1. From street campaigning to online campaigning: Indian national political party web sites Dr. N.S. Harinarayana Reader Department of Library and Information Science University of Mysore , Mysore ns.harinarayana@gmail.com Vasantha Raju, N. Librarian Govt. First Grade College –Periyapatna Mysore Dr. Mallinath Kumbar Professor Department of Library and Information Science University of Mysore , Mysore National Conference on Information Technology and its applications CIST-Mysore November 21-22, 2009University of Mysore, Mysore

3. Research questions

4. Literature review

5. Methodology

6. Results

8. Research questions What content features have been employed in Indian national political party websites to engage net savvy users in political discourses? Do they demonstrate contemporary technologies or is it simply an extended brochure leaflet of the national party? What formal features are using for effective content (functional features) delivery?

9. Earlier studies Adopted: from Tkach-Kawasaki, L .M. & Park, H.W. (2007). South Korean and Japanese politicians online: Comparing Political Cultures Through Political Websites . Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/hanpark/comparing-political-cultures-through-political-websites-presentation

11. Methodology 5 national political party web site were selected for the study from the Election Commission of India (ECI). Data coded between 27th to 30th March 2009 BSP and RJD party web site was removed from the data set. Functional (content) and formal (design) features (Gibson & Ward, 2005) were examined

12. Political party websites considered for the study BJP CPI CPI (M) INC NCP ( listed in alphabetical order)

18. Functional (content) features of political party web sites

19. Formal (design) features of the political party web sites

20. Results-1 Functional (content) features found in Indian national political party web sites

21. Results (1): Information provision

22. Results (1): Mobilization/resource generation

23. Results (1):Integration/networking

24. Results (1):Participation

25. Results (1): Campaigning

26. Results -2 Formal (Content) features found in Indian political party web sites

27. Results (2): Formal features

28. Findings BJP and INC have high presence of information provision features. Features are very light in terms of participation, mobilization, and campaigning Web 2.0 features were very light in all the national party web sites Youth engagement in political discourses is the biggest challenge Web technologies can play a crucial role in civic engagement in political discourses

29. Current trends in Indian political discourses and web Shashi Tharoor - Indian Minister of State for External Affairs “cattle class” comment on his Twitter space created a great uproar Our prime minister presence in FaceBook-though not a net savvy All these trends shows that Indian politics slowly gaining its momentum in the web as well Can we call next Indian parliamentary election as Internet election ?

30. Dr. Manmohan Singh in facebook with 13000 more supporters

31. Regional politicians leaning towards SNSs

32. Thank You ?