Abstract
The article reflects the findings of a quantitative analysis of the websites of Slovenian political institutions regarding three different but related aspects. In accordance with the functionalist model in classical communication theory - }}Who communicates what in what way?(( - the analysis focuses on the online informational and communication patterns of political institutions.
Conducted in March 2014 on a sample of 63 websites, the study included governmental, legislatorial institutions and the sphere of civil society before an election for the European Parliament, and offers a comparative view of the biggest political actors in the Slovenian online political space. By accommodating the Habermasian model of political arenas of communication, the study enables a comparison between weak and strong politics and between individualised politics of personas with institutional politics.
The results show that the websites of political institutions are less politically structured and more media-oriented: participatory forms of online behaviour are less present than the expansion of news, video contents and other visual promo tional materials. However, the evident move by political actors into online social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, is still not built on the potential for the greater participation of citizens and their inclusion in political decision-making.
Such findings demand a critical understanding of political actors and their role in the online construction of }}digital citizens(( today.