ABSTRACT
With the explosion of websites and the vast improvement in modem technology, cyberspace is becoming more directly useful to political campaigns. Campaigns regularly check one another's websites for information, particularly about issues and travel schedules. Advances in fund-raising were among the most significant improvements in the political campaign use of the Internet in the most recent presidential campaign. The growth of the Internet has provided an increased opportunity to use online media both to communicate with voters and to organize supporters. Currently, the Internet's potential has exceeded its actual use in campaigns, but that is likely to change quickly. Future elections will likely see an expansion in Internet campaigning. As Pollard et al. concluded, the Internet "increasingly appears to be functioning as an independent, if not discrete, sociopolitical system with unique modes of interaction, its own rules and procedures, and ultimately its own standards and guidelines for presidential campaigns".
