Use of the World Wide Web in the 1996 US election

The role of the World Wide Web in the 1996 US election was analyzed from three perspectives: receiver, source, and effects. A test Web site was set up to provide political information, and the pattern of use indicates that users seemed more interested in seeking news than in deciding how to vote. An analysis of campaign characteristics and subsequent votes indicates that the higher the office being sought, the more likely a campaign is to have a supporting Web site, and that having a Web site was also associated, for one reason or another, with a statistically significant number of additional votes on the average.