New media and Democracy

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New media and Democracy

• Does the Internet make any real difference to
  democracy?
• GrahamYoung Executive Director National Forum
• 3rd June, 2005

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Who am I?

• http//graham.nationalforum.com.au/

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What motivates me ?
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And
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What is Democracy?

• government of the people, by the people, and
  for the people Abraham Lincoln Speech, 19 Nov
  1863, dedicating the national cemetery on the
  site of the Battle of Gettesburg
• Democracy means government by discussion but it
  is only effective if you can stop people
  talking. - Clement Attlee Anatomy of Britain
  (Anthony Sampson), ?1960
• democracy is the worst form of Government
  except all those other forms that have been tried
  from time to time. Winston Churchill Speech,
  Hansard 11 November (1947), col. 206

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System of Government where decisions are made on
the basis of a vote of all those belonging to
that unit.

• It involves
• A problem or need
• Discussion/Debate
• Resolution of the discussion into a proposition
  or series of propositions
• Determination of a majority position on the
  proposition
• Consent of the governed
• Action

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The actors are

• Legislators
• Individuals
• Community
• Media
• Courts
• Police and other enforcement agencies

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What is e-Democracy? How is it different?

• The medium is the message. This is merely to say
  that the personal and social consequences of any
  medium...result from the new scale that is
  introduced into our affairs by each extension of
  ourselves or by any new technology.McLuhan,
  Marshall Understanding Media, Ch. 1
• Backing into the future Graham Meikle Future
  Active Media Activism and the Internet

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Democratic market 50 years ago

• Homogenous/ Mass Market
• Loyal/Tribal
• Hierarchical
• Relatively Passive
• Not mobile
• Community defined by geography
• Decentralised and small scale

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Democratic market now

• Differentiated/Niche Markets
• Volatile
• Flat
• Demanding
• Mobile
• Community defined by interest
• Large scale

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Technologies that have effectedthe political
market
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What is e-Democracy again?

• The use of Internet-based technologies in the
  democratic process as a means of communication,
  discussion, organisation, influence, or decision
  making.
• It is NOT e-Government which is the
  implementation of government administration via
  the use of Internet-based technologies.

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Paradigms of e-Democracy

• Direct or plebiscitary democracy
• Online Communities
• Government use of online techniques as a means of
  gauging public opinion
• Online public engagement in policy deliberation
• e-Activism
• Electronic News Services
• (Points 1-4 from Bowling TogetherOnline Public
  Engagement in Policy Deliberations Hansard
  Society http//www.hansardsociety.org.uk/)

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How is internet likely to change politics?

• Increase market differentiation
• Make electors more volatile
• Further flatten hierarchies
• More demanding
• Increase numbers of communities of interest
• Scale will be less relevant

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What are the advantages of e-Democracy?

• Cheap to produce, publish and distribute material
• Interactive vertically and horizontally
• Low barriers to entry and involvement
• Ability to target market
• Lessens effect of geographical, sexual, physical
  and other disadvantage
• Able to be quickly responsive to events

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What are the disadvantages of e-Democracy?

• Clutter too many sites
• Lack of authority
• Anarchic
• Difficult to find and classify participants
• Difficult to talk to the uncommitted
• Digital Divide
• Security and privacy of information

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How are governments meeting the challenge?

• Victorian Electronic Democracy Inquiry
• NSW Community Builders
• Queensland Government e-Petitions
• Senate will accept electronic petitions
• Webcasting of federal parliament, hansard online
• US Environmental Protection Agency - community
  consultation with 1066 participants
• English Parliament - bills up for scrutiny and
  comment
• Government Online Directory (GOLD)

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Democracy OnlineEPA Project

• Large number of people participated, creating
  complex communication dynamics. (This involved
  1,166 people from all over the country. 40 to 60
  3.43 to 5.16 posting each day).
• Participants were highly satisfied with the
  process. (70 rated as positive while only 9
  rated as very or somewhat negative).
• The process increased the number of voices heard,
  but the voices were not necessarily new.

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Democracy Online cont...

• Communication was good, but many found it
  difficult to participate.
• Participants learned much, networked a little,
  and felt they would have some influence on EPA
  policy and practice.
• EPA accomplished its goal of garnering broader
  input about what it does right and wrong. It
  also opened up new lines of communication with
  the public, encouraged a few more formal comments
  on the Public Involvement Policy, and generated
  some public good will.

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Features of government efforts

• Tend to be only interactive to the stage of
  consultation (Jensen). Not much conversational
  interactivity, or intercreativity (Berners-Lee
  via Meikle)
• Experimental
• Tentative
• Not user-focussed
• Project based, not on-going

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How are Australian politicians meeting the
challenge?

• Email (70 according to Chen)
• Online consultation (64 according to Chen)
• 40 support online voting and 30 opposed (Chen)
• Political parties rate the Internet as equal or
  best medium for getting their message out (Gibson
  and Ward)
• Mostly static information (Gibson and Ward)
• Amount of interactivity low. Prefer one-way
  communication (Gibson and Ward)

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But

• Helen Razer (ABC Presenter) couldnt get one
  party, apart from the Greens, to respond to her
  offer of assistance during the last federal
  election
• Liberal Party didnt maintain its mailing list
  from its site properly
• Only online consultation ALP did for Hawke/Wran
  Review was on a Labor 21(Carmen Lawrence site
  apparently now defunct) and On Line Opinion
• Prime Minister only responds to email via snail
  mail

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How are interest groups meeting the challenge?

• e-Activism
• Email (S 11, WEF, MAI)
• Websites (www.cis.org.au, http//www.hizbollah.org
  /english/frames/index_eg.htm)
• Portals (http//www.oneworld.net/)

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But...

• Generally lack interactivity beyond the
  registrational (Jensen)
• Lack of Promotion /Visibility
• Strategic expertise lacking

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What are other groups doing?

• Minnesota e-Democracies (http//www.e-democracy.or
  g/)
• Indymedia sites (http//indymedia.org/)
• www.onlineopinion.com.au/domain
• www.onlineopinion.com.au
• BBC iCAN
• e-Parliament

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Meeting in the middle
Community

• A problem or need
• Discussion/Debate
• Resolution of the discussion into a proposition
  or series of propositions
• Determination of a majority position on the
  proposition
• Consent of the governed
• Action

Government
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What sort of public sphere

• Jed Miller Toward an Interactive Democracy
• If citizens have become more engaged online, but
  remain isolated in narrow beakers of single
  issues and circumscribed activities, then the
  challenge for revitalising the public sphere is
  to create cauldrons big enough to support
  deliberative activity on a large scale, building
  on the power of compelling context, urgent
  popular narratives and grassroots outreach to
  gather strangers, foster trust and describe
  prospective outcomes that motivate participation.

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National ForumWhat is it?

• Town Hall
• Public Open Space
• Shopping Centre/Market of Ideas
• Producers coop
• Project to combine discussion and action

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National ForumWhat are its benefits?

• Combines discussion and action
• Community Owned - public, advocacy groups,
  research/policy groups, politicians and
  governments.
• Information rich context - peripheral vision
• Order e-Democracy clutter
• Give individuals and sites profile

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Closing the loop

• From chat to action
• Submission to Victorian eDemocracy Inquiry
• Background paper on petition sites
• http//onlineopinion.com.au/petitions

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Conclusion

• Time required before new technology substantially
  impacts on democracy
• Radio - 40 years
• TV - 20 years
• Internet - ?
• How?
• The medium really is the message
• Reinventing the Past