ABSTRACT
By the end of the 1990s, the popularity of the Internet and its ability to provide a forum for distributing a controlled message to mass audienceswithout interruption or interpretation by the media-had attracted the attention of political candidates. Political candidates running for office in 1996 were the first to make a concerted effort toward incorporating the Internet in their campaigns (Davis 1999), and by 1998, the Internet was viewed as a mass medium for political candidates’ messages (Raney 1998; Glass 1998). Leading into the 2000 election cycle, the Internet was considered a “broad-based medium to be reckoned with” (Shiver 1999) and candidates’ Web sites were advised to be “as fine-tuned as any TV spot or direct mail piece” (Jalonick 2000: 56).
