Political Communication In CMC

Luke IddonTom KidmanAazim Javed

Alexander KatzmaierManuel Janka

Agenda

Advantages and History of Politics Media’s of CMC E-Democracy Digital Divide Internet Activism & Hacktivism Terrorism and the Internet Questions???

Politics and their history 46% of internet users say that using cmc allows them to get a better

understanding of politics,25% say that using the internet gives them more political power and 20% say that using the internet gives them more input in to politics

Mr Blair has also engaged in a series of "online" events such as pod casts, e-interviews and the like in an attempt to engage more directly with voters without the media getting in the way.

“The Internet fits within an overarching historical change that has occurred since the early 1970s when we first witnessed the marriage between politics and all sorts of media. Politics has increasing become a media-manipulation game”

Advantages Easy communication between parties Wide range of communication Online communities can be targeted for political needs Allows a broad range of computer-mediated formats (i.e.,

instant messages, e-mails, chat rooms) Allows voters to view information about polictal parties 1/3 of Americans user cmc to find out about political

news on the internet and pose questions to candidates giving a voice to numerous groups and individuals that

other wise wouldn't have access to any media Gives interactivity to political parties

Advantages Cont.. Access to political information (Hansards, press

releases, newspapers, speeches, party policies) alternative voices ways to organise political demonstrations ways to organise both at the grass roots level and

globally. Online petitions cans be created appealing directly to the

government to change laws

Cheap and effective means for activists to communicate both globally and locally

Cross Border Relations With conflicts going on around the world between

neighboring countries communication between the two countries has become difficult for citizens of both sides, but with cmc they can communicate between countries using messages or message boards without having to risk injury crossing borders.

Since 1949 when the Chinese Communist Party came to power, the government has maintained tight control over the various forms and methods information is spread to its people. In some cases, postings have even led to arrests. Fu Lijun,37, an assistant professor at Xinxiang Medical College in Henan, was arrested in October 1999 for posting an article in a chat room detailing how Falungong could cure illness

Actions through politics Jody Williams used email and the internet to successfully start a campaign

against land mines in which 89 countries responded by banning land mines. At the start of the iraq war more than 1000 websites were shutdown by

cyber activists including military websites. The campaign for Howard dean of the united states used political power and

the internet to generate donations towards his campaign. Other presidential campaigns fought over the internet Bimber and Davis (2003) 2002 presidential election in South Korea In 2004 parties and candidates used the Internet to effectively mobilize

voters and to promote candidates' visions!

The features and why politics use internet With the internet being an interactive medium it has become prominent in

political campaigns because it is an interactive medium it can engage people and allow them to have a say where as other forms of media like TV don’t allow this.

In some ways, newer communication mediums (such as the Internet) may be revitalising citizen participation in political discourse

The internet gives every person that has it a voice whether they start a website or a petition to change a law there is always a part which is interactive and this can be good or bad as it is not just empowering for progressive groups.

Arguably this has altered democratic relationships between government and citizens and between citizens themselves.

Medias of CMC

CMC described as…“The use of a computer to create, address, route, distribute, or receive

messages sent from one individual to another, from a group to an individual, from an individual to a group, or from one group to another group” (Murphy,1994)

The reason CMC is possible is because of the wide range of different medias that can be used

Looking at some different types of Political CMC, and why they are appropriate

During the War…

Only way soldiers could communicate with home was by letter

These letters were edited by higher powers, saying that any information that could help the enemy was taken out

Actually “Censored” to keep people back at home in the dark about the terrible conditions that soldiers had to endure

Soldiers had no alternative way of communicating with home, so people back in England knew only what the government wanted them to know

Nowadays… It would be almost impossible to censor something in this way, as everyone

can have their own say on things. On the BBC website, people are encouraged to leave their own comments

about the web stories, in particular if they are present in a certain country, or at an event.

This means that the views of everyone can be heard, all with different perspectives

Blogs like these are know as “Listservs”, and are used by many websites. These communication channels require people to participate in

communication interaction in order to reach a wide audience. Visitors or readers need to create and facilitate a flow for interaction.

Quicker responses, compared to those in traditional media, are crucial to create meaningful flows of information

Medias for politics Mailing lists have been used to help keep people up to date on different

situations During the 2004 U.S. presidential election, MOVEON, an

Internet grass roots social activist organization, was used to keep supporters up to date with what was happening, by regularly contacting the people who registered to a mailing list - (www.moveon.org).

This method proved to be a success, as it was seen to be personal, and supporters felt that they were kept “in the loop”

Personal home pages are a popular method of keeping people up to date May not be seen as affective as other CMC methods, as a website may only

be updated every few months Even though the documents on web sites can be updated frequently,

compared to old mass media, the presentation of these documents remains at the authors control

Changes because of CMC Its not only computer based media that is affected by CMC. Traditional media sources are now using computer based methods to reach

a different audience Newspapers now use websites to show stories, which, as with the BBC

website, allow people to comment on and share their own views and ideas. They also allow for the use of video’s and other types of multimedia that aren't available in a Newspaper

Radio shows can now be listened to online at a later date, as well as being able to select a certain part of a radio show, so the audience is only listening to the part that interests them

Television is a very important political tool. It is believed that during the Kennedy/Nixon election, Kennedy won, because he came over much better on the screen that Nixon. Television now uses the internet to allow for anytime viewing, so the audience can chose when they want to view it

PORTAL BOX Institute for Politics Democracy and the Internet Center for Technology in Government Political Communication Resources Democracy Resource Lists DoWire - Democracies Online Newswire Africa political room Greenpeace Cyberactivist Community Samoa Chat - Politics Board Institute for Democracy in Eastern Europe Essential Information Mailing Lists World Movement for Democracy

E-Democracy E-democracy comprises the use of electronic communications technologies such as the Internet in enhancing democratic processes within a democratic republic.

One major obstacle to the success of e-democracy is that of citizen identification. For secure elections and other secure citizen-to-government transactions, citizens must have some form of identification that preserves privacy and maybe also one which could be used in internet forums.

Another obstacle is that there are many vested interests that would be harmed by a more direct democracy. Amongst these are politicians, media moguls and some interests in big business and trade unions.

Digital Divide

digital divide refers to the gap between people with effective access to digital and information technology and those with very limited or no access at all. It includes the imbalances in physical access to technology as well as the imbalances in resources and skills needed to effectively participate as a digital citizen. The digital divide may be classified based on gender, income, and race groups, and by locations.

The term global digital divide refers to differences in technology access between countries or large regions of the world.

Digital divide worldwide Canada: According to an Autumn 2007 Canadian Internet Use Survey, 73% of Canadians aged 16 and older went online in the 12 months prior to the survey, compared to 68% in 2005. In small towns and rural areas, only 65% of residences accessed the Internet, compared to 76% in urban areas. The digital divide still exists between the rich and the poor; 91% of people making more than $91,000/year regularly used the Internet, compared to 47% of people making less than $24,000. This gap has lowered slightly since 2005

China: China is the largest developing country in the world and therefore saw their Internet population grow by 20% in 2006 However, just over 19% of Chinese people have access to the Internet and the digital divide is growing due to factors such as insufficient infrastructure and high online.

Digital Divide Worldwide Cont.Europe: A European Union study from 2005 conducted in 14 European countries and focused on the issue of digital divide found that within the EU, the digital divide is primarily a matter of age and education. Among the young or educated the proportion of computer or Internet users is much higher than with the old or uneducated. The study found that the presence of children in a household increases the chance of having a computer or Internet access, and that small businesses are catching up with larger enterprises when it comes to Internet access.

United States: According to a July 2008 Pew Internet & American Life report, “55% of adult Americans have broadband Internet connections at home, up from 47% who had high-speed access at home last year at this time [2007]”. This increase of 8% compared to the previous year’s increase of 5% suggests that the digital divide is decreasing. However, the findings go on to show that low-income Americans’ broadband connections decreased by 3%.

Internet activism

Internet activism is the use of communication technologies such as e-mail, web sites, and podcasts for various forms of activism to enable faster communications by citizen movements and deliver a message to a large audience

Cyberactivists Internet is the key resource

Usage

Fundraising E-petitions Lobbying Volunteering Community building Organizing

Example of early activism

Lotus MarketPlace: Households (April 10, 1990) Software which contains name, address, and

spending habit information on 120 million individual US citizens

Mass e-mail compaign was started Over 30 thousand people contacted Lotus Lotus issued a press release stating that it had

cancelled MarketPlace

Hacktivism

Hacktivism is "the nonviolent use of illegal or legally ambiguous digital tools in pursuit of political ends.”

It includes:defacements, redirects, denial-of-service attacks, information theft, web site parodies, virtual sit-ins, virtual sabotage and software development.

Criticism

Internet activism Unequal access „cyberbalkanization“

Hacktivism hacktivists are defacing government websites as

well as web sites of groups who oppose their ideology

DoS: attack on free speech

Terrorism

Use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce people

Often for political purposes Need media to show people what they did

Terrorism

Internet ideal media easy access little regulation huge audiences spread throughout the world anonymity of communication fast flow of information inexpensive a multimedia environment

Terrorism

Content of terrorist sites History of the organization History of activities Details from leaders, founders and heroes Information over their political and ideological aims

Audiences Current and potential supporters International public opinion Enemy publics

Terrorism

How terrorists use the Internet? Psychological Warfare Publicity and Propaganda Data Mining Fundraising Recruitment and Mobilization Networking Sharing Information Planning and Coordination

Al Qaeda

Sunni Islamistic group Founded between 1988 and 1990 Famous for assassination 11/9/2001 Many web platforms, but most got disabled Speaker: Al Jazeera

Founded as news channel Got famous through Osama Bin Laden Many different channels and different languages Many live streams

Bibliography The potential of computer mediated communication for political structuration

http://www.javnost-thepublic.org/media/datoteke/hacker-1-2004.pdf (accessed 09/02/2009)

The Internet and Political Communication http://www.craigbellamy.net/2006/06/24/the-internet-and-political-communication/(accessed 09/02/2009)

You've Got Dissent!Chinese Dissident Use of the Internet and Beijing's Counter-Strategies Michael Chase, James Mulvenon; Rand, 2002

Emerson, J. (2005). An Introduction to Activism on the Internet. http://www.backspace.com/action/ (accessed 09/02/2009)

Arquilla, J. (2002). Networks and Netwars: The Future of Terror, Crime, and Militancy. RAND Corporation. Chapter Eight

Bibliography Delio, M. (2004) Hacktivism and How It Got Here.

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/news/2004/07/64193?currentPage=1 (accessed 09/02/2009)

Weimann, G. (2004). How Modern Terrorism Uses the Internet.http://www.usip.org/pubs/specialreports/sr116.pdf

Knickmeyer, E. (2008). Al-Qaeda Web Forums Abruptly Taken Offline. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/17/AR2008101703367_pf.html

Official English Hompage of Al Jazeera.http://english.aljazeera.net/

Osama Bin Ladenhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VG7GDEDjQA4

Bibliography

LEE, JENGHOON (2006) COMPUTER MEDIATED COMMUNICATION AS POLITICAL COMMUNICATION : INVESTIGATING THE AGENDA-SETTING FUNCTION

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080726234557AAICsPh

Selnow, G W (1995) http://www.cjconline.ca/index.php/journal/article/viewArticle/875/781