The Internet and "social media" may initially have been understood as just one more instrument politicians could employ to manage without political parties. However, these media cannot be reduced to being a tool available solely to politicians. The electronic media make reinforcement of the "glocalization" of the public and political sphere, a process already set in motion with the advent of television, and they can develop the trend even further. Political parties are therefore once again becoming indispensable; they are in an unparalleled position to recreate social and political bonds, for only they stand both at the center and on the periphery of the new sphere encompassing public and political life. TABLE OF CONTENTS New Technologies: Helping Political Parties and the Democratic Processes or Threatening Them? (Guy Lachapelle and Philippe J. Maarek) Part I: The Integration of Technological Innovations in the Practices of Parties and Citizens Innovations in Information Technology in American Party Politics Since 1960 (Kenneth Janda) Internet, Social Media Use and Political Participation in the 2013 Parliamentary Election in Germany (Reimar Zeh and Christina Holtz-Bacha) Part II: The Consequences of New Technologies on Activism The Decline of Activism in Political Parties: Adaptation Strategies and New Technologies (Eric Montigny) Party Activists and Partisan Communication in Quebec (Isabelle Gusse) Part III: The New Role Played by Social Networks Changing Communications? Political Parties and Web 2.0 in the 2011 New Zealand General Election (Ashley Murchison) Social Media and American Presidential Campaigns: The Dark Side of the Electoral Process (Karine Premont and Charles-Antoine Millette) Part IV: The Resilience of the Printed Press in the United Kingdom The United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) and the British Press: Integration, Immigration and Integrity (David Deacon and Dominic Wring) Part V: New Technologies and Leadership Evolution Political parties and the Internet: changes in society, changing politics – the case of the Parti Quebecois (Guy Lachapelle) Political communication, electronic media and social networks in France (Philippe J. Maarek) Index of Proper Nouns

The first comprehensive volume on the impact of digital media on Australian politics, this book examines the way these technologies shape political communication, alter key public and private institutions, and serve as the new arena in which discursive and expressive political life is performed. -- Publisher's description.

From the Pirate Parties in Northern Europe to Podemos in Spain and the 5-Star Movement in Italy, from the movements behind Bernie Sanders in the United States and Jeremy Corbyn in the United Kingdom, to Jean-Luc Melenchon's presidential bid in France, the last decade has witnessed the rise of a new blueprint for political organization: the digital party. These new political formations tap into the potential of social media to gain consensus, and use online participatory platforms to include the rank-and-file. Paolo Gerbaudo looks at the restructuring of political parties and campaigns in the time of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and big data. Drawing on interviews with key political leaders and digital organizers, he argues that the digital party is very different from the class-based "mass party" of the industrial era, and offers promising new solutions to social polarization and the failures of liberal democracy today.

This book explores alternative approaches for engaging and understanding young people’s political activity and looks at the adoption of information and ICTs as a means to facilitate the active engagement of young people in democratic societies.

This book analyzes how mainstream and new parties are building their digital platforms and transitioning from traditional (offline) organizations into the digital world. The authors present an innovative empirical exploration of the democratic consequences and technical challenges of the digitalization of party organizations from a comparative perspective. They provide an original account of how party digital platforms are regulated and used, and a crucial discussion of the main technological and democratic issues that political parties face in their digital transition. Further, the authors assess the consequences of these digitalization processes for political participation and party membership, as well as the impact on party organizational models and electoral campaign potential. The book looks into one of the less-studied aspects of digital democracy, also presenting empirical evidence and case studies. It presents different parties and their adoption of digital participation platforms, from the Pirate Parties in Northern Europe to Podemos in Spain, La France Insoumise in France, the Five Stars Movement in Italy, or the German Greens. Therefore, the book is a must-read for scholars of political science, policy-makers, and practitioners, interested in a better understanding of the transition of political parties into the digital world.

Comparing Media Systems Beyond the Western World offers a broad exploration of the conceptual foundations for comparative analysis of media and politics globally. It takes as its point of departure the widely used framework of Hallin and Mancini's Comparing Media Systems, exploring how the concepts and methods of their analysis do and do not prove useful when applied beyond the original focus of their 'most similar systems' design and the West European and North American cases it encompassed. It is intended both to use a wider range of cases to interrogate and clarify the conceptual framework of Comparing Media Systems and to propose new models, concepts and approaches that will be useful for dealing with non-Western media systems and with processes of political transition. Comparing Media Systems Beyond the Western World covers, among other cases, Brazil, China, Israel, Lebanon, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Thailand.

Provides academics, journalists, and general readers with bird's-eye view of data-driven practices and their impact in politics and media.