Parties, Candidates and Citizens On-Line - Åbo Akademi

organizational, financial […] resources…” (Norris 2001, 239; cf. Margolis & Resnick
2000, 66). The major Finnish parties and their candidates are the dominant political actors
on-line. The patterns of real world politics in Finland are replicated on-line.
Regarding the Finnish citizens’ political activity on-line, this thesis has mostly
provided findings which support the reinforcement theory. Currently, even though the
country has a long history of high internet penetration, the Finnish population by-andlarge
is still not ‘tuning in’ to internet politics (cf. Hill & Hughes 1998, 183). Citizens seek
and place significantly more emphasis on political information from traditional sources
than on-line sources. The socio-economic patterns found in traditional political interest,
activity and engagement were also, on the whole, replicated among Finnish citizens
seeking and placing information in on-line political information. Finnish citizens also do
not appear to have become activated and engaged on-line, as evident from the analysis of
on-line discussions. Some findings which do not entirely support the reinforcement
theory do also merit attention: the thesis has shown that there could be a potential for a
growing political “internet generation”. The youngest voters, regardless of other socioeconomic
traits, are more prone to visit and to place emphasis on the on-line political
information than the older generations. Furthermore, the thesis also found that neither
class nor income, both of which are commonly used indicators of traditional political
activity, proved significant predictors of seeking out and placing emphasis on any on-line
political information. Nevertheless, looking at the general picture, the findings provided
vis-à-vis the on-line activity by Finnish citizens generally support the reinforcement
theory. The thesis’ second article showed that the new generation of Finnish voters
appear to give significant importance to internet-based information in shaping their
voting decisions. The fifth article, however, showed that the on-line opportunities for
political discussion fail to activate and engage citizens (cf. Boogers & Voerman 2003, 25).
This indicates a rather supplementary role for the internet in providing “information
shortcuts” (Downs 1957) for those already likely to be politically interested (cf. Boogers &
Voerman 2003, 25). While the young Finnish voters might be seeking information from
new and more accessible sources (cf. Downs 1957; Norris 1999, 85), on-line politics is still
not turning even these young people into ‘political animals’ (Davis 1999, 8).
Returning to the typology of on-line political environments, then, the current
situation in Finland resembles a ‘no-change’ situation in as much as the on-line activity of
both the political actors and the citizens follows familiar patterns. This corresponds to
position A in the typology. Even though the Finnish case contains several contextual
conditions which a priori suggested a potentially innovative and dynamic on-line
environment, there is little evidence of internet politics showing signs of affecting off-line
politics in Finland. Whether this is due to the pull- or push effects discussed in this thesis’
theoretical framework is hard to assess in light of the empirical evidence presented.
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