Research Note: Italian Parties’ Web Sites in the 2006 Elections

This research analyses the websites of Italian national parties in the 2006 parliamentary elections. Overall, 27 sites were studied along three main lines of enquiry: information, participation and professionalism. Results show that most Italian parties have reached a good proficiency level in informing their online users and in adopting sophisticated production techniques, but are still far from maximizing the Internet's potential for participation and mobilization. Overall, the data offer only partial support to the hypothesis of `normalization' of cyberspace.