SoMe old, SoMe new, Some borrowed and SoMe out of the blue: Candidates’ views about the online presence and the use of digital media in campaigning for seats in Parliament.

SoMe old, SoMe new, Some borrowed and SoMe out of the blue: Candidates’ views about the online presence and the use of digital media in campaigning for seats in Parliament. The impact of mobile digital media emerges in people’s everyday life. Computers, mobile phones, and other communication equipment are almost unavoidable tools in everyday life. It is only natural evolution that political campaigning is moving to online, too. The assumed empowering potentiality of the digital media is so impressive, that hardly any serious political actor (or “wannabe” actor) could overlook its facilitating features. In this game those, who master the facilities several applications of (ICTs) are the most influential players in the field. In my paper I shall study the election campaign of candidates in the context of Finnish Parliamentary elections 2011. The departure point is to analyse to what extent the Finnish representative democracy has been transformed from a party-based democracy to an audience democracy. In addition, has this transformation had an impact on the nature of the candidates’ electoral campaigning and to the styles and tactics of media usages adopted during the campaign? By using various ICTs it is easier to get in touch, keep in touch and bring more personalized issues to voters’ attention than ever before. Candidates using and harnessing available online tools may provide more direct and even interactive link between themselves and voters. But what does this mean in terms of electoral campaigning. Does this feature transform the electoral campaigning in the way in which the role of political parties is declining and the steering of campaigning is becoming more personalized and candidate-led? And as an implication, is the voting behaviour focusing more on persons compared to the phase of party-based democracy? To answer these questions I am mapping the different usages of digital media during the Finnish election campaign in 2011, analysing the several adopted tactics by the candidates in campaigning with varying degrees of success and interviewing the candidates about their experiences and views regarding the online campaigning and its effect(s) on their personal success in the race.