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Another must read report on the role of the Internet in U.S.
elections:
http://www.pewinternet.org/reports/toc.asp?Report=85
If you are in DC (I won't be) tomorrow, check out:
http://www.ipdi.org/politicsonline/
Steven Clift
Democracies Online
P.S. For a just released webcast on the Net & Elections in Minnesota,
the crucible of e-politics, visit: http://www.e-democracy/neoamn/
Also at this site is an article written by staff from Senator Paul
Wellstone's campaign, one the most effective online campaigns in
history (and tragic political stories).
------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent: Thu, 20 Mar 2003 13:00:10 -0500
From: Amanda Lenhart <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: New Politics Report from Pew Internet and GWU's IPDI
The Pew Internet & American Life Project is delighted to release its
latest report, written together with the Institute for Politics,
Democracy and the Internet at The George Washington University. A
summary of the report, titled "Untuned Keyboards: Online campaigners,
citizens, and portals in the 2002 elections" can be found below, and
the full text of the report may be accessed at
http://www.pewinternet.org/reports/toc.asp?Report=85 .
Summary:
Campaigners have always tried to reach voters in order to win
elections. Citizens have always tried to read campaigns in order to
vote their interests. The Internet seems to offer a great two-way
conduit for campaigners and citizens, with plenty of room for third
parties to provide context and commentary as well. Some are making
good on the vision of a lively online political discourse pegged to
elections. But at the milestone of the 2002 midterm elections, the
evidence shows that political cyberspace was populated mostly by
tentative campaigners and wandering citizens. The major portals of
Web
traffic played a late, mild, yet remarkably sophisticated role in the
proceedings.
This report examines the phenomenon of online politics from three
contemporaneous perspectives. It presents data compiled in October
and
November 2002 through a survey of American adults, a questionnaire
answered by managers and communications directors for campaigns in
closely contested races, and a content analysis of campaign
information as it appeared on three major Internet portal home pages:
AOL, MSN, and Yahoo. The report also draws on a content analysis of
102 candidate Web sites, and IPDI's monitoring of the 2002 online
campaigns on a daily basis for new and newsworthy developments.
The surveys document two major developments in online politics. The
first is the emergence of e-mail as a mainstream channel of political
communication. E-mail has become an increasingly popular and potent
tool for campaigners in America. Two-thirds of politically engaged
Internet users during the 2002 election cycle sent or received email
related to the campaign. The second breakthrough success concerns
interest-group Web sites, with 73% of those who use the Internet for
politics last year saying they checked such organization sites for
information.
No one should expect campaigners, citizens, and portals to
communicate
harmoniously about elections. Politics is too contentious for that,
reflecting the turbulence of capitalism and divisions in society.
Still, each of these groups of participants in online politics
exhibited frustrations with what they aspired to do. They sat at
their
respective keyboards, and struck sour notes.
Candidates in closely contested races:
*Succeeded in using the Internet to conduct political research and
communicate with the press, but declined to place online
advertisements and failed to coordinate online activities with the
national parties.
*Missed an opportunity to build public confidence about the role of
money in their campaigns by leaving it to others to package their
financial disclosure data.
*Larded their Web pages with news releases and endorsement lists, but
didn't include much from and about ordinary citizens. The online
citizenry returned the favor by forwarding campaign email less often
than jokes about the campaigns.
Online citizens, that is, Internet users who got political news and
information online:
*Swelled from 33 million to 46 million Americans between the summer
of
2000 and November, 2002 –a remarkable 39% increase at a time of
declining growth in the overall Internet population and plummeting
finances in the dot-com world.
*Prized research as highly as campaigners, but did not find the
information they were looking for (generally, details that reinforced
their voting inclinations) as often as online searchers for health
and
government information.
*Enjoy participating in online polls and swapping e-mail jokes about
the campaigns and elections.
The big Internet portals (AOL, MSN, Yahoo!):
*Have the capacity to serve as gatekeepers of political information,
facilitators of political research, and matchmakers for people with
similar political interests and views –and played those roles in
descending order.
*Developed extensive sets of directories and tools for campaign and
election activity, but did not promote them very much.
The report concludes with a list of concrete steps that campaigners,
citizens, and portals could take in 2004. These include:
*Exhibiting grass-roots support in the course of cultivating more.
*Last-minute and real-time GOTV (Get Out The Vote) operations, openly
coordinated among candidates, parties, and groups. *Searchable
databases that make a case by allowing individual Web users to see
how
a policy affects them. *Humor and blogs (a form of online diary) to
create buzz about a campaign.
To the extent these forms of online communication proliferate, the
Internet will mature as an instrument of democratic politics in
America.
For more information about the Pew Internet & American Life Project,
please visit: http://www.pewinternet.org/about/about.asp?page=4
For more information about the Institute for Politics, Democracy &
The
Internet, please see: http://www.ipdi.org
-end summary-
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or family members who might be interested in it. If you have received
this message from a subscriber, you can sign up to receive your own
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^ ^ ^ ^
Steven L. Clift - W: http://www.publicus.net
Minneapolis - - - E: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Minnesota - - - - - T: +1.612.822.8667
USA - - - - - - - ICQ: 13789183
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