1st Edition
The Internet and Politics Citizens, voters and activists
This volume explores the nature of the Internet's impact on civil society, addressing the following central questions:
- is the Internet qualitatively different from the more traditional forms of the media?
- has the Internet demonstrated real potential to improve civil society through a wider provision of information, an enhancement of communication between government and citizen, or via better state transparency?
- does the Internet pose a threat to the coherence of civil society as people are encouraged to abandon shared media experiences and pursue narrow interests?
- in authoritarian states, does the Internet function as a beacon for free speech or as another tool for propaganda?
1 The Internet, Civil Society and Democracy: A Comparative Perspective
Sarah Oates and Rachel Gibson
2 The Internet and Youth Civic Engagement in the United States
Diana Owen
3 The Minnesota E-Democracy Project: Mobilizing the Mobilised?
Jakob Linaa Jensen
4 Hunting Online Action: Mobilisation, Participation and Protest in the Countryside Alliance
Wainer Lusoli and Stephen Ward
5 Design Matters: The Politics Efficacy of Government-Run Discussion Boards
Scott Wright
6 Cybercortical Warfare: The Case of Hizbollah.org
Maura Conway
7 Civil Society, Terrorism and the Internet: Case Studies from Northern Ireland
Paul Reilly
8 Virtual Parties in a Virtual World: The Use of the Internet by Russian Political Parties
Luke March
9 Hard to Connect: Trans-national Networks, Non-Governmental Organisations and the Internet in Russia
Diana Schmidt
10 Murder, Journalism and the Web: How the Gongadze Case Launched the Internet News Era in Ukraine
Natalya Krasnoboka and Holli A. Semetko
11 Pathologies of the Virtual Public Sphere
Heinz Brandenburg
Biography
Sarah Oates, Diana Owen, Rachel K. Gibson
