The paradox of the 2011 elections: Folkloric street campaigning in the digital era

This article assesses the importance of the internet compared to the traditional tools of the campaigning strategy as sources of electoral information and their influence in terms of the audience involvement in the political process. Based on a combination of methodologies comprising a survey, a content analysis of the websites and social networks of the main candidates to the 2011 presidential elections in Portugal, as well as qualitative interviewing of their key digital digital campaign managers, it concludes that online political information was used as a modest complement of traditional media. Indeed, in an election expected to be dominated by the web 2.0., participative social media were far from substituting traditional folkloric street campaigning confirming the country-specific campaign practices.