Appearance or reality? Political parody on the web in campaign ‘96

Abstract

The World Wide Web and other forms of Internet communication provide a new venue for political discourse. The present study surveyed Web postings relevant to the 1996 presidential race between Bill Clinton and Bob Dole. It identified two types of sites. Nonparodic or serious sites emulated traditional news such as is found in newspapers, periodicals, and television news documentaries. Parodic sites sought to entertain rather than inform the reader and to hold reader attention. Parodic sites ostensibly exposed candidates’ questionable practices by way of allegation, innuendo, expose, parody, and slander. To expose deceptive practices, the authors of parodic Websites themselves engaged in deception. Political parodic Websites presented a postmodern communication environment where the identity of the author, the stability of the text, and the audience itself were all fragmented. Browsing these political Websites was a recursive activity where one could participate in pseudo polls, sign bogus petitions, and play political computer games. Such activities provided the illusion of political participation and did little to decrease public cynicism about politics or the political process.