Parties, Candidates and Citizens On-Line - Åbo Akademi

providing the kind of structure for political action and activity that most citizens want,
not just those already politically motivated, interested and active off-line.
In the third situation, environment C, on-line politics is not mobilizing citizens
into political activity and participation, but the smaller and marginal political actors are
able to compete with the major actors. In essence, this resembles the situation on the
internet before the medium started its extraordinarily rapid spread to the general public.
In these early days, fringe parties and other marginal political groups were the dominating
presence on-line (Margolis et al. 2003, 54; Margolis & Resnick 2000, 54). Considered from
the pull-perspective, this situation is quite ambiguous. The smaller actors are maintaining
a web presence which equals, or surpasses, that of the major actors, even though there are
no signs of on-line mobilization. The smaller political actors possibly regard the internet
as an affordable outlet for their ideas compared to traditional media, and maintain a web
presence, so-to-speak, just for the sake of having it. For the major actors, they are most
likely relying on traditional campaigning for catching the politically active citizens, and so
there appears to be little reason for making any extensive efforts on-line. From the pushperspective,
the websites of the smaller actors are obviously not providing a structure for
on-line political activity which is attracting citizens who are currently marginalized from
mainstream off-line politics. On the contrary, the citizens who engage in on-line political
activity appear to be among those politically interested and active off-line. It is possible
that, even though the major parties are not dominating in terms of providing a structure
for political action, the little efforts they make are nonetheless succeeding in attracting
some of the citizens with high civic and political interest.
Finally, in environment D, both the political actors and the citizens show signs of
the optimistic effects envisioned by the equalization and mobilization theories. Citizens
not normally engaged in political activity off-line are seizing the on-line opportunities for
activity and participation. There is also evidence of equal on-line competition among the
political actors. From the pull-viewpoint, the smaller actors seem to be focusing their
resources towards web campaigning in order to reach the growing on-line audience. The
major actors apparently have not realized the existence of this web audience for politics.
Hypothetically, they could also deem making any extensive efforts in catching these online
citizens as waste of time and resources. From the push-perspective, it seems as if the
websites of the smaller political actors are providing a political structure which facilitates a
kind of political activity that also attracts citizens who are not normally politically active.
Regardless of the causal directions, the internet could have a lasting impact on political
life in this situation as the smaller political actors are able to compete with the major
actors over the attention of a growing and potentially more engaged internet audience.
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