to favor mage based modaltes of expresson (vdeos, photos), to be predomnantly supportve (not crtc) of the poltcal party, and not to depend on the poltcal-deologcal orentaton of the party. Lvros LabCom

18 12 Poltcal Partcpaton and Web The leaders of the partes and the responsble for the management of ther webstes tend to see ctzens partcpaton more as an nstrument of delverng ther own message than as a way of lstenng to ctzens messages. 3. The ctzens expect that the webstes of the poltcal partes are more open (wth less constrants) to ther partcpaton, and to have more mpact on the agenda and program of the poltcal partes. It s mpossble to test ths set of hypotheses and answer our questons wth a conventonal, sngle method. In fact, the ncorporaton of the characterstcs and tools of the socal web blogs, wks, facebook, myspace, youtube, etc. n poltcal webstes s makng these more and more complex and dffcult to study. They are becomng true envronments, a meltng pot were one can fnd the convergence of all the several tradtonal meda we knew: sde by sde wth wrtten word, we fnd speech, photographs, anmaton, nfography, musc, vdeo; and all ths can be produced, shared or manpulated by ts own users a process that s beng descrbed, n the lterature, under the ambguous name of nteractvty. The Barak Obama s ste, n the past Amercan presdental electons, offers a good example of what we re descrbng ( accessed on November, 3, 2008). So, we ll use a mult-methodologcal approach, both quanttatve and qualtatve, that wll allow us to cross-examne the results obtaned wth each method: 1. To examne what are the tools that the webstes of the Portuguese poltcal partes provde the ctzens to create and share poltcal content, and get nvolved n socal networks (research queston 1), we shall use content analyss. Based upon Gbson and Ward (2000), and Gbson, Margols, Resnck and Ward (2003), we ll consder fve man functons on the webstes: Informaton Provson, Resource Generaton, Partcpaton, Networkng Internal External and Campagn. In what specfcally refers to Partcpaton, we ll dstngush the fve next levels: 1 Smple Contact (e-mal, eventually wth some knd of template); 2 Sendng Content (tools to send messages, lnks, vdeos, photos, etc.); 3 Dscusson (forums, chats, etc.); 4 Moblzaton and Volunteerng (nscrpton to partcpate and/or partcpaton n meetngs, campagns, actons, etc.); 5 Adheson (becomng a mltant or party member). In

19 Paulo Serra, Eduardo Camlo e Gsela Gonçalves (Edt.) 13 terms of the populaton and sample of ths content analyss, we ntend to examne the webstes of the fve Portuguese partes whch have parlamentary representaton (CDS-PP, PSD, PS, PCP-Verdes, BE). 2. To supplement the content analyss, we ntend to verfy f the tools for partcpaton that the webstes of the Portuguese poltcal partes offer ctzens are truly effectve, and n what extent (for example: f we send an e-mal askng somethng, shall we receve an answer? And, f t s the case, how long after do we receve that answer?). So, durng a semester, some of the members of the project wll test those tools, usng them. 3. To know the opnon of the leaders of the Portuguese poltcal partes about the ctzens partcpaton n ther webstes (research queston 2) and, more specfcally, f the agendas of the poltcal partes (n what refers to themes and actvtes) ntegrate the ctzens partcpaton on the webstes and, f so, how do they do ths s ths done -, we shall have sem-structured ntervews wth the leaders of the fve poltcal partes, as well as wth and the responsble for the management of ther webstes (total of ten ntervews). If possble, these ntervews (or, at least, some of them) wll be done usng e-mal, Skype or vdeo-conference. 4. To know the ctzens opnon about the ctzens partcpaton on the webstes of the Portuguese poltcal partes, we shall rely on an Internetbased survey, usng open source tools lke Lme Survey ( addressed to a sample of fve hundred Portuguese users of the poltcal partes webstes. The survey wll comprehend some questons usng Lkert scales and some partally open questons. 5. The results of the work done n the prevous phases wll be summarzed perodcally, n meetngs and conferences wth the researchers and, at the end, n the Fnal Report of the project. References Berln, I. (1969). Two concepts of lberty. In Four essays on lberty (pp ). Oxford: Oxford Unversty Press. Lvros LabCom

20 14 Poltcal Partcpaton and Web 2.0 Blumler, J. G., & Kavanagh, D. (1999). The thrd age of poltcal communcaton: Influences and features. Poltcal Communcaton, 16 (3), Breton, P. (1995). L utope de la communcaton. Pars: La Découverte. Breton, P. & Proulx, S. (1991). L exploson de la communcaton: La nassance d une nouvelle déologe. Pars-Montréal: La Découverte-Boréal. Canavlhas, J. (2009). A comuncação polítca na era da Internet. Bbloteca Onlne de Cêncas da Comuncação. Retreved from Curtce, J., & Norrs, P. (2004). E-poltcs? The mpact of the nternet on poltcal trust and partcpaton. In Alson Park, John Curtce, Katarna Thomson, Catherne Bromley, & Mranda Phlps (Eds.) (2004). Brths socal atttudes: The 21st report (pp ). London: Sage. Dahlgren, P., & Sparks, C. (Eds.) (1997). Communcaton and ctzenshp: Journalsm and the publc sphere n the new meda age. London: Routledge. Dahlgren, P. (2005). The Internet, publc spheres, and poltcal communcaton: Dsperson and delberaton. Poltcal Communcaton, 22, Dertouzos, M. L. (1997). What wll be: How the new world of nformaton wll change our lves. New York: Harperedge. Ferry, J.-M., & Wolton, D. (1998). El nuevo espaco públco. Barcelona: Gedsa. Gbson, R. K., & Römmele, A. (2008). Poltcal communcaton. In D. Caraman (Ed.) (2008). Comparatve poltcs (pp ). Oxford: Oxford Unversty Press. Gbson, R. K., Margols, M., Resnck, D., & Ward, S. (2003). Electon campagnng on the WWW n the US and UK: a comparatve analyss. Party Poltcs, 9 (1), Gbson, R., Ward, S., & Lusol, W. (2003). The Internet and poltcal campagnng: The new medum comes of age? Representaton, 39 (3),