This project examines how new media are affecting political participation and campaigning in elections worldwide with particular reference to UK and Australian parliamentary elections (2010) and French and US presidential elections (2012). It focuses on the uptake of web 2.0 tools by parties, candidates and voters and asks whether this process is fostering a new type of networked political activism-citizen-campaigning - that challenges established modes of election behaviour and management. More specifically, do the new technologies of blogs, online video and social networking sites enable 'ordinary' voters to play a greater role in the coordination and communication of the campaign, thereby shifting power away from established elites, party members and activists? If so, what factors help to promote this new type of activism at the individual, organisational and institutional level and what does it mean for parties, participation and the wider political system? Do the new forms of engagement ultimately strengthen the representative model government or encourage a more direct style of involvement by citizens and a by-passing of intermediaries? The research questions are explored using a range of original data including campaign sites, elite and public opinion surveys and new and innovative methodologies developed specifically for web 2.0 platforms.

Surveys Elections studied: - United Kingdom 2010 General Election - Australia 2010 Federal Parliamentary Election - France 2012 Presidential Election - United States 2012 Presidential Primaries and General election Data collected: In each case a series of elite and mass-level datasets was collected for meaningful cross-country comparisons to be drawn. The key datasets include: - Opinion surveys of citizens online and offline political activities and attitudes during all 4 countries’ elections. - Party and candidates’ official election websites and web 2.0 presence (i.e. Facebook, blogs, YouTube, Twitter sites) - E-campaign manager surveys - Elite interviews with e-campaign managers, prominent journalists covering the e-election, and political bloggers