INPOLITICS.COM: Strategies, contents and perceptions of the political uses of the Web during election campaigns. The case of the French Presidential election and the Quebec provincial legislative campaigns. – ENPOLITIQUE.COM

Inpolitics.com is an international research project, undertaken by a team of six researchers from France and Quebec. It aims at producing a comparative survey of the uses of the Web and online social media by candidates and political parties, during the election campaigns 2012 in France and Quebec, which are francophone countries.

The project aims at elaborating a framework of the online strategies of parties depending on their political positions, their ideological orientation, as well as their organizational and financial resources (in particular, the employment of political consultants or external agencies and the uses of techniques of electoral marketing). The project would interrogate the Howard's vision (2006) of the "managed citizen". This vision assumes that all political organizations are now using techniques of information management and digital technologies, that have deep consequences over the internal functioning of these organizations, and political representation in general.

The project would also analyse whether French and Quebecois political parties see the uses of the Web as a tool against the disaffection of voters, and, if it is the case, which online strategies and mechanisms they choose to use in order to establish or maintain some bounds with their electorates, including specific segments of them. The efficiency of these strategies would also be analysed, thanks to the study of some citizens' perceptions of the political uses of the Internet.

The uses of the Web have particularly developed in France and Quebec over the past few years. In both countries, more than 60% of the population is now using the Internet, including the Web. The Web is also extensively used in politics since the 1990s. Social science research over the past 10 years has contributed to a knowledge of online political campaigns, political bloggers, issues of electronic voting etc. In Northern American, online techniques for political mobilisation and participation have generated more attention from the academic world, particularly after the Obama campaign in 2008.

Taken into account these elements, the project would develop a comparative approach of the uses of the Web in francophone countries, whereas most of the social science results have been produced within the Anglo-Saxon world. The research project would significantly contribute to the knowledge of the political web and the transformations of political parties.

The ambition of this project is to analyse the current relationship between organizations that represent the "political supply"", i.e that select candidates, produce discourses, symbols, manifestos and policy positions; and the citizens, i.e the "political demand" that express their choices, expectations and interests. One of the issues of this research project is to show that the ideas of a "supply" and a "demand" are actually challenged by the development of the Internet and the Web 2.0. Citizens can now contribute to the production of political discourses and to the campaigns on a more daily and intense basis. On the other side, the organizations are highly constrained by the "pressure" of continuous communication, which changes the way politics and political representation work. On the one hand, the project aims at developing a better and comparative knowledge of online campaign strategies, and the reception of these strategies, through four research methods (content analysis of the web communication, semi-structured interviews, focus groups, online survey); on the other hand, this knowledge would provide results for a more general perspective of new forms of political organizations and changes that occur with information and communication technologies.