*** Democracies Online Newswire - http://www.e-democracy.org/do *** As I predicted, the media as a whole would hype up the potential role of the Internet in the election and then cut it down. The moral of this survey - television is king. My take is that many traditional political journalists and campaign staff (non-online staff in particular) view the Internet as television. The Internet is NOT best used as a tool to influence undecided voters by giving them some pretty pictures and a few of text lines. It takes more than that to get them committed to a candidate. Take a look at all the new negative campaign web sites - the leakage of the campaign consultant television mentality is knocking down the perceived effectiveness of the Internet as a great information source. I guess it is always easier to run a campaign where you fight to be the lesser of two evils. If the media wants to survey the effectiveness of the Internet, they ought to focus on questions that get at its use as an ongoing strategic communication tool used to involve, motivate and activate supporters. Take a look at how the Internet influences traditional media coverage. And for the general public, ask questions that separate "useful" in depth from easy information. Marion Just of the Shorenstein Center once shared a focus group comment where average citizen use of the web versus print voter directories were studied, "Television is a lot easier." Useful to most American means easy. While Internet information should be presented in a much less cluttered way, the web is a passive medium from a presentation perspective where the user has to actively choose to view it. Only those Americans engaged in the process will take advantage of what the Internet has to offer. And if you want it to extend the possibility of involvement to others, from experience, it is a one person at a time effort that requires very local opportunities for online involvement. Without a grid for more self- interested geographic based online community involvement I doubt we will see the Internet expand political involvement at the national level. The problem is that it a lot easier for the online sites to focus on the Presidential race online and lot more resource intensive to have anything meaningful work at the state and local level where both foundation and venture capitol monies are scarce. Hopefully when the election is over we can begin to build more local democracy online efforts that provide the necessary foundation for sustained democracy online activities. Steven Clift Democracies Online http://www.e-democracy.org/do Oh, the article (thanks Kevin Featherly). I can't find the original free on the web for linking ... The first part of the release: ------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- To: "Steven Clift" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date sent: Fri, 11 Aug 2000 08:39:25 -0500 Online election news not as useful as established media's, poll says Copyright © 2000 Nando Media Copyright © 2000 Scripps Howard News Service By THOMAS HARGROVE and GUIDO H. STEMPEL III, Scripps Howard News Service (August 11, 2000 9:02 a.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) - Despite the major presidential hopefuls' attention given to Information Age technology, the age of digital politics has yet to arrive, according to a new poll. Only one American in three believes the Internet has been a useful source for information about the 2000 campaign. Just 8 percent list the Internet as their most important information source, according to a poll of 1,020 adult U.S. residents conducted by Scripps Howard News Service and Ohio University. The Web lags far behind television, newspapers, radio and news magazines as a means of providing Americans with basic information about the candidates. "My gut feeling is that the Internet has had minimal impact so far," said Marvin Kalb, a former network television correspondent and now executive director of the Washington office of Harvard University's Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy. The survey found that 32 percent listed the Internet as a useful source in tracking politics this year. Eleven percent said they have used the Internet to get information about the presidential candidates in the past week, making political information one of the least popular uses people have for the Internet. Yet the presidential candidates have invested an enormous amount of resources into their Internet campaigns, as well as making the new technology a principal part of their campaign speeches and policy platforms. Al Gore likes to campaign carrying a Palm Pilot clipped to his belt, while George W. Bush boasts he's the first candidate to name his campaign contributors on his Internet site. - END OF CLIP - ^ ^ ^ ^ Steven L. Clift - W: http://www.publicus.net Minneapolis - - - E: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Minnesota - - - - - T: +1.612.822.8667 USA - - - - - - - ICQ: 13789183 *** Please send submissions to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** *** To subscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** *** Message body: SUB DO-WIRE *** *** To unsubscribe instead, write: UNSUB DO-WIRE *** *** Please forward this post to others and encourage *** *** them to subscribe to the free DO-WIRE service. ***
