Abstract
All over the world, the use of the digital platform for political campaigning is growing. This development has the potential to empower the electorate to engage in political debate. This exploratory research aims at investigating the impacts and implications of blogging in the 2009 election campaign in South Africa. The study attempts to answer the following questions: What is the nature of the campaign blogosphere? What are the key issues addressed in the blogs? This study employed content analysis to identify the key concepts in the blogs posted during South Africa’s 2009 National and Provincial Elections. Data was gathered from the blogs of four different South African web log feeds. The coding method used in this study is priori coding, based on the concept of Cornfield, Carson, Kalis & Simon (2005), and Stanyer (2006). Findings show that, in South Africa, the use of blogging for political campaigning is still in its infancy. South African bloggers are mainly politicians, journalists and other media personnel who discuss high level political issues. The study notes a limited participation by ordinary citizens in political blogging.Keywords: blogs, blogging, content analysis, political campaign, South AfricaDisciplines: Information Systems Studies, Communications Studies, Political Studies
Highlights
The use of web tools is creating opportunities for the exchange of information, ideas and debates in the form of teledemocracy among people (Price & Cappella, 2002)
Using the case of the 2009 South African General Elections, this study focuses on the use of blogs in political campaigns as a forum for public debate and politics in a developing country context (Drezner & Farrell, 2004)
This research aims to answer the question: What is the nature of use and implications of blogging in election campaigning in South Africa? The study presents some areas of discussion such as: What is the nature of the campaign blogosphere? What are the key issues addressed in the blogs? This study makes a theoretical and practical contribution to that discourse
Summary
The use of web tools is creating opportunities for the exchange of information, ideas and debates in the form of teledemocracy among people (Price & Cappella, 2002). Several studies have shown the use of websites and web tools in political campaigns The use of blogs for political campaigning al., 2005; Stanyer, 2006). In the South African context, the use of the web for online campaigning is just emerging. The public was involved with the online campaign process through blogs and online forums. Several political parties used various means to disseminate information to the public through several Web 2.0 technologies for their campaign. Using the case of the 2009 South African General Elections, this study focuses on the use of blogs in political campaigns as a forum for public debate and politics in a developing country context (Drezner & Farrell, 2004)
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