Internet and elections: Changing political strategies and citizen tactics in Hungary

The socio-political transformation induced in Central and Eastern Europe by the political turmoil of 1989–1990 happened in concordance with a communications revolution, characterized by the ubiquity of new media in many realms of life. Consequently, the use of information and communication technologies in political campaigns forced both institutions and citizens to rethink their roles and strategies within the political system. Our analysis of the electoral web sphere of the 2004 European Parliament election in Hungary, based on Internet & Elections data and semi-structured interviews, indicates that while strategic uses of the internet appear to reinforce existing power-relations on the web, tactical uses of new media undermine the'politics as usual' thesis.