Collaborative Research: Using Web Data to Study the Nature and Consequences of U.S. Congressional Campaigns

竞选活动是民主政治的一个决定性特征。然而，关于竞选活动的学术研究，特别是关于竞选沟通内容的研究，仍然是脱节的。在最近的工作中，研究人员提出了一种美国国会竞选沟通的理论，该理论汇集了几个不同的文献(例如，关于负面竞选、候选人形象、立场的工作)。他们用736名考生的内容分析数据检验了这一理论。在国家科学基金会拨款(SES-0822819和SES-0822782)的支持下，调查人员在2008年国会竞选期间扩展了他们的数据。通过目前的项目，他们将数据收集扩展到2010年的竞选活动。和以前一样，他们在竞选过程中对网站进行编码，对网站进行归档，并对网站设计师进行调查。与过去的努力不同的是，为了回应数据引起的兴趣，调查人员明确要求就编码方案提供意见。此外，他们通过探索运动的后果大大扩大了该项目的范围。他们对竞选策略如何影响选民进行了实验研究，并对国会官方网站进行了编码，以探索他们的响应性(即官员在竞选期间兑现承诺的程度)。最终，调查人员构建了一个公开可用的数据集，其中包括近1600个参众两院竞选网站和160多个国会官方网站的编码，超过9个时间点(即竞选数据为2002、2004、2006、2008和2010，官方网站为2003、2005、2007和2009)。这些数据包括关于每个候选人的背景、地区和竞选活动的广泛信息，以及关于电视广告和媒体报道的数据。此外，调查人员将收集关于竞选活动对选民影响的实验数据，以及捕捉网站设计师动机的调查数据。除了使学者能够跟踪互联网随着时间的演变，这些数据还为研究人员提供了一个独特的机会来测试竞选理论及其对选民和代表的影响。与其他非中介的竞选沟通来源--如电视广告和辩论--不同，几乎所有候选人都会推出竞选网站，所有代表都有官方网站。这使得能够对具有代表性的候选人和代表样本进行分析，而不是偏向于竞争激烈、资金充足的竞选活动(广告、媒体报道就是这种情况)或某些代表。网站还使政客们能够展示他们行为的整体图景，而不是简短的声音片段或选定的唱名投票。该项目具有明显的学术价值，并为广泛的社会知识做出了许多贡献。新数据的收集可以用来显著扩展对政治竞选、选民决策和代表性的理解。它将使研究人员以外的研究人员能够在一种新的媒介上用具有代表性的国会竞选样本来测试竞选理论。加强对竞选活动及其对选民的影响的了解，最终可用作提高竞选质量的改革的基础。该项目还将提高个人评估竞选行为与民选代表随后采取的行动之间的联系的能力。此外，这些数据将使学者和权威人士能够就网络上的竞选活动如何运作发表明智的声明。在每个选举周期，越来越多的记者和专家对网络竞选活动发表评论；然而，缺乏系统的研究意味着无法评估这些评论或构建关于网络的广泛声明(以及它与其他媒体的比较和随时间的演变)。最后，该项目将让学生学习如何进行研究，并能够在自己的工作中使用数据。最后，该项目独一无二地汇集了民主政治的三个关键组成部分的数据：竞选、投票和代表。

Electoral campaigns are a defining feature of democratic polities. Yet, scholarship on electoral campaigns, particularly on the content of campaign communications, remains disjointed. In recent work, the investigators offer a theory of U.S. congressional campaign communications that brings together several distinct literatures (e.g., work on negative campaigns, candidate image, position taking). They tested the theory with data from content analyses of 736 candidates? campaign websites from 2002 through 2006.With the support of a National Science Foundation grant (SES-0822819 and SES-0822782), the investigators extended their data during the 2008 congressional campaign. With the current project, they extend their data collection to the 2010 campaign. As before, they code sites over the course of the campaign, archive sites, and implement a survey of website designers. Unlike past efforts-and in response to the interest the data has generated-the investigators explicitly solicited input on the coding scheme. Moreover, they significantly broadened the project by exploring the consequences of campaigns. They implemented experimental studies of how campaign strategies influence voters, and coded official congressional websites to explore their responsiveness (i.e. the extent to which officeholders live up to the promises they make during campaigns). In the end, the investigators constructed a publicly available data set that includes coding of nearly 1,600 House and Senate campaign websites and more than 160 official congressional websites, over nine points in time (i.e., 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, and 2010 for the campaign data and 2003, 2005, 2007, and 2009 for the official sites). These data include extensive information on each candidate's background, district, and campaign as well as data on television advertisements and media coverage. Furthermore, the investigators will collect experimental data on campaign effects on voters and survey data that capture the motivations of website designers.In addition to enabling scholars to track the evolution of the Internet over time, the data offer researchers a unique opportunity to test theories of campaigns and their effects on voters and representatives. Unlike other unmediated sources of campaign communication-such as television advertisements and debates-virtually all candidates launch campaign websites and all representatives have official websites. This allows for analyses on a representative sample of candidates and representatives, rather than a sample biased towards competitive, well-funded campaigns (as is the case with advertisements, media coverage) or certain representatives. Websites also enable politicians to present a holistic picture of their behaviors rather than short soundbites or selected roll call votes. The project has clear intellectual merit and offers many contributions to broad societal knowledge. The collection of new data can be used to significantly extend an understanding of political campaigns, voter decision-making, and representation. It will enable researchers beyond the investigators to test theories of campaigns on a new medium, with a representative sample of congressional races. An enhanced understanding of campaigns and their effects on voters can ultimately be used as a basis for reforms that could improve campaign quality. The project also will increase individuals' abilities to evaluate the connections between campaign behaviors and subsequent actions taken by elected representatives. Additionally, the data will enable scholars and pundits to make informed statements about how campaigns work on the Web. With each election cycle, more and more journalists and pundits comment on Web campaigning; however, the lack of systematic study means that there is no way to evaluate these comments or construct broad statements about the Web (and how it compares to other media and evolves over time). Finally, the project will involve students who will learn how to conduct research and be able to use the data in their own work. In the end, the project uniquely brings together data on three key components of democratic polities: campaigns, voting, and representation.