Political Personalization Online: Parties and Politicians in the 2015 Elections

Many aspects of political activity have shifted their weight to the Internet of late. From the mid-1990s, political parties and politicians have established their own Web sites in exponentially rising numbers. A decade later, they started opening social media accounts (Facebook and Twitter being the most prominent) to establish unmediated contact with the public (Vergeer 2012). On the demand side, the public is increasingly turning to the Internet for political information and political activity, young people in particular. Thus, it is not surprising that trends that developed “offl ine” are also evident online. One such trend is the personalization of politics, a process in which the political weight of the individual actor in politics increases over time, while the centrality of the political party declines.