Internet and Politics

Is the Internet destined to upset traditional political power in the United States? This book gives an emphatic "no". Author Richard Davis shows how current political players such as candidates, public officials, and the media are adapting to the Internet and assuring that this new medium benefits them in their struggle for power. In doing so he examines the current function of the Internet in democratic politics, i.e. educating citizens, conducting electoral campaigns, gauging public opinion, and achieving policy resolution, and the rotes of current political actors in those functions. Davis unconventional prediction concerning the Internet's impact on American politics warrants a closer took by anyone interested in teaming how this new communication medium will affect us politically.

The Internet is now a part of American democracy. A majority of Americans are online and many of them use the Internet to learn political information and to follow election campaigns. Candidates now invest heavily in Web and e-mail campaign communication tools in order to reach prospective voters, as well as to communicate with journalists, potential donors, and political activists. How are their efforts paying off? Are voters influenced by what they see on the Internet? Do they use online resources to learn about issues and candidates that mainstream media are not covering? Is the Internet empowering the shrinking electorate to return to the polls? Campaigning Online answers these questions with a close-up look at the dynamics of the 2000 election on the Internet. Examining how candidates present themselves online, and how voters respond to their efforts - including measures of whether they learn from candidates' web sites and whether their opinions are affected by what they see, the authors present the first systematic depiction of the role of campaign web sites in American elections. The authors paint a portrait of the voters' side and the candidates' side of campaigning on the Internet that has been unavailable so far. They report on a wealth of new data and evidence drawn from national and state-wide surveys, laboratory experiments, interviews with campaign staff, and analysis of web sites themselves.

New Media and American Politics is the first examination of the effect on modern politics of the new media, which include talk radio, tabloid journalism, television talk shows, entertainment media, and computer networks. Davis and Owen discuss the new media's cultural environment, audience, and content, and evaluate its impact on everything from elections to policy making to the old media itself.

Political campaigns are highly complex and sophisticated communication events: communication of issues, images, social reality, and persons. They are essential exercises in the creation, re-creation, and transmission of "significant symbols" through human communication. The essays in this text examine the key elements in that process throughout the 1996 presidential campaign.

Democracy in the Digital Age is a fascinating philosophical exploration of how the emerging information and communication technologies are impacting political participation in the United States. Rather than being the antidote to democratic ills, the political conversations occurring online are neither inclusive nor deliberative, suggesting that new technologies, as currently designed and used, are as much threats to progress as they are vehicles of progress. Wilhelm discussses four features of digitally-mediated political likfe (resources, inclusiveness, deliberation and design) and puts forward public policy solutions to bridge the digital divide.