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The politics of African America On-line

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Abstract

This examination of the use of the Internet in African American politics begins with an investigation of how access to and wider structural forces in United States society and economy shape usage of the Internet within African America. The second part examines the qualitative experiences of African American on-line. It looks at a variety of resources available across the Internet and assesses the extent to which these have facilitated, or are likely to facilitate, opportunities for deeper political engagement by African Americans. However, the third and concluding part of the paper asks whether the effectiveness of the Internet as a medium for political communication and interaction for African Americans can be assessed adequately through a focus on the impact of the Internet on 'traditional' forms of political activity. Here, it suggests an alternative way of understanding African American on-line activity. It argues that the true significance of the Internet for African Americans may lie less in its ability to increase levels of political activity within existing institutions than in its ability to facilitate new forms of activity that either bypass those institutions or directly compete with them.

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... Many studies have shown that socio-economic status affects information technology use and understanding. (Wilhelm 2000;Lekhi 2000) Yet focusing on the digital divide seems to be a rather short-term view of the problem. While it remains impossible to speculate on the way this divide will narrow over the future, it seems reasonable to suggest that the computer could become as ubiquitous as any other piece of communication equipment. ...
... Despite this domination of attention, extensive critical communication continues to take place through the Internet on an impressive scale. As well as a certain amount of critical interaction taking place within corporate sites, thousands of online civil society and independent media spaces are facilitating diasporic, alternative, and counterpublics that provide safe places for the articulation, contestation, and development of identities and positions and for the organization of online and offline actions to publicize voices excluded from dominant discourses (Downey & Fenton, 2003;Franklin, 2001;Lekhi, 2000;Mills, 2002;Salazar, 2003). Moreover, there are a number of initiatives working to support the development and publicity of marginal voices online, initiatives such as the Association for Progressive Communications (APC; www. ...
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From the Publisher:Can our system adapt to the new form of democracy forming via the electronic age? Will the new communication age usher in a nation governed not by professional politicians but by citizens themselves? Grossman answers these questions and many others clearly and provocatively as he brings the features of our rapidly changing political environment into focus.
Global Internet Statistics by Language
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Global Reach, 'Global Internet Statistics by Language', June 1999 at http://www.glreach. com/globstats/
Digital Democracy: An Introduction
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What Will Be: How the New Information Marketplace will Change our Lives HarperCollins, 1997) and Nicholas Negroponte
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See, for example, Michael Dertouzos, What Will Be: How the New Information Marketplace will Change our Lives (San Francisco, CA: HarperCollins, 1997) and Nicholas Negroponte, Being Digital (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1995).
Demobilization in the New Black Political Regime: Ideological Capitulation and Radical Failure in the Postsegregation Era The Bubbling Cauldron: Race Ethnicity and the Urban Crisis
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See, for example, Adolph Reed, Jr., 'Demobilization in the New Black Political Regime: Ideological Capitulation and Radical Failure in the Postsegregation Era', in Michael Peter Smith and Joe R. Feagin (eds.), The Bubbling Cauldron: Race Ethnicity and the Urban Crisis (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1995);
The Black Public Sphere Collective) and Vincent P. Franklin, Black Self-Determination: A Cultural History of African-American Resistance
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See, for example, Charles P.Henry, Culture and African American Politics (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1990), The Black Public Sphere Collective (ed.), The Black Public Sphere (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1995) and Vincent P. Franklin, Black Self-Determination: A Cultural History of African-American Resistance (Westport, CT: Lawrence Hill, 1993 [second edn.]).
The Virtual Community and Budge, The New Challenge of Direct Democracy
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See, for example, Rheingold, The Virtual Community and Budge, The New Challenge of Direct Democracy.
The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of Afro-American Literary CriticismRap Music's Double-Voiced Discourse: A Crossroads for Intercultural Communication
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On the specificities of African American communication and signification, see, for example, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of Afro-American Literary Criticism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990) and Gregory Stephens, 'Rap Music's Double-Voiced Discourse: A Crossroads for Intercultural Communication', Journal of Communication Inquiry, Vol.15, No.2 (n.d.), pp.57-72.
See http://www.hud.gov/nnw/nnwfaqs.html 28. Benton Foundation, Losing Ground Bit By Bit: Low-income Communities in the Information Age
  • Ibid
Ibid., p.35. 27. See http://www.hud.gov/nnw/nnwfaqs.html 28. Benton Foundation, Losing Ground Bit By Bit: Low-income Communities in the Information Age (Washington, DC: Benton Foundation and National Urban League, 1998), p.6.
Transparency through Technology: The Internet and Political Parties
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Paul Nixon and Hans Johansson, 'Transparency through Technology: The Internet and Political Parties', in Hague and Loader (eds.), Digital Democracy, p.141.
Downloaded by [Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Ibid
Ibid., p.96. Downloaded by [Massachusetts Institute of Technology] at 10:56 04 November 2014
57-66; Manning Marable and Leith MullingsThe Divided Mind of Black America: Race, Ideology and Politics in the Post-Civil Rights EraThe Crisis in Black America
  • Lou Kushnick
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Lou Kushnick, 'US: the Revocation of Civil Rights', Race and Class, Vol.32, No.l (1990), pp.57-66; Manning Marable and Leith Mullings, "The Divided Mind of Black America: Race, Ideology and Politics in the Post-Civil Rights Era', Race and Class, Vol.36., No.l (1994), pp.61-72; Cornel West, 'The Crisis in Black America', in Prophetic Reflections: Notes on Race and Power in America (New York: Common Courage, 1993).
Black Ghettoization and Social MobilityUS: The Black Poor and the Politics of Expandability
  • See
  • Norman Example
  • Fainstein
See, for example, Norman Fainstein, 'Black Ghettoization and Social Mobility', in Smith and Joe Feagin (ed.), op. cit.; Barbara Ransby, 'US: The Black Poor and the Politics of Expandability', Race and Class, Vol.38, No.2 (1996), pp.
Cyberpolitics: Citizen Activism in the Age of the Internet (Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield, 1998), p.22. 71. On the historical development of African American economic theory and practice, see Thomas Boston, A Different Vision
  • Kevin A Hill
  • John E Hughes
Kevin A. Hill and John E. Hughes, Cyberpolitics: Citizen Activism in the Age of the Internet (Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield, 1998), p.22. 71. On the historical development of African American economic theory and practice, see Thomas Boston, A Different Vision: Vol.1, African American Economic Thought (New York: Routledge, 1996).
The Estate of Political Knowledge: Political Science and the State The Estate of Social Knowledge
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J. Fair, 'The Estate of Political Knowledge: Political Science and the State', in JoAnne Brown and David K. van Keuren (eds.), The Estate of Social Knowledge (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991);
Clarifications on the Question of Power Rethinking the Political
  • See
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  • Foucault
See, for example, Michel Foucault, 'Clarifications on the Question of Power', in Foucault Live (New York: Semiotexte, 1989); Barbara Laslett et al. (eds.), Rethinking the Political;
Losing Ground Bit By Bit: Low‐income Communities in the Information Age
  • Benton Foundation
‘Black Ghettoization and Social Mobility
  • Norman Fainstein
‘American Democracy and Computer Mediated Communication - A Case Study in Minnesota
  • G Aikens
  • Scott
DC: Benton Foundation and National Urban League
  • Benton Foundation
  • Boston Thomas