A diachronic analysis of Portuguese digital campaigning

Bearing in mind the dearth of inquiry about new media and political campaigns in Portugal, this chapter proposes an unprecedented cross-cutting analysis of the nature of online communication during the period of explosion of the e-campaigns. Such a topography and cartography for Internet communications and political campaigning, comprising distinct elections over time, allows for assessing both the evolution of the campaign online and the most influential contributions of the Internet to those evolving trends. The multiple wave nature of the data involved in the chronological study of the 2000 campaigns in Portugal is further complemented with extensive in-depth interviews conducted with different actors from the limited universe of key respondents with direct involvement in the episodes under analysis. It concludes that the Internet went from a separate operation in previous campaigns to a more central role within all Portuguese campaign divisions. Despite being touted as a revolution and a great communication tool, the core features of the Internet have reinforced the continuity of previous tendencies rather than precipitating a radical break with the past. Moreover, although important interaction flows were created with the voters, those were discontinued once the campaign was over, thus making Websites, online platforms, social networks profiles, and video sharing channels used during campaign as obsolete as old leaflets left on the floor after the rally has ended.