Correspondence: Maria Irene Prete, University of Salento, Lecce (Italy), LUISS, Roma, Italy. Tel: +39 33822357989; Fax: +39 0832298729; E-mail: ireneprete@libero.it

¹is completing a PhD programme in Economics and Quantitative Methods for Market Analysis at the University of Salento, and is carrying out research activities in Marketing and Territorial Marketing at the same university, as well as in Market Analysis and Research at LUISS University (Rome). She also holds a Science Master (Master Recherche) in Management (Science de Gestion), a specialisation in Marketing, at Ecole Doctorale Economie, Gestione et Espace of Paris XII University, ESCP-EAP, and Ecole Centrale Paris (France).

Received 10 December 2007; Revised 10 December 2007.

Abstract

New communication technologies and, in particular, SMS (Short Message Service) — that is, undersized text messages sent to a mobile phone by a computer or by another mobile device — offer political parties and candidates an innovative tool for communicating with their actual and prospective voters. The present study evaluates both credibility and its effects on the voting intention of SMS political communication (ie mobile-politics, M-Politics), by considering credibility as a characteristic ascribed to SMS. The results indicate that although m-politics is considered a credible tool, with regard to their effect on the voting intention, it does not modify the intention to vote but rather reinforces the past voting behaviour of both Center-Right and Center-Left voters. Consequently, they do not allow political parties and candidates to grasp opposing coalition voters and change their voting intention, but only to enhance the loyalty of actual voters.