[Air-l] Myspace: social, oops, political networking

[W.Lusoli at lse.ac.uk]

Is it me or a number of social networking websites [facebook, myspace, essembly] have been recently poised to foster [directly, mind you] greater civic involvement?

My Political Space - Business week
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13940637/site/newsweek/

MySpace Pushes Public Service - Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/04/AR2006070401016.html?referrer=email

Participatory Media And The Pedagogy Of Civic Participation - Howard Rheingold
http://www.masternewmedia.org/news/2006/11/14/participatory_media_and_the_pedagogy.htm

Are these sites [I know, I know, not merely sites] really pushing the envelope, or is it just us academics fantasizing once more about new media and political engagement? Or none of the above? Need more research.

W