Parties, Candidates and Citizens On-Line - Åbo Akademi

Tentatively, supporting the push perspective, the Finnish citizens might not be turning to
the websites of the Finnish political parties and candidates as these are generally quite
lacklustre and mostly resemble traditional brochures. This is also partly supported by the
higher interest shown by the citizens on visiting and placing emphasis in the innovative
candidate-selector websites. On the other hand, from the pull perspective, the political
actors might not yet be making any extensive efforts with their websites as most citizens
are not engaging in political activity on-line. Instead, they maintain a web presence mainly
to stay up-to-date. The evidence presented in this thesis, nonetheless, indicate that on-line
politics does not appear to affect the politics of Finland in general.
Regarding the future, however, this thesis did provide some evidence of the
internet possibly becoming a ‘medium of choice’ in seeking political information for the
next generation of Finnish voters. Even if this thesis demonstrated that these citizens
were not becoming more engaged and active, this slight trend in the citizens dimension
leaves open for some speculation concerning different potential directions for the future
of the Finnish on-line political environment. First and foremost, a growing audience for
internet politics could mean that the major actors further strengthen their positions. This
would resemble environment B in the typology of on-line political environments. If the
trend of young citizens placing emphasis on on-line information in making their voting
decisions continues, the major actors would seem likely to catch the larger share of these
voters. As Lusoli (2005b, 160) remarks: “The internet does attract a younger audience and
forces politicians to come to terms with the new medium”. As they can reach increasingly
more citizens on-line, the resources of the major actors would be increasingly mobilized
into their websites and their dominance among the on-line political actors would continue
(cf. Gibson et al. 2003, 50-51; Margolis et al. 2003, 58). This potential development is
arguably quite likely as the major political actors already dominate the Finnish on-line
political environment even though they are not using the internet to its fullest potential.
Secondly, tentatively, the smaller political actors who are disadvantaged through
traditional mass media (Margolis et al. 2003, 58), could be more keen to seize the possible
‘net gain’ and channel a large share of their resources towards catching the on-line voters
(cf. Sadow & James 1999, 5). This could drive the on-line electoral competition towards a
more equalized situation. If the smaller political actors are competing on a relative equal
footing with the major actors for a growing on-line audience, and if they manage to
attract these voters to their websites, on-line politics could influence off-line power
structures as well (cf. Norris 2003, 43). This would correspond to situation D in the
theoretical typology of online political environments. Finally, it is noteworthy that the
impact of the internet could be due to political actors and activities not extensively
analyzed in this thesis. The young are increasingly turning to new social movements,
protest groups and transnational networks in their off-line political activity (Norris 2002).
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