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How do candidates for municipal office use the Internet in their campaigns, and are there differences between candidates according to the character of the constituencies and the races? This is the first a country-wide study of website usage in low-visibility political campaigns for municipal offices. Data were collected during municipal elections campaigns that took place in Israel in three cycles between November 2007 and February 2009, in 143 different municipalities and involving almost 500 candidates across Israel. 1The paper explores the characteristics of municipal campaigning, including the scope of website usage, the features available in candidates' websites, variables predicting website usage, and the perceptions of candidates regarding websites' effectiveness. While Websites were used by half of the candidates, they tended to be static and include very few interactive features. The characteristics of the constituencies and the races were correlated with the scope of Website usage by contenders.

The article analyzes how community members who were evacuated from their homes use various media, and especially the internet, to keep in touch, receive and disseminate information and express their opinions. Of particular interest are the differences between members of various groups, who differ in their decision whether to relocate in Israel with the rest of the original community or not, in media usage patterns and sense of community. The findings demonstrate that evacuees use diversity and multiplicity of media, where various media are used for different purposes according to need. Small media, with a rather limited and local reach (such as pamphlets, SMS, niche websites and small-scale meetings) are predominantly used for most of the needs, overshadowing mass media usage. Correlations were found amongst various media usages, and between the usage of various media and users' sense of community. The study demonstrates how contemporary media users use a variety of media depending on their circumstances and needs, and how media usage assists in establishing and maintaining a sense of community after the forced transition from the communities of origin.

AbstractThis article analyzes Internet usage by key political players—candidates, parties and the public—during national and municipal election campaigns between 2007 and 2009 in Israel. Parties maintain a presence on a variety of Internet platforms, are aware of the potential of the Internet and are willing to divert budgets for Internet campaigns, but there are extensive differences in the character and scope of online campaigning between large and small parties and between Internet uses in general and in municipal elections. In the municipal elections, incumbency, size of the electorate, competitiveness of the race, and the socio‐economic characteristics of the constituency impacted on the probability of having a website. Many sites functioned largely as upgraded message boards, and most had few interactive features. The study concludes by stressing the need for a theory of technology usage in both high‐ and low‐visibility campaigns, taking into account strategic, environmental, and individual‐level variables that may influence the scope and character of Internet usage by candidates.

Former residents of the evacuated Gush Katif region, once parts of closely knit and cohesive communities, have been spread across Israel in temporary settlements since the disengagement, in 2005. The goal of this study was to learn how the evacuees interacted with one another online to organize politically and retain their social capital. The study focused on Katif.net, the major Internet site in use by the former residents of Gush Katif. This is an unusual case of a virtual community that continues to thrive online even as its offline predecessor has been evacuated.

Members of parliament's (MPs) social media channels are significant arenas for communication between the public and national leaders. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper to explore how these channels function during emergencies. We present findings from a mixed-method study of automatic and manual content analysis of a unique dataset composed of all posts on Israeli MPs' Facebook pages during the entire 19th Israeli parliament. We compare scope of posting, engagement with posts, and the content in MPs' Facebook pages during "ordinary" periods and an "emergency" period, focusing on the 2014 Israel/Gaza war. Findings present MPs' social media pages as hubs of interaction between MPs and audiences in emergencies, even more so than during ordinary periods. MPs' social media pages involve significantly more posts (and engagement with posts) during emergencies. In addition, the content in them becomes more emotional, less personal, and focused on the emergency situation and the national leaders responding to it.