Abstract

This article provides an overview of major research findings regarding the Internet and American Political Campaigns. This is still a nascent subfield, but the research community has come to general agreement on five key points: (1) at the mass behavioral level, the Internet has not changed fundamental participatory inequalities, (2) we have seen an increase in small donor activity, and these donations tend to flow toward polarizing candidates, (3) for political campaign operations, “mundane mobilization tools” carry the largest impacts, (4) with political campaigns, the new focus on data analytics and the “culture of testing” is substantially changing resource expenditures and work routines, and (5) there is currently a clear partisan divide between how Democrats and Republicans employ digital technology for campaigning. The article also discusses the methodological challenges that separate Internet-related research from many of the more established fields of campaign finance-related research. It concludes by posing a set of research questions for the 2014 and 2016 election cycles which will likely prove fruitful.

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