Online campaign and democratic innovations in the 2010 Brazilian elections

Maria Alejandra Nicolás (DECISO/UFPR/BRASIL)

Email: alejandranicolas@gmail.com &

Sérgio Braga (DECISO/UFPR/BRASIL) E-mail: ssbraga@uol.com.br

& André Becher (DECISO/UFPR/BRASIL)

E-mail: andrebecher@gmail.com1

Paper presented at the 22 th World Congress of Political Science - July 08 to 14, 2012 - Madrid

Abstract: This paper presents results of research on the use of the internet by presidential candidates and the 406 candidates for state governments and the Senate in the 2010 Brazilian elections. The results point to a pattern of web use different from the one detected in previous elections, with two basic characteristics: (i) attenuation of the digital divide between candidates from different regions of the country and the tendency of standardization of internet use by candidates; (ii) widespread use of social media by candidates, with Twitter, Facebook and YouTube replacing traditional mechanisms of online interaction such as blogs, forums and chats. Data indicates that in the 2010 electoral campaign the use of internet in Brazil may have strengthened mechanisms of accountability, strategic coordina-tion and fostered the development of interactivity tools, although mobilization by web 2.0 tools and online deliberation remain to be expanded.

1. Introduction: internet, elections and political representation.

The emergence of the New Information and Communication Technologies (NICTs) in the

late twentieth century and its subsequent development and popularization in recent years has

aroused extensive discussions about its role in contemporary societies, and particularly on its

impact on electoral and parliamentary democracies. Theorists of various sorts, public manag-

ers and analysts of the press have spread the idea that these new technologies, particularly the

internet, when opening more practical and efficient channels of communication and interac-

tion, may substantially modify the way people relate in many dimensions of their social life.

Politics as social relations would also be affected.

Expressing this growing interest of scholars in the impact of the internet on processes of

political representation and contemporary political systems, research on the deployment of

NICTs in representative democracies has increased considerably, seeking to analyze the dif-

ferent uses of the web by different actors and institutions that create the “virtual political sys-

tem” (government agencies, parliaments, election candidates, parliamentarians, political par-

ties, and social movements which begin to perform their usual activities to the web), and its

1 We are very grateful to Danilo Rothberg (Unesp/Brasil) who did the translation of this paper and help us to write the final part of this article.

repercussions in the forms of collective action and political behavior of such actors (Norris,

2001; Chadwick & Howard, 2008).

In that context ─ and whatever the actual assessment of the importance of innovations

brought by Obama and his campaign strategists in the 2008 United States election ─ there is a

sort of consensus among analysts to consider the “Obama phenomenon” as a watershed in the

use of internet and social media as an effective tool of political campaign in an unprecedented

scale. In Brazil, many columnists speculated, even before the beginning of the election cam-

paign in 2010, about the possibility of the phenomenon being replicated in the Brazilian elec-

tions, betting that candidates unfamiliar with the more traditional political game might over-

come the obstacles posed by large bureaucracies and party propaganda machines and, through

the massive use of the internet and new social media, succeed in their electoral strategies

(Gomes et. al., 2009; Harfoush, R., 2009; Braga, 2010)2.

However, with the benefit of hindsight, Obama political campaigning seemed to explore

Web 2.0 capabilities to boost institutions and processes of traditional polyarchies , such as

participation and competition in the process of choosing alternative political elites, rather than

to create a new “model of democracy”. But this does not mean to say that the new interactivi-

ty tools provided by ICT just repeat the “politics as usual”, without changes in the current

standards of democratic practices (Margolis & Resnick, 2000; Hindman, 2008). Recent stu-

dies show that the new technologies can function within the context of emergence of demo-

cratic innovations which, from election to election, introduce new ways of interaction with the

public opinion, raising the overall quality of polyarchies, by enriching representative demo-

cracies with further opportunities for participation and deliberation, instead of revolutionizing

the political system (Smith, 2009; Newton & Geisel, 2011). So currently the debate is more

likely to be focused on more promising matters such as: what is the potential of NICTs to

make the key institutions of parliamentary democracies (particularly parties, parliaments, and

elections) more participatory, bringing new opportunities for political deliberation and civic

engagement? How the use of the internet can improve electoral campaigns, making more ef-

fective the various political communication processes that constitute them? What are the

chances of the patterns of use of digital tools in the 2008 US election being replicated beyond

the US and with what degree of intensity? How, in short, the new features enabled by digital

2 For a summary of the main characteristics of the Brazilian political system and the 2010 Brazilian elections results, see the links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Brazil and http://www.ipu.org/parline-e/reports/2043.htm . For a map of brasilian IDH regions and the general results of the October elections see Ap-pendix 1. It is useful to stress that Brazil has a highly fragmented party system and a proportional electoral sys-tem with highly personalized list that allows a high number of candidates for proportional elections.

technologies and social media can reconfigure the functioning of some key institutions of

representative democracies, especially election campaigns?

In search for answers for these questions, we investigated the 2010 Brazilian elections in

order to find and describe:

a) patterns of web use by candidates for state governors and Senate in the 27 Brazilian

states, by means of a content analysis to detect the tools and resources employed;

b) patterns of use of social media by candidates and the general public, supported by such

websites;

c) characteristics of the debate supported by the interactivity tools provided by the web-

sites of presidential candidates in the 2010 Brazilian second round elections, in relation to the

quality of the information provided by the candidates and the comments made by their sup-

porters.

The results point to a pattern of web use different from the one detected in previous elec-

tions in Brazil, with two basic characteristics: (i) attenuation of the digital divide between

candidates from different regions of the country and the tendency of standardization of inter-

net use by candidates; (ii) widespread use of social media by candidates, with Twitter, Face-

book and YouTube replacing traditional mechanisms of online interaction such as blogs, fo-

rums and chats. Data indicates that in the 2010 electoral campaign the use of internet in Brazil

may have strengthened mechanisms of accountability, strategic coordination and fostered the

development of interactivity tools, although mobilization by web 2.0 tools and online delibe-

ration remain to be expanded.

2. Internet and elections: the international literature and Brazilian studies intertwined.

There is a significant body of scientific literature, mainly in the US and Europe, on the

use of resources provided by new technologies and the internet (websites, blogs, various types

of media and social networks etc) in the attempt to boost candidates’ performance in demo-

cratic elections (Davis, 1999; Ireland & Nash, 2001; Bimber & David, 2003; Rommele, 2003;

Cornfield, 2004; Trippi, 2004; Gibson, Rommele & Ward, 2004; Cohen, 2006; Parking, 2007;

Gainous & Wagner, 2007; CAC, 2009; Blanco, 2010). Following that, we have witnessed the

rise, in Brazil, of systematic and empirically oriented studies devoted to examining the role of

new technologies in securing electoral victories. We can highlight particularly those studies

which have proposed the existence, in the country, of three stages in the use of the internet in

politics: (i) “pre-web”, when emails, without any kind of interactive use of websites by candi-

dates and politicians, prevailed; (ii) “web”, when politicians personal websites were used

mainly to reproduce content of the traditional media favorable to them; (iii) “post-web”, a

stage which has begun after the presidential campaign of Barack Obama, when websites have

been explored mainly as a central source of content to be replicated by the social media

(Gomes & Aggio, 2009; Aggio, 2010).

From the point of view of different schools and approaches, we can distinguish in Brazil

three lines of investigation. The first one starts from concepts closer to the political sociology,

aiming to grasp the impact of the internet on the functioning of parliamentary democracies

and the strengthening of ties between elites and citizens, and usually seeking to find connec-

tions between the online profile of candidates and offline aspects traditionally connected to

the political scientist interest, such as electoral alliances, patronage, candidates’ socioeconom-

ic position and the possibility of a digital divide between different subsets of candidates (Fer-

nandez, 2005; Iasulaitis, 2007; Braga, 2007; Brandão & Batista, 2007; Brandão Jr., 2008).

A second strand of studies, closer to the perspective of the political communication, deals

with concepts such as framing, discourse and image making, and seeks to examine the use of

the internet in election campaigns, usually by analyzing its relationship with other traditional

media. We can cite in this respect the work from Aldé & Borges (2004) on the role of the web

pages of presidential candidates in 2002 in setting the mainstream media agenda, from Chaia

(2007) and Coutinho & Safatle (2009) on the use of virtual communities such as Orkut and

the like as a space for citizens’ debates during election campaigns, as well as studies on the

use of Twitter in the 2010 elections in Brazil (Aggio, 2011; Cervi & Massuchin, 2011; Mar-

ques et al., 2011).

A third line of studies, still under the domain of the political communication field, is

concerned with the quality of the interaction sustained by online tools. The purpose then is to

investigate if, where and when there is sound information on public policies made available

by governments, candidates and open web sources (such as think tanks, civic organizations

etc) for people in general to make reasonable judgments about the choices to be made by poli-

ticians. This strand, inspired by usual references on deliberative democracy such as Cohen

(1996), Young (1996) and Habermas (1992) and recent approaches such as Coleman & Blum-

ler (2009) and Wright & Street (2007), has been also investigating whether deliberation can

be found on the web, in terms of the exchange of consistent views about social, political and

economical matters, which could be an indicator that the internet may be explored to help the

construction of an informed citizenry, and that the habermasian ideal of public sphere might

be reached online (Marques, 2006; Maia, 2008; Santos, Penteado & Araújo, 2009; Marques,

2010; Ferreira, 2011; Rothberg, 2011; Mendonça & Ferreira, 2011; Correia & Maia, 2011).

In this context, the political environment should be analysed as an incentive for the voter

to search for information on policies, related to aspects such as expected benefits and neces-

sary compensations, previous scenarios, alternatives, challenges, demands, limits, possible

outcomes, schedules, implementation costs and so on (Kuklinski et al, 2001). When it comes

to the web, the characteristics of a political campaign website could have a significant role as

a contribution to make an informed opinion. Furthermore, when a campaign website allows

potential voters to express their thoughts about the candidates’ proposals, we can assume that

the very website could be a source of information to sustain opinions. In this sense, the more a

website fulfils the democratic role of providing quality information about policies to be cho-

sen or rejected and why to do it, the richer would be the comments from members of the pub-

lic about the candidate’s proposals, the opposite also being true — opening the virtual micro-

phone without providing proper guidelines to the debate might be seen as an invitation to re-

ceive disoriented opinions.

Having in mind the research problems that arise in part as a result of the influence of in-

ternational scientific paradigms on Brazilian academies, we adapted methodological proce-

dures from previous studies to meet our challenges in analyzing the use of the internet in 2010

Brazilian elections.

3. Methods: Ferber’s model of interactivity and reasons for voting and the concept

of "democratic innovations".

We built on the model of interactivity proposed by Ferber et al. (2007), who studied the

mechanisms of interaction between political elites and citizens enabled by the internet. They

call attention to the fact that the introduction of web 2.0 tools such as blogs, chats, virtual

communities and social networks gave rise to new forms of communication and interaction

between voters and representatives, with marked differences from the previous web 1.0 appli-

cations, which relied on one-way communication process.

Ferber et al. (2007) propose a “three-way model of communication”, appropriate to en-

courage public deliberation, based on McMillan (2002). The three-way model was differently

represented by Lilleker & Jackson (2009), in order to emphasize, in relation to the same six-

part model of cyber-interactivity, the increasing level in which the control exerted by the re-

ceiver over the communication process gains strength (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Reproduction of the operation model of web 2.0 analysis from Lilleker & Jackson (2009),  adapted from Ferber et al. (2007)  

In accordance with this model, we named specific contexts of interaction between mes-

sage sender and receiver on the internet, with the respective media features (Table 1):

Table 1: Contexts of interaction, media and interactivity on candidates’ websites  (adapted from Ferber et al. [2007] and Lilleker & Jackson [2009])  

Types of interactivity  Direction  Features 

1  monologue  1‐way, low level of receiver control basic information on website; 

propaganda materials; e‐newsletters 

2  feedback  1‐way, with great level of receiver control email forms; blogs without tools  

to allow commenting 

3  responsive dialogue 2‐way, but sender holds great level of  control over communication process 

opinion polls; surveys; tools  to allow commenting 

4  mutual discourse 2‐way, with great level of receiver  control over interaction tools 

blogs allowing commenting; message boards 

5  controlled response 3‐way; sender holds great level  

of control over messaging  forums and moderated chat; users 

 can suggest policy proposals 

6  public discourse 3‐way; sender holds low level of control  over messaging, allowing deliberation 

Facebook; Twitter; unmoderated forums and chats; YouTube channels 

We applied these categories, in respect of the model put forward by Ferber et al. (2007)

and Lilleker & Jackson (2009) and its set of two variables (level of receiver control and direc-

tion of communication), in order to update the six-part model of cyber-interactivity for our

study, aiming to detect and describe the patterns of web use by candidates for state governor

and Senate in the 27 Brazilian states. It should be noted that the model is not intended to de-

termine the level of deliberation which took place in virtual spaces; instead it indicates the

possibilities of interaction between various actors and the level of receiver control over the

contexts of interaction. Hypothetically, the greater the control a receiver exerts over the mes-

sages, the larger the range of opportunities for citizen participation on the internet.

In assessing the characteristics of the debate supported by interactivity tools on the web-

sites of the Brazilian second round presidential candidates José Serra and Dilma Rousseff, in

relation to the quality of the information provided by the candidates and the comments made

by members of the public, our study drew on classic work from Glass (1985) and Keeter

(1987) in order to build a four-category classification to analyze comments posted by suppor-

ters on candidates websites, focusing on the prevailing tone of their content in relation to the

candidates, their parties and campaign proposals: a) general enthusiasm; b) valuing moral

qualities; c) valuing executive competence; d) valuing specific policies (Table 2).

Table 2: Four‐category classification of comments posted by supporters on presidential candidate websites in the 2010 Brazilian elections  

Category  Characteristics  Examples 

general enthusiasm short comments in support of the candidate’s victory, frequently regarding church practices and symbols 

“Speed up, Serra! Together we’ll change this country!”; “Serra, we are 

all praying for your victory” 

moral qualities 

comments referring to alleged honesty, integrity, ethics and the like, expressed in general words, 

without further references to a particular policy or candidate’s previous record 

“Brazil needs Serra, an honest man, to go ahead”; “We can trust Serra will have good things to show us, because he is humane, calm and 

ethical” 

executive competence 

comments referring to alleged efficiency or straightforwardness to take basic actions,  

without specific accounts of the candidate’s record, but including comments on the alleged  

inefficiency of opponents; comments pointing to social challenges to be tackled by the candidate 

(supposedly the most prepared)  

“I’ll vote for Serra because I recognize his enormous capacities”; “I am very satisfied with Serra’s 

strategy, which demonstrates clarity, objectivity and intelligence”; “Dilma, our economy is growing, but we need to think of sustainability” 

specific policies 

comments referring to features of specific policies implemented by the candidate in previous mandates or publicized as campaign proposals; comments 

outlining political proposals 

“I congratulate Dilma on her job in the previous government. We’ve never seen so much credit to small farmers, stopping rural exodus”; “Only Dilma will be capable of 

investing on open software, saving money for public management” 

This four-category classification was deployed in the analysis of 316 comments posted

by presidential candidates’ supporters (208 from Serra and 108 from Dilma supporters).

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We found a slightly higher use in average of web tools by candidates for state governor,

compared with the senatorial candidates. But a few states, such as São Paulo, Goiás, Pernam-

buco and Paraíba showed a great disparity in web use between the two categories of candi-

dates.

A number of 281 out of 406 (69.2%) candidates for state governor and the Senate from

the 27 Brazilian states used websites as a campaign tool in the 2010 elections. Although this

may be interpreted as a significant achievement, it is still low when compared, for instance,

with the higher number of candidates for the Senate in the US ten years before: according to

Puopolo (2000), 88% of the 68 senatorial candidates in the 2000 election had websites.

However, we noticed a slight increase compared with what we found in a previous study,

according to which 62,9% of 175 mayoral candidates to the 27 states’ capitals had campaign

websites in the Brazilian 2008 elections (Braga, Nicolás & França, 2011).

States in regions with low Human Development Index (HDI), such as Mato Grosso do

Sul, Tocantins, Para, Bahia and Espírito Santo, presented percentages of digital inclusion sim-

ilar or higher than candidates from states with high HDI, such as Rio de Janeiro and Minas

Gerais. This points to the attenuation of the digital divide found in a previous study (Braga,

Nicolás & França, 2011), which showed that in 2008 Brazilian elections 87% of the mayoral

candidates from richer regions — South and Southeast — of the country had website, while

only 35,7% from poorer regions — North and Northeast — had it.

Table 3 points to the same direction. We found that in 2010 the South and Southeast still

had proportionally higher numbers of candidates for state governor exploring campaign web-

sites, but the gap between them and the North and Northeast was being rapidly closed.

Table 3: Website, social media and Twitter use by candidates for state governor and Senate in the 2010 Brazilian elections 

 

  website  social media Twitter total 

  N %  N % N % N  %

South  47 83,9  47 83,9 46 82,1 56  100,0

Southeast  48 71,6  54 80,6 52 77,6 67  100,0

Center‐West  38 71,7  40 75,5 38 71,7 53  100,0

North  50 67,6  51 68,9 50 67,6 74  100,0

Northeast  98 62,8  104 66,7 97 62,2 156  100,0

Total  281  69,2  296 72,9 283 69,7 406  100,0

Patterns of web use, taking into account campaign website, social media and Twitter,

stratified by party, position in politics and in the political spectrum are shown by Table 4. For

party labeling within the Brazilian political spectrum, we relied on work from Figueiredo &

Limongi (1999) and Martins (2006).

Table 4: Web use by candidates for state governor and Senate, by parties, positions in politics and political spectrum in the 2010 Brazilian elections 

  websites  social media  Twitter  total  average 

  N  %  N  %  N  %  N  %   

party 

PMDB  33  97,1  32  94,1  31  91,2  34  100,0  94,1 

PT  31  96,9  31  96,9  31  96,9  32  100,0  96,9 

DEM  15  93,8  16  100,0  14  87,5  16  100,0  93,8 

PSB/PDT  24  92,3  25  96,2  25  96,2  26  100,0  94,9 

PRP (PP + PRB)  21  87,5  21  87,5  21  87,5  24  100,0  87,5 

PSDB/PPS  37  88,1  37  88,1  36  85,7  42  100,0  87,3 

PPE  95  54,6  108  62,1  103  59,2  174  100,0  58,6 

PPD  25  43,1  26  44,8  22  37,9  58  100,0  42,0 

position in politics 

Center‐wing/incumbent  33  97,1  32  94,1  31  91,2  34  100,0  94,1 

Left‐wing/incumbent  62  91,2  65  95,6  64  94,1  68  100,0  93,6 

Center‐wing/opposition  37  88,1  37  88,1  36  85,7  42  100,0  87,3 

Right‐wing/opposition  21  87,5  22  91,7  19  79,2  24  100,0  86,1 

Left‐wing/opposition  88  53,7  99  60,4  95  57,9  164  100,0  57,3 

Right‐wing/incumbent  40  54,1  41  55,4  38  51,4  74  100,0  53,6 

position in the political spectrum 

Center‐wing  70  92,1  69  90,8  67  88,2  76  100,0  90,4 

Left‐wing  150  64,7  164  70,7  159  68,5  232  100,0  68,0 

Right‐wing  61  62,2  63  64,3  57  58,2  98  100,0  61,6 

Total  281  73,0  296 72,9 283 69,7 406  100,0  71,9

 Data from TSE (2010) 

Table 4 shows that the actors who mostly used campaign websites were the great parties

of center and center-left wing, often incumbent governors and senators, who usually tend to

have large campaign funds. These data do not corroborate what was observed by other studies

sustaining that left parties, opposition parties and outsiders to the traditional political game are

more likely to have a greater intensity in the use of digital tools (Rommelle, 2003).

We also assessed website use by candidates for state governor and Senate stratified by

age, education and election outcome, as shown by Table 5.

 Table 5: Website use by candidates for state governor and Senate stratified by candidate age, education, and voting outcome in the 2010 Brazilian elections

Data from TSE (2010) 

   website  social media Twitter total  average   N  %  N % N % N % 

age40 ‐ 50 years old  77  63,6  79 65,3 75 62,0 121 100,0  63,6< 40 years old  14  51,9  18 66,7 16 59,3 27 100,0  59,350 – 60 years old  106  70,7  112 74,7 110 73,3 150 100,0  72,9> 60 years old  84  77,8  87 80,6 82 75,9 108 100,0  78,1

educationNot college graduate  52  54,2  56 58,3 52 54,2% 96 100,0  56,3college graduate  229  73,9  240 77,4 231 74,5% 310 100,0  75,6

election outcomenot elected  205  62,9  220 67,5 209 64,1 326 100,0  64,8elected  76  95,0  76 95,0 74 92,5 81 100,0  94,2Total  281  73,0%  296 72,9% 283 69,7% 406 100,0%     71,9%

Table 5 shows a more frequent web use by candidates aged over 60 years (77.8%) and

higher education (73.9%), which can be taken as an indicator of a positive correlation be-

tween longer political career and higher internet use. In addition, web use is found strongly

associated with electoral success (which is not to say, of course, that it is its cause), with near-

ly all elected officials (94.2%) having explored one or more features of the new media.

The average web user candidate in the 2010 Brazilian elections showed the following

characteristics: concentrated in the Central-west, South and Southeast regions of the country,

belonging to the major parties, with longer political career and higher education. From this

perspective, we suggest that the web use by Brazilian candidates apparently reinforced the

dominance of experienced political elites which already detained large accumulation of politi-

cal capital in the offline world before transferring their campaigns to virtual platforms.

3.2. Features explored by candidates for state governors and Senate.

We searched for nearly 150 items on campaign websites of candidates for state governors

and Senate in the 2010 Brazilian elections, drawing on methodology developed in a previous

study (Braga, França e Nicolás, 2009). Those items cover five categories: a) easy navigation:

mechanisms making the interface user-friendly, such as site map, accessibility features and

search engine; b) information: basic information on the candidates, such as biography, politi-

cal record, socioeconomic profile, party and campaign committee address etc; c) communica-

tion and media: propaganda audio and video files, images, pdf brochures and so on; d) ac-

countability and contact with supporters: campaign proposals, donors identification, cam-

paign finance and information on how to make a contribution; e) e-participation: tools allow-

ing members of the public to share thoughts and opinions, such as commenting, chatting, up-

loading videos and images, forums, blogs etc.

We then classified candidates’ score under those five categories in four quarters, ac-

knowledging their performance on the web: a) high web use: candidates who scored in 100%

to 75% of the list of items; b) medium-high web use: 74,99% to 50%; c) medium web use;

49,99% to 25%; d) low web use: 24,99% to 0. This scale does not involve any qualitative as-

sessment; only the presence or absence of single items was taken into account.

Table 6 shows web use candidates for state governor stratified by region.

Table 6: Web use by candidates for state governor stratified by region in the 2010 Brazilian elections 

We could expect that the rich South and Southeast regions would have a higher number

of candidates with high level of web use, but this did not happen. The Center-West region

proved to be the one which had the most complete campaign websites in terms of our four-

category classification, while the Northeast, a region with low HDI, scored second place.

Table 7, offering data on web use stratified by party, candidate age and election outcome,

helps us to suggest explanations for what we observed.

Table 7: Web use by candidates for state governor stratified by party, candidate age and election outcome in the 2010 Brazilian elections 

  high  medium‐high medium low  total  N  %  N  %  N  %  N  %  N  % 

party 

PSB/PDT  7  70,0  3  30,0  0  0,0  0  0,0  10  100,0 PT  10  66,7  2  13,3  3  20,0  0  0,0  15  100,0 PSDB/PPS  9  42,9  5  23,8  6  28,6  1  4,8  21  100,0 

PMDB  4  23,5  7  41,2  6  35,3  0  0,0  17  100,0 

DEM  0  0,0  3  60,0  2  40,0  0  0,0  5  100,0 

PRP  2  16,7  4  33,3  5  41,7  1  8,3  12  100,0 

PPD  1  7,1  2  14,3  8  57,1  3  21,4  14  100,0 PPE  3  5,0  8  13,3  41  68,3  8  13,3  60  100,0 

age 

40 ‐ 50 years old  12  25,5  6  12,8  14  29,8  15  31,9  47  100,0 

< 40 years old  0  0,0  1  11,1  4  44,4  4  44,4  9  100,0 

50 – 60 years old  12  21,1  17  29,8  21  36,8  7  12,3  57  100,0 

> 60 years old  12  29,3  10  24,4  19  46,3  0  0,0  41  100,0  total  36  23,4  34  22,1  58  37,7  26  16,9  154  100,0 

electoral outcome 

not elected  20  16,9  22  18,6  50  42,4  26  22,0  118  100,0 

elected  16  44,4  12  33,3  8  22,2  0  0,0  36  100,0 

total   36 23,4  34 22,1 58 37,7 26 16,9  154  100,0 Data from TSE (2010) 

The South and Southeast regions concentrated a great number of small parties (such as

PPD and PPE), recently created, with scarce resources, and this could explain their relatively

poorer performance in terms of the lower number of campaign websites with high level of

web usage. Younger candidates (< 40 years old) had the worst web performance, which sug-

   high  medium‐high  medium  low  total 

   N  %  N  %  N  %  N  %  N  % 

Center‐West  7  50,0%  0  ,0%  1  7,1%  6  42,9%  14  100,0% 

Northeast  10  29,4%  7  20,6%  10  29,4%  7  20,6%  34  100,0% 

North  1  7,7%  2  15,4%  1  7,7%  9  69,2%  13  100,0% 

Southeast   10  21,3%  5  10,6%  12  25,5%  20  42,6%  47  100,0% 

South  8  17,4%  12  26,1%  10  21,7%  16  34,8%  46  100,0% 

Total  36  23,4%  26  16,9%  34  22,1%  58  37,7%  154  100,0% 

gests that a longer political career brings greater resources to invest on campaign websites

too. And again, the more thoroughly a candidate explored web tools and resources, the higher

the chances of being elected.

3.3 Most relevant achievements of social media use to foster public discourse

When we investigated with more detail the variety of tools available for the supporters to

share their thoughts on campaign proposals in the 2010 Brazilian elections, we found a sud-

den increase in the deployment of various mechanisms, comparing with what was observed in

the 2008 elections by another study (Braga, Nicolás & França, 2011). Table 8 shows data in-

dicating the types of interactivity we detected, classified in accordance with the model we

adapted from Ferber et al. (2007) and Lilleker & Jackson (2009).

 Table 8: Proportion of candidates for state governor in the 2010 Brazilian elections and mayoral candidates for states’ capitals in the 2008 Brazilian elections who used tools of interactivity 

 

feature  year  type of interactivity

  2010 2008

Social media   96,1 25,0 public discourseTwitter   95,5 2,9 public discourseContact form  66,9 66,4 feedback Link to Orkut on the home page  66,2 12,7 monologue Orkut on other pages  66,2 11,5 public discourseCommenting  61,0 15,5 responsive dialogueYouTube  59,7 23,1 public discourseLink to YouTube on the home page   59,7 14,4 monologue Facebook  55,8 1,0 public discourseLink to a blog on the home page   35,7 36,4 monologue Blog   34,4 29,1 responsive dialogueBlog tool for commenting 32,5 9,1 responsive dialogueComments archive  27,3 20,0 controlled responsePolicy proposals  13,0 18,2 controlled responseCandidate or party committee email address 11,0 39,1 feedback Supporters’ comments on video  11,0 14,7 responsive dialogueSurveys on the home page 9,1 28,2 responsive dialogueMechanisms to communicate on the web  8,4 35,8 monologue Survey results  7,1 24,5 responsive dialogueMyspace  4,5 1,0 public discourseMessage board  1,9 13,6 controlled responseLink to complaint form  1,9 4,5 responsive dialogueChat with the candidate  1,3 5,5 controlled responseChats archive  1,3 3,6 controlled responseForum  0,6 3,6 controlled responseForums archive  0,6 2,7 controlled responseDelicious  0,6 1,9 public discourseSonico  0,6 1,0 public discourseTOTAL  281 101   100% 100%

Although we are comparing here data from different categories of candidates, we think

this is justifiable because it sheds light over a rapid transformation that might pass unnoticed.

We can see a major increase of the frequency of use of various tools of interactivity. Unlike

the 2008 elections, in which mechanisms of public discourse and social media such as Face-

book, Twitter, and posting videos on YouTube were rarely used — in part due to legal restric-

tions then in force in Brazil — the candidates in the 2010 elections regarded those tools as

highly valued opportunities for interaction with their supporters. At the same time, from a

strictly quantitative point of view we can detect a tendency for tools such as blogs, forums

and chats falling progressively into disuse as a means of communication in political cam-

paigns, even before they had been definitively established as campaign tools in Brazil.

Thus, we note a significant trend for mechanisms that enable more advanced possibilities

for interaction and public debate between candidates and supporters (especially Facebook,

Twitter and YouTube) to potentially replace other mechanisms that allow lesser levels of inte-

ractivity, such as blogs, chats and forums.

However, we must stress that whether such mechanisms of interaction can really make

possible new forms of deliberation and political participation or not is a matter which cannot

be addressed within the boundaries of this paper.

3.4 Content categories of comments posted on presidential candidates websites.

Would there be a way for a campaign website to encourage citizens to have a say on po-

litical proposals? That is, instead of attracting only basic comments supporting a candidate,

would it be feasible to stimulate people to reflect on policy plans? According to the hypothe-

sis that guided our study in this particular aspect, the characteristics of the interactivity tools

available on a campaign website — related to how participation is encouraged and how in-

formation is made available on the very campaign website to favor commenting — can help

to generate messages more or less informed. By analyzing the way with which the websites of

second round presidential candidates Dilma (elected with 55,7 millions of votes) and Serra

(43,7 millions of votes) in the 2010 Brazilian elections gave a distinct incentive for supporters

to post comments, we can see that each one interacted differently with the public, obtaining

different results — which provides evidence to suggest that our hypothesis may be true. We

noted that a campaign website need not be concentrated only in spreading propaganda, with

its usual shortcuts and basic appeals, but can also pass context information on for supporters

to refine their opinions.

The interactivity tool available on Serra’s campaign website invited supporters to have

their say on reasons to vote for him. Posting a message required only name and email address.

Comment length ranged from 80 to 350 letters.

In general, there were no substantive mentions of policies deemed appropriate to a future

government. We classified the 208 messages found there mainly in the categories general

enthusiasm (84 messages, or 40,38% of the total number) and executive competence (80 mes-

sages, 38,46%), with 35 messages (16,82%) being classified in the category moral qualities

and only 9 messages in the category specific policies.

The majority of comments on Serra’s campaign website referred to aspects disconnected

from the policy debate. We argue that the design of interactivity tools employed by that web-

site may have a role in influencing the outcome of its use. The invitation to the user was

placed without any criteria. The spontaneous expression of any thoughts to justify the vote for

him was encouraged.

More important, it is not unreasonable to estimate that a source of information to sustain

informed opinions would be, after all, Serra’s own campaign website. And the fact is that his

supporters could not find there much context information to reflect on.

The page contained a section named “proposals”, on which general aspirations were pub-

lished, such as “we shall create museums, cultural centers and libraries all over the country”

and “we shall reduce tax on production”, “tackle violence in the countryside”, “invest on

science and technology”, “expand the number of child care centers throughout Brazil” and

“modernize airports”. These would have hardly been helpful for supporters to refine their rea-

sons to vote. Although it was not a goal of this study to analyze systematically what was pre-

sented there as proposals, we can point out that in general the content tended to be quite li-

mited.

The campaign proposals section also featured videos, mostly parts of the programs dis-

played on free television time for electoral advertising, which suggests that the information

available there was subjected to the usual time constraints of TV advertising, and rallies,

when there is a tendency for improvisation and superficiality. There were no resources made

to explore the internet multimedia capabilities.

The interactivity tools provided by Dilma’s campaign website did not have the same cha-

racteristics, and their use produced important differences from what we detected on Serra’s

campaign website.

We classified the 108 comments found on Dilma’s campaign website mainly in the cate-

gories executive competence (45 messages, or 41,67% of the total number) and specific poli-

cies (63 messages, 58,33%). There were no comments classified in the categories general

enthusiasm and moral qualities. That is, instead of being distant from the policy debate, as on

Serra’s website, the majority of Dilma supporters preferred to address policy proposals.

On Dilma’s website, comments were welcomed in a section named “government pro-

gram” on the home page main menu. From that link, users were taken to a section named

“proposals”, which stated that its purpose was to “assure the provision of a space for wide

debate and receive contributions on general and particular themes”. Users then had to choose

one out of 16 policy themes, such as education, public health, science and technology, youth,

environment etc in order to get access to the respective pages where supporters’ comments

were listed by theme.

Posting a comment required choosing one theme to comment on and filling up fields

with name, email address, city and state, and optionally a telephone number. Comment length

ranged from 65 to 9.000 letters.

Four of the 16 thematic sections (science and technology, education, youth and environ-

ment) had links to pdf files with the respective campaign proposals, totaling 17 pages each in

average, filled mainly with texts, without pictures or any kind of graphic presentation.

In addition to that, Dilma’s campaign website had a section named “achievements”, with

an attractive graphic design, pictures, animated charts and extensive information on what Lu-

la, the previous president of Brazil for two consecutive mandates and widely held as Dilma’s

mentor, allegedly achieved in those 16 policy areas. Each one of those 16 sections had also

one-minute-long (in average) videos, produced by the campaign committee, of ordinary citi-

zens telling how life got better after certain social programs and economic measures were

implemented by Lula, and three-minute long (in average) videos produced by the party (Parti-

do dos Trabalhadores, Labour Party) with propaganda about alleged achievements obtained

all over the country by party affiliated mayors, state governors and representatives.

Although we recognize that the marked difference between the online presentation of

Serra’s and Dilma’s campaign proposals provides an extremely rich research object, we were

not able to pursue it due to limited time and resources.

We argue that the design of the interactivity tools provided by Dilma’s campaign web-

site, along with the amount and quality of information available online, as pointed above, fa-

vored more informed comments, in contrast to what we detected on Serra’s (Chart 2).

Chart 2: CBrazilian 

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isms of interaction such as blogs, forums and chat rooms, which may be progressively left

aside as campaigning tools. In addition, we found that the design of interactivity tools may be

associated to particular aspects of the content of comments posted by candidate supporters on

the campaign websites.

By adopting a particular design, the interactivity tools provided by campaign websites

may give an incentive for users to post distinct comments. If posting is encouraged with no

guidance or proper information to support the assessment of campaign proposals, the likely

result may come in the form of messages disconnected from the dilemmas currently facing

policy-making. In this case, messages tend to present a discussion of surface elements, such

as mentions to alleged moral qualities and executive skills of the candidates, without further

references to the political challenges involved in the public management.

On the other hand, if posting is properly encouraged by thematic axes and the website

contains quality information on campaign proposals, comments could comprise informed

perspectives, with objective references to actual policies.

In summary, we suggest that the internet may improve the electoral dimension of con-

temporary democracies and strengthen mechanisms of accountability, by encouraging strateg-

ic connections between candidates and supporters and the expression of more informed pers-

pectives, although more examples of successful experiences with wider political deliberation

still wait to become known by researchers.

We recognize that confirming findings and perceptions of our study depends on qualita-

tive and quantitative research yet to be made, improving methodology to in-depth studies of

cases of good practices of online political interaction. In this sense, seeking to account for

unresolved issues which shall constitute a future research agenda, we can highlight some chal-

lenges such as:

The need to refine methodologies and criteria for website content analysis, in search

for more objectivity and new categories to deal with more subtle aspects of political commu-

nication in the level of electoral campaigning.

The need to incorporate other cultural, institutional and social variables into the exis-

tent analysis models, in order to investigate social and cultural factors determining the variety

of patterns of web use by subgroups of candidates and the creation of effective opportunities

for online deliberation and political participation.

The need to develop more sophisticated statistical checks and more accurate causal

models to verify the factors determining intensity of the various patterns of web use by sub-

groups of candidates, and to map the best online democratic innovations.

The demand for more sophisticated mechanisms for qualitative analysis of campaign

websites and social media, in order to search for relations between their content and other

dimensions of activity and behavior of political actors, and to reach a better understanding of

how the information available on campaign websites has been received and used by the vari-

ous sections of voters to form an opinion.

These are some of the major research problems which, in our view, derive from the anal-

ysis we performed and the information we collected and interpreted during our investigation.

Acknowledgments Part of the results presented here come from an ongoing investigation carried out by the

research group “Institutions, political behavior and new technologies” (Geist), of the Postgra-duate Program in Political Science of the Universidade Federal do Paraná, and within the con-text of the research entitled “Political representation, Brazilian parliamentary elites and ICTs: socio-political profile, internet usage and perceptions of the modernization process of parlia-mentary bodies by senators, congressmen and state representatives in Brazil (2007-2010)”, coordinated by Sérgio Braga and funded by CNPq, the Brazilian Council of Scientific and Technological Development. Sergio Braga thanks the research group for valuable assistance in the process of collecting data.

Like we noted in the introduction, we are very grateful to Danilo Rothberg for his trans-lation of this paper and his colaboration in the analysis of presidential debates among the presidential candidates in the last part os this paper.

Appendix: Brazilian Maps.

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