• New media, political parties and citizen participation
• The professionalisation of political campaigning
• Web linkage analysis and methodologies to map online political networks
• Design and analysis of social attitude surveys and election studies

My current research projects include development of my ongoing research into the use of new media by political organisations and candidates in campaigns and elections. I am currently examining the Australian election of 2007 and also the US Presidential election of 2008 and plan to present my work at a series of conferences and workshops during 2008. In addition, I will continue to promote the international collaborative project to establish a Virtual Observatory for the Study of Online Networks (VOSON) with colleagues in Australia, the US and the UK. The aim here being to pilot a new software for social scientists to study the structure, evolution and implications of political organisations’ online networks. The project is designed to bring together key centres of e-Social Science in the US and UK and develop the web network analysis tool for remote use by researchers overseas. Finally, along with my colleague Andrea Römmele at the University of Mannheim I am also in the process of developing a Political Campaigns study network. This project is designed to promote more systematic study of the uptake and effects of new campaign techniques by political parties in elections around the world.