Poli Sci Internet Essay

Deliberative polling, started by James Fishkin, is a process wherein random citizens are invited to deliberate on certain issues before and after education on such issues. After initial polling, these citizens enter into interactions with experts and leaders based on their questions about the issues, and given the same polling questions. The process is recorded and broadcast, in the hopes of reaching viewers to educate them about the issues. Changes in opinion before and after the polling support Fishkin’s stance that citizens are generally uninformed about issues, other than the usual sound-bites. Panel polling describes the act of recruiting panelists—people who specifically reflect opinions of a certain demographic—and polling these panelists on certain issues. The panelist may be compensated for their time or be volunteers. The Internet has changed the face of communication. Forums, which are the Internet’s version of bulletin boards but used for discussions, can bring citizens together to discuss issues. Both deliberative polling and panel polling can be achieved through a forum, where experts and leaders may also visit the site to interact with citizens. E-mail lists may be used for both types of polling, but the e-mail of the participants and their political geographies must be known in order to assess demographics. However, not every citizen uses the Internet, and polling through the Internet may miss large sections of the population. http://cdd. stanford. edu/polls/ – â€Å"Center for Deliberative Democracy† http://www. iht. com/articles/2007/05/27/bloomberg/poll28. php –â€Å"Polling Goes Online, with A Recruited Panel† http://www. mysterypollster. com/main/2005/07/internet_pollin. html — â€Å"Internet Polling: Unfulfilled Promise† 3. Democratic National Party – Leftist/liberal — http://www. democrats. org/ Republican Party—Rightist/conservative — http://www. rnc. org/ Constitution Party—Rightist/conservative — http://www. constitution-party. net/ Green Party—Leftist/liberal — http://www. gp. org/ Libertarian party—Center — http://www. lp. org/ All of these sites have several of the basic choices on the front page: about the party, donation, e-mail lists, get involved, news, key party values, press releases, a blog, and links encouraging citizens to register to vote. The Green, Constitution, and Republican Party, however, lack easy-to-find links so that party members can connect to each other online; the DNP and LP offer links from their front pages to join online groups for those interested in the party. Both the GOP and the DNP do not have information regarding â€Å"becoming a candidate†, while the Green, Constitution, and Libertarian Parties do. Unsurprisingly, because they are the two major parties in the US, both the RP and the DNC offer more material on their websites, such as more details on party organization and leadership. The Libertarian Party has a bit more information than the Green and Constitution Parties. From my perusal of the websites, the Constitution Party’s is the least interactive. There are many informative links, but the only link in which a member might be connected to another member is through the â€Å"Events† link. The Green Party website is similar. The Libertarian Party has a web page devoted to social networks such as Meetup or LinkedIn, the DNP offers its own â€Å"partybuilder† to connect members, and the GOP has a customizable social network â€Å"MyGOP†. It is not whether a party is left or right-leaning that determine the interactivity of its web content, but the party’s size. Larger parties have more members that donate money in order to design, program, and create larger websites that offer more. 4. Although creating any website is relatively easy, it’s not so easy to organize, create, and maintain a large, dynamic website. Any website must offer its customers clarity yet also be informative and not confusing. If the information must look good and be organized, then design and page layout are factors. If interaction is desired, then more programming is needed. In addition, time spent creating a website is money, and larger, more programming-heavy websites do cost more to make and maintain. From the five websites I have browsed, the larger, more detailed websites belonged to the parties who were larger and could raise more money. Therefore I don’t agree with the claim that the Internet levels the playing field between all parties. Furthermore, there are many people in the U. S. who do not have access to the Internet, or who don’t use the Internet for news or video. People who live in remote areas, or are a generation removed from the Internet age, may have difficulties. It may be that some of these people cannot afford Internet access, or cannot access the Internet as easily as others. These people would be harder to reach if parties relied solely on websites to gain their audience. So even with the wide availability, the Internet may still not reach all citizens. However, it is an easy and inexpensive task to simply put up an informative page without the bells and whistles. In this way, the Internet can make the playing field more even. The existence of blogs and online magazines shows this. But I think that the Internet can be used in addition to traditional methods of connecting people—door-to-door, telephone calls, postal mail—in order to make a campaign more effective. The Internet is also a great way to tap into those who do use it day-to-day and are familiar with it. 5. 1. Middleberg Associates surveyed that in 1998, 50% of newspapers were online or had plans to go online. F – the number is 90%. 2. Low costs are the major factor in a news organization’s move onto the Web. –T 3. PoliticsNow was a joint collaboration between NBC News, National Journal, and the Washington Post. – F—It was a joint collaboration with ABC News, not NBC. 4. The most important advantage of online advertising is the ability to target certain aspects of the audience. –T 5. The most common web advertisement is the Flash ad. –F—The most common advertisement is the banner ad. 6. Being able to charge subscribers is a revenue alternative. –T 7. The benefits of charging subscribers outweigh the benefits of free content. –F—When websites charge for their content, traffic decreases. 8. The Wall Street Journal is one of the few newspapers that charge a subscriber base successfully. –T 9. Usually, libraries can use archival databases free of charge. –F—It’s customary for newspapers and magazines to charge libraries to use their archival databases. 10. Three major nontraditional news organizations are The Drudge Report, Salon, and Slate. –T 11. The first big story to break online was regarding the Unibomber. –F—The first big story to break online was Timothy McVeigh’s confession to the Oklahoma City bombing. 12. A common Web-enabled feature is the search engine. –T 13. The first television show with supplementary web content was Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. –F—The show was Survivor. 14. The number of people going online for news rose from 1% in 1995 to 16% by 2002. –T 15. There is no age gap in online news consumers. –F—18- to 29-year-olds go online for news five times that of those over age 65. 6. The 109th Congress passed the most bills in the last ten years (1998-2008). 7. a. List of ways in which the Internet impacts relationship between nations: 1. Communications—people around the world can e-mail each other, and even meet via the Internet, for business, political, or personal reasons. 2. Information—Nations, and regions within nations, can advertise, introduce, or just inform people all over the about their culture and locations. Embassies and consulates have their own websites, and tourism can be influenced by what information people find online. 3. Organization—The Internet can help bring people together and organize them, across country borders. For example, it is possible to access websites from abroad about political candidates in one’s home nation, and meet others in one’s political party despite vast distances. Another example is that a presidential candidate can use the Internet to gather groups of people and organize them. b. List the ways that the Internet impacts the relationships between non-national actors. 1. The Internet makes small communications faster, via e-mail or online messaging, which can be a part of a multi-tasking worker’s day. 2. The Internet is a great tool to bring strangers together for causes or concerns, such as petitions or volunteer polling. 3. News shows often have a supplementary website in which viewers can comment with each other in real-time, such as Cafferty Files.