On the eve of presidential elections in Ukraine 2010, numerous profiles of presidential candidates have been set up on the popular network sites Livejournal, Twitter, YouTube, and Vkontakte, either by the candidate’s political consultants or by the candidates themselves. In this article, I explore the content of politicians’ social media profiles and their web groups, and I argue that Ukrainian presidential contenders have not yet been able to meet the challenges of social media cyberspace. In effect, their web presence serves primarily the goal of self-promotion, and is rarely used for communication across a wider network, which is a core principle of social media philosophy. By looking into the application of Web 2.0 tools in the Ukrainian election run-off, I attempt to contribute to the contemporary debate on the political and social potential of Web 2.0 and give a new critical impetus for further research in this field.
Language of contribution: German