Archived snapshot of rondelmo.it, the site of the Computational Linguistics Laboratory, Ca' Foscari University of Venice, as it stood on 2026-10-23. Dynamic features no longer run. About this archive
A short text from The Guardian
Thursday, 25th June 2001
National Parties and the Internet
by Joanna Crawford
A survey of how national parties used the internet as a campaigning tool during the election will brand their efforts "bleak and dispiriting" - despite the pre-campaign hype of an "e-election".
Researchers from Salford University studied websites from all the major parties during the general election, as well as looking at every site put up by local candidates.
Their conclusions - to be presented tomorrow at a special conference organised by the Institute for Public Policy Research - could influence how future political contests, including the forthcoming Euro debate, are carried out on the web.
The report finds that none of the major three parties allowed message boards or chat rooms for users to post their opinions on the sites. It states: "Parties were accused of simply engaging in online propaganda with boring content and largely ignoring interactivity."