Although many of the initial hopes regarding the Internets effect on political engagement and participation has largely gone unfulfilled, it is generally held that the Internet still has a substantial role to play during political election campaigns. Several studies have focused on how the Internet medium is employed for such purposes during the actual election campaign, but rather few (if any) studies have adopted a broader temporal scope, studying the web sites of political parties before, during and after the election period. This project will fill the appearant research gap by presenting such a longitudinal analysis of the web sites of Swedish poltical parties. Starting in January of 2010, these web pages have been downloaded on a monthly basis. After election day on September 19th, downloading will go on until December of 2010. By studying the web sites of political parties before, during and after an election campaign, this project will provide scholars as well practicioners with unique insights into how web campaigning rationale seems to develop.
