It As A Growing Political Factor

December 15, 2004

Edgar Maldonado

IST 501 Section 01

IT as a growing political factor. Abstract The political arena has new guests: the Internet and all the online ways of sharing information. The effect of these artifacts in the game has not been clearly defined. The literature has different visions about it (Howard, 2003; Krueger, 2002): a) The landscape of the politics is being shaped by this technology; the people is being stimulated to take part in the political game (Westen, 2000); b) This technology is a mere tool; people involved in politics can take advantage of it, but those that do not have political interests are not going to change their mind (Davis, 2000; Howard, 2003). Difference of perspective is one reason for these two dissimilar points of view. What are the political situations that the authors consider to make those statements? Are there the elections of representatives in the government, the achievement of localized community goals, the fight for environmental issues, or the emerging of new political systems in countries? The purpose of this review is to give an evaluation of the broad opinions found in the literature about the Internet and its interaction with the political domain. This analysis is done taking special attention in how the concepts of Information, Technology and People are handled. Using this frame, the paper attempts to lead to the conclusion that Internet is actually changing the political game: with small steps at a time, with an increasing rate, and from a small scope to a larger one.

Structure of the paper The first part of the paper exposes the concepts of Technology, People and Information, giving a sketch of the principal in which these definitions appear in the literature. The second part presents the three principal positions that the literature has taken about the

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topic. These three visions would be called Skeptic vision, Optimistic vision, and Realistic Vision. In DiMaggio words:

“(…) the literature about politics on the Internet has progressed through three stages: unjustifiable euphoria, abrupt and equally unjustifiable skepticism, and gradual realization that Web-based human interaction really does have unique and politically significant properties.”(DiMaggio, Hargittai, Neuman, & Robinson, 2001) (p.319).

Then in the third part, some documented cases are presented where the Internet has been used to achieve specific political goals. These cases complete the frame that leads to the assumption that Internet relevance cannot be studied from a static level; the Internet seems to be taking place in the political world with slow but firm steps.

Part I Concepts of Technology The concepts of the information technologies that are involved in the political field vary from author to author. These differences are due to the “function” that the author considered the Internet performs. Basically the ways that Internet Technologies are addressed in the literature can be divided in two; I will denominate them 1) Network building technologies; and 2) Informative Technologies.

1) Network building Technologies: They are those Internet Technologies that allow the interchange of messages between two or more persons. This exchange can be synchronous or asynchronous, and is generally text-based. Email is the most representative of these technologies. Conklin denominates Email as a push technology because the person that starts the process of transferring the information is the person that elaborates the information (Conklin, 2003). This “pushing” is carried out with the hope of receiving a feedback, or it is the answer for a prior message. Listservs or forums and chat This document is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License

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rooms are included in this category. Strictly speaking, forums are considered only when the user is an active member otherwise the technology would be part of the second type. Network Building technologies transfer information across Internet to a specific audience with the option of transmitting data in the opposite direction. They are exempt of distance or time-zone restrictions (Krueger, 2002).

2) Informative Technologies: They are the technologies that allow the display of texts, videos, sounds or images in a specific web site on the Internet or the World Wide Web (WWW). In this case there is not a direct interaction; the person is a spectator. Conklin calls the WWW a pull technology because that person that initiates the communication is receiving the information. In this perspective the WWW is similar to any broadcast media technology, for example television (Stanley & Weare, 2004); it is a massive medium. Because a web site is “localized” in a specific “address”, it has a static character. However its content is dynamic; it can be changed at any time.

People Involved The definition of this group is not clear in the literature. There is a hidden “agreement” about what people are involved in the politics-Internet interaction. The reason is that the studies already take for granted “access”. The observation of the effect of the Internet on politics does not make sense in those segments where there is no access to the Internet.

This simple division between people with or without access to the Internet is the origin of a whole field of investigation. The Digital Divide is the name that was given to this issue. Although the focus of this paper is not the Digital Divide phenomenon, it seems convenient to point out some facts about it. This would give to the reader a perspective of the people included in the analysis.

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Table 1 presents the percentage of penetration of the Internet in the world, according to NetRatings, Inc and the International Communication Union, assembled by http//www.InternetWorldStats.com (updated September 30, 2004).

Table 1: Percentage of Penetration of Internet in the World Population

Region

Population

Internet Users

Penetration

% Users in the

(% population)

world

Africa

893,197,200

12,937,100

1.4 %

1.6 %

Asia

3,607,499,800

257,898,314

7.1 %

31.7%

Europe

730,894,078

230,886,424

31.6%

28.4%

M. East

258,993,600

17,325,900

6.7%

2.1%

North America

325,246,100

108,096,800

68.3%

27.3%

Latin America/

541,775,800

18,068,919

10.3%

6.9%

Oceania

32,540,909

15,787,221

48.5 %

1.9%

World

6,390,147,487

812,931,592

12.7 %

100%

Caribbean

The difference among territories is evident. It is logical to expect a more intensive interaction of the Internet and Politics in regions whit high rate of Internet access, but the influence of the Internet can even be recognized in places with lower penetration. The most known case of an online political movement in a low Internet penetration region is the Zapatista Movement in Mexico (Olesen, 2004).

Since North America and Europe are the continents with the highest amount of online population, they are convenient places to study the influence of the Internet. This explains why the majority of cases in this review are focused in the United States and some countries of Europe.

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Taking the case of the United States, it is worthy to give a qualitative description of the population that has access to the Internet in the country: •

Younger Americans are much more wired than older Americans.

•

Well-to-do Americans are more wired that less well-off Americans and the employed are far more wired than the unemployed.

•

White Americans are more wired than African-Americans and Hispanics.

•

Well-educated Americans are more wired than those than only completed high school.

•

Suburban and urban residents are more wired than rural residents.

•

Parents of children living at home are more wired than non-parents. (J. Horrigan et al., 2003)(p.4)

Starting with this defined universe – population with Internet access, the literature characterizes the people inside of this universe from two major perspectives: (1) People who have a clear inclination to the political participation and (2) people that go on line with any other purposes than politics (Davis, 2000). There is a third group considered by some authors that includes those users that are in the space between the two first ones: the people that have not been involved in politics because of the lack of traditional resources (Krueger, 2002).

What is information? The concept of information is blurry and evasive; it becomes even more so when the analysis is done from a “political” perspective. Starting from a global standpoint, almost every message that is received through the Internet could be mapped in a political frame. Furthermore, Conklin (Conklin, 2003) goes further and cites Ellul (Ellul, 1965) writing ‘(…) any information is propaganda because it helps shape attitudes” (Conklin, 2003)

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(p.3). With this scenario, the Internet can be described as a continuous source of political discourse: news, pornography, music, online war games, advertisements, shopping places; everything can be considered political information. Neil Postman describes this situation eloquently:

“(…) we have transformed information into a form of garbage and ourselves into garbage collectors. (…) Information comes indiscriminately, directed at no one in particular, in enormous volume, at high speeds, severed from import and meaning. (…) No transcendent narratives [exists] to provide us with moral guidance, social purpose, intellectual economy.”(Postman, 2004) (p. 4)

Or in Horward words:

“The political content online is a base kind of political pornography in which information is grossly simplified, easily misrepresented, and often perverted.” (Howard, 2003) (p.217)

This pseudo-apocalyptic vision is not broadly considered in the majority of the evaluated articles. The literature uses an implicitly definition of information that is more related with political participation. The term “political participation” is used with the definition given by Krueger (Krueger, 2002); it is a Conway’s Citation (Conway, 1991):

“(…) the term political participation is being used here to mean those activities of citizens that attempt to influence the structure of government, the selection of government authorities, or the policies of government. These activities may be supportive of the existing policies, authorities, or structures, or they may seek to change all of these.” (Krueger, 2002) (p.483)

Now, information in the scope of this review has a clear definition. The information is a set of messages in any format (text, video, images, etc.) that are transmitted by the Internet whose meanings are directly or indirectly related with political participation. This document is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License

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Below this concept, the authors handle three subcategories of information. This classification is related with the intention of the information.

1) Propaganda: This is the kind of information where the user is a spectator. Banners, web sites, and paid searches are the principal media for these messages (Jagoda, 2004a). This information is intended to transmit a political ideology, for example party web sites, or to direct the attention of the person to a political issue, for example environmental campaign banners.

2) Messaging: This is the information that is produced when the user utilizes Internet as a tool to interact with other people. The distinction in this case is that the information is oriented to create, support or expand organizations. Brainard calls these groups “Cyberorganizations” (Brainard, 2002). A Cyber-organization can be an entity by itself or can be the presence of a physical organization on the Internet.

3) Citizen Participation: This is the information that is the result of the citizen opinions and concerns, and it is sent to any government agency. The flow of this kind of messages has been rising in the last years (J. B. Horrigan, 2004; Larsen & Rainie, 2002).

Part II

Skeptic Vision Technology equals loneliness? The use of electronic technologies to entertain or to communicate have been associated with self-isolation of the users (Putnam, 2000). This new mass media phenomenon that began in 1950 with the introduction of the Television has brought private and passive This document is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License

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ways of spending free time. Although there is no empirical data that can determine a clear relation between electronic communications and social connectedness, there is a coincidence in time when this kind of technology arrived to the houses and the number of social activities began to decrease (Putnam, 2000).

The Internet cannot be compared directly with the TV - the principal protagonist in the mass media. The Internet allows the user to interact with somebody else or with a group — something almost impossible for a TV set (DiMaggio et al., 2001). But the interaction in the Internet is not enough for some authors. A Carnegie Mellon University's study carried out in 1995, involving 93 families without prior experience in the use of Internet, showed the existence of a phenomenon where "Internet use causes declines in social involvement" (Kraut et al., 1998) (p.1029). Those families had access to electronic email and web browsing and received training to use them, but the use of Internet resulted to be an activity that took away time from other social practices.

On the other hand, a study of a representative sample done by the University of Southern California did not find any decrease in the pro-social behavior of the Internet users. “Internet Users, compared to non-users, socialize slightly less with the member of their household, but spend slightly more time with clubs and volunteer organizations” (Cole et al., 2000) (p.35).

The mismatching results of Kraut and Cole are brought together by Morahan-Martin. Morahan-Martin’s 2003 paper establishes a hypothesis for the ambiguity: lonely persons “are more likely to be drawn to the Internet and to use the Internet excessively because of the expanded social networks provided online (…) Social interaction is altered online in ways that may be particularly attractive to those who are lonely” (Morahan-Martin & Schimacher, 2003) (p.661).

In other words, the Internet enforces conducts. For those that are social involved, the Internet is a great way to continue their social activities beyond face-to-face communication; and for those that are lonely it is a possibility to “socialize” where the This document is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License

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concept of “socialization” can differ of the model of face-to-face interaction. This idea of “rich get richer” is taken for a Kraut study published in 2002 (Kraut et al., 2002), where some of the people from the original 1995 study was re-analyzed. It was found that “(…) using the Internet predicted better outcomes for extraverts and those with more social support but worse outcomes for introverts and those with less support.” (Kraut et al., 2002) (p.49).

The whole analysis to the problem of loneliness and the Internet can be expressed in the following way: Although it can be argued that “Internet provides an ideal social environment for lonely people to interact with others” (Morahan-Martin & Schimacher, 2003)(p. 662), it is clear that “the rise of electronic communications and entertainment is one of the most powerful social trends of the twentieth century” (Putnam, 2000) (p. 245).

Putnam goes further and indicates that this technology brings “ news and entertainment (…) increasingly individualized” and it “allows us to consume this hand-tailored entertainment in private, even utterly alone” (Putnam, 2000) (p. 217). The conclusion he gives in his book, supported with more that thirty years of statistical data, is that the decrease of Civic Engagement and then of political participation in the United States coincides with the grow of new information technologies.(Putnam, 2000).

Internet as a tool “Internet Technologies are not agents, but structures” (Howard, 2003) (p.218). Howard summaries in this sentence the principal reason that makes some authors doubt about the impact of the Internet on politics. The use of the Internet depends on the “users”. Stanley points out prior studies that indicated that the employ of Internet in politics is dictated for persons or organizations that have been already involved in politics (Stanley & Weare, 2004). The author cited three different sources (Harpham, 1999; Margolis & Resnick, 2000; Sadow & James, 1999) where the conclusion was the same: “politics in Internet is simply politics as usual” (Stanley & Weare, 2004) (p. 504). Although Howard agrees

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that Internet technologies can make the processes faster and more efficient, he thinks they do not significantly influence the political-participation process (Howard, 2003).

Davis exposes the same idea in other terms. “Americans will not be different people just because there are now resources at their disposal to follow politics quite closely” (Davis, 2000) (p.6). His argumentation is simple: the majority of Internet users do not go online for political reasons. The people want to shop, be entertained, or communicate with others. Because the users do not choose to get involved in the political game, the user’s control feature that characterizes the Internet permits to remove any political-oriented message from the medium.

In short, the Internet cannot produce dramatic changes in human behavior. The success of this technology as a democratic tool is conditioned by the willingness of the citizens to use these new technologies and become engaged citizens (Davis, 2000).

Education and Participation Some authors question the influence of the Internet taking as argument the education of the people that use it. Basically, the idea is that the Internet technology is not a silver bullet that will educate the less politically informed group of citizen and will transform them into a politically active group (Davis, 2000). Howard denominates that segment as “lower-educated” and “information-poor groups” (Howard, 2003). He cites two prior articles (Moore, 1987; Tichenor, Donohue, & Olien, 1970) where the authors indicated that the gap of political knowledge cannot be solved with technology, and that more technology makes the lower-educated groups more susceptible to manipulation by political advertisements.

That means that the digital divide is not the only division that the Internet plots. There is a political subdivision between people online that are politically educated and those that are not. For Davis this subdivision could be described as a historic process. In Davis This document is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License

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words: “ (…) as Internet usage expands across the population, a new group of less political interested (and therefore more ordinary) users is appearing” (Davis, 2000) (p. 5).

Davis explains how the pioneer Internet users were “well educated, affluent, and more politically interested than the common person” (Davis, 2000) (p.5). This opinion can cause negative response, and any conclusion about it would need a deeper study. But the principal idea of Davis is clear; that there is a political-educational division in the Internet.

Age Divide This aspect was brought up by Stanley (Stanley & Weare, 2004). Senior citizens are more likely to get engaged with political issues (Campbell, 2003), but elder people are less likely to use Internet Technologies (J. Horrigan et al., 2003). So, the influence of the Internet in the political participation of elder citizens does not seem to be significant.

Optimistic Vision This category contains the authors than describes the Internet as a successful and revolutionary tool. The effects of the technology are analyzed from two perspectives: a) Elections in general (Jagoda, 2004b) and b) Grass-roots activism (Ayres, 1999).

Elections in general The principal arguments in this point are the advantages the Internet offers against other mass media. Jagoda makes this by saying: “Whereas a television commercial can tell you that a candidate needs your help, only an online advertisement can send a viewer directly to a web site that accepts credit card” (Jagoda, 2004b) (p. 76).

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The ability to bring funds is the principal feature of the Internet when it is playing in the political arena. This characteristic looks superior to its capacity of transmitting political messages or propaganda. According to Cornfield, “The presidential campaign world today regards the Internet as an asset for fundraising, voter-profiling, and insider communication, but not for advertising.”(Cornfield, 2004) (p. 1).

The benefits the literature gives to the employ of Internet in political campaigns are based in numbers and comparisons. For example:

- An Internet banner costs $5,000 - $10,000 to develop against $50.000 of a television ad (Jagoda, 2004b).

- “The dean Campaign [raised] nearly 3 million dollars online in the space of one week” (Stuart & Miller, 2004) (p.36).

- Internet Technologies can use advertising in the same way that probed traditional means (Bassik & Malchow, 2004).

- Online ads can target by individual. A campaign can focus different types of ads according to the “profile” of the online users. This strategy can be droved by context (if the web site that the user is visiting is a financial one, the ad must reflect the economic aspect of a campaign) or by behavior (the system knows the browsing behavior of the user so it can employ ads accordingly with it)

Finally, the fact that the two principal candidates running for president in the 2004 elections invited the electors to visit their web sites during their nomination acceptance speeches is a clear signal of the importance of the Internet in the political campaign (Cornfield, 2004) .

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Grass- root activism The term grass-root activism is mentioned by several authors (DiMaggio et al., 2001; Howard, 2003; Rogerson, 2003; Simon, Corrales, & Wolfensberg, 2002), but there is no clear concept of it. Using the context in which the expression is used in the literature, grass-root activism can be defined as the compendium of activities that are not sponsored by a big economic or political organization and bring together individuals and groups with not big resources (usually economic ones) in order to achieve a common goal. It is related to fight for human rights, environmental issues and political issues in general. A grass-root based group can become a successful non-governmental organization (NGO) with considerable economic power, as the MoveOn.org’s case (Stuart & Miller, 2004).

The possibilities that Internet offers for communication, organization, and its universal character make it a perfect tool for grass-root activities. In words of Ayres:

“From the rainforests of the Mexican state of Chiapas, to the streets of small-town U.S.A., to the capitals of Europe, The Internet is one of the hottest tools in the burgeoning arsenal of protest” (Ayres, 1999) (p.133)

The literature uses international organizations that have successfully used Internet to coordinate grass-root activities as principal examples (Ayres, 1999; Conklin, 2003; Danitz & Strobel, 1999; Olesen, 2004). The reasons of that success can be clearly pointed:

a) Internet is an inexpensive tool, so it fits the economic capacities of grass-root groups (Danitz & Strobel, 1999).

b) Studies have shown that Internet tools can aid social networking across traditional socioeconomic boundaries (Howard, 2003).

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c) Internet provides a decentralized less-hierarchical forms of organizations ideal for grass-root activism (Pickerill, 2003).

d) Internet allows user to select their level of participation, so grass-root organizations can fit the work of low-commitment and high-commitment members (Danitz & Strobel, 1999)

It is important to note that the literature warns of the disadvantages of the Internet as grass-root tool:

- Internet is not a secure channel (Danitz & Strobel, 1999).

- The “immediate” nature of the information on Internet affects accuracy. ”Internet also holds the power to turn unreliable and unverifiable information into a global electronic riot” (Ayres, 1999) (p. 132).

- Movements based on the Internet are generally decentralized. Although this kind of organization has its advantages, they are not likely to become stable structures (Danitz & Strobel, 1999).

Realistic Vision This is the segment of the literature that adopts a critical approach to the relation of Internet and politics with analysis of past studies and with a vision of future researches. DiMaggio is a clear example. He considers that the literature has “enthusiasts” (Browning, 1996; Hill & Hughes, 1998; Negroponte, 1995) and “skeptics” (Beniger, 1996; Lessig, 1999).

According to DiMaggio, now is the perfect time to do research in the area because of due to several reasons a) the early stage of the technology, b) the Internet’s unique multiple

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modes of communication that could socially impact deeper that radio and television, and c) legislation that is being developed. The understanding of today’s Internet structures will contribute to understand the shape of the future technology (DiMaggio et al., 2001).

The authors that consider more research in the area necessary give ideas about what specific topics that must be tackled. The general scheme is to take possibilities that the Internet brings and try to figure out their pros, cons, and future influence in the political arena.

Internet Possibilities Low- Cost Tool Krueger sees Internet as a tool, and he agrees that some people are more likely than other to participates in political activities (Krueger, 2002). According to him, political participation requires money and time. The high costs of nonvoting political activities make engagement of persons that lack the resources to afford their participation harder, although such people have a will to participate. Krueger points that money and time are not a good explanation of why people get involved in the political game, but it could explain why they do not. Krueger, basing on empirical data, concludes that the Internet’s ability to reduce costs “(…) shows genuine potential to bring new people into the political process” (Krueger, 2002) (p.494).

It is necessary to mention that Krueger suggests that the low-cost of the Internet can decrease its potential. “Is an e-mail sent from a constituent governmental responsiveness the equivalent of a handwritten letter? Do ordinary people severely discount the political discussion in chat rooms compared to face-to-face communications?” (Krueger, 2002) (p. 495).

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More voices Information is a key component in the political formation of a citizen. Howard points that in some cases citizens do not have choices in the sources of information that they receive (Howard, 2003). Dessauer considers that the Internet has given a new perspective of news to the United States citizens (Dessauer, 2004). At this point, the Postman’s thought exposed at the first part of this paper are valid. The access to information does not guarantee a clear understanding of the world. Herbert makes this issue clearer:

“A recent survey by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland found that nearly 70 percent of President Bush's supporters believe the U.S. has come up with "clear evidence" that Saddam Hussein was working closely with Al Qaeda. A third of the president's supporters believe weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq. And more than a third believe that a substantial majority of world opinion supported the U.S.-led invasion. “(Herbert, 2004)

Davis indicates that “Internet serves primarily as an information source when voters want information” (Davis, 2000) (p. 7). With this dilemma (people lack complete information and they do not choose to look for more information), future researches can study the Internet as a possible “trigger” for the seek of diverse information

E-vote Even “skeptics” agree that the Internet can facilitate the process of voting (Davis, 2000). Davis highlights that “ With appropriate security checks against fraud, the Internet could be useful for facilitating the vote for those who are unable to go a polling place on election day” (Davis, 2000) (p.7). The pros and cons are widely explained in the parallel work of Mohen (Mohen & Glidden, 2001) and Phillips (Phillips & Von Spakovsky, 2001). Mohen explains all the levels of security that were successfully implemented in the 2000 Arizona Democratic Party’s elections; Phillips warns that the technology and legislation are not mature enough. Both authors agree that the “Internet voting can be This document is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License

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implemented only with absolute commitment to maximum inclusiveness and accessibility for all voters” (Mohen & Glidden, 2001) (p. 85).

Government’s ears Larsen exposes how the Government has figured out the potential of the Internet to reduce cost related with business between governmental offices and citizens (Larsen & Rainie, 2002). The author describes in her work the rising of users visiting Official web sites. It is interesting that according to Larsen, the principal reason that drives users to Governmental web sites is doing research for work or school and the least important purpose is getting information about elections.

Larsen’s findings are confirmed in Horrigan’s work (J. B. Horrigan, 2004). He agrees with the rising of the “e-citizen”, but affirms basing on empirical data that “E-gov is not yet the “killer app” among the available tools to contact government” (p. I). The reasons for this, according Horrigan, are that a) Internet has not a Universal-access character, b) People still prefers other channels, for example by phone, and c) Some problems are not easy to handle without using “Real Time” interaction (J. B. Horrigan, 2004).

Level of analysis Table 1 in the appendix A is a summary of the levels of analysis used in the articles included in this paper. In the table authors are mapped according to their concepts of Information, Technology and People. The table also includes the position that they take about the Internet-political relation.

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Part III Political Participation, some facts Rogerson gives a categorization of the levels of political discussion where the Internet plays some role (Rogerson, 2003): Local Movements, National Movements, Subnational Movements, and International (Trans-border) Social Movements. This classification is not perfect, according to Rogerson, since some examples could fit in different categories, but can be useful in organizing the cases presented in the literature.

Local Movements Local movements have a neighborhood or city scope, and they are generally focused on infrastructure problems in the communities. Kellogg documents a case where the Internet technologies were used in Cleveland low income communities in order to spread information about the environmental issues in the neighborhoods (Kellogg & Mathur, 2003). In that study Kellogg found that, despite the multiple problems related to access, “Participants viewed the Internet as one of the most effective mechanisms to allow them to influence environmental decision-making processes in their communities” (p. 581).

Kellogg also points out that the participants acquired new skills during the experience and that “These new or improved skills have begun to overcome many of the aspects of the Internet technology paradox” (p. 581).

National Movements The Internet has been easily adopted for groups to gather people with common problems or interests. Brainard describes cyber-organizations that have given national character to specific health problems (Brainard, 2002). Examples in her article belong to two groups: DES daughters (girls with problems due to a during-pregnancy medicine) and This document is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License

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Hemophilia/HIV patients (hemophilic patients who were infected with HIV by contaminate transfusions). Both groups began with a web site whose intention was to be a place for the interchange of experiences between patients, and later it became a tool for the advocacy of their cause. The Internet helps both cyber-groups to coordinate actions such as letter-writing campaigns to congress and public media campaigns.

Subnational Movements These movements have national connotation, but they intend to catch international attention due to the characteristics of the issues. Danitz exposes a relevant example: The case of Burma (Danitz & Strobel, 1999). That paper exposed how some geographically dispersed Burmese exiles use Internet tools to drive an International campaign. They concentrate efforts and denounce the repressive Burman’s Government. The campaign is considered one of the most successful since that movement was one of the reasons that made President Clinton to ban any US investment in Burma in 1997.

International Movements Issues with International character and political connotation abound. Rogerson points to the case of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (Rogerson, 2003) as an example of the use of the Internet for international political advocacy. The ICBL (www.icbl.org) was founded in part by Nobel Prize winner Jody Williams. This organization has caught the attention of the government of more than 130 countries, contributed with 1400 organizations in 90 countries, and destroyed more than 30 millions of landmines. The web-site works as informative medium and a fund rising tool.

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Conclusion During the research in the literature, a comparison of the arriving of the Internet with the Gutenberg invention was found in an article by Max Kaase (Kaase, 2000). It is a sensible comparison. The two inventions are technologic products that make information more available, and their impact on the society is indisputable. The similarities between these two developments can be taken further and be used as perspective to analyze the relationship involving the Internet and politics.

The influence of the Gutenberg invention in the development of politics cannot be refuted. Books, independent press, and pamphlets can be taken as some examples of successful political-oriented printing forms. In a mental exercise it is possible to map reasons that some authors give to underestimate the Internet as a political protagonist in the printing. •

Digital Divide. In the beginning, the printing word was not accessible to all economic levels. Even more, literacy was a privilege of a few. This is a problem that the society still has not overcome. According to the UNESCO, 26 % of the adult population in the world is illiterate.

•

Social isolation. Reading a book could be considered as an isolated and individual practice. Are people who read books lonely? Are they not involved in political affairs?

•

The Internet is only a tool. It is understandable that only people interested in politics read books on the topic, but it is also clear that more people have been involved in politics since the mass production of the printing products.

•

Education and Participation. There is a tacit accepted idea that says: the more you read, the more educated you become. In addition, some authors agree that the level of education of people is related to their political interest (Davis, 2000). Why the Internet is not considered from that perspective?

•

Age divide. Senior Citizens are more likely to engage in political issues, and they are the biggest newspaper reader population (Putnam, 2000). It is not hard to This document is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License

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imagine the same situation with future Senior Citizens and computers; actually it is happening right now.

Printing has been out there for more that 550 years in contrast with the 10 years that the Internet has. In less than ten years the Internet has made possible political achievements in shorter periods of time than the Gutenberg invention; for example, the online Dean Campaign that raised 3 million of dollars from small contributions in just a week (Stuart & Miller, 2004).

The place of the Internet in the political arena is not clear, but it definitively is not negligible. Statements found in the literature that limit its importance are based in a historically static perspective and with a short vision of the horizon. It is necessary to take an approach to this topic with a broad perception. In order to do that, technology must be accepted as a factor whose importance is growing.

DiMaggio is right in saying that now is the perfect time to begin with the analysis of the Internet influence in our society (DiMaggio et al., 2001). The idea is valid for the study of the political inherence of the Internet. The following questions can be taken as a good start: Is there a pattern between the people that begin getting involved in political affairs and their online behavior? Are there differences between social classes and their political online preferences? Can online campaigns be designed to target by gender or ethnicity? The field is open to multiple studies. Knowing what the literature has said about the topic is just the first step to address them.

The future of the research in this field is encouraging. The Internet has a particular advantage over the Gutenberg invention: It did not take hundreds of years to know that it would change the way the society works.

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Edgar Maldonado

Appendix A Level of analysis considered in the paper

Propaganda

Utopist Vision (Ayres, 1999),(Danitz & Strobel, 1999),(Stuart & Miller, 2004)

Information

Messaging

Citizen Participation

Network building technologies Technology

Informative Technologies On-line politically involved People

On-line non politically involved

Non online

(Ayres, 1999),(Bassik & Malchow, 2004), (Jagoda, 2004b)

(Mohen & Glidden, 2001),(Kellog & Mathur, 2003), (Brainard, 2002)

(Ayres, 1999),(Mohen & Glidden, 2001), (Stuart & Miller, 2004), (Kellog & Mathur, 2003), (Brainard, 2002)

(Danitz & Strobel, 1999),(Bassik & Malchow, 2004), (Jagoda, 2004b) (Ayres, 1999),(Danitz & Strobel, 1999), (Mohen & Glidden, 2001), (Bassik & Malchow, 2004), (Jagoda, 2004b), (Stuart & Miller, 2004), (Kellog & Mathur, 2003), (Brainard, 2002) (Jagoda, 2004b),

(Krueger, 2002), (Kellog & Mathur, 2003)

Skeptic Vision (Putnam, 2000), (Phillips & Von Spakovsky, 2001), (Morahan-Martin & Schimacher, 2003), (Postman, 2004) (Kraut et al., 1998),(Howard, 2003),(Davis, 2000), (Phillips & Von Spakovsky, 2001), (Morahan-Martin & Schimacher, 2003) (Putnam, 2000),(Phillips & Von Spakovsky, 2001),(Howard, 2003), (Phillips & Von Spakovsky, 2001)

(Kraut et al., 1998), (Howard, 2003), (Davis, 2000), (Phillips & Von Spakovsky, 2001), (Howard, 2003), (Phillips & Von Spakovsky, 2001), (Morahan-Martin & Schimacher, 2003) (Putnam, 2000), (Davis, 2000), (Howard, 2003), (Phillips & Von Spakovsky, 2001), (Postman, 2004) (Davis, 2000), (Howard, 2003), (Phillips & Von Spakovsky, 2001),(MorahanMartin & Schimacher, 2003)

(Putnam, 2000),(Kraut et al., 1998),(Howard, 2003),(Davis, 2000), (Howard, 2003), (Phillips & Von Spakovsky, 2001), (Morahan-Martin & Schimacher, 2003) (Putnam, 2000), (Milner, 2003)

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Realistic Vision (Westen, 2000), (DiMaggio et al., 2001), (Rogerson, 2003) (Stanley & Weare, 2004), (DiMaggio et al., 2001), (Rogerson, 2003) (Westen, 2000), (DiMaggio et al., 2001),(Krueger, 2002), (Larsen & Rainie, 2002), (J. B. Horrigan, 2004), (Kellog & Mathur, 2003) (Stanley & Weare, 2004), (Westen, 2000), (DiMaggio et al., 2001), (Krueger, 2002), (Larsen & Rainie, 2002), (J. B. Horrigan, 2004) (DiMaggio et al., 2001), (Rogerson, 2003) (Stanley & Weare, 2004), (Westen, 2000), (DiMaggio et al., 2001), (Krueger, 2002), (Rogerson, 2003) (Krueger, 2002), (Larsen & Rainie, 2002), (J. B. Horrigan, 2004)

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Edgar Maldonado

Appendix B

Origin of the resources The first articles used in this literature review were found using the services of Cambridge Scientific Abstracts (CSA) with the PSU license. The search was performed using the following keywords: politics; Internet; on line; political; advocacy; campaign; and elections; in six of its databases: Political Science: A SAGE Full Text Collection, Social Service Abstracts, Sociological Abstracts, Sociology: A SAGE Full Text Collection, and Worldwide Political Science Abstracts. Then, the references of those first articles lead to other authors and so on. In addition, Professor Andrea Tapia provided some authors whose works (generally books) are related to the topic.

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Edgar Maldonado

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