Faraz Janan
University of Oxford, UK
Hindman argues against the journalists andpundits who have made sweeping claims aboutinternet transformative potential fordemocracy, and suggests that the new onlinebosses are not very different from the old ones.
The author is embedded in the idea that internethas challenged traditional media and less beyondthat in terms of electoral politics.
A broad analysis of US presidential campaignswith respect to the websites is given in thebook, while the focus remained on the onlinebloggers.
The book is based on two part analysis, itpresents a technical survey on the politicalwebsites and a case study of Howard Dean’sonline campaign
How open is the internet architecture?
The issue of gatekeepers is debatable, compromised
freedom
Are online audience more decentralized than the
audience of traditional media?
Internet is as diverse as human imagination
How many citizens are heard in the cyber space?
Author believes just a few
Are those who end up getting heard have a more
accurate reflection of the broader public?
Bloggers suggests that
The internet IS making the politics less exclusive and less expensive At least in terms of fundraising and mobilization
It is empowering citizens at the expense of elites The rise of Howard Dean as the front runner and success of his
support base suggests that
Internet campaigning encourages Personal involvement and collective action Howard dean known supporters rose from a couple of thousand
to 640K
Author suggests that significant number of previously inactive members returned into political activism as a result of online campaigning
Internet has challenged the status quo, vested political interests, encouraged public debate, or have blurred traditional distinction btw elite and the mass public The donors distribution and average value of individual
donation in the case of internet campaigning advocates that
Digital divide – minority at disadvantage
Medium barriers – may compromise openness
Internet means the end of broadcasting
through organized media?
Internet based political organization is less
important in practice
The role of ‘gate keepers’, who decide what
people get to see, could also be manipulated
in the internet age. An analysis on search
engines on how websites are rated is
presented.
Author observe Dean’s online campaign as a failure
It was the first online political campaign than span 13 months
Dean had a couple thousand known supporters and $157K in the bank
Dean collected $50m from 300K individuals, withan average donation size of $80, where 99% ofindividual donors contributed $200 or less
640K signed supporters online and 189K wereeither willing or participated in the monthlymeetings
Total cost of the online campaign was less than$1m and a team of 25 people.
Dean online victory provide new tangible metricsof realization, such as number of websitehits, supportive blogs, online following and sign-ups.
Overall, Dean’s online success was taken asevidence that he has broad grass root support
Gen. Wesley Clark followed Dean in onlinepursuit.
The author suggests that political behaviour inonline world follows unexpected fault lines
Some observers dismissed Dean’s candidacy as afailed referendum on the importance of digitalpolitics
Author suggests that internet is a campaign forresource than campaign for voters
Anyone can make a political website, but
hardly matters if few political websites
receive high number of visitors
The number of links pointing to a website
determine its visibility
A small portion of the group should receive
most of the links – power rule
Heavily linked websites should continue to
receive more links
What aut hor t hought
What Dean t hought
What act ual l y happened
While the role of internet in political process is a global and continually refining phenomena, a sample case of US presidential elections is generalized over the basic idea.
Social media, such as Facebook, twitter, etc. are observed to have played more vital role recently in domestic opinion making, than personalized websites, which is ignored all together.
It covers the case of Howard Dean online campaign in 2004. The role of social media from that point onwards has expanded exponentially. For instance, the number of Facebook users and average time per active user in: December 2004 = 1 million - less than 1.5 hour/user/month
December 2012 = 1.06 billion - more than 12 hours/user/month
Twitter reached from 4.5 million users in 2009 to over 500 million in 2012
The book was sent for publication in 2008, which means it has not seen the Arab spring movements in the Middle East, Anna Hazara movement in India and many others on a smaller scale, that has/had internet as the primary driving force behind it.
Digital democracy is far from a myth, and evident from the political changes around the globe, it is shaping as a sound reality in political arena.
Egyptian revolution – mobilization at Tahrir square
Anna Hazare – from hunger strike to mainstream
political party and national reforms
Imran Khan
Cricket mega star, multi millionaire, built the
biggest free health charity hospital and university in
Pakistan = FAIL
Facebook viral of simplicity gestures = MOST
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