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Transcript of Methodology - Dec 2009
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Methodology 1 st Draft
Methodology
1st DRAFT Dec 2009
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Introduction
The literature review has illustrated a number of concepts of relevance to political party
organisation in the UK. I have argued that the party decline thesis could be in part overcome
through the application of technology to make parties more responsive to their membership. If
parties adopt Web 2.0 applications, and the Web 2.0 ethos, then this could go some of the
way to establishing a two way relationship between party supporters and party elites which
may provide an opportunity to reverse the party decline trend in the UK.
This chapter is designed to outline the research design and methodology used to investigate
Web 2.0 as it pertains to party organisation in the UK. It will:
develop an overall research question and outline the specific hypotheses that will
need to be tested to answer this question.
define the variables needed to test these hypothesis, outlining each variable and
fitting it into a research framework.
outline the methods necessary to complete this research
This chapter will also discuss the limitations inherent in this methodology including the
extent to which the findings can be generalised and causal claims made.
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Research Design
The literature review has suggested that political parties in the UK are in decline. They have
fewer members, there is less partisan sentiment and this could ultimately damage the
legitimacy of political parties in the UK. We have also seen how the Web has so far only had
a limited effect on reinvigorating political parties, instead seemingly only empowering the
elite within the party and not translating to the rank and file. Finally, the emergence of Web
2.0 suggests that this limited role for the web may be changing and that the tenets of Web 2.0
could lead to more open and responsive political parties.
The next step is to try and investigate the relationship between Web 2.0 and Party Decline on
the basis of the hypothesis that in parties that are highly Web 2.0 orientated there should be
greater grassroots involvement in the party.
This is a difficult claim to make however. Any one of a thousand factors could be impacting
the rate of participation in political parties so any findings linking Web 2.0 to the reversal of
party decline will be difficult to support.
This is further complicated by the following limitations:
A lack of hard data about parties web use, necessitating the collection of primary data
for each case
A fast pace of change, meaning that any one measurement is only a snapshot and
risks missing an overall picture, necessitating a longitudinal element to the analysis
Differing local factors which limit cross national comparisons making it difficult to
create generalised explanations
The difficult nature of the data to codify, the concept of a Web 2.0 ethos for instance
is difficult to operationalise in numerical terms and remains a subjective judgement
The embryonic nature of Web 2.0, it would be unlikely that such a new phenomenon
would have made a definitive impact yet
In recognition of these limitations, this study does not seek to make general claims about the
impact of Web 2.0 on trends of party decline. Instead this study aims to investigate the use
and effects of Web 2.0 in a limited setting, a single party system and a limited number of
political parties.
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Research Question:
What does Web 2.0 mean for UK party organisation?
Sub Questions:
What factors are driving parties to adopt Web 2.0 ?
Are political parties adopting the Web 2.0 ethos or just the associated applications?
How successful has Web 2.0 been so far in connecting party elites and rank and file
members?
Based on the outcomes of the literature review I have developed the following testable
hypotheses:
h1 Less established parties are more likely to be Web 2.0 orientated
h2a More established parties make greater use of Web 2.0 applications
h2b Less established parties will make greater use of the Web 2.0 ethos
h3 Web 2.0 orientated parties will seen as more responsive to their supporters
NULL HYPOTHESIS: That all political parties will adopt both Web 2.0 applications and
ethos in the same way
Specifically these hypotheses encapsulate the overall view that Web 2.0 will be more
common and effective in smaller and less established political parties, outside the political
mainstream. The dominant political parties, Labour, Conservative and Lib-Dems are likely to
adopt top down, campaign based approaches to the Web, approaches which are largely
incompatible with the Web 2.0 ethos as I have described. While they may have the resources
available to use the latest technology and maintain a significant Web 2.0 presence, resulting
in higher Web 2.0 application use, they will be unlikely to relinquish control to the user that
the Web 2.0 ethos would require.
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In order to answer to test these hypotheses I have developed a three phase method:
Phase Goals Variables MethodsI Measure the drivers of
party change
Party Size
Party Goals
Party Centrality
Incumbency
Ideology
Web 1.0 Experience
Desk Based
Research
Interview Data
II Measure the use of Web
2.0 applications and
ethos
Web 2.0 applications
Web 2.0 ethos
Hyperlink Network
Analysis
Interview Data
III Perceptions of partyresponsiveness as a
result of Web 2.0
Elite perceptions of theeffect of Web 2.0 on party
responsiveness
Rank and file perceptions
of the effect of Web 2.0
on party responsiveness
Survey Data
Interview Data
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Case Selection
The decision to concentrate on the UK as the basis of this study is based on a number of
factors. Firstly, limiting the study to a single party system will provide directly comparable
results between parties, which would not be the case if parties operated within a number of
differing party systems. US parties for instance face different stimuli to UK parties, despite
both being two party systems. A number of European countries however practice multi-party
politics which again changes the factors that influence party behaviour. By concentrating on
the UK to some extent it is possible to knock out these systemic effects that could threaten to
overwhelm the study.
Secondly, the UK provides a good cross section of party types, featuring a two party system
with firmly established parties dominating the national parliament. At the fringes however
there are a large number of smaller and single-issue parties that could provide interesting case
studies. These provide a good sample of both left and right wing views. This is perhaps down
to the wide number of voting systems in place in the UK, first past the post in parliamentary
elections and proportional representation at the European level. Despite the absence of fringe
parties from the main parliament, there is still the possibility for minor parties to do well at
the European level as demonstrated by recent gains made by The British National Party.
Finally, the researcher has several existing connections with activists in the UK system which
will hopefully lead to fully access and therefore greater detail at the interview stage.
Resources and time mean that this study can only afford to look a limited number of political
parties. There are currently 334 political parties registered with the Electoral Commission
(excluding Northern Ireland), and care is needed to pick the case studies which will best allow
us to test the variables we have constructed (Electoral Commission, 2009).
The degree to which a party is in government, either locally, nationally or at a European level
may have a significant impact on a parties use of the Web for organisation, cases have been
chosen to reflect this. The current government (at the time of writing The Labour Party)
should be included, as well as the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats, both of
which could potentially have a role in any government formed after the next General
Election.
Between them the three main parties also address the party ideology variable, consisting of a
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party of the left, the centre and the right.
In order to examine the impact of party size I intend to include the Green Party and the British
National Party as smaller representatives of both the left and the right respectively. These
parties also represent different party goals than the big three parties, with the Green
movement in particular associated with internal democracy goals.
The far right have traditionally been seen one of the key benefactors of the Web and The
British National Party will provide a potentially interesting window onto how far right parties
are using the web. There are ethical issues associated with interacting with such a
controversial party, and additionally there is a risk of none cooperation at the interview stages
of the research. Despite this however, in selecting an extremist group could reveal strategies
and impacts not experienced by other groups.
Finally, the recently formed Pirate Party UK provides an example of a party which has been
founded within the last year and seemingly has a very strong web based component to its
strategy. This could well be the closest example in the UK to Margetts model of a Cyber
Party and is therefore worthy of further study.
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I Measuring the drivers of party change
The literature review leads us to expect that there might be a number of factors that either
promote Web 2.0 or limit its use in party organisation. In phase one each case is categorised
according to a number of variables.
Much of the information needed to do this will be acquired through desk-based research
including reviewing published material, websites and manifestos. In addition, interviews will
be used where any information is unavailable.
Party Size
Major (>30% vote share)
Minor (10-20% vote share)
Fringe (
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In order to do this I drew on previous work which focussed on measuring party change and
selected two areas in particular which best represent the level of power devolved to party
membership (Janda, 1980).
Selecting the National Leader
No national party leader can be identified.
The leader is selected by vote of party identifiers or supporters.
He is selected by vote of party members, a smaller group than above.
He is selected by a national convention or congress, the delegates to which represent
regional or local party organizations. He is selected by the parliamentary delegation of the party.
He is selected by a national convention or congress, the delegates to which are
appointed or primarily determined by the national party organization.
He is selected by the national executive committee or party council subject to
ratification by some lower levels of the party.
He is selected by the national executive committee or party council without further
review of the decision; selections include change in leaders as a result of "power
struggles" within the top leaders group.
He is selected by his predecessor; selections include the situation in which the party
was created the incumbent leader and no apparent means transferring leadership have
been established.
Formulating policy
Responsibility for formulating policy is diffused throughout the party; little or no
structure is imposed on this aspect of party activity.
Major policy stances are commonly determined by polling party members.
Local party organizations enact policy resolutions, argue them at the national level
(usually the party conference or convention), and frequently win changes in party
policy.
Major policy positions are formulated at the national level, but they are submitted to
lower levels of the party (local or regional organizations) for approval.
Local party organizations often enact policy resolutions and submit them for nationalconsideration, but open argument in behalf of the resolutions is not a common
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practice, and decision on the resolutions is not required.
Major policy positions are determined by a national party congress, conference, or
convention composed of delegates from local or regional organizations; policy
positions may be stated provisionally by individual party leaders, but approval of the
position by the party congress is required before the policy statement is considered to
be effectively binding as party policy.
Major policy positions are determined by the national committee, party council, or
parliamentary party organizations; these positions are regarded as "party policy"
without need for further approval by other party organs.
Major policy positions are determined and announced by the party leader or a small
subgroup of the national committee, for example, an executive committee or
"politburo." These positions are effectively regarded as "party policy" without need
for approval by other party organs. (Note that a distinction must be drawn between
the leaders policy--sometimes pronounced by a leader who is also the nation's chief
executive--and the party's policy. With respect to the United States, for example, the
president is not empowered to formulate or create party policy, although he may
implement it. The distinction is whether the announced policy is widely regarded as
party policy or the personal policy of the officeholder, acting in his capacity as a
governmental official and policy maker.)
Party Goals
Vote Maximisation
Office Maximisation
Intra-Party Democracy
Policy-Seeking
Rommele predicted that web use amongst political parties would not be one size fits all
instead it would be influenced by specific party goals. Using Stroms 1999 taxonomy, she
suggested that whilst Vote maximising and office maximising parties would use the web in a
top down fashion, parties orientated towards members and policy (intra-party democracy and
policy seeking) would have a more bottom up or equal relationship (Rommele, 2003). Based
on this we would expect Vote and office maximising parties to continue using the Web in the
Web 1.0 fashion, as a tool for disseminating information to their followers. In Intra-party
democracy or policy orientated parties we might see a more open attitude that is a better fit
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for the Web 2.0 ethos.
Incumbency
No representation at any level
Local level representation
European level representation
Westminster representation
This variable is based on the expectation that political parties with more representatives in
higher levels of government will have by definition been most successful in the old media
environment. This might create a larger barrier to change, as parties will have more to do to
adapt to the new environment.
Additionally, this may be a factor as incumbent governments can be seen as on the defensive
to a far greater extent than opposition. This may lead to them seeking greater control of party
communication, something which would be limited in a Web 2.0 orientated party.
Finally, this variable was included to account for any possible change of government at the
2010 election which may provide an opportunity to investigate the effects of incumbency ondifferent parties. If there were to be a change of government for instance, how would that
effect the online strategy of the former opposition?
Ideology
Left wing
Right wing Extreme Left wing
Extreme Right wing
This variable is intended to account for any kind of ideological bias in Web 2.0 use.
Web 1.0 Experience
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No Web 1.0 experience
Some Web 1.0 experience
High degree of Web 1.0 experience
This variable is designed to measure how the party has used the web prior to the availability
of Web 2.0 tools and whether or not there is a process of socialisation in action. Are
organisations that already make use of the Web more likely to adopt the Web 2.0 ethos or are
they restrained by virtue of having an existing way of doing things?
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II Measuring Web 2.0
The question of measuring the adoption of Web 2.0, the dependent variable, requires more
methodological nuance than simple desk based research can provide. Based on the literature
review, in measuring the dependent variable in this situation we need to acknowledge that in
reality we are discussing two separate variables, firstly, the use of Web 2.0 applications in the
party and secondly the adoption of the Web 2.0 ethos.
Measuring Web 2.0 applications
Party initiated Web 2.0 use
Internal use e.g. intranet, email
Web 1.0 Party site
Web 2.0 party site
Candidate run sites/blogs
Party run blogs
Party use of Web 2.0 platforms e.g. Facebook, YouTube
Independent initiated Web 2.0 use
Independently run party site
Independent party blogs
Independent use of Web 2.0 platforms e.g. Facebook, YouTube
Previous approaches to measuring the use of Web 2.0 applications have concentrated on
examining what options are available to users of the party site and various candidate sites
(Jackson and Lilleker, 2009). The reality of the situation however is much more complex, as
well as the party site and various candidate sites; an associated network develops around each
party of sites that are connected by hyperlinks. These links can be multi directional so outside
sites can link in (inlinks) just as the party site can provide links outwards (outlinks). Simply
looking at the options available to users on the party site would miss the broader sphere of
associated web sites.
Consider for example an individual interested in joining an environmental group. They look
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at the web page for their local environmental group and from there they might find a link to a
national environmental group and from there they might in turn find a link to the Green Party.
If any of the sites on this path allowed user contributions they could be considered (and I
would argue they should be considered) as contributing to debate within the party. Just
because a user is not participating in a party site does not mean they are not participating in
the party on some level.
In order to measure the impact of Web 2.0 it is necessary to map the broader network
surrounding the party and assess its composition. If the sites surrounding the party allow users
to contribute through Web 2.0 type applications then we can say that the party uses more Web
2.0 applications, less opportunities means less Web 2.0 applications.
In order to do this I intend to use hyperlink network maps in order to identify the scope of the
online network associated with each party. Based on this map I will then analyse the
component websites in the network and categorise them according to the presence of Web 2.0
applications.
Web 2.0 ethos
The Party does not embrace the Web 2.0 ethos
The party has made some commitment to the Web 2.0 ethos
The party has fully embraced the Web 2.0 ethos.
Measuring an ethos is a different subject matter to measuring a hyperlink network, as
intention is far more difficult to distinguish than the raw facts of the network analysis.
The measurement of Web 2.0 ethos will be based on the outcome of two aspects of the partyorganisation. Firstly the mixture of independent and party led websites within the partys
online network. Secondly, and more importantly, a series of elite interviews with actors
within the network designed to assess how committee the party is to incorporating the
submissions of individual party supporters into the day to day running of the party and what
opportunities to contribute are available.
In a highly Web 2.0 orientated party we could expect to see online world taking a central role
in party organisation, contributing to internal debate and policy making. In a less Web 2.0orientated party we might expect to see online contributions carry less weight.
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III Measuring Perceptions of Web 2.0
The final element of the research design to examine any differences between the most Web
2.0 orientated parties and the least Web 2.0 orientated parties in terms of the relationship
between party elites and the rank and file.
If Web 2.0 is promoting a greater degree of responsiveness in political parties, strengthening
the link between the party elite and the party rank and file, then this should be evident from
discussing the issue with party elites and the party rank and file of the differing case studies.
Parties identified in phase II as being highly Web 2.0 orientated, especially in relation to the
Web 2.0 ethos, should exhibit greater responsiveness. It is important to test this hypothesis
amongst both party elites and the party rank and file as they may well have differing
interpretations.
Elite perceptions
Party elite views Web 2.0 as strengthening the relationship between the elite and the
rank and file
Party elite views Web 2.0 as having no impact on the relationship between the elite
and the rank and file
Party elite views Web 2.0 as weakening the relationship between the elite and the
rank and file
Measuring the perception of Web 2.0 amongst party elites will be done through the use of
interviews, either face to face or online through mediums such as Skype and IRC.
Rank and file perceptions
Party rank and file views Web 2.0 as strengthening the relationship between the elite
and the rank and file
Party rank and file views Web 2.0 as having no impact on the relationship between
the elite and the rank and file
Party rank and file views Web 2.0 as weakening the relationship between the elite
and the rank and file
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Measuring the perceptions of the party rank and file will be done through the use of data
collected from a blog user survey based on the principal blog sites of political parties.
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Methods
Desk Based Research
Developing an understanding of the variables outlined in phase one will be achieved
primarily through the use of desk based research. For each case a profile was developed
which described the position of the party in relation to the factors identified. This was done
through a number of sources:
Existing research on political parties
Online research of the party
Interviews with party workers
Reviewing published party material including manifestos
Network Ethnography
Network Ethnography is a particular approach to the study of networks that involves
conducting interviews with subjects based on the results of network analysis. As it pertains to
social network analysis network ethnography was an approach championed by Howard:
Network Ethnography is the process of using ethnographic field methods on cases
and field sites selected using social network analysis
(Howard, 2002) page 561
This approach was also later followed by Biddix and Park who used the approach to map the
Living Wage Campaign which occurred on US university campuses recently (Biddix and
Park, 2008).
By combining both network analysis and interview data network ethnographists are able to
benefit from the overall understanding that comes of knowing which nodes in a network are
key from a structural point of view whilst at the same time have access to the kind of
qualitative data which is missing from a simple network analysis.
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There are two component parts to this kind of approach, Hyperlink Network Analysis (HNA)
and interviews.
Hyperlink Network Analysis (HNA)
Most political parties in the UK uses the web to a greater or lesser extent. In order to map the
online sphere of each party it is first necessary to draw a boundary around the partys online
space in order to isolate exactly what space we are looking at.
Park identifies two principal methods for collecting information on online spaces, manual
observation and automatic collection (Park, 2003).
Manual observation of online spaces is possible and has a number of possible advantages over
automated methods, including the ability to filter information at source rather than attempting
to work with datasets which a littered with irrelevant links. Ultimately though the enormous
Labour cost and possibility of coder error or bias make this method a none starter for anything
but the most simple of online spaces. On any given day a site such as the Conservative Party
could be expected to contain something in the order of around 800 hyperlinks. The problems
of this method develop exponentially if anything beyond a one step analysis is undertaken,
given that each subsequent site included in the analysis could also add a massive number of
links.
This leaves us with the automatic method as effectively the only choice. Park also identifies
problems associated with using computer programs to collect information, principally that
each tool is idiosyncratic and designed in many cases to examine specific questions rather
than as a neutral tool. To this I would also add that a computer-assisted method will include
every link on a page, not simply the relevant ones. This can be an enormous problem if for
instance (as is highly likely) a link leads to a large media site. These sites typically contain
hundreds of thousands of links, almost none of them to relevant material. Despite thesedrawbacks, a computer-aided method is considered the best way to undertake this kind of
analysis.
This is difficult both conceptually and practically. The linking structure of the online
environment means that node or site can be linked to any other, creating a theoretically
massive space online in which party business can be discussed and commented on. In order to
keep the project manageable it is necessary to come up with a way to sample the content of
online spaces that allows for direct comparison between political parties.
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This is a problem that confronts any kind of social network analysis; even small friendship
groups cannot be charted without making assumptions about what constitutes friendship, or
else relying solely on the subjective interpretations of participants:
Any boundaries identified by the researcher through an aggregation of these
individual perceptions may be wholly artificial simple artefacts of question
wording. If on the other hand, the researcher explicitly defines close by, for
example, frequency of interaction he or she will be imposing a definition of
closeness on the respondents and the boundaries of friendship may again be
artificial.
(Scott, 2000, pg. 53)
In drawing the boundaries we must consider whether a positional or a reputational approach is
the most appropriate course (Scott, 2000). In a positional analysis we will look for sites that
are there by virtue of their location at the centre of the network. A reputational approach on
the other hand would be based to a greater degree on the researchers intuition and therefore be
likely to include a wider seed set at the cost of threatening to introduce a bias in the sample.
From a hyperlink network analysis point of view as opposed to the more established social
network analysis, the question of finding an appropriate starting points for analysis is
particularly acute (Ackland et al., 2007). Most research in this area has used at least some
degree of the reputational approach, relying on the judgement of the researcher as to what is
and what is not important (Ackland et al., 2007, Hepburn, 2009).
In the political context the limitations of the positional approach are clear. Firstly most parties
only have a single official web presence i.e. the party site, around which all other party
activity, either official or unsanctioned, revolves. This will inherently limit the ability of thecrawler to find links within the network given that it only has a single seed site.
Secondly, it is hard to expand upon this single starting point in a value free way, there is no
defined structure to party online networks or indeed any consistency in the way these
networks are organised between parties.
Nevertheless, the advantages offered by the positional approach, principally the consistency
for comparing between networks, means that it is worth attempting to include some kind of positional aspect when developing seed sets.
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The conclusion is that the best way to develop a seed set would be through a crawl based on
the parties principal web site. Using the resulting database it should be possible to clean up
the data and using researcher judgement where necessary retain only relevant i.e. political
sites. This should produce a seed set which is large enough to capture a significant portion of
the network and yet minimise topic drift.
My intention is to perform multi stage web crawl on each of the subject parties several times
over the course of a single year (2010). This cleaned data will then be fed back into the web
crawler and used as the basis for a second crawl much larger than the first. The resulting data
will then be filtered and any URL which does not have more than two links to a seed site will
be removed (co-link analysis).
There are a number of programs available both online and offline which serve as tools for
mapping hyperlinks online. By following or crawling each hyperlink on a web page the
software can then begin to show which sites are linked to which other sites online. In this case
I have chosen to use the Virtual Observatory for the Study of Online Networks (VOSON) as
the principal tool by virtue of the fact that the crawler is able to handle large seed sets and
large resultant networks, and the presence of a tool for mapping inlinks to sites as well as
outlinks, something which is important in redressing the inherent imbalance present in only
mapping outlinks from a political party i.e. that we are only looking at sites the central party
organisation has linked to, and not those sites which have chosen to link into the network. It is
this element which will allow the distinction to be made between party initiated Web 2.0 use
and independent initiated web 2.0 use.
The end result will be a set of URLs which should hopefully be a reasonable sample of the
nodes contained within the online sphere of each party.
Using this list of URLs, each site will be analysed and catalogued dependent on its content.
The proportions of sites in each category will provide a reliable and comparative method with
which to examine the composition of each partys online sphere.
As party networks are likely to change overtime, in particular around election times and times
of national issues, I propose that a crawl be conducted on each of the case studies four times
over 2010. This will allow for any changes which take place over time. I am also hopeful that
this will allow us to see any changes which take place around the time of the next GeneralElection which is likely to be held in May 2010.
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An additional complication in hyperlink analysis is likely to capture tools which have their
own URL, and not tools embedded within other services e.g. a page within Facebook or a
specific YouTube video. As a result it will be necessarily to examine the large Web 2.0
mainstays separately in order to build up a picture of party Web 2.0 use in this area. This will
require further research outside the context of the hyperlink analysis, using tools available
within the Web 2.0 services themselves.
The dominant Web 2.0 services amongst political parties in the UK are: Twitter, Facebook,
Flickr and YouTube, and these will be used as the starting point for examining party
involvement. The initial phase of desk based research will also hopefully act as a cue as to
where to look for both party and independent use of Web 2.0 platforms.
Each of these services has its own arrangement and so will produce results which are only
comparable with other parties using that service. It would not be appropriate for example to
compare the amount of members of a facebook group with the amount of subscribers to a
YouTube channel as YouTube has significant barriers to entry above Facebook. Each service
is only comparable with itself and not wider services.
Interviews
On its own a hyperlink tells us very little about the intentions of its author:
link
A sample of html code containing a hyperlink to Manchester Universitys website
The fundamental question and most stinging criticism of hyperlink network analysis is
explaining the meaning of crawled hyperlinks. By it self a hyperlink is simply a sting of textwith little or no inherent meaning, it does not for example reveal the intentions of the person
who wrote it (Biddix and Park, 2008, Park, 2003). A hyperlink could exist for a number of
reasons, for example to link to interesting material, material that the author agrees with,
disagrees with, or wishes to ridicule. The notion is further complicated when one considers
that some links may only exist because the author feels compelled to return the favour to
some one who has linked to them.
Ackland et al identify five possible explanations for the existence of a hyperlink
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Information provision
Network building or strengthening
Identity building
Audience sharing
Message amplification
Any one of which could explain the presence of a link between different nodes in the network
(Ackland et al., 2007).
In order to get past this problem, network ethnography tells us that it is important to go
beyond the networking mapping stage and build upon the results to arrive at a more detailed
picture of the mechanisms at work within the network.
I intend to use the data captured in the hyperlink network analysis to inform the choice of
subjects for a series of interviews with online actors, targeting those identified as being the
most prominent in the network as well as a selection of smaller actors who may be less
prominent but potentially offer useful information.
In this case this will mean conducting a series of interviews with those who either write or run
the websites which feature prominently within each network. These interviews will focus on:
Where the website fits in the overall network
How the website relates to party politics
The role of the website in hosting debate and influencing policy making
Interviews will take a semi-structured conversational style and will most likely be conducted
over a number of media, including email, online messaging, and face-to-face where
necessary.
Where possible I will favour the use of instant messaging or email due to the ease with which
conversations can be stored and referred back to without the need for extensive transcription.
In addition there are a number of possible options coming in the future which might offer
useful alternatives, including the development of Google Wave
(https://wave.google.com/wave/ ) which has potential for online interviews.
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Using electronic media for interview purposes can have a number of advantages such as
allowing participants to respond in their own time to questions, which can result in more
detailed and informative answers. The obvious corollary of which and downside of is that
answers become less spontaneous. As a general principal however these interviews are not
intended to trick respondents to saying something they should not or dont want to, not only
for ethical reasons, but also to prevent complications emerging at later stages through
participants withdrawing co-operation. An additional advantage of these text based form of
communication is that they do not need to be transcribed, a time consuming, costly and
potentially inaccurate process.
Survey Data
The final element of this methodology is a survey of blog users.
Developed in conjunction with the Hansard Society, the 2009/10 blog user survey was
intended as a small scale survey of the users of political blogs. Amongst many things the
survey includes questions about the participants relationship with the party, specifically
whether or not they feel closer to the party as a result of using the blog. This could be used as
a general indicator of the level of feeling amongst the party rank and file. The theory beingthat in parties which are more Web 2.0 orientated the feeling of connection between user and
party should be stronger than in none Web 2.0 orientated parties.
There are a number of limitations to this survey:
Self selecting sample as participants are encouraged to take part through online
blogs, the survey will only captured the opinions of those who visit those blogs. It
will not capture information about the wider population of the party rank and file,
either online or offline.
Limited sample size Although the survey is yet to be completed, the initial
indications are that the size of the resulting dataset is likely to be quite limited. In the
case of the Liberal Democrats only XX responses were received, despite the full co-
operation of the blog managers. If this level of response was to persist across the
other parties then the resulting datasets would not be sufficiently large to generalise
from.
Cross party comparison In addition to the problems of the size of datasets, not all
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parties are comparable. The Pirate Party for instance does not have a prominent blog
on which to base the survey. The Liberal Democrat Survey was offered on Lib Dem
Voice, a prominent Lib Dem blog, but one that also has strong links to the Liberal
Democrat Party. If the survey were to be run for the Conservatives, the prominent
blogs to use would be either Iain Dale or ConsevativeHome, both of which are
relatively independent from the Conservative Party. Comparison between party
initiated web use such as Lib Dem Voice and supporter initiated web use such as
ConservativeHome would be limited.
Despite these limitations however, the use of survey data presents the best way available of
investigating the third element of the research design and exploring the links between party
Web 2.0 use and the effect or the perceived effect it is having on party responsiveness.
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Conclusion
This chapter has outlined a methodology to address the causes and impacts of Web 2.0 use as
an organisational tool in UK political parties.
It has drawn on the literature review to produce a set of research questions which address
some of the key issues associated with Web 2.0 in an organisational context, including the
relationship between party elites and the party rank and file composed of both members and
supporters.
In order to address these questions I have proposed a three phase research design consisting
of:
Measuring party organisational factors
Measuring Web 2.0 use (applications and ethos)
Assessing the perceived impact of Web 2.0 on party organisation
In order to operationalise this methodology I intend to use a number of data gathering
techniques:
Desk based research, including reviewing party constitutions, party web sites and
other printed material
Hyperlink Network Analysis in order to map out the party online sphere
Interviews with party workers, bloggers and other key figures
Survey data collected as part of an online survey conducted by the Hansard Society
Although the ultimate question related to Web 2.0 is to what extent is Web 2.0 improving
connections between party elites and party rank and file it is difficult to make causal claims
about the effects of Web 2.0 without more extensive data. As a result this research is limited
to investigating specific cases of Web 2.0 use. Although this will preclude extensive
generalisation, it will make for a detailed and in depth assessment of differing patterns of
Web 2.0 use amongst UK political parties as well as the reactions of both the party elites and
the party rank and file to the new opportunities and challenges presented by Web 2.0.
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