Die vorliegende Arbeit stellt das jüngste Element der Wahlkampfkommu¬nikation in den Mittelpunkt: das Internet. In den USA spielte das sogenannte E-Campaigning bei den Präsidentschaftswahlen erstmals im Jahr 2000 eine wichtige Rolle. Bereits 2002 fasste es auch in Deutschland bei Bundestags¬wahlen zum ersten Mal Fuß. Um sich diesem Untersuchungsgegenstand der politi¬schen Kommunikation systematisch zu nähern, wird anhand des US-amerikanischen Vorbilds ein eigener Ansatz – eine sogenannte Nullmessung – entwickelt. Diese wurde dann anlässlich des Bundestagswahlkampfes 2002 anhand der Internet-Wahlkampfaktivitäten der im Bundestag vertretenen Parteien durchgeführt und im Wahlkampf 2005 ergänzt. Vergleicht man die Untersuchungsergebnisse mit den Zielen, die damals von den Parteien nach eigenen Angaben mit ihren Onlinekampagnen verfolgt wurden, zeigt sich, dass die Internetauftritte den öffentlich von den Kampagnenmanagern artikulierten Ansprüchen, nicht gerecht wurden. Die Chance, die für den Wahlsieg wichtige Gruppe der Wechselwähler gezielt anzusprechen, wurde beispielsweise nicht hinreichend genutzt. Die Analyse zeigt, dass das aus den Betrachtungen der US-amerikanischen Kampagnen bekannte Online-Instrumentarium häufig nur kopiert und dann auch nicht zielgerichtet und konsequent genug eingesetzt wurde. An den Internetkampagnen der deutschen Parteien ist ebenfalls zu erkennen, dass sie bei der Übernahme US-amerikanischer Internetformate keine Rücksicht auf die unterschiedlichen gesellschaftlichen Randbedingungen beider Länder genommen haben, die sich beispielsweise bei der Bereitschaft zur Unterstützung politischer Kampagnen aus¬wirken. Das Internet ist als eigenständiges Kampagneninstrument in den Dimensionen „Darstellung“, „Aktivierung“ und „Steuerung“ nicht erkennbar. Die Arbeit zeigt auf, dass im Internet gerade für eine spezifisch deutsche Wahlkampfführung noch ein erhebliches strategisches Potenzial liegt, welches 2002 und 2005 nicht genutzt wurde. / This paper focuses on the latest element in electronic election campaign communication: the Internet. In the USA, e-campaigning first played a major role during presidential elections in the year 2000. By 2002 it had already begun to gain ground at Germany’s federal elections. In order to examine this aspect of political communication systematically, a dedicated approach known as baseline measurement was developed on the basis of the US American example. It was then applied to the Internet election campaign activities of the parties represented in Germany’s parliament during the 2002 federal election campaign, and then supplemented to include the 2005 campaign. If we compare the results of the study with the objectives which the parties said they were pursuing in their online campaigns, we see that those online campaigns did not fulfil the aspirations articulated publicly by campaign managers. For example, the opportunity to address swing voters, who are crucial to election victory, was inadequately utilised. Analysis reveals that the online instruments familiar to observers of US American campaigns were often simply copied and then not applied consistently enough or with sufficient attention to aims. The Internet campaigns run by German parties also indicated that when adopting US American Internet formats, they ignored the social differences between the two countries that affect things like people’s willingness to support political campaigns. The Internet was not recognisable as an independent campaign instrument used in the dimensions of Portrayal, Activation or Control. This paper shows that the Internet still harbours considerable strategic potential for specifically German election campaign management – potential which was not utilised in 2002 or 2005.

Inför riksdagsvalet 2018 syntes en ny aktör inom fältet för politisk marknadsföring; influencern. Denna studie är skriven i syfte att granska vilka strategier som används då influencers försöker påverka människor politiskt. Med fokus på personalisering och negativ politisk marknadsföring genomfördes en retorisk textanalys av åtta bloggar drivna av svenska influencers i syfte att besvara frågeställningen: Vilka strategier använder sig influencers av för att påverka människors politiska åsikter?  Studien resulterade i slutsatsen att både personalisering och negativ politisk marknadsföring är strategier som används då influencers försöker påverka människors politiska åsikter. Personalisering användes dock i högre grad vilket antas bero på att influencers också i en mer kommersiell marknadsföring använder sig av en personlig relation till sina följare när de vill sälja en produkt.

The organizations of national and provincial parties in Canada are understood to be separated from one another. However, it is not known whether this separation extends to the constituency-level organizations of those parties. In order to provide a better understanding of how national and provincial parties are linked at the local level (if at all), this thesis describes and accounts for the local organizations of the national Liberal Party and the provincial Liberal parties in sixteen national constituencies selected from the provinces of British Columbia, Ontario, and New Brunswick. Information from interviews with local party activists and participant observation in the ridings is used to develop a continuum of constituency-level party organizations. Descriptions of the activist bases, constituency associations, and local campaigns in each riding allow for each local organization to be placed along this continuum between integrated local organizations, which share important linkages between the national and provincial levels, and differentiated local organizations, where no such linkages exist. The placement of local organizations along this continuum is accounted for by (1) similarities or differences between the national and provincial party systems in the three provinces studied; (2) the actions of incumbent members of the national Parliament and provincial legislatures; and (3) characteristics of the constituencies. The patterns identified lead to a classification of four types of local organizations – One Political World, Interconnected Political Worlds, Distinctive Political Worlds, and Two Political Worlds – that illuminate the different forms of linkages between national and provincial parties that exist at the constituency level. This examination of the local organizations of the Liberal Party calls into question the academic consensus on the separation of national and provincial parties in Canada. Instead, the Liberal Party is characterized as an unevenly integrated party, where the parliamentary and extra-parliamentary parties are separated from provincial counterparts, but where the national and provincial parties on the ground are oftentimes integrated.

The organizations of national and provincial parties in Canada are understood to be separated from one another. However, it is not known whether this separation extends to the constituency-level organizations of those parties. In order to provide a better understanding of how national and provincial parties are linked at the local level (if at all), this thesis describes and accounts for the local organizations of the national Liberal Party and the provincial Liberal parties in sixteen national constituencies selected from the provinces of British Columbia, Ontario, and New Brunswick. Information from interviews with local party activists and participant observation in the ridings is used to develop a continuum of constituency-level party organizations. Descriptions of the activist bases, constituency associations, and local campaigns in each riding allow for each local organization to be placed along this continuum between integrated local organizations, which share important linkages between the national and provincial levels, and differentiated local organizations, where no such linkages exist. The placement of local organizations along this continuum is accounted for by (1) similarities or differences between the national and provincial party systems in the three provinces studied; (2) the actions of incumbent members of the national Parliament and provincial legislatures; and (3) characteristics of the constituencies. The patterns identified lead to a classification of four types of local organizations – One Political World, Interconnected Political Worlds, Distinctive Political Worlds, and Two Political Worlds – that illuminate the different forms of linkages between national and provincial parties that exist at the constituency level. This examination of the local organizations of the Liberal Party calls into question the academic consensus on the separation of national and provincial parties in Canada. Instead, the Liberal Party is characterized as an unevenly integrated party, where the parliamentary and extra-parliamentary parties are separated from provincial counterparts, but where the national and provincial parties on the ground are oftentimes integrated.

The organizations of national and provincial parties in Canada are understood to be separated from one another. However, it is not known whether this separation extends to the constituency-level organizations of those parties. In order to provide a better understanding of how national and provincial parties are linked at the local level (if at all), this thesis describes and accounts for the local organizations of the national Liberal Party and the provincial Liberal parties in sixteen national constituencies selected from the provinces of British Columbia, Ontario, and New Brunswick. Information from interviews with local party activists and participant observation in the ridings is used to develop a continuum of constituency-level party organizations. Descriptions of the activist bases, constituency associations, and local campaigns in each riding allow for each local organization to be placed along this continuum between integrated local organizations, which share important linkages between the national and provincial levels, and differentiated local organizations, where no such linkages exist. The placement of local organizations along this continuum is accounted for by (1) similarities or differences between the national and provincial party systems in the three provinces studied; (2) the actions of incumbent members of the national Parliament and provincial legislatures; and (3) characteristics of the constituencies. The patterns identified lead to a classification of four types of local organizations – One Political World, Interconnected Political Worlds, Distinctive Political Worlds, and Two Political Worlds – that illuminate the different forms of linkages between national and provincial parties that exist at the constituency level. This examination of the local organizations of the Liberal Party calls into question the academic consensus on the separation of national and provincial parties in Canada. Instead, the Liberal Party is characterized as an unevenly integrated party, where the parliamentary and extra-parliamentary parties are separated from provincial counterparts, but where the national and provincial parties on the ground are oftentimes integrated. / Arts, Faculty of / Political Science, Department of / Graduate

In recent years, negativity has become a dominant theme in the political campaign. However, there are no comprehensive studies to measure the amount of negativity and to examine how parties and candidates adopt these negative strategies, particularly in the Canadian context. Although some studies have focused on a particular aspect of negative campaigning in a Canadian election, the question remains of how and to what extent parties adopt negative strategies in an election. In this thesis, I have collected and analyzed parties’ press releases in the 2015 federal election to examine and explain negativity in parties’ political campaigns. I have tested my results according to five primary theories of negative campaigning, including competitive positioning, ideological proximity, party organization, coalition or minority effect, and negative personalization, to see if these theories apply in the Canadian context. My results indicate that the 2015 federal campaign was a highly negative one, and most of the negative attacks have been directed towards the leader of the Conservative Party, Stephen Harper, while the Conservative Party published the least amount of negative attacks during the campaign. I also found that the Liberal Party has published the most negative statements during the campaign. My results also show that one of the influential factors in shaping parties’ negative campaign strategies is the other parties’ status in public opinion polls, particularly the federal voting intention factor. Although the results show that most of the attacks in the 2015 campaign targeted leaders of parties, I did not find enough support in my models to verify the negative personalization theory. The overall findings of this thesis show that Canadian elections are moving toward a presidential-style campaign, similar to the United States, by becoming more negative and more personalized, which can have significant implications for Canadian democracy.

In 2022, Russia started a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. This act had created turmoil outside of Ukraine’s border and politicians around the globe took this as a chance to promote themselves and their values. This thesis follows how was the war used in the Czech Republic during Senatorial, Municipal, and Presidential campaigns. To do so, a qualitative analysis of multimodal content uploaded to individual politicians and full-party Facebook and Twitter profiles has been conducted. The author argues that a phenomenon discovered in journalism called “media domestication” can be applied also to the field of political communication. Each party and politician has constructed the war in their own way to present their values while sharing the content, due to the fact that in their communication, different elements of the war have been used. This allows its own interpretation to fit the agenda of the sender of said communication.

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