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If You Build a Political Web Site, Will They Come? The Internet and Political Activism in Britain
Abstract
This study focuses on the capacity of the Internet for strengthening political activism. The first part summarizes debates about these issues in the previous literature. This study starts from the premise that political activism is a multidimensional phenomenon and that we need to understand how different channels of participation relate to the social and political characteristics of the online population. We predict that certain dimensions of activism will probably be strengthened by the rise of the knowledge society, particularly cause-oriented forms of political participation, reflecting the prior social and political characteristics of the online population. By contrast, we expect the Internet to have far less impact upon conventional channels of political participation, exemplified by election campaigns. The second part summarizes the sources of data and the key measures of political activism used in this study, drawing upon the British Social Attitudes Survey from 2003. The third part examines the evidence for the relationship between use of the Internet and patterns of civic engagement in the British context. The conclusion summarizes the results and considers their broader implications.
... The network would have the power to reduce some barriers to participation, especially in relation to time and access to information, which would broaden the public sphere. In brief, for cyber-optimists the Internet is capable of mobilizing individuals who did not mobilize and strengthen democracy (Norris & Curtice, 2006;Xenos & Moy, 2007). ...
... The network would not be able to arise the political interest, and, in this way, the online activism is a mode of participation for those that are already engaged in the offline world. For the cyber-pessimists, the new information technologies would not have the capacity to transform society and would act in the sense of deepening existing social cleavages (Norris, Norris & Curtice, 2006). Under this explanatory model, new information and communication technologies simply bring new opportunities to the already active citizens (Norris, 2001). ...
... Under this explanatory model, new information and communication technologies simply bring new opportunities to the already active citizens (Norris, 2001). An even more radical group than the cyber-pessimists are the cybernetics for whom cyberspace only reproduces politics as usual, without eliminating or deepening existing social cleavages (Norris, Norris & Curtice, 2006). ...
The wide availability of accurate sensors currently hosted by smartphones are enabling new participative urban management opportunities. Mobile crowdsensing (MCS) allows people to actively participate in any aspect of urban planning, by collecting and sharing data, reporting issues to public administrations, proposing solutions to urban planners, and delivering information of potential social interest to their community. Although collected data can be very helpful to enhance the quality of life of citizens, mobile users are still reluctant to use their devices to take advantages of the opportunities offered by the digitized society, mainly due to privacy issues. From August to December 2018, the city of Florianópolis, capital of Santa Catarina, in southern Brazil, was used as a living lab environment for an MCS application called ParticipACT Brazil, a socio/technical-aware crowdsensing platform. While the current literature focuses on MCS from a purely technical point of view, this research demonstrated that a multidisciplinary approach that includes both human sciences and ICT is needed in order to better identify critical issues, highlights the untapped potential of MCS paradigm, and suggests research methodologies that could provide benefits for all the actors involved (researchers, public administrators, and citizens).
... Assim, no ciberespaço seria possível criar uma "democracia forte" que conta com a participação de todos. Portanto, para os ciberotimistas, a internet é capaz de mobilizar indivíduos que não se mobilizavam, fortalecer a democracia e, desse modo, suavizar as clivagens sociais do mundo offline (Boulainne, 2009;Norris, 2001;Norris;Curtice, 2006;Xenos;Moy, 2007). ...
... Assim, no ciberespaço seria possível criar uma "democracia forte" que conta com a participação de todos. Portanto, para os ciberotimistas, a internet é capaz de mobilizar indivíduos que não se mobilizavam, fortalecer a democracia e, desse modo, suavizar as clivagens sociais do mundo offline (Boulainne, 2009;Norris, 2001;Norris;Curtice, 2006;Xenos;Moy, 2007). ...
... Além disso, a rede não seria capaz por si só de despertar o interesse político e, dessa maneira, o ativismo on-line seria mais uma modalidade de participação para aqueles que já são engajados no mundo off-line. Portanto, para os ciberpessimistas, as novas tecnologias da informação não teriam a capacidade de transformar a sociedade e atuariam no sentindo de aprofundar as clivagens sociais já existentes (Norris, 2001;Norris;Curtice, 2006). Elucidativa da visão pessimista é a hipótese de que o uso político da internet é um efeito de seleção. ...
Nas últimas décadas, a democracia se consolidou como a melhor configuraçãogovernamental, entretanto, tem se falado em uma crise da democracia representativa quese expressa numa queda nas modalidades tradicionais de participação e na confiança nasinstituições políticas. Concomitante a esse processo, emergem as tecnologias digitais, que,por meio da internet, criam o ciberespaço, apresentando uma nova via para o ativismopolítico e social. Instigados por esse contexto, pesquisadores do comportamento políticotêm analisado quais características comportamentais, sociais e demográficas influenciam nociberativismo, questionando se são as mesmas que condicionam as ações presenciais. Algunsautores concluíram que indivíduos que já participam são mais propensos ao ciberativismo,bem como a rede pode fortalecer as modalidades de protesto. Além disso, pesquisasapontam a centralidade do interesse por assuntos políticos, do acesso à informação, daeducação e, em alguns casos, da idade na caracterização dos ativistas digitais. Diantedesse quadro internacional, a presente pesquisa questiona qual o perfil do ativista on-linebrasileiro. Para tanto, se utiliza do banco de dados do Latin American Public Opinion Project(Lapop) do ano de 2012.
... As motivações também podem ser externas e se referirem às redes de recrutamento. Neste sentido, os estudiosos do comportamento que se dedicaram a entender os condicionantes do engajamento on-line encontraram evidências de que fatores relacionados ao modelo supracitado (como alta escolaridade, interesse por política, conhecimento no assunto, pertencimento a níveis socioeconômicos mais altos e habilidades cívicas) são importantes para o entendimento do fenômeno (BRUNDIDGE;RICE, 2009;HAFNER-FINK;ČRNIČ, 2014;MOSSBERGER, 2009;NORRIS, 2001;CURTICE, 2006;OLIVEIRA et al., 2016;OSER;HOOGHE;MARIEN, 2013;RIBEIRO;BORBA;HANSEN, 2016). De tal modo, atualmente é aceito pela comunidade que a participação política é um fenômeno que tem múltiplas direções e dimensões, sendo um tipo de ação que, ao mesmo tempo em que se integra ao ambiente off-line, ocorre também independentemente dele (GIBSON;CANTIJOCH, 2013;CURTICE, 2006;RIBEIRO;BORBA;HANSEN, 2016;OLIVEIRA et al., 2016;OSER;HOOGHE;MARIEN, 2013). ...
... Neste sentido, os estudiosos do comportamento que se dedicaram a entender os condicionantes do engajamento on-line encontraram evidências de que fatores relacionados ao modelo supracitado (como alta escolaridade, interesse por política, conhecimento no assunto, pertencimento a níveis socioeconômicos mais altos e habilidades cívicas) são importantes para o entendimento do fenômeno (BRUNDIDGE;RICE, 2009;HAFNER-FINK;ČRNIČ, 2014;MOSSBERGER, 2009;NORRIS, 2001;CURTICE, 2006;OLIVEIRA et al., 2016;OSER;HOOGHE;MARIEN, 2013;RIBEIRO;BORBA;HANSEN, 2016). De tal modo, atualmente é aceito pela comunidade que a participação política é um fenômeno que tem múltiplas direções e dimensões, sendo um tipo de ação que, ao mesmo tempo em que se integra ao ambiente off-line, ocorre também independentemente dele (GIBSON;CANTIJOCH, 2013;CURTICE, 2006;RIBEIRO;BORBA;HANSEN, 2016;OLIVEIRA et al., 2016;OSER;HOOGHE;MARIEN, 2013). Isto quer dizer que o meio digital reproduz modalidades de participação política off-line, mas que, em decorrência de suas affordances, a internet se apresenta por si só como uma importante ferramenta para o ativismo, principalmente o de protesto, bem como produz novas formas de participação que, embora possam ser mais passivas, se configuram como atividades essencialmente on-line (GIBSON;CANTIJOCH, 2013;TEOCHARIS, 2015;OSER;HOOGHE;MARIEN, 2013;ARRIGADA;SCHERMAN, 2012;OLIVEIRA et al., 2016). ...
Estado e sociedade civil possuem uma relação, muitas vezes, tensionada e conflituosa, porém fundamental no contexto democrático ocidental. Estas por sua vez têm encontrados inúmeros desafios em função dos impactos da popularização do acesso à internet. Este artigo se situa nesta interconexão entre internet e democracia, e objetiva analisar como a literatura sobre participação política têm abordado essa relação apresentando as principais perspectivas teóricas. Assim, mostramos como as perspectivas iniciais eram mais estanques e polarizadas e os movimentos do campo para uma abordagem mais flexível e complexa, que leva em conta que as diversas características individuais, contextuais e da tecnologia em si que importam para pensar o impacto da rede nas atividades políticas off-line, mas, também no surgimento de um ativismo estritamente online. Portanto, a literatura tem considerado que a internet alcançou um papel central para o entendimento do ativismo político, principalmente de protesto, em que atua sobre a sua organização, em suas formas e modalidades, mas por outro lado apresenta empecilhos em relação às possibilidade de controle de dados, privacidade e vigilância.
... In order to establish the popularity of news sites carrying political content and debate in relation to other forms of Internet usage, we created an Alexa ranking of the 100 most popular web sites in Denmark for the period of June 2013. 1 Against the common assumption of the Internet as a political no man's land where political activists remain isolated from users whose primary interest is to be entertained (Norris & Curtice, 2006), professional news sites in Denmark rank high among top sites such as Google, Facebook or YouTube. The average Internet user in Denmark regularly visits professional news sites related to print news. ...
... Any further assessment of the "quality" of the emerging civic culture of user-citizens engaging with political news would require an in-depth analysis of the sequences of interaction, the content of interventions and the channelling of the opinions expressed. For this purpose, we refer to quantitative and qualitative content analyses (Fortunati, O'Sullivan et al., 2010;Michailidou, de Wilde et al., forthcoming) as well as audience surveys (Norris & Curtice, 2006;Hindman, 2008), which largely corroborate our findings of the restricted space for user interactions and engagement online. ...
Based on a pilot study of online news making and commenting in Denmark, the article discusses the relationship between online political news making and democracy. Empirical insights on the dynamics of user engagement and debates on mainstream Danish online news platforms are used to delineate the contours of the online public sphere. It is argued that the new digital media should be discussed not only as a new forum for political participation but also in relation to traditional forms of representative democracy. The analysis comprises the technical features and apps that are designed by online news providers in Denmark to facilitate the constitution of new “voice publics”. How these voice publics are designed as an element of news making and news distribution and, as such, linked to the old “representative” and “attentive publics” of news consumption is investigated.
... In order to establish the popularity of news sites carrying political content and debate in relation to other forms of Internet usage, we created an Alexa ranking of the 100 most popular web sites in Denmark for the period of June 2013. 1 Against the common assumption of the Internet as a political no man's land where political activists remain isolated from users whose primary interest is to be entertained (Norris & Curtice, 2006), professional news sites in Denmark rank high among top sites such as Google, Facebook or YouTube. e average Internet user in Denmark regularly visits professional news sites related to print news. ...
... Any further assessment of the "quality" of the emerging civic culture of user-citizens engaging with political news would require an in-depth analysis of the sequences of interaction, the content of interventions and the channelling of the opinions expressed. For this purpose, we refer to quantitative and qualitative content analyses (Fortunati, O'Sullivan et al., 2010;Michailidou, de Wilde et al., forthcoming) as well as audience surveys (Norris & Curtice, 2006;Hindman, 2008), which largely corroborate our findings of the restricted space for user interactions and engagement online. ...
... Thus, the always difficult relationship between political parties (as message creators and senders), media (as mediators) and citizens (as receivers, but now also as senders and re-senders) has been also analyzed in parallel in and out of campaigns (Howard, 2005;Dutton, 2007;Gibson, 2009). Besides campaigning, some incipient interest has been put too in e-democracy and the creation of debate and opinion, prior or collateral to campaigns (Noveck, 2005;Davies, Peña Gangadharan, 2009), citizen activism (Norris, Curtice, 2006) or even control and repression (Morozov, 2009). In general, almost all-if not all-the aspects of politics, political engagement and citizen participation have been permeated by the Internet and life online (Chadwick, Howard, 2008;Oates et al, 2006), being the US usually at the head of experimentation and implementation, and the rest of the world at shorter or larger distances from these two countries. ...
... Indeed, what we here find is two types of athletes: the long distance runner, here represented by the apparatus of the party, and the speed racers and sprinters, which feature the activists and political critics. Amongst the latter, there might well be citizens that express out loud their political beliefs but without a real, deep, substantive engagement (Howard, 2005), and the ones that engage in short run, cause-oriented forms of political participation (Norris, Curtice, 2006) which fade out or shift towards other causes once the former has been achieved or its time has expired. And politics, if anything, is more of a marathon than a 100 meters race. ...
As in everywhere else in the World, the Spanish awakening to Politics 2.0 has been overwhelmingly influenced by US Politics.
Spanish politics was awakened to web politics after Howard Dean’s campaign to the 2004 presidential candidacy, where blogging
and other online services like Meetup became important tools for campaigning. The US President Barack Obama’s long path to
the presidency—from February 2007 when he announced his candidacy for the presidency of the United States, until he assumed
office in January 2009, after 2years of primary and presidential elections—where the Internet was a crucial factor of success,
draw the blueprint that many are trying to understand and replicate.
... La aparición de Internet como un nuevo medio de comunicación, participación y movilización también supone un reto para la conceptualización de la participación política. Existe ya un número significativo de trabajos que abordan los cambios que Internet ha supuesto para la participación política, la mayor parte de los cuales procedentes del ámbito anglosajón (véanse, por ejemplo, con enfoques muy distintos, trabajos como los de Coleman y Gøtze, 2001;Krueger, 2002;Gibson et al., 2005;Norris y Curtice, 2006;Jensen et al., 2007). ...
En esta nota de investigación se presentan los primeros datos en España sobre los usos políticos de Internet, que incluyen consumo de información política, recepción de estímulos movilizadores a través de Internet y participación política online. Se exploran los datos describiendo los diferentes indicadores y se comprueba en qué medida la esfera online reproduce o no los mismos modos de participación que tradicionalmente se han distinguido. Los resultados apuntan a que la participación online se distingue como un modo independiente, mientras que al mismo tiempo puede complementar algunos modos de participación offline como el contacto.
... The second strategy stresses differences in the requirements placed on participants depending on the type of engagement (Verba, Nie, and Kim 1978). This is an important consideration for group analyses whereby one must attend to differences that may shape a citizen's ability and interest in participation (Norris and Curtice 2006;Dalton 2008). ...
This paper investigates gender differences in political participation across 10 countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region using data from the World Values Survey (2010-2014). A distinction is made between two different participation types, institutional and non-institutional. We use an ordered logit model to evaluate whether the gender gap in both forms is mediated by demographic and attitudinal controls and assess whether variables influencing participation affect men and women differently. We find that most socioeconomic resources and political attitudes are correlated with higher levels of participation. However, the analysis reveals a persistent gender gap that can be generalized to the entire spectrum of engagement in the MENA, with larger gaps for less institutionalized forms.
... Consequently, several types of political activity exist: those only possible online; those carried out equally offline and online; and those carried out only offline (Anduzia et al., 2009: 4). But despite the support of digital technologies, institutionalised participation (voting, contacting civil servants) and individualised participation (signing petitions, horizontal networking), research into digital settings reveals strong support for individualised forms of participation (Hafner and Oblak, 2014;Norris and Curtice, 2006). ...
Modern democracy needs citizens, but citizenship has become a complex concept owing to the changes that digital media and social platforms have brought to political participation and civic engagement, which political institutions can no longer ignore. This article questions the way political parties conceive of digital citizenship and how they incorporate new media into their own communication practices. While changes in civic engagement and political participation are most prevalent among young people, the primary focus of this article is the problem of how political parties represent young people as emerging citizens and their potential future voters. Our study uses recent research on young citizens and the responses of political parties to young citizens to provide answers. We also perform a qualitative analysis of their representatives within a sample of Slovenian political parties. The aim of the article is to present a general map of youth as an emerging citizenry within the digital culture in order to identify the problems political parties are facing in their inability to identify with young people as digital citizens.
... Consequently, several types of political activity exist: those only possible online; those carried out equally offline and online; and those carried out only offline (Anduzia et al., 2009: 4). But despite the support of digital technologies, institutionalised participation (voting, contacting civil servants) and individualised participation (signing petitions, horizontal networking), research into digital settings reveals strong support for individualised forms of participation (Hafner and Oblak, 2014;Norris and Curtice, 2006). ...
The article opens the question of how participatory the political digital sphere is and through which type of communication we as citizens are addressed. Communication design of web sites always presupposes a constructed image or concept of the potential user, either as a consumer or a buyer, a producer or a co-producer, a citizen or a member of the audience. In order to understand the nature or character of participatory culture in the arena of politics, it is not enough to evaluate only the behaviour of institutions but it is important to contrast the evaluated circumstances with the expectations and dominant patterns of citizens. The question of how the predispositions and circumstances of participatory culture within the institutional politics are (un)related to the expectations and practices of users and what opinions young citizens establish in relation to the political digital culture seems to be a rarely addressed research dilemma in Slovenia. The answers to both questions are given through an illustration of the results of two empirical studies within the project Digital Citizenship: a quantitative analysis of the political websites of Slovenian political institutions, conducted before the election for the European parliament and in-depth interviews with the young on a small pilot sample. The confirmation of potentials of participatory digital culture will be possible only in the case of integration of citizen sphere with the political activities. However, the study shows that the opposite happens – there is a divide between a “self-closed” political sphere, which is not interested in the openness to users’ opinions and suggestions, and a diverse typology of young citizens. At least in our study the young are divided into a diverse typology as citizens: from the citizenship as a national identity, the dutiful citizenship to the non-existing citizenship of an unrealized good citizen, who understand political participation quite diversely as well: from the preferences for informative, conventional participation to the more opinioned or inclusive forms of activities. Following the analysis it seems that within the digital space of Slovenian politics the more realized is a group of young whose political participation relates to the conventional forms of activities, such as elections or polling, and who understand the citizenship as a duty, while the more activist, opinioned and inclusive forms of participation of young are in the digital political culture less present or even neglected.
... They say that they benefit from the ICT to mobilize and engage the non-organized people in their fight for democracy. Here again, we find in the empirical analysis, arguments of theoretical discussions on how ICT respond to the values and needs of new politics (van de Donk et al 2004), and the potential impact of ICT in increasing political activism (Norris and Curtice 2006). ...
... Hence, the findings do not support the notion that familiar resource patterns emerge when internet use is accounted for (cf. Norris and Curtice, 2006;Schlozman et al., 2010). In fact, if only frequent internet users are included in the regression models (separate analysis not reported here), the same independent effects as those reported in Table 5 remain. ...
This article analyses the use of social media by both candidates and citizens in the 2011 Finnish parliamentary election campaign. Utilizing data on the candidates’ use of various social media sites, survey data from the 2011 Finnish election study, and survey data from a Finnish panel, the analyses reveal that the significance of social media was generally modest in the election campaign. The findings show that although candidates did use social media extensively, the on-line electoral patterns were found to be mostly normalized. The citizens’ use of social media in the campaign was also very low and its impact on their voting decision even smaller. However, the irrelevance of political interest in explaining extensive social media use, found in the analyses, break established patterns explaining political participation.
... Dann & Dann, 2011;Hernández, Jiménez, & Martín, 2009), they are employed for public relations by political and governmental institutions and organizations (e.g. Norris & Curtice, 2006;Gibson & Ward, 2000), and they are used to educate students, specific target groups, or the broad public in formal and informal settings (e.g. Cox, 2013;Owston, 1997). ...
In order to assess website content effectiveness (WCE), investigations have to be made into whether the reception of website contents leads to a change in the characteristics of website visitors or not. Because randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are not always the method of choice, researchers may have to follow other strategies such as using retrospective pretest methodology (RPM), a straightforward and easy-to-implement tool for estimating intervention effects. This article aims to introduce RPM in the context of website evaluation and test its viability under experimental conditions.
Building on the idea that RCTs deliver unbiased estimates of the true causal effects of website content reception, I compared the performance of RPM with that of an RCT within the same study. Hence, if RPM provides effect estimates similar to those of the RCT, it can be considered a viable tool for assessing the effectiveness of the website content features under study.
RPM was capable of delivering comparatively resilient estimates of the effects of a YouTube video and a text feature on knowledge and attitudes. With regard to all of the outcome variables considered, the differences between the sizes of the effects estimated by the RCT and RPM were not significant. Additionally, RPM delivered relatively accurate effect size estimates in most of the cases. Therefore, I conclude that RPM could be a viable alternative for assessing WCE in cases where RCTs are not the preferred method.
© The Author(s) 2015.
... of the Internet having one-dimensional, directmobilizing effects on participation have been abandoned in favor of more complex models to account for the expanded participatory repertoire incorporating multifaceted indirect mobilizing effects (Cantijoch, 2012;Gil de Zuniga et al., 2010;Jensen & Anduiza, 2012, p. 82;Mossberger et al., 2007, p. 78;Norris & Curtice, 2006;Oser et al., 2012). ...
This article analyzes Internet use in conjunction with the 2011 Finnish parliamentary election. The aim was to examine online participation and aspects of its mobilizing potential by studying both the extent and the ways citizens used the Internet for participatory activities. The analysis utilizes survey data from the Finnish National Election Study survey. The findings show that a certain group of citizens uses the Internet in a broad and expressive way. This use is also reflected in how they participate online and offline, as well as how they form the informational basis for their voting choices. Moreover, to some extent, use of the Internet also appears to indirectly mobilize citizens beyond the Internet.
... Few scholars consider that technology can influence e-participation, but they differ by explaining technology influence is in the form of participation reinforcement and/or mobilization (Norris and Curtice, 2006;Chen and Lee, 2008;Nam, 2012). The influence of political interest is identified to be less in the case of skilled internet users' e-participation (Borge and Cardenal, 2011). ...
Purpose
– The purpose of the present paper is to attempt to examine the determinants of citizens’ electronic participation with respect to the communication aspects. To accomplish this objective, using the extant literature, the paper delineated factors that determine and the theories that can explain citizens’ e-participation. An analysis of citizens’ democratic communication through multiple e-participation forums is carried out, and the determinants of electronic participation are described in the paper.
Design/methodology/approach
– In light of the literature, e-participation services were classified on the basis of characteristics of democratic communications. The factors that determine citizens’ online democratic participation were also identified and validated. Indian citizens who often e-participate were surveyed through online and offline questionnaires. A regression analysis of the 407 responses was carried out to predict the influence of individual, governance and technology components on various e-participation initiatives.
Findings
– Citizens’ participation efficacy, value system and participation freedom were found to determine different e-participation initiatives. Further, e-participation is also found to be varyingly determined by the governance and technology components.
Research limitations/implications
– The theoretical contribution of this study includes the classification of determining factors and the illustrative labeling (I, G and T) for an e-participation framework. The delineation of e-participation from democratic communication aspects also contributes to the e-participation literature. However, this research had considered only one set of e-participation services and had incorporated only select forms of e-participation that are in coherence with the services selected.
Originality/value
– Past studies often consider separate e-participation forums and infrequently report a simultaneous analysis of multiple e-participation forums. The factors that determine citizens’ e-participation from a democratic communication aspect are also inadequately discussed. The significant contribution of this study includes policy recommendations to improve e-participation in different information and communication technologies initiatives.
... La aparición de Internet como un nuevo medio de comunicación, participación y movilización también supone un reto para la conceptualización de la participación política. Existe ya un número significativo de trabajos que abordan los cambios que Internet ha supuesto para la participación política, la mayor parte de los cuales procedentes del ámbito anglosajón (véanse, por ejemplo, con enfoques muy distintos, trabajos como los de Coleman y Gøtze, 2001;Krueger, 2002;Gibson et al., 2005;Norris y Curtice, 2006;Jensen et al., 2007). En España pueden consultarse los trabajos de Rubio (2000) y algunos informes sobre la cuestión (Barrat y Reniu, 2004;Fundació Jaume Bofill, 2004;Fundación BBVA, 2008). ...
En esta nota de investigación se presentan los primeros datos en España sobre los usos políticos de Internet, que incluyen consumo de información política, recepción de estímulos movilizadores a través de Internet y participación política online. Se exploran los datos describiendo los diferentes indicadores y se comprueba en qué medida la esfera online reproduce o no los mismos modos de participación que tradicionalmente se han distinguido. Los resultados apuntan a que la participación online se distingue como un modo independiente, mientras que al mismo tiempo puede complementar algunos modos de participación offline como el contacto. In this research note we present the first data collected in Spain on the political uses of the Internet, including consumption of political information, reception of mobilizing stimuli through the Internet, and online political participation. We explore the data by describing the indicators and then checking whether it is possible to identify the same modes of online political participation that are usually identified in the offline arena. Our results show that online political participation stands as an independent mode, while at the same time some of its features may complement offline modes such as contacting.
... La aparición de Internet como un nuevo medio de comunicación, participación y movilización también supone un reto para la conceptualización de la participación política. Existe ya un número significativo de trabajos que abordan los cambios que Internet ha supuesto para la participación política, la mayor parte de los cuales procedentes del ámbito anglosajón (véanse, por ejemplo, con enfoques muy distintos, trabajos como los de Coleman y Gøtze, 2001;Krueger, 2002;Gibson et al., 2005;Norris y Curtice, 2006;Jensen et al., 2007). En España pueden consultarse los trabajos de Rubio (2000) y algunos informes sobre la cuestión (Barrat y Reniu, 2004;Fundació Jaume Bofill, 2004;Fundación BBVA, 2008). ...
In this research note we present the first data collected in Spain on the political uses of the Internet, including consumption of political information, reception of mobilizing stimuli through the Internet, and online political participation. We explore the data by describing the indicators and then checking whether it is possible to identify the same modes of online political participation that are usually identified in the offline arena. Our results show that online political participation stands as an independent mode, while at the same time some of its features may complement offline modes such as contacting.
... Netherlands Telephone channel integration/ service channel Teerling (2009), Pieterson et al. (2008) Online public information and services van Deursen and van Dijk (2009), Veenstra andZuurmond (2009) Internet services van Dijk et al. (2008) E-Government services Horst et al. (2007) South Korea Tax filing Web sites Lee et al. (2008) E-Government Web sites Kim and Holzer (2006) E-Government services Lim and Tang (2007) Information technology Kim and Lee (2006) UK E-Government services Barnes and Vidgen (2004), Dwivedi and Williams (2008), Kolsaker and Lee-Kelley (2006) Internet Norris and Curtice (2006) Hong Kong ...
After more than a decade of research in the field of e-government, it is now timely and appropriate to reflect upon the overall developmental directions in the area. The purpose of this paper is to explore research progress to date by systematically analyzing the existing body of knowledge on e-government related issues, and to reveal if there is a lack of theoretical development and rigor in the area. Usable data relating to e-government adoption research currently available were collected from 434 research articles identified from the ISI Web of Knowledge database, and by manually identifying relevant articles from journals dedicated to electronic government research such as Transforming Government: People, Process, and Policy (TGPPP), Electronic Government, an International Journal (EGIJ), and International Journal of Electronic Government Research (IJEGR). Based on our investigation of this extant literature, our findings revealed that generic e-government applications were explored more than any specific applications, and the technology acceptance model (TAM) was the theory most often utilized to explain research models. It was also revealed that except for DeLone and McLean's (1992, 2003) IS success model, all other theories and models (for example, TAM, diffusion of innovation (DOI), unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT), and theory of planned behavior (TPB) have performed consistently with acceptable variance across various studies in the context of e-government adoption research. Although a large number of theories and theoretical constructs were borrowed from the reference disciplines, their utilization by e-government researchers appears to be largely random in approach. The paper also acknowledges the limitations of the study and suggests research directions for future researchers.
... In this train of thought, Katz et al. (2001) found that " Internet users were more likely than non-users to engage in traditional political activity in the 1996 general election " . This is a statement that could be difficult to validate if we were to look only at traditional parties, because as Norris & Curtice (2006) notice " the online population is most predisposed to engage in cause-oriented forms of activism, characteristic of petitioning, demonstrating, and contacting the media over single-issue politics and civic-oriented activities, such as belonging to voluntary associations and community organizations " . And that is the very essence of the Indignados or 15M movement in Spain. ...
The Arab Spring, the Spanish Indignados, the Occupy Movement (#jan25, #egypt, #arabspring, #15M, #29S, #occupywallst, #ows, #15O). In the last months the world has witnessed the emergence of networked citizen politics: besides institutions, but many times mimicking their nature; unlike traditional citizen movements, but very much alike in their essence. Networked citizen politics, characterized by decentralization, swarm-like action and an intensive use of Information and Communication Technologies, have been having a starring role in world-wide protests and movements, most of the times overtaking and circumventing the actions of governments, parliaments, political parties, labour unions, non-governmental organizations, mass media and all kinds of formal democratic institutions. Taking the case of Spanish Indignados, the aim of this paper is to analyse the nature of networked citizen politics as an extra-representational kind of political participation after the usage of Twitter that has been made around the so called 15M movement. Firstly, users will be characterized, including a description on how movements propagate one onto another. Secondly, the paper will see what are the bonds between networked citizen movements and formal democratic institutions, how do they relate one with each other, especially the movements with political parties and mass media. It will also emphasize how networked citizen politics may use similar tools as the so mentioned Politics 2.0, but with very different purposes and, thus, results, and what is the result of the two clashing approaches. Our analysis will show that different movements – i.e. 15M and 25S – act as a continuum for networked citizen politics that use the Internet as the support for new institutionalisms, and despite the lack of traditional organizations, people, practices and ideas are shared and used as foundations for further action. Notwithstanding, there almost is no inter-institutional dialogue with exceptions related with individuals belonging to minor and left-wing parties.
... Several authors increasingly regard the knowledge society as a Pandora's Box reinforcing existing inequalities of power and wealth, generating deeper divisions between the information rich and poor (Golding 1996;Hayward 1995;Murdock and Golding 1989;Weber, Loumakis, and Bergman 2003). Among the most notable contributions, Norris (2006) speculates that more egalitarian patterns of competition may emerge with more opportunities for citizens' participation. She concludes however that "the most popular forms of online activism are likely to reflect the preponderance of younger and well-educated populations using the Internet […] until such a time as the online population eventually 'normalizes' to reflect a cross-section of the general electorate" (Norris 2006, 16). ...
In the last decade the massive use of new interactive technologies has increasingly characterized horizontal political competition (among the elites) and vertical political communication (between elites and voters) towards greater 'personalization of politics'. In particular, candidates’ personal websites have become the rule in many political environments and have gown both in number and content. The wide range of options available to the candidates range nowadays from simple frontpages to extremely flexible interactive platforms aimed at conveying bi-directional flows of communication between candidate and voters. Two basic objectives have been identified behind this trend: growing maximization of candidates' electoral efforts and parliamentarians’ willingness to get/keep in touch with their constituency once elected. To what extent does this phenomenon concern the Members of the European Parliament (MEPs)? The analysis of recent developments appear even more relevant if we consider two key features of the EP environment: its multinational nature and the alleged second-orderness of the European elections. In this analysis we will systematically look at the nature of MEPs’ web-based communication tools (e.g. personal websites or blogs) and the extent to which these new platforms mirror the complex nature of the EP environment ('Europeanization of communication'). This will allow a consistent categorization of MEPs’ communication styles. To conduct this operation we will look at a number of features of MEPs’ websites which will be made statistically analysable following the process of categorization. The paper will look at the degree of variance in MEPs’ web-based communication styles according to MEPs' national (East vs. West or North vs. South) or partisan affiliation or to the electoral system in use (party-centred vs. candidate-centred). Conceived as a preliminary step towards wider and more precise understanding of MEPs' web-based communication styles and strategies, our analysis aims at providing a useful basis for further investigation in this direction.
... Marginalized societies can become more marginalized as societies become more globalized and information is increasingly the most valuable commodity (Norris, 2001;Norris & Curtice, 2006). The differences in economic growth between those nations that have reliable, high-speed access to the Internet and those who do not may be exacerbated as the affluent nations are able to profit from increased visibility and productivity. ...
The objective of this article is to examine how the inequalities of participation in network society governmental systems affect the extent that individuals are empowered or disempowered within those systems. By using published data in conjunction with theories of communication, a critical secondary data analysis was conducted. This critical analysis argues that the Digital Divide involves issues concerning how democracy and democratization are related to computer-mediated communication (CMC) and its role in political communication. As the roles of CMC/ICT systems expand in political communication, existing Digital Divide gaps are likely to contribute to structural inequalities in political participation. These inequalities work against democracy and political empowerment for some people, while at the same time producing expanded opportunities of political participation for others. This raises concerns about who benefits the most from electronic government in emerging network societies. [Article copies are available for purchase from InfoSci-on-Demand.com]
... Thus paying attention to types of participation as crucial for understanding systematic differences in the requirements they place on participants and in the nature of the actions (Verba et al. 1978). Especially from the framework of group differences, it is important to attend to distinctions in political participation that may shape a citizen's ability to engage and interest in engaging in a particular activity, as some researchers acknowledge (Dalton 2008; Norris and Curtis 2006; Pattie et al. 2003), though with little attention to gender cleavages. ...
We investigate gender gaps in political participation with 2004 ISSP data for 18 advanced Western democracies (N: 20,359) using linear and logistic regression models. Controlling for socio-economic characteristics and political attitudes reveals that women are more likely than men to have voted and engaged in 'private' activism, while men are more likely to have engaged in direct contact, collective types of actions and be (more active) members of political parties. Our analysis indicates that demographic and attitudinal characteristics influence participation differently among men and among women, as well as across types of participation. These results highlight the need to move toward a view of women engaging in differing types of participation and based on different characteristics.
In recent decades, the active interaction of innovative technologies and politics has given a rise to a new specific phenomenon –technopolitics. It is acquiring clearer outlines and seeks to obtain the status of a separate applied discipline. Technopolitics includes the whole range of tools used by politicians, political organizations and political strategists within the Internet space in order to collect information about the potential electorate, form a strategy and influence the mood of voters. The main elements of technopolitics are social networks, mobile applications and specialized sites. They become an ideal platform for understanding the mood in society, forming a roadmap on key issues, which allows solving both internal and foreign policy tasks. The authors of this research set the aim to analyze examples of technopolitics functioning in the countries of the Ibero-American region, which includes countries with an impressive number of Internet users and one of the highest levels of political participation. As a result of the research, the authors come to the conclusion that Spain and the countries of Latin America are actively involved in technopolitics, which is proved by the activities of local political organizations that develop their activity in the framework of Internet communications. The creation of social media accounts and own websites is aimed at an active interaction with citizens without the participation of traditional media as an intermediary. Operative response to changes in shades of public opinion allows political parties to timely change the vector of their movement. Citizens’ general engagement in technopolitics led to truly revolutionary changes in the hierarchy of the “candidatevoter”, endowing the voter with truly democratic instruments of influencing the government, and thereby increasing the percentage of political participation of citizens disenchanted with the former relations between the institution of power and the people. The Internet has allowed an ordinary person to turn into a real political actor organizing transparent discussions, easily involving a large number of people in solving political issues. People are no longer required to vote within the framework of the proposed alternative, but asked for their opinion. Much of this change is due to the creation of Twitter, a platform opened to discussion of various issues and free from censorship, very popular in the countries of the Ibero-American region.
O objetivo deste estudo foi o de evidenciar, por meio da plataforma de interação social Twitter, quais foram as opiniões referentes ao “fim” do Ministério do Esporte. A realização dessa pesquisa justifica-se pois visa contribuir para as discussões relacionadas ao novo contexto esportivo nacional e por compreender que as redes sociais estabelecem logicas diferenciadas para as discussões e configurações no mundo. Os dados foram obtidos através do levantamento dos tweets publicados na plataformae da sistematização dos mesmos em categorias de análise. Pode-se evidenciar, que as opiniões referentes ao “fim” do Ministério do Esporte concentraram-se, majoritariamente, em comentários negativos (f=41,5%, n= 44), sendo estes observados através de manifestações populares(f=2,83%, n=3) e manifestações oficiais(f=3,77%, n=4). A partir dos dados observados, pode-se identificar que o “fim” do Ministério do Esporte e a inserção do esporte no Ministério da Cidadania apresenta-se em desacordo com a opinião da amostra observada.
Though reinforcement/mobilisation theories regarding the impact of the Internet on citizens’ political engagement are predictive, there are few longitudinal studies on how the profile of the citizens using the Internet for political purposes has changed and how this relates to such theoretical perspectives. Using survey data from four Finnish parliamentary elections, 2003–15, this longitudinal study examines the evolution of the predictors of belonging to the segment of citizens who extensively engage in searching for political information online during the elections. Additionally, the research longitudinally studies the evolution of the drivers of citizens deeming online sources as important for informing their voting decisions. In light of demographic and resource-based traits, a mobilisation trend is detected across time in the analyses. As to factors concerning attitudes and orientation to politics, however, a more evident reinforcement trend has emerged. These patterns are also evident when examining social media engagement through searching for political information during campaigns. Although the Internet and social media are becoming important for a demographically increasingly diverse group of citizens, especially the young, it is those already predisposed for doing so who have, over time, engaged politically to an increasing degree through these channels.
A significant decreasing trend in political
participation could be observed in so-called Western
democracies in the last decades of the 20th century. In
this framework, researchers largely agree on the key factors
of participation: from generational differences and
socio-economic status through civic values to civic competencies.
The emergence and expansion of the Internet
have brought new opportunities to expand political participation
practices and to include in these practices certain
groups which have so far been less active. By analysing
the presence of various forms of participation via
the Internet in Slovenia, we assess a thesis on the (possible)
expansion of space for political participation and
search for answer(s) to research questions about the
relationship between traditional forms of political participation
in general and digital forms of participation:
a) are online forms merely combining with other traditional
forms of participation; or b) are they emerging
as a new type of political participation? We also investigate
whether digital participation does indeed involve
new groups of people and who are potential ‘digital
citizens’. In the analysis, we use the latest data from the
Slovenian Public Opinion Survey 2013, which includes
both information on the forms of political participation
generally and information on digital-specific forms of participation
When disaffection on political parties and politicians is pervasive, most argue whether it could be possible, thanks to the Internet – and Information and Communication Technologies in general – to forget the mainstream political system and let the citizenry express their own opinion, debate in virtual agorae and vote their representatives and policy choices directly. In other words, the claim is whether the actual intermediaries can be replaced by citizen networks or, in the limit, just be overridden. Our aim in the following lines is to (1) explain that some dire (socioeconomic) changes are actually taking place,(2) why these socioeconomic changes are taking place and (3) infer, from this, what conditions shall take place in the future for (4) another wave of changes to happen that could eventually lead to a much acclaimed new (e-)democracy. In the last section, we will discuss that despite lack of data, the trend seems to be just in the direction of the impoverishment of democracy, partly due to the weakening of political institutions. Acknowledgement: I want to thank the organizers of the 4 th International Conference on eDemocracy 2010 (eDem10) and the Ditchley Foundation, where I attended the Democracy and the power of the individual conference. Both meetings triggered most of the thoughts put in this paper.
The Arab Spring, the Spanish Indignados, the Occupy Wall Street movement, the #YoSoy132 movement, the protests in Istanbul's Taksim Gezi Park, the Brazilian Spring (#jan25, #arabspring, #15M, #ows, #YoSoy132, #occupyGezi, #vemprarua): in the last three years the world has witnessed the emergence of networked citizen politics. These movements are not institutions, but oftentimes mimic their nature. At the same time, they are unlike traditional citizens’ movements, but very much alike in their decentralized structure. Networked citizen politics, characterized by decentralization, swarm-like action and an intensive use of information and communication technologies have been playing an increasing role in worldwide protests and movements, often overtaking and circumventing the actions of governments, parliaments, political parties, labour unions, non-governmental organizations, mass media and all kinds of formal democratic institutions. Taking the case of Spanish Indignados, we analyse the nature of networked citizen politics as an extra-representational kind of political participation – for instance, the pervasiveness of Twitter's use in the 15M movement. We begin by characterizing users, including a description of how movements propagate from one to another. Next we explore the bonds between networked citizen movements and formal democratic institutions and how they relate to each other, especially the movements with political parties and mass media. We also examine how networked citizen politics may use tools similar to those of the so-called Politics 2.0 but with very different purposes and, accordingly, the result is of the two conflicting approaches. Our analysis shows that different movements – that is, 15M and 25S – act as a continuum for networked citizen politics that use the Internet as the support for new institutionalisms, and despite the lack of traditional organizations, people, practices and ideas are shared and used as foundations for further action. Nevertheless, there is almost no inter-institutional dialogue, with exceptions being individuals belonging to minor and left-wing parties.
After more than a decade of research in the field of e-government, it is now timely and appropriate to reflect upon the overall developmental directions in the area. This paper explores research progress to date by systematically analyzing the existing body of knowledge on e-government related issues, and reveal if there is lack of theoretical development and rigor in the area. Usable data relating to e-government research currently available were collected from 779 research articles identified from the ISI Web of Knowledge database, and by manually identifying relevant articles from dedicated journals on electronic government such as Transforming Government: People, Process, and Policy TGPPP, Electronic Government, an International Journal EGIJ, and International Journal of Electronic Government Research IJEGR. Based on the investigation of the various studies, findings reveal that generic e-government applications were explored more than any specific applications, and the technology acceptance model TAM was the most utilized theory to explain research models. Although a large number of theories and theoretical constructs were borrowed from the reference disciplines, their utilization by e-government researchers appears largely random in approach. The paper also presents limitations and further research directions for future researchers.
"Start Today To realize the Future—the Internet is here and is happening now, Capitalise on the future today"—ad in U.K. Financial Press, March 1996/ "The internet suffers from the problems often found in resources that are in common ownership: potential misuse, security problems and a lack of structure"—International Telecommunication Union press release, October, 1995/ "The days when the Net seemed to exist outside the laws of capitalism are just about over"— HotWired, 12 March 1996 This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.
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One of the central research questions emerging from favorable and critical views on e-governance is how such a new mode of governance has affected the nature of the relationship between citizens, politicians and public servants. This dimension is crucial, because what matters most is whether the adoption of e-governance has been able to create relationships between these stakeholders - between citizens and politicians, between politicians and public servants and between citizens and public servants - based on accountability, equality and fairness. This article explores these issues in the case of India, which represents one of the leading advocates of e-governance in the developing world. Unlike developed nations, India is one of the poorest countries in the world with severe problems of poverty, inequality, illiteracy and external dependence, which represent major impediments to the effectiveness of e-governance in ensuring equal public access to state institutions, empowering ordinary citizens to exercise their basic rights and obliging political and administrative officials to be responsive and accountable. However, before examining the impacts of e-governance on the nature and structure of citizen-politics-bureaucracy relations in India, the next section is devoted to an analysis of the major policies, initiatives and institutions related to e-governance in this country.
“Where material inequality massively differentiates people's access to goods and services, and those goods and services are themselves a necessary resource for citizenship, then political rights are the victim of the vicissitudes of the marketplace and its inegaltitarian structure.”