[Air-l] democracy & culture; political flash apps

[S Clift]

My recent radio take on Internet and campaigning presented Italy:
http://audio-5.radioradicale.it/ramgen/s1.9.11/uni_punzi_0_20030713162707.r
m?start="00:21:27"&end="00:24:50"

More:
http://www.radioradicale.it/servlet/VideoPublisher?cmd=segnalaGoNew&livello
=s1.9.11&file=uni_punzi_0_20030713162707.txt

"Making a difference" ... look between elections, particularly at the local
level where "citizens" can see the results of their online efforts making a
difference in their "real world".

Steven Clift
http://www.publicus.net

> -----Original Message-----
> From: air-l-admin at aoir.org [mailto:air-l-admin at aoir.org]On Behalf Of
> Jennifer Stromer-Galley
> Sent: Thursday, July 10, 2003 1:50 PM
> To: air-l at aoir.org
> Subject: RE: [Air-l] democracy & culture; political flash apps
>
>
> I know this thread died out, but I've been thinking about Philip's post
> as I've been painting rooms in my house in Philadelphia to sell, so that
> I can get moved up to Albany.
>
> The question I'm mulling over is, what is the bottom line? How does one
> tell if the Internet "has made a difference" in any context, really, but
> specifically as it relates to political campaigns. Pundits say that the
> bottom line is winning the election. That's the ultimate goal of the
> mainstream candidate, and so that's the test to which the Internet
> should be put. But, Philip argues that the Internet has made a
> difference in campaigns where the candidate didn't win. But, I'm stuck
> on that pesky question, how has it made a difference? If winning isn't
> the criterion, then what set of criteria are we talking about? What IS
> the model? Is it mobilization of voters? Is it information dissemination
> about the candidate? Both? Do we know it when we see it? How do we
> measure it?
>
> I also want to pause a sec., and backtrack and say that it's not that
> the Internet by its existence makes a difference, but makes a difference
> in how it is used. So, really the question is, how does the Internet get
> used to "makes a difference" in a positive way for democratic
> government?
>
> Alright, back to painting . . . .
>
> ~JSG
> P.S. I'm including Philip's last note to refresh memories, since it's
> been a few weeks.
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: air-l-admin at aoir.org [mailto:air-l-admin at aoir.org] On
> > Behalf Of Philip N. Howard
> > Sent: Wednesday, July 02, 2003 1:43 PM
> > To: air-l at aoir.org
> > Subject: [Air-l] democracy & culture; political flash apps
> >
> >
> > AIR Friends:
> > I am a big fan of describing the role of the internet in
> > political life as a story of democracy and culture.  For a
> > candidate, the bottom line may be winning.  For candidates,
> > the bottom line may be winning, but I would disagree with JSG
> > if she means that the 'bottom line' for those of us studying
> > political culture should be candidate victories.  Stories
> > about politics online always involve some exciting new
> > innovation and some disheartening stories of ugly political
> > tricks.  So both McCain and Bradley campaigns were innovative
> > in that they used the Internet to organize decent campaigns
> > in states where they had no paid full-time staff.  They
> > raised big bucks online, but only after media blitz on the
> > possibilities of an upset and many of those "pledges" were
> > taken over the phone and processed through webforms by
> > volunteers sitting at campaign HQ.
> >
> > I don't think its going out on a limb to say there are a
> > number of legislative campaigns, both elite lobbyist and
> > grassroots campaigns, that have won _because_ of the
> > internet.  If this is out on a limb I'd hope it can be part
> > of JSG's tree.
> >
> > It is really important to move beyond win/loss measures of
> > the internet's role in political culture.  Looking for
> > internet effects the traditional polisci way means treating a
> > bunch of phenomena additively, such that campaign
> > communications strategy is one of a dozen factors (along with
> > charisma, financing, platform) that add up to a explain a
> > candidate's victory.  Will the internet be making a
> > difference when a wired campaign strategy (wired/not wired)
> > provides 51% of the explained variation in electoral outcomes
> > (candidate win/loose)?  Even if you could create the database
> > for such a model, I'd bet that the role of the internet in
> > candidate campaigns is increasingly important yet
> > increasingly ubiquitous, not increasingly pronounced and
> > distinct.  Being interested in political culture should mean
> > looking for the contours of complex interaction between the
> > variables.  As a Ventura IT guy said, they "didn't win
> > because of the internet, but wouldn't have won without it."
> > With the traditional, additive analytical frame, this
> > statement from the Ventura campaign would make their case
> > unworthy of study.
> >
> > I think the internet made a difference in the 2000
> > Presidential election, where difference = deep part of
> > political culture, not wired campaign = victory.  I think
> > secondary candidates like McCain, Bradley and Nader got
> > further than expected; campaign communications were
> > significantly more agile than in 1996; online posturing
> > became a crucial part of impression management in the 48
> > hours after the Florida recount debacle.  Activists dreamed
> > up some really effective apps, including vote-swapping apps,
> > candidate-citizen affinity matching apps, campaign finance
> > tracking apps and more.  They also generated a huge volume of
> > political humor in the form of jokes, art, flash ads etc,
> > which circulated well beyond activist networks.
> >
> > I agree Dean's campaign is innovative and seems to have
> > really integrated internet-based apps into its campaign
> > communications strategies.  But will he or the richer
> > campaigns be using the bots that join lists to promote and
> > 'engage' list members?  What kind of datamining will they do
> > online?  What are the internal power relations like between
> > IT consultants and other campaign workers?
> >
> > BTW i'm building a collection of political flash apps at
> > http://faculty.washington.edu/pnhoward/polart.> html
> > Do AIRers
> > have any others I should add?  There are a
> > dozen there to play with, but i'd love more! Phil Philip N.
> > Howard Assistant Professor Department of Communication
> > University of Washington
> >
> >
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