The module combines theoretical and empirical content in the analysis of digital campaigning. Digital campaigning is hereby understood as comprising all forms of social and political campaigning that make intense use of digital media. Theoretically it will cover a number of concepts and theories that are relevant to the understanding of this issue, including social movement theory, and digital politics theory, and the work of authors such as Manuel Castells, Jeffrey Juris, Daniel Kreiss, Andrew Chadwick and David Karpf. Furthermore, it will cover a number of important concepts such as the digitisation of political activity, the notion of hybrid media system, the consequences of interactivity, crowd-sourcing, networking and participatory culture for social and political campaigning. Empirically, it will draw on a number of digital campaigns, from social movements, to charity and civil society campaigns conducted by such actors as Greenpeace and Oxfam, to political and electoral campaigns waged by political parties and candidates. Its geographic scope will mostly focus on the Western context, but with some attempts to explore similar developments in other word areas including India, China and South America.
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