net.politics

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net.politics
Political influence for the rest of us
Sunir Shah (993610990), KMDI1001F, November 5,
2003
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Coffee houses

• BACKGROUND
• 16th century London
• Famous for intellectual, often political,
  discourse
• Cromwells House Revolution! (others Puritan)
• Often published thought e.g. newsletters
• IDEALS
• Private yet public ? intimate
• Public, accessible, egalitarian, non-hierarchical.

Habermas
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Television

• CANONICAL
• Commercials I like Ike!
• Attack ads Daisy Girl
• Televised debates Kennedy vs. Nixon
• EFFECTS ON THE MESSAGE
• Centralization
• Unification
• Disconnection
• Need for sizzle

Wilson McLeod, et. al
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Whats wrong?
Elections Canada
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Whats wrong?
IDEA
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A response? Seattle

• EVENT
• 40 000 to 50 000 protesters
• Postponed opening ceremonies
• Declaration of martial law rubber bullets
• ORGANIZATION
• Only a few major protest organizations e.g.
• ?Third World Network, Direct Action Network,
  Independent Media Center
• Websites (e.g. WTOWatch.org) education,
  accommodation
• Listservs by Public Citizen efficient,
  many-to-many

Eagleton-Pierce
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IndyMedia.org

• HISTORY
• Report from the streets of Seattle WTO
• IMC website had 2.5 million hits every 2 hours
• TODAY
• Web log Internet relay chat mailing lists.
• Also radio, print, satellite television.
• Not considered journalism (us vs. them)
  credible?

Hyge Platon Deuze
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Whats wrong?
Quebec City FTAA protests, April 21, 2001
? Cutting the cynicism cycle.
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Web logs

• HISTORY
• November 24, 1999. IndyMedia.
• April 17, 2000. The Guardian.
• August 29, 2001. Dan Chan starts Daypop.
• "What are those wacky candidates up to today?"
• September 11, 2001. Dan Perkins, NYT
• CANADA, WHO?
• Only pittance talking about Canadian politics!
• ?Warren Kinsella, Michael Wilson

Shah anon.
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Past U.S. Elections

• 1996 (Clinton vs. Dole)
• 4 of Americans went online for campaign news
• 90 positive ads on the Internet (so far)
  Klotz
• 2000 (Gore vs. Bush)
• 18 of Americans went online for campaign news
• 43 claimed Internet influenced their vote
• John McCain takes New Hampshire
• 1M raised online in 48 hours 5M in one month

Johnson Kaye
PoliticsOnline
Additionally Margolis, et.al.
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Whats wrong?
Johnson Kaye Richard

• PEOPLE
• Digital divide
• Apathy
• BLATHER
• Coffee houses too Harris
• Does it change minds? Gastil Dillard
• Better understanding, less uncertainy.
• PUBLIC SERVICE

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Less talk, more do

• MOVEON.ORG
• Flash campaign rapid organization
• 100 000 petitioned Clinton impeachment in one
  week
• HOWARD DEAN
• Meetup.com (140 000 members)
• 10 donations ? 400 000 by June 4, 2003
  (Goldwater?!)
• Campaign posters

(deanforamerica.com)
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REFERENCES   Eagleton-Pierce, M. (2001). The
Internet and the Seattle WTO protests. Peace
Review 13(3), 331-337. Elections Canada (2003).
Voter turnout at federal elections and
referendums, 1867-2000. Retrieved November 1,
2003 from the World Wide Web http//www.election
s.ca/content.asp?sectionpasdocumentturnoutlang
e   Habermas, J. (1989) The structural
transformation of the public sphere An inquiry
into a category of bourgeois society. Translation
by T Burger with F Lawrence. Cambridge Polity
Press   Gastil, J. and Dillard, J. P. (1999)
Increasing political sophistication through
public dissertation. Political Communication
16(3), 3-23.   Harris, J. (2000). The Grecian
coffee house and political debate in London
1688-1714. London Journal, 25(1), 1-13.   Hyde,
G. (2002) Independent Media Centers
Cyber-subversion and the alternative press. First
Monday 7(4). Available electronically from
http//www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue7_4/hyde/ind
ex.html   International Institute for Democracy
and Electoral Assistance (2003). IDEA Voter
turnout from 1945 to 1997 North America and the
Caribbean United States of America. Retrieved
November 1, 2003 from the World Wide Web
http//www.idea.int/voter_turnout/northamerica/usa
.html   Johnson, T. J., Kaye, B. K. (2003). A
boost or bust for democracy? How the Web
influenced political attitudes and behaviors in
the 1996 and 2000 Presidential elections. Harvard
International Journal Of Press/politics, 8(3),
9-34.   Klotz, R. (1998). Virtual criticism
Negative advertising on the Internet in the 1996
Senate Races. Political Communication, 15(3),
347-365.   Margolis, M., Resnick, D., Tu, C.
(1997). Campaigning on the Internet Parties and
candidates on the World Wide Web in the 1996
Primary season. Press/politics, 2(1), 59-78.
  McLeod, J. M., Scheufele, D. A., and Moy, P.
(1999) Community, communication, and
participation The role of mass media and
interpersonal discussion in local political
participation. Political Communication 16,
315-336.   Olson, A. (1991). Coffee house
lobbying. History Today, 41(Jan 91), 35-41.
  Platon, S. and Deuze, M. (2003) Indymedia
journalism. Journalism 4(3), 336-355.   PoliticsOn
line (2000). New Hampshire primary victory leads
to online fundraising explosion. Retrieved
November 2, 2003 from the World Wide Web
http//www.politicsonline.com/specialreports/00020
2/mccain02.asp   Richard, E. (2002) Lessons from
the network model for online engagement of
citizens. Retrieved September 7, 2003 from the
World Wide Web http//www.comnet-it.org/egovernme
nt/lessons-ntwkmdl.pdf   Shah, S. and anon.
(2003). MeatballWiki Web log. Retrieved November
5, 2003 from the World Wide Webhttp//usemod.com
/cgi-bin/mb.pl?WebLog Wilson, S. (2000)
Television as a Presidential campaign medium.
Course notes for Technology, Literature, and
Culture. University of Texas. Retrieved November
3, 2003 from the World Wide Web
http//www.tlc.utexas.edu/courses/2000f_321/electi
on2000/television.html