E-Democracy

The rise of ‘e-democracy’

1,668,870,408 people use the internet every day. (Internet world statistics, 2009) The internet is a revolutionary source that is used for many reasons, the most common being for communication. Not only communication via social networking sites, but also through news and instant messaging. In recent years, the internet has become an essential part of politics. According to Merriam Webster’s online Dictionary, Politics is the art or science of government, through winning and holding control over a government. Through online campaigning, online advertising and even now the suggestion of online voting, it can be seen that politics has moved into the world of cyberspace.

The internet has become a part of daily life, and is used more than anyone could have ever predicted. Is could be said that the internet has no boundaries of what it is capable of, and can reach target audiences of millions of people. With the services that are available such as twitter and other social networking sites, the age of digital communication within the political sphere has taken off. Twitter is a popular site for politicians, according to Antoni Slodkowski (2009), “On a busy day, politicians post up to 200 messages. Each consists of no more than 140 characters and in some cases is viewed by more than 5,000 readers.”

Politicians take to the internet to bring a sense of personability back to their image. The idea of "community" in the age of networked digital media has been slowly taken away, as words through a computer screen are much less effective than those spoken and viewed. In October 2007, just before the federal election, AAP General News Wire reported that both leaders were taking to the internet to discuss religion with voters. Kevin Rudd and John Howard used the internet to converse with many voters about religion and christianity. “100,000 Christians around the country are expected to pack into more than 700 venues to watch the event, which will be streamed live on the internet from the National Press Club in Canberra.” This event added to the many way in which both political leaders took to the internet to push their campaign.

Online campaigning and advertising reaches a large audience, and therefore is ideal for politicians to use during a campaign period. A survey completed by Jim Galloway in 2008 showed “Ten percent of all Americans have used vehicles like Facebook or MySpace for political activity.” He went on to say that “young adults in particular these sites are a key component of the online political experience: 66 percent of Internet users under the age of 30 have a social networking profile, and half of the young profile users use social networking sites to get or share information about the candidates and the campaign." However, Social networking sites are not the only internet sources that are viewed and used for political advertising.

The News is another wonderful source of advertising for any form of politics. Bartholomew sparrow stated that “The U.S. president, the media, and public opinion survey data all represent the American public: the U.S. president serves as the personification and symbol of the U.S. government to the press and people alike; the news and opinion publicized in the media constitute the public sphere; and public opinion polls are accepted as indicators of the public's opinions and beliefs.”

Another prime example of online campaigning is that of United States Lumberton mayoral candidate, Gene Stewart. He stated that he prefers to use the internet to connect with people as "You can only get out so much information in short conversations, but if you can get people to look at your Web page, they can learn so much more about me in a short time."

Internet voting is another idea that has been widely suggested, as more people use the internet than those who vote on Election Day. The Federal Government have been investigating an electoral reform, in an attempt to lure voters into casting their vote on Election Day. Ninemsn news reported that the federal government were investigating a “range of issues affecting the electoral process, such as lowering the voting age, who should be eligible to vote, the use of technology and fixed electoral terms.” The report went on to say that the opposition claim that voting through the internet could cause a whole new set of problems. Both the US and UK have considered using online voting, as it has more accurate results and increases number of citizens who vote. (Parliamentary office of Science and Technology, 2009


When Barack Obama was elected as U.S President in 2008, the world was at a stand still. Thanks to the internet, people from all over the world could follow the election results live online with state by state results. In the age of digital networks that have the potential to span the whole planet, the relationship between politics and the internet is inevitable. In this example with the presidential election, people from all over the world watched, even though it was not their country. Due to politics taking to the internet, people can have a better understanding of not only their local, state, and federal politicians, but also now the international politicians, who all have a bearing on the way that we live. Through political institutions such as the UN, international politician’s impact on the way our country is run, so it is important for people to be able to follow these politicians and understand them, as we do our own.

The internet is undoubtedly a very strong political institution, as it has millions of users all around the world. Through the internet politicians can market them selves, they can talk personally to people they would not ordinarily be able to talk to, they can spread their message to the whole world and the internet can also be used for voting online and census’. The internet is an integral part of politics, helping politicians to spread their message, whilst keeping up to date with new communication technologies.

Reference List

Election Centre, 2008. CNN Politics. President – Election Centre 2008. http://edition.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/results/president/

Fed: Howard, Rudd to address Christians over the net. 2007. AAP General News Wire August 8 1. http://www.proquest.com.libraryproxy.griffith.edu.au/

Galloway, J. 2008. Political Insider: On the Internet, politics, and GOP wariness of social networking. The Atlanta Journal -Constitution, June 16, http://www.proquest.com.libraryproxy.griffith.edu.au/

Internet World Stats: Usage and Population statistics, 2009. Internet usage and population in Oceania http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats6.htm

Merriam Webster Online Dictionary, 2009. Merriam Webster: Politics http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/politics

O’Malley, S. 2009. Nine MSN News. Online voting could be on the cards http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/866842/online-voting-could-be-on-the-cards

Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, 2001. Post note: Online Voting Number 155. http://www.parliament.uk/post/pn155.pdf

Shehane, J. 2009. Some candidates go to cyberspace; others stick with face-to-face campaigns. McClatchy - Tribune Business News March 31 http://www.proquest.com.libraryproxy.griffith.edu.au/

Slodkowski, A 2009. Politicians tap Twitter to tweak profiles. McClatchy -Tribune Business News July 29 http://www.proquest.com.libraryproxy.griffith.edu.au/

Sparrow, B. 2008. Who Speaks for the People? The President, the Press, and Public Opinion in the United States. Presidential Studies Quarterly 38, no. 4,(December 1):578-592. http://www.proquest.com.libraryproxy.griffith.edu.au/

The Assignment!!

Well hi there blogger friends,

Hope all of your assignments are going well. I'm not having to many difficulties writing the actual assignment suprisingly. My only problem is that I have sooooooooo much that I want to write.....

I wrote out a plan - with different catagories. I split the question up into it's seperate components and I found an example for each part of the qestion. Unfortunately I state it so blatently because of the word limit!!! I don't get to delve in and analyze the closer aspects of it, which is what I love to do.

I don't know how anything I write will stay under the word limit. - Hello! Politics!! Ha.... word limit. I just hope that it all works out, it's been such an interesting topic, but my brain is frying with all the assessment going on, so very very soon it will be over, and my brain can go back to sipping cocktails.... oh wait, that will be me!

Any who, best of luck friends, I look forward to peeping at your assignments over the weekend!

Until the next chapter...
xxx

So long and thanks for all the fish...

Well, my blogging is coming to an end for this subject. And, as a final task, we have to post a course evaluation!

I really enjoyed this course. It had all the elements of a good subject, it had variety, humor and most importantly FUN!

The tutorital tasks sometimes asked a bit much of us, for instance, I hardly had time to make the 3 minute video. For another subject I had to create a 4 minute video, and it was worth almost a quarter of our mark, where as this one is worth, well, nothing.

But I can't complain, I had fun making it!

This course was really great, and I would recommend it to anyone looking to explore the internet further.

It wasn't exactly what the course outline said it would be, but I still really enjoyed it.

So, thank you for this opportunity to be introduced to the online blogging world, congratulations, I'm addicted. So much so that I have started my own blog at tumblr.com

feel free to follow me there, if you think you will have withdrawal symptoms of my blogs.
http://brerose.tumblr.com/

Until the next chapter....
xx
Bre

Tutorial task - week 9

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 thewhole planet? What has happened to the idea of "community" in the age of networked digital media? Discuss with an example.

I have chosen this topic because I am really interested in politics, and I know that it is relevant as just last week Kevin Rudd announced that he was considering online voting! The way the question is worded also looks like it will be an easy essay to plan. That is, one paragraph per question that is posed.

So, off to the library journals!! Seeing as this is a ‘using new technology’ course, I’m sure that it shouldn’t be a problem if most of our sources are online!!


http://proquest.umi.com.libraryproxy.griffith.edu.au/pqdweb?index=0&did=1809434841&SrchMode=1&sid=2&Fmt=3&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1253756134&clientId=13713

This is a good document that I found about politicians using TWITTER! I haven’t seen any other information like this. We all know that politicians use twitter, but I find it amusing that this research was done! This will help my argument, as it is a prime example of online campaigning.
“On a busy day, politicians post up to 200 messages. Each consists of no more than 140 characters and in some cases is viewed by more than 5,000 readers.”

http://proquest.umi.com.libraryproxy.griffith.edu.au/pqdweb?index=1&did=1670189041&SrchMode=1&sid=3&Fmt=3&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1253757007&clientId=13713
This is an article about politicians using the internet for campagining. Through typing in “Internet AND Poltics”, I have found many articles simaler to this, but this was the best I found. It is another prime example of online campagining.
"You can only get out so much information in short conversations, but if you can get people to look at your Web page, they can learn so much more about me in a short time."

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/866842/online-voting-could-be-on-the-cards
This is an article from NineMSN news.It’s about how in the future voting could be carried out online. It’s a new idea that I don’t think will actually be carried out. It’s another example of how internet is taking over our daily lives.
“In its second green paper on electoral reform, released Wednesday, the government canvasses a range of issues affecting the electoral process, such as lowering the voting age, who should be eligible to vote, the use of technology and fixed electoral terms.”

http://proquest.umi.com.libraryproxy.griffith.edu.au/pqdweb?index=4&did=1499400371&SrchMode=1&sid=1&Fmt=2&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1253846961&clientId=13713
This jornal is mainly american, however the internet is such a wide source, that I think I may have to expand my assignment into a global idea.
“Ten percent of all Americans have used vehicles like Facebook or MySpace for political activity: "For young adults in particular these sites are a key component of the online political experience: 66 percent of Internet users under the age of 30 have a social networking profile, and half of the young profile users use social networking sites to get or share information about the candidates and the campaign."

http://proquest.umi.com.libraryproxy.griffith.edu.au/pqdweb?index=1&did=1365678311&SrchMode=1&sid=3&Fmt=3&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1253847309&clientId=13713
This source speaks mainly about Kevin Rudd and John Howard talking to Christians regarding religion and politics over the internet. But it stems much wider than just this, it is politicians conversing with people over the internet, which is key argument to the rise of e-democracy.
“As many as 100,000 Christians around the country are expected to pack into more than 700 venues to watch the event, which will be streamed live on the internet from the National Press Club in Canberra.”

Lecture 9

Hello again!

Wow, wow and wow! What more can I say about todays lecture. It was fantastic. I was talking to some friends as we left and we all just LOVED it!!!

The lecture subject was called 'cyberutopia' - following from the other lecture last week. (Or was it the week before?) We had a guest lecturer, Jason Nelson. He had all of us captivated. It wasn't a great turn out for the lecture I thought, those who didn't go sure missed out!

So, Jason talked about using the internet for different reasons. Like, for instance, I mainly use it for research and social networking. And, as Jason mentioned, Social Networking is the main reason that people use the internet. Not just sites like Facebook and Twitter, but in forms of blogging, comments and email - Communication!!

I loved the description of Social Networking Sites that Jason used, How there is a trend, like for instance - Myspace was all the rage. Then it was bebo and flickr, now facebook and twitter!! I find that amusing because I have followed that exact pattern with my internet usage! It was like, the rise and fall of websites or something. Very interesting. I had sort of noticed that already, but I thought it was just my age group!!

We went through a lot of websites, including Jason's own website, Secret Technology. It was so awesome and trippy!!!

It was wayyyy too much info to take in, and if I hadn't looked back at my lecture notes for this one, I wouldn't have remembered everything he said... I wish Jason was a book, so I could read so much more!!!

And on the note - I shall leave, I hope everyone has happy and productive holidays! See you in a week!!! (That is, after I post my tutorial tasks tomorrow!!!)

=)

Until the next chapter...

Video!!

Here is my long awaited 3 minute video!! So, my first video was 1minute long and was - what I liked to say -my life in one minute.

So when I relised we have to expand on the I thought to myelf - "Oh crap!! I've already put my life into a minute - how can I expand on that?"

Well my friends, I can, and did. The music used is an original song that I wrote. I don't claim to be an artist, so please, don't get me wrong, I'm not putting my music on there for everyone to say "Oh wow, she's a great singer!" Because I'm not, and I don't claim to be.

I added some pictures from now and there's a little bit of video of me singing and a little video of my puppy, he's just the cutest!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, enjoy, as much as possible anyway. Sorry for the delay in getting the video up, have been dealing wth other issues!!

Until the next chapter....

Lecture 8

Well, there was no lecture today, due to union strikes!

I would have LOVED to have gone to this lecture!!! Politics is what I am majoring in, and this would have been right up my ally. I hope we touch on it next week!! Yes, I'm strange, don't judge me. You're the one reading my blogs, you should be the one being judged.

Studying politics, it's funny for me to see terms like 'e-democracy', it made me giggle. But, there is a certain truth to the concept. In this modern era, a lot of politicians are turning to the internet to reach a larger audience.

I also loved the term 'Cyberpunk'. Yes, that's right cyberpunks, you're SO cool, having an opinion and fighting for something OVER THE INTERNET. If you believe in something you should get out there and do it. You rebellious punks, you!

I can see the point of William Gibson's ideas, but to be perfectly honest, I don't see how they relate to the course.... or indeed, the questions at hand in the lecture. I've always loved the theories of 'utopia' and 'dystopia' - they are so far-fetched, and amusing.

I never realised how many sub-sections of political ideals are presented on the internet. It's definitely an area I would like to explore more!!

I had fun with the tutorial tasks this week. I certainly hope this is elaborated on next lecture.

Until the next chapter...

~Bre