Abstract

Some commentators suggest that that there is a sea-change in both how the Internet is used, and its impact during campaigns. This interest has been fuelled by Barack Obama’s use of the Internet in the 2008 U.S. Presidential elections. Obama utilised the potential of Web 2.0 applications to fundamentally change the campaigning process, by interacting with citizens and encouraging participation (Gordon-Murnane 2009, Greengard 2009, Lipton 2009). This use of the Internet provides a potential model for how British political parties, and individual politicians, could reach out to disaffected citizens during the 2009 European Parliament elections. Such a model based on dialogue, building relationships and engaging citizens in meaningful discussion could potentially rebuild trust between elector and elected during a time of political crisis. This article firstly outlines a conceptual framework for assessing how the Web 2.0 tools might be used to encourage interactivity, and in whose interest the Internet might work. We then outline our methodology for assessing the interactive nature of how parties and candidates used the Internet. Lastly, we analyse which parties and candidates used Web 2.0 applications during the 2009 European Parliamentary elections campaign most effectively to encourage public dialogue finding only tentative moves towards more participatory modes of political communication.