Essay

The Internet and Politics

Technology and the Internet are rapidly growing within our modern society; consequently new opportunities are available for communication, marketing and research (Gibson, Oates & Owen 2006). The Internet has had a significant impact on economics and lifestyle but more importantly on politics. This essay will argue that the Internet has revolutionized politics and promotes the idea of democracy on a worldwide level. It will explore the political uses and limits of the Internet and will explain why they have a profound effect on democracy and politics. The Internets ability to span worldwide and its effects on the idea of ‘community’ and democracy will also be discussed. It will be concluded that the Internet encourages participation, interaction, communication, self-expression and promotes democracy worldwide therefore transforming our world of politics.

The Internet is constantly used in relation to politics weather it is to source information and understandings, political news, to vote, sign a partition or even to check politicians ‘tweets’. It has become an easily accessible, global library therefore making one of its most common uses to source information (Ferdinand, 2000). According to recent research 21 one million US citizens used the Internet to source political information prior to the election (Davies & Owen, 1998).

The Internet and its affiliates communication applications are constantly used for political purposes. Applications such as blogger, hotmail, you tube and facebook make communication simple and accessible to everyone. In fact it is estimated that 50 million people around the world produce online blogs (Chen, Geiselhart & Gibson, 2006). They allow anyone from any background to express their opinion which is important in a democratic society where ‘the people’ are encouraged to speak freely (Gibson, Oates & Owen 2006).

The Internet is a huge source of information and is therefore commonly used as a marketing and advertisement tool particularly by those whose profession relies on their public image. Political parties have begun to utilize new communication technologies to facilitate advertising and promotions for their campaigns (Gibson, Kay & War, 1998). They are cheaper than media broadcasting (TV radio) and can cover a large amount of content whilst reaching huge populations (Gibson, Kay & War, 1998). Individual campaign websites are also created to do this (Gibson, Kay & War, 1998). In Japan politicians such as Gaku Hashimoto post up to 200 messages on twitter a day which are viewed by more than 1000 readers (Slodkoski 2009). There has even been comments made that Obama’s use of twitter to reach supporters during the election helped him to win (Slodkowski, 2009). Obama currently boasts 1.84 million twitter followers (Slodkowski, 2009). In doing this politicians are consistently informing the world not just their state/country.

Using Internet communication applications benefits politics from a politician and civilian point of view. Civilians can easily email or post comments and concerns and have them answered efficiently. Politicians can access constructive criticisms and feedback communicated by the public and respond to their feedback easily (Gibson, Kay & War, 1998). This promotes world wide political communication and encourage everyone to have an opinion, thus it promotes democracy.

Although the Internet seems limitless it does have restrictions. There are little restrictions to the content and quantity that can be posted on the Internet however; there are limitations to taking political action online. With such a huge source comes issues with security in particular identity fraud and authentication issues (Gibson, Kay & War, 1998). People can impersonate others to steal their votes and people have also been found to sell their votes (Lands 2005). It is for this reason that some elections are not done online.

The Internet has completely changed and revolutionized communication, relationships and thus the idea of the community. The Internets global capabilities make it possible for relationships to form with people who live on the other side of the world. Instead of having political discussions with your neighbors you can discuss it with people from different countries. Diverse online communities with similar needs and opinions are therefore formed (Wilson & Peterson 2002).

The Internet has also revolutionized politics by broadening the age of people who participate in ‘communities’ (Gibson, Nixon & War, 1998). Contributing to this diversity is the fact that the Internet is new generational and therefore attracts youth to get involved. Recent research shows that 36 percent of people who engage in online political discussion are under 30 (Gibson, Kay & War 1998).

The Internet allows for users to interact with political debates rather than just absorb information. It provides the public with tools of political self-expression which have been previously denied by mainstream media (TV, radio) (Owen & Davis 1998). Mainstream sources (TV, radio) transmit through broadcasting therefore they communicate one way only. The web is interactive and allows people to comment on what they are absorbing. This action not only forms diverse, online communities but promotes democracy and politics as well.

The Internet has changed the politics of nations and states by allowing people around the world to express their personal opinions of other countries and states political issues. Not only can individuals express their political opinions to their own leaders but to political leaders of other countries around the world (Gibson, Kay & War, 1998). It allows political information to be easily transmitted globally, consequently a country or states individual politics are shared worldwide (Ferdinand, 2000).

In conclusion the Internet and its affiliated communication applications have changed and revolutionized politics by promoting worldwide communication and democratic behavior. It’s ability to be used as a library for political research, communication and voting tools promotes proactive political behavior. It’s marketing and advertisement capabilities exceed broadcasting media because it provides two-way interactivity and communication. The Internet has promotes and aided the growth of democracy worldwide consequently revolutionizing politics.

References

1. Bimber, B. 1998. The Internet and Political Transformation: Populism, Community, and Accelerated Pluralism. Questia Journals, [online]. Vol. 31, Available: http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst;jsessionid=KgHYlXhDN8xLJHpyv3StsMfl896klmGH8QL2sTCVHb2tsJ5z3b2f!-1296496085!1483277828?docId=5001377842 [accessed September 28, 2009].

2. Boutin, P. 2009. President Obama Abandons Twitter. Gadget Wise, Available:http://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/25/president-obama-abandons-twitter/ [accessed October 3, 2009].

3. Davis, R & Owen, D.1998 New Media and American Politics. London: Oxford University Press.

4. Ferdinand, P. 2000. The Internet Democracy and Democratization. London: Routledge Publishers.

5. Geiselhart, K & Gibson, R. 2006. Electronic Democracy? The Impact of New Communications Technologies on Australian Democracy. Democratic Audit, Accessed:http://www.democraticaudit.anu.edu.au/papers/focussed_audits/20060809_chen_etal_electr_dem.pdf [accessed October 3, 2009].

6. Gibson, K. Kay, R & War, S. 1998. Political Parties and the Internet. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

7. Gibson, K, Oates, S, & Owen. 2006. Internet and Politics: Citizens, Voters and Activists. London: Routledge Publishers.

8. Hously, S. 2008. The Influence of Technology on Politics. Available: http://www.feedforall.com/influence-of-technology.htm [accessed October 1 2009].

9. Landes, L. 2005. Internet voting: The end of Democracy. Online Journal, Available: http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/090403Landes/090403landes.html [accessed September 25, 2009].

10. Slodkowski, A. 2009. Politicians Tap Twitter to Tweak Profiles. Japan Times. Available: http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20090729f1.html [accessed 1 October 2009].

11. Wilson, S & Peterson, L. 2002. The Anthropology of Online Communities. Annual review of Anthropology, [online]. Vol. 31: 449-46, Available: http://arjournals.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.anthro.31.040402.085436?select23=Choose&cookieSet=1&journalCode=anthro [accessed October 3, 2009].

Week 9- Tute task- the essay sources

The question i have chosen is question 4: What are the uses/limits of the internet in terms of politics and/or democracy? Should we rethink the nature of the political? What happens to the nation/state in the age of networks that have the potential to span the whole planet? What has happened to the idea of "community" in the age of networked digital media? Discuss with an example.

I I have used Google scholar, a few books from the library and journal articles accessed through Griffith Uni. Some of my essay sources are as follows:

1. Political parties and the Internet: net gain? By Rachel Kay Gibson, Paul Nixon, Stephen War

- It discusses the effects of the internet on politics

- The information is opinionative rather than informative however the informative areas match up with other sources.

- It will to help me to from an opinion on the effect the Internet has had on politics.

2. The Internet and politics: citizens, voters and activists By Sarah Oates, Diana Marie Owen, Rachel Kay Gibson

- It discusses whether or not the internet can make a difference in the building and challenging of politics

- The case studies are scenic rather than opinionative which suggests the source is reliable

- It includes scientific case studies which I can use as evidence in my arguments

3. New media and American politics By Richard Davis, Diana Marie Owen

- It discuss the effect of new media specifically on campaigns

- I am yet to read the majority of the crucial parts so I cant confirm whether or not it matches other sources

- It will give me a greater understanding as to how the internet has effected campaigns- this will help me to form an argument on the effect the internet has created for campaigns.

4. Internet politics: states, citizens, and new communication technologies / Andrew Chadwick.

Author: Chadwick, Andrew.

- This book sounds helpful but it’s out of the library at the moment but due back in next week.

5.'Politicians tap Twitter to tweak profiles', Antoni Slodkowski. McClatchy - Tribune Business News. Washington: Jul 29, 2009.

-It discusses how politicians are now using twitter as a political too

- Its like no other sources I have come across but everything is backed by statistics and there is a reference list, therefore its seem reliable.

- I can you this article as evidence to support my argument that political self promotion is widely available and utilized on the web

Week 9- The week i was sick/ net poetic.com reading

I missed this week lecture as i was sick and there are no lecture notes so i have decided to comment on the reading instead.

The required exploration/reading this week is pretty funny. It’s titled “Ten reasons why I hate Digital literature”. Its a blog post covering why ‘eabigelow’ (bloggers name) doesn’t appreciate digital literature. It’s a pretty entertaining read. He claims that 1- no one knows what digital literature is, 2- to create it requires sitting a computer screen alot , 3- you can easily over edit your work and ruin it even more than before your began editing it and 4- Typos are your fault if you in work in digital literature because there is no editor to edit your work before its published.

The argument I find the most interest and humorous is definitely the fact that over editing is so easily available when you’re writing on the web and on a computer. You can so easily edit and alter your work on a computer; it becomes an obsession to tweak it because it’s so easy to do. You can over edit so much that you end up where you began.

Week 8- tute tasks

I cant believe how many online petitions there are! i had a browse through heaps of them but i ended up signing a petition to stop over head powerlines being put up around Eumudi. The power lines were said to ruin the scenery and be potencailly dangerous to residents, hence I signed the petition. If anyone is interested the link is

http://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/view/EPetitions_QLD/CurrentEPetition.aspx?PetNum=1290

I scoped out Barrack Obama on you tube today and apparently on Septemeber 16^th 2009 he called Kayne West a 'jack ass'. Pretty funny stuff, I think he was referring to the incident where Tailor Swift went to accept her award and Kayne said to the audience that Beyonce should have won it. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTt5Jj0k-pg)

Anna Bligh is my local representative, I could find her most recent speech online but I will comment on her being a contestant on celebrity master chef. Not quite sure what she is thinking there? She should just do the job people voted for her in to do.

Week 8- The non lecture

Politics, Not one of my favourite topics but I’ll give it go…so I read the notes from lecture and this is what I grasped from it…first I’m going to have too define a few terms in my own words, just so I can understand them. Apologies, I know it’s a boring read!

Cyber politics: politics that exists on the internet ie; activities that occurs between bloggers.

E-democracy: the Internets contribution to politics that exists on the Internet. Eg; campaigning on the Internet, voting on the Internet.

Democracy: The government of the people, by the people, for the people

While on the topic of E-democracy I think it’s important to mention how much the Internet has changed voting. The net has giving a whole new avenue for the voting system not just through advertisement but also through education. People can self educate themselves and hear others political opinions before making decisions of their own. Political blogs, educational sites can all help to inform those who are interested. The web has enabled people from all different backgrounds to discuss and express their opinion regarding politics.

Considering there is so much information from that lecture I am going to concentrate one area that I found interesting. Walter Benjamin’s argument from his writings ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’ is one that is extremely famous today. He argued that new technologies (film/photography) freed art from its traditional, cult and bourgeois values. He described works of art as being attached to an 'aura' (ie; having traditional value) and when photographs, film and the ability to mass produce came into to picture the ‘aura’ of art works ceased to exist because art could be viewed by anyone. He believed that the tearing down the aura enabled people to view art work completely differently as the work was now freed from it traditional value. This is an argument I can agree with, when works of art are placed in a gallery, framed and behind glass they have degree of authority over arts work on posters, magazines ect. Its crazy to think that mass production and the media have changed the way art it viewed by society. Its appreciated not just because its location (gallery) tells you to appreciate it.

Week 7- video activity

Week 7 lecture- Community, Collaboration, Choice

This weeks lecture was pretty interesting and informative. I must admit I had no idea about free software licenses till today. I have and use mozilla fire fox but other than that I have no non proprietary software. However after today I am definetly going to scope some out, especially because I actually prefer fire fox to safari.

Now a little bit about the licenses around and what they mean. Creative commons makes licenses available that enable some rights reserved rather than all rights reserved. It was heavily influenced by the influx on free software available.

Free open source software in my opinion is great! It allows users to access source codes thereby allowing users to alter or improve the program. It also allows people to legally share this information with others. Its great that people can put their ideas and needs forward and make them reality by changing the way a program function to suit their needs. Its collaborative in a way that specifically targets what the consumers wants because the consumers contribute to create it.

According to the lecture the community are people who want to share information with the public in order to benefit others. Collaboration involves people working together to create better products.

Proprietary software is the software that the majority of us have and pay to use and doesn’t have much to do with collaboration of community. It is software that (in my personal experience) constantly malfunctions and requires you to talk to frustrating customer service representatives to fix the problem. In most cases it never seems to getting fixed. Unlike open source software you cannot access the code, nor can you legally alter or share the software. This lecture was a great eye opener in that it educated us on software that is available to us for free!

Week 6- consumption and production

The main topics discussed in this week lectures was consumption and production which I must admit sounded pretty boring when I first read the title, however its actually pretty interesting and relevant...

Technology has allowed consumers to have a part in the creation. For example; producing your own facebook identity (big screen) or designing your own layout of your ipod (small screen).

It was also brought up in the lectures about news creating a field for content to be produced. I’d never really noticed it before but on a second look a lot of the news channels have no problems using civilian/amateur video footage and photos. Quality is desirable but not imperative. What is important is that they at least have some footage to provide to the public. In fact a teacher from a photojournalism subject I took told us that if professional equipment is unavailable then to use a phone or compact camera. Apparently it’s satisfactory to have a low quality image/video, as it’s better than nothing.

That’s probably why we are seeing so many home videos on the news these days- if a home recording shows incidents more dramatically then the professional cameramen its sure to be used as well. For example, a hurricane filmed by a family in the middle of it as apposed to a camera man recording it from the outside. In that instance the home footage would be valuable to the media.

This brings a whole new element to the news (in a sense its collaborative with the public) and to the idea of consumers creating. None of this would be possible without the new technologies that are widely available to us today.

Week 6- video activity

Week 5- lecture Summary

What I gathered from this weeks lecture is the understanding between media and technology and how they have worked together change the world we live in. The lecture discussed the evolution of social media and how it allows us to have a whole new world on the internet.

Concepts that were discussed include ‘Individual identity’- according to the lecture it allows individuals to experiment with different forms of themselves on a virtual level. The internet allows them to have various identities. Programs like second life take this idea to the extreme as you can totally create a new virtual life for yourself. I find it great that people can have fun with sort of stuff but at the same times it’s a little creepy that people get so involved in a ‘life’ that is fake/virtual. ‘Virtual community’ on the other hand involves people discussing interests on the web. Through this social connections are made.

 

One of the other areas of the lecture I found interest was the question raised toward the end, Are we consumers or creators?  

When you think about it utilities like Blogger, Facebook and My space cannot exist without us (the consumers), however we could not create these profiles for ourselves without the (creators). We as individuals didn’t create Facebook or Blogger, but we are too some extent also creators. The content we put on the internet and how we choose to display it is our creation. Although we are limited by terms and conditions and certain specification its still our creation. For example we don’t choose how our Facebook profile appears, we choose what appears on it. I suppose in a sense Facebook/ Blogger ect is like a collaborative project/art work. There is an idea or creation but the need for others to bring that creation to life.

Week 5- Facebook- The Utility That Connects People

Facebook is excellent to use to connect with current friends or make new ones, however what exactly are the stipulations involved when you create a facebook account? More importantly what are you actually agreeing too when you click the “accept” on the term and conditions page that you no one ever reads?

This topic was investigated during the week 5 tute and was I found very interesting especially as a photography student. According to facebook, “You own all of the content and information you post on Facebook”. However facebook sais you agree to the following: “For content covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos ("IP content"), you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook ("IP License").

From what I can gather, this means any photos or videos you choose to post on facebook are not copyrighted and can be used facebook or anyone else who can get their hand on them.

The only way to avoid this contract is too end your account, however if images of yours are still on others accounts, they are still up for grabs. Privacy settings can be altered to help prevent this from occurring. The lesson learned here is if you have any images which you are planning to sell, don’t want others to see or use, do not post them on facebook.

You tube video on the Media Revolution- some pretty crazy predictions!

Week 4- lecutre

The idea that was brought up toward the end of today’s lecture about using web applications such as you tube as marketing tools interested me

Sites which everyones familiar with; you tube, my space, facebook ect are readily being used as marketing and advertising tools. For example many people create facebook accounts for their business. The example used in the lecture was film makers and actors uploading their video on you tube are advertising their skills for anyone in the world to see.  Many actors in these short, home made films are now working actors and have small internet film projects to partly thank for their success. 

I find it pretty great that anyone of any age, race and background can promote / advertise themselves of the net. Other forms of communication such as tv, radio marketing cost a fortune and have all sort of stipulations. Self promoting on the internet is free or very cheap. Definitely something i will keep in mind for the future, especially if i work a freelancer.