The topic for this thesis examines the utilization of senatorial websites by United States Senators as a new communication tool. Three different areas of content will be examined: informational content, interactive content and audio-visual content. Those three areas will be used to examine the differences between Senators in several different ways: gender and race, party affiliation, length of service in the senate, region of the country they represent, urban and rural states, and age of the Senators. The results showed 6 significant findings in the areas of content: Democrats had more informational content; Northern Senators had the best and Midwestern Senators had the least audio-visual content; newer Senators in the senate had more informational content; and younger Senators had more informational, interactive, and total content.
","abstract_html":"<p>The topic for this thesis examines the utilization of senatorial websites by United States Senators as a new communication tool. Three different areas of content will be examined: informational content, interactive content and audio-visual content. Those three areas will be used to examine the differences between Senators in several different ways: gender and race, party affiliation, length of service in the senate, region of the country they represent, urban and rural states, and age of the Senators. The results showed 6 significant findings in the areas of content: Democrats had more informational content; Northern Senators had the best and Midwestern Senators had the least audio-visual content; newer Senators in the senate had more informational content; and younger Senators had more informational, interactive, and total content.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Gwilliam, Melody Kay"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"MS","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":"Reed College of Media","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Ralph E. Hanson."],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":1999,"date_issued":"1999-01-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"1999-01-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T06:15:01Z","subjects":["Journalism","Mass communication","Political science"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/895"],"render_values":[{"text":"https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/895","href":"https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/895","code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://doi.org/10.33915/etd.895","outbound_label":"DOI","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Ralph E. Hanson."]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Gwilliam, Melody Kay"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2019-01-17T08:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Reed College of Media"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["MS"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Journalism","Mass communication","Political science"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://doi.org/10.33915/etd.895","https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/895"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["The topic for this thesis examines the utilization of senatorial websites by United States Senators as a new communication tool. Three different areas of content will be examined: informational content, interactive content and audio-visual content. Those three areas will be used to examine the differences between Senators in several different ways: gender and race, party affiliation, length of service in the senate, region of the country they represent, urban and rural states, and age of the Senators. The results showed 6 significant findings in the areas of content: Democrats had more informational content; Northern Senators had the best and Midwestern Senators had the least audio-visual content; newer Senators in the senate had more informational content; and younger Senators had more informational, interactive, and total content.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Politicians and the Internet"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Ralph E. Hanson."],"dc:creator":["Gwilliam, Melody Kay"],"dc:date.available":["2019-01-17T08:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["The topic for this thesis examines the utilization of senatorial websites by United States Senators as a new communication tool. Three different areas of content will be examined: informational content, interactive content and audio-visual content. Those three areas will be used to examine the differences between Senators in several different ways: gender and race, party affiliation, length of service in the senate, region of the country they represent, urban and rural states, and age of the Senators. The results showed 6 significant findings in the areas of content: Democrats had more informational content; Northern Senators had the best and Midwestern Senators had the least audio-visual content; newer Senators in the senate had more informational content; and younger Senators had more informational, interactive, and total content.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://doi.org/10.33915/etd.895","https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/895"],"dc:subject":["Journalism","Mass communication","Political science"],"dc:title":["Politicians and the Internet"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Reed College of Media"],"thesis:degree_level":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["MS"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T06:15:01Z"}