This edited collection focuses on the first 25 years of experience with Internet and democracy. Involving scholars and perspectives from more than 20 countries across six continents, it offers a comprehensive longitudinal and cross-national study on the impact of the Internet on democracy.

The book starts with an overview of initial theoretical expectations about Internet and democracy, focusing on digital opportunities. The Internet was in its early beginnings by many seen as a new information highway giving citizens access to an unprecedented amount of information and as a new agora for democratic debate, a weathercock for public opinion.

25 years later, we have seen that such expectations were exaggerated. The Internet has not become the Shangri-La of democracy, enlightenment, and education. However, it has developed in other ways not expected and not explained in the original theories, changing information hierarchies, political ontologies, and daily political habits of citizens in unforeseen ways.

Focuses on the impact of the internet on democracy since the beginning of the internet 25 years ago Highlights the contradictory nature of the relationship between digital technologies and the principles of democracy Serves as both a historical reflection and a forward-looking guide for those interested in internet and democracy

Autorentext

Jakob Linaa Jensen is Associate Professor and Director of the Centre for Internet Studies at the Department of Media and Journalism Studies, Aarhus University, Denmark. His research is focused on the cross-field between online political participation and the algorithmic regimes of the platform economy. He has published 50 international journal articles and several books, the most recent being The Medieval Internet (2020).

**Eli Skogerbø **is Professor of Media Studies at the University of Oslo, Norway, and Adjunct Professor at the University of Canberra, Australia. She is Co-Director of POLKOM - Centre for the study of Political Communication, a hub for political communication research in Norway. Her research focus is on political communication and the constraints and opportunities that changing technologies and media structures represent for voice, participation and power. She has authored and edited about 100 articles, book chapters and books.

Inhalt

Chapter 1: Introduction: Rewiring Democracy in the Digital Age.- Chapter 2: Controlling Interactivity: Strategic Presidential Campaign Communication in the United States between 1996 and 2024.- Chapter 3: Jumping on the bandwagon late but getting the hang of it after all. A retrospective of Austrian political parties on the Internet.- Chapter 4: The History of online Campaigns in Hungary.- Chapter 5: From personalisation to platformisation: A look at two EP election campaigns in Slovenia.- Chapter 6: The more it changes, the more it stays the same? Twenty years of candidates' and citizens' use of digital media in Finnish Parliamentary elections.- Chapter 7: From early adaption to hybrid politics - online participation patterns in five Danish elections 2007-22.- Chapter 8: 25 Years of Internet and Democracy in Germany: How are citizens exposed to political information?.- Chapter 9: Internet and Democracy: A proposal for an African model.- Chapter 10: Aotearoa New Zealand.- Chapter 11: Norway institutional stability, disruptive communications.- Chapter 12: 25 years of digital campaigning in Spain. Slow implementation, Twitter hegemony and populist leadership.- Chapter 13: 25 years of Internet, Democracy and Elections in Italy: The paradigmatic case of Movimento 5 Stelle.- Chapter 14: From Blogs to Zokipedia: Evolution of Online Political Communication in Croatia.- Chapter 15: Ten Years of Uninterrupted Debate: The #auspol Hashtag Community, 2014-2023.- Chapter 16: From Hope to Fear: 25 years of Internet and Elections in Brazil.- Chapter 17: Regulating Digital Campaigning and Electoral Integrity in Southeast Asia.- Chapter 18: Conclusion: 25 years of the Internet and Democracy.