The 2008 general elections in Spain reproduced the common characteristics of Western democracies: permanent campaigning, negativism and personalizing. Throughout the entire campaign, mainstream mass media employed a strategy of bi-partisan polarization that was encouraged by both social democrats and conservatives, resulting in a loss of power for small nationalist and leftist parties. Candidates' debates began to be televised again after a 15 year hiatus, but the moderating role of journalists was abolished by the two major political parties which instead made prior agreement regarding the topics to be debated. Candidates' use of new media technologies did not result in a "citizen's campaign" or "campaigning from below". Citizens' spontaneous participation was more feared than desired and the revolutionary resources provided by Web 2.0 were co-opted by political parties that incorporated them into their political marketing strategies.
Spain; elections; campaigns; political communication; Web 2.0
