New Zealand parties in cyberspace

This article contributes to an increased understanding of how parties apply the new information and communication technology by presenting an analysis of the character of party websites at the New Zealand general election in 2005. The hypothesis is that the application of the new information and communication technology varies among the major and minor parties represented in Parliament as it does in relation to othe R, traditional media, whereas parties not represented in Parliament have a slight advantage when compared to the represented parties, thus testing a combination of the two competing hypotheses within the field, the ‘normalisation’ and ‘levelling of the playing field’ hypotheses, respectively. Analysis of the participation encouragement, information provision and resource mobilisation on New Zealand party websites provides some support for the combination of the two hypotheses. Both in regard to participation encouragement and information provision, the major parties are on average scoring high...