Resumen de Spain's 2008 cyber-campaign: only for a very active minority

Víctor Sampedro Blanco , José Antonio López Rey, Celia Muñoz Goy, José Luis Dader García , Eva Campos-Domínguez

• This article clarifies the applicability of the cyber-campaign concept to the Spanish 2008 general elections in the light of data from two surveys of Internet use for political purposes during the elections, namely, of general and of intensive Internet users. Our results are compared with patterns of political use of the Internet in Spain and other countries. Findings reveal poor use of the political resources available online (not explained only by a comparatively lower Internet-adoption rate) and a multimedia political information consumption pattern even among intensive Internet users in which the most interactive devices have the least importance. These results are explained by an imbalance between demand for online political action during elections and the technology and content offered by political actors over the Internet.