Parties, Candidates and Citizens On-Line - Åbo Akademi

4.4.2. Who is on-line?
Which factors, then, influenced the Finnish candidates’ web presence? A logistic
regression analysis, presented in Table 5, examines three central candidate characteristics:
age, gender, and size of the candidate’s party. Put bluntly, is on-line campaigning a
concern for young, male candidates representing major parties?
TABLE 5. A Logistic regression model predicting the candidates’ use of websites.
B S.E. Exp(B) Sig.
Gender
Age
.717 .467 2.048 .125
18–24 1.393 .726 4.028 .055
25–34 1.284 .702 3.611 .067
35–49
Party Size
.077 .492 1.080 .876
Major Party 5.745 .837 312.473 .000
Minor Party 3.567 .502 35.396 .000
Constant
–.2.900
Cox-Snell R 2 = .487; Nagelkerke R 2 = .656; % Correct = 86.8; N = 220.
Note: The dependent variable: 0 = candidate does not have a website, 1 = candidate has a website.
Gender: Male (1); Female (0). Age: reference category (0): 50 years or older. Party size: reference category
(0): Fringe party.
The model presented in Table 5 shows that age 8 and party size, in particular, are
significant predictors of having a website. Above all, belonging to a major party is a
crucial factor. 9 Although it is likely that major parties’ candidates may have obtained
assistance from their parties in setting up their individual sites, we do not have empirical,
interview evidence to support such claim. Neither did we note an extensive use of
standard site skeletons that could have been provided by the parties. Candidates who used
such templates usually run for minor and fringe parties, not major parties. Additionally,
the model reveals an independent age effect; young candidates (the age groups 18–24 and
25–34) were more likely to go on-line than the older candidates.
8 Since age effects in internet use tend to be generation specific, we used age categories in the model.
9 An additional cross-tabulation showed that 97% of the major party candidates, 79% of the minor party
candidates and 12% of the fringe party candidates had own websites.
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