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.

Autorentext

Guy Lachapelle (Concordia University, Montréal); Philippe J. Maarek (University Paris East - UPEC)

Inhalt

. Decline of Activism Within Political Parties: Coping Strategies and New Technologies
. Innovations in Information Technology in American Party Politics Since
. Social Media and the U.S. Presidential Campaigns: the Dark Side of the Electoral Process
. Party Activists and Communications in Quebec
. The United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) and the British Press: Integration, Immigration and Integrity
. The French Political Communication and the Emergence of Electronic Media and Social Networks
. Internet, Social Media Use and Political Participation in the 2013 Parliamentary Election in Germany
. Changing Communications? Political Parties and Web 2.0 in the 2011 New Zealand General Election
. Political Parties and the Internet: Social Changes and Political Transformations - the case of the Parti Quebecois