Opinion

The current situation of the parties’ use of ICTs

1.- Which innovative technologies have the parties and candidates been using in this general election?

Web 2.0 tools (MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, Flikr, tuenti, Second Life, etc.) are social networking tools used to mobilise internet users. They also play a role in the diffusion of the candidates’ messages through instruments such as blogs and these online media are used to enhance the offline activities (SMS distribution lists as used by the PP, the Popular Party) and to obtain resources and funding (Rosa Díez’s UPyD, Union, Progress and Democracy party).

2.- How has the use of ICTs evolved, how long have they been used for, what influence does the US have and why is now a critical time?

Since the mid 1990s, political communication specialists in the US have been waiting for the “first election of the internet era” to take place. There has been great expectancy that the impact of the introduction of the new information and communication technologies would affect political campaigning and even politics in general, especially the internet, with the versatility of its uses, interaction potential and production and distribution decentralisation. The precedent was the diffusion of the new mass media, particularly the introduction of the television, dating from the mid 1950s. The start of this new era was signalled by the televised debate between Nixon and Kennedy in the 1960 American presidential election.

In the case of the internet, the impact of the new ICTs became apparent to the analysts, consultants and politicians themselves during Howard Dean’s Democratic candidacy for the 2004 American presidential election primaries.

That election had been preceded by the rise of the political opinion blogs phenomenon in the USA, which were used to discuss the war in Iraq, an issue that had provoked great divisions between the left and the right. Howard Dean, governor of the state of Vermont, had been involved from the start, denouncing the war. When he decided to present himself as a Democratic candidate for the presidential election he then used his blog to obtain contributions online with credit cards. In a well-known anecdote, when his rival Cheney organised a dinner in which he expected to raise $250,000, he asked people on his blog to make contributions to equal this figure in the three days running up to the event. Dean’s supporters managed it in just one day!

The Dean candidacy was also original in another respect. At that time, social networking tools were being developed based on websites. An example was the Meet.up tool that was gaining popularity, which was designed to facilitate virtual collective meetings. Joe Trippi, Dean’s campaign director, explains that their supporters used this tool to organise themselves, which resulted in Dean’s public appearances being attended by many more people than would have normally been the case. In terms of American politics, Dean managed to combine the netroots (internet-based political activism) and the grassroots (traditional political activism).

From this time on, the political world in the US has never been the same and whatever happens it always has a great impact on the rest of the world and thus serves as a model to avoid. It should be avoided because expectations are too high as they fail to take into account that the American political system is very different from others (the institutional structure leads to competition between candidates beyond party lines, it is more open and there is more to gain from using these tools).

3.- How do the parties use ICTs and websites?

It has been evolving and the parties have been developing and fine-tuning their usage strategies. Currently, how do they use them?

In general, they use their websites to broadcast information (news, programmes, organisation, etc.) and nearer to the elections to organise the campaign (to mobilise the volunteers and voters). In this respect, they have disappointed many who believed that they would use the internet’s interactive potential, making themselves more open and democratic.

Some differences in usage have been observed according to the type of party – mass, catch-all, small, large, etc. We have undertaken research to investigate if the usage differs in the different types of party and we have found that it is indeed the case. For example, the smaller parties tend to use the internet more intensely to mobilise resources (increase membership, donations, etc.) and the larger parties more for campaigning. Furthermore, parties of the masses use ICTs more intensely to establish links and connections with similar organisations and groups, in order to create a wider community.


The parties’ perception of the usefulness and importance of ICTs

4.- Do the parties feel that ICTs are important? Do they provide sufficient resources, appoint suitable personnel and have a clear strategy?

Increasingly yes. This area is evolving, although some parties have advanced more than others. For example, the PSC, the Catalan Socialist party, has had a full-time person managing their website for the last two years. This person answers directly to the organisation’s secretary and is in permanent contact with the first secretary, Miquel Iceta. The PSC’s website is also affiliated to the OJD, the information service, which means that it is subject to this organisation’s controls and all of the information on the website (visits, etc.) is in the public domain. The PSC has clearly embraced the internet and a presence in the virtual world.

Why is a website so important? Some of the parties still do not see the usefulness of a website in gaining votes. They do not treat the internet as a way of increasing their votes, but rather a way of influencing the media, as a way of participating in the definition of the topics and providing a framework for political debate, which has been monopolised up until now by the traditional media.

5.- Are the parties somewhat behind the rest of society, the market and business in this area? What problems and difficulties do the ICTs represent for the parties?

1) Maybe they were lagging behind, but not now. In the last two years, the parties have greatly increased their use of ICTs. The big change was first seen in the regional election in November 2006, then in the municipal election in May 2007 and now in this election, where ICTs are playing a very important role.

2) The main problems and difficulties with ICTs for the parties are that they can lose some of their control over the political agenda –the definition of the topics and the political debate– and their monopoly on the representation of interests. ICTs allow citizens to not only obtain much more information, but also to participate directly in its production. Furthermore, ICTs also reduce citizens’ coordination costs and there have now been a number of protests and mobilisations organised by the public using ICTs. This all means that the representation of interests has become more fluid and competitive, endangering the monopoly that the parties have had up until now. However, the parties are trying to convert these threats into opportunities and are using ICTs to define the current political agenda and initiate movements that can create opinion, such as blogs.

The influence of ICTs in politics and within the parties

6.- Are ICTs changing the parties? Is the electoral campaign changing?

Yes, some aspects of how the parties function are changing, although it is far from a revolution. The parties are established institutions with power structures and any internal changes are slow. The social networking tools contained in the websites and the videos are normally one-way instruments from which the public do not receive any feedback from the party. Even the responses to forums and emails are usually generated automatically, except in a very few cases. However, the area where the greatest change has taken place is in the way in which an election campaign is developed, which demonstrates that the parties are taking the possibilities that the internet offers into account.

Two important internal and operational changes made by the parties can be highlighted:
- ICTs and websites have become new ways of recruiting and organising volunteers more quickly and easily. The internet aids the recruitment of volunteers who are supporters rather than party members. This new development is very important because the mobilisation and propaganda task of an election campaign can now be carried out by both online volunteers and party members. A clear example of this change can be seen in the PP’s current campaign, as their website contains various technological tools for the recruitment and organisation of volunteers.
It could be questioned whether in the case of the PP the tools for recruiting volunteers are so central because they need to have a more direct relationship between the volunteers or supporters and the central leadership, where as in other parties, their membership is already well developed and organised regionally and locally and the party undertakes more intermediary functions.
- In addition, blogs are providing a way for internal dissidence within the parties to gain strength, as there is now a place where different opinions can be expressed that did not previously exist. The ERC, the Catalan Republican leftwing party, is a clear example of where blogs are used to freely express the different ideologies within the party. Apart from any dissidence or ideological differences within the organisation, any political representative or party official can create their own blog or website to express themselves and directly explain –without the party’s involvement– their actions and ideas or to address a particular segment of the electorate or the media.

In terms of changes to the election campaign:
-The website has become a platform for centralising, organising and visualising the electoral campaign. It shows the events calendar, contains all the relevant information, presents the most important points and declarations of the programme and recruits volunteers and the electoral table supervisors and representatives. Journalists consult the parties’ websites for information on the events taking place and the candidates’ opinions. The websites and blogs’ technological tools and their contents are in themselves newsworthy for the traditional media. Despite this fact, in Spain and Catalonia it is very much an additional instrument and the campaigns continue to rely on the traditional media, such as television, radio, the press, street advertising, etc. In the case of the USA however, the campaign is centred on the candidates’ websites and blogs, which have become bases in order to launch and organise the campaign, raise funds, recruit volunteers, and disseminate the candidates’ programmes and ideas.
-Another very important change is that through the public’s interactions with the websites, emails, mobile phones and social networking tools, the parties can gather information about their voters. For sometime now, the American political consultants have been trying to “segment” the audiences of the different candidates so that an “appropriate” message (one that persuades them to vote for a candidate) is sent to the appropriate receiver (those who may be convinced by a particular message). This has become possible thanks to the use of data mining, the massive data analysis capability of the latest computers, along with personalised mailings. In this context, the candidates’ websites are instruments for maximising their ability to obtain information on supporters’ preferences, interests and tastes and to send them SMS messages or emails. This links in with an anecdote about the video of Rajoy, the PP’s candidate. The first thing that the PP leadership did was to deny that they would use the telephone numbers gathered to create personalised telephone call lists. This denial (that was not called for?) in one way confirms that here the main purpose of this type of instrument is similar to that in the US.

7.- Can ICTs contribute to increasing participation and bring the public closer to the parties and in doing so, halt the lack of trust in the parties?

-An increase in participation due to the competition and electoral rivalry resulting from a good new candidate can be further increased by the internet, if the candidate is familiar with using ICTs. Examples include Segolène Royale, Barack Obama and Howard Dean, although it must be added that they also made or make appearances throughout the country (meetings, local gatherings of supporters, policy-making discussions, parties, etc.). Their success is the result of combining both types of media.
In the case of the French socialist party, it increased their membership because it offered online affiliation leading up to the first round of votes. The majority of the new members were Segolène Royale supporters.

-The internet can help in the launching of small new parties, such as Ciutadans (Citizens). Entry barriers are reduced and the greater number of parties can lead to increased political pluralism and dynamism.

- Does the internet reinforce the existing social divisions or diminish them to help the incorporation of new supporters, volunteers and voters amongst the young or more participation in the lower and middle classes. What do the results of the population surveys tell us?

In Great Britain, young people between 18 and 24 participate much more online than offline, although the educational and social class inequalities with respect to in-person participation are reproduced or even increased in the case of online participation (contacting politicians by email, downloading political information, participating in discussion forums or political blogs). Those with higher levels of education and income participate more online than actually in person.

There is not as much survey data available in Spain on the different forms of participation of those who participate both online and in person. The young do not participate greatly in politics through the internet and their use of it tends to be centred on leisure activities and social relations. Those in this age group that do participate online are the ones that already do so in person.

In the US more lower and middle class people who do not participate in person are now participating online and the young participate more online than in person. This results in less social inequality in online than offline participation. One must also take into account that 70% of the US population regularly uses the internet.

Maybe when the internet is more widely used in Catalonia and Spain there will also be an increase in political participation amongst the lower and middle classes. When the young, who account for 70% of regular internet users in Catalonia, become older then they may also start to participate or be more interested in traditional politics online (namely the life cycle effect).