week 7: online politics
questions
Adoption- What third party campaigns have already begun to tap into the internet as a resource?
- What if the candidates themselves, or even their campaign managers or other staff, kept blogs during a campaign; how do you think this would affect the campaign?
- I think it will be interesting to see how future politicians and political parties will treat this potential. Will they use the internet to its fullest potential or ignore its possibilities?
Elections
- In the year 2008 we are going to have another presidential campaign. One can assume that each candidate will have a website for their campaign. Will the content, look and feel of each candidates' website have an effect on your opinion of them? Will it effect how you vote?
- Since politics online is becoming more and more common, do you think that one day we could even be voting on the internet? Why or why not?
- What are the possible drawbacks of all the internet grassroots campaigning when thinking about human contact and relating? Could this cause a disconnection in how close people feel to their cause?
- Will blogging have an impact on the elections? If so, what kind of impact and how?
- Will we see an increased dependence on the Internet from political candidates and officials in the future? Explain.
- What new online methods do you see arising in the future in regards to politics and political campaigns?
- How might pseudo-blogs harm a political campaign?
- It seems that IT is being utilized more by candidates who have an underground-type following. Do you think IT is more beneficial to David or Goliath? If high profile candidates such as McCain, Giuliani and Hilary utilize IT as much as lower profile candidates do, would the benefit be as great? Or is it a vehicle more appropriate for the little man?
- How does the emergence of Internet in politics change the dynamics of political audiences?
- "The people who say they're definitely supporting your candidate are assigned a "one." The people who say they're leaning your way get a "two." And the people who say they're for the other guy get a "three." Your job is to convert all your twos to ones and to keep your ones from sliding." Do you believe that blogging is now the method for persuasion or is calling still more effective?
- Do you think internet support for a candidate really increases the number of voters or support that a candidate receives, or are the people who already supporters simply making their presence known online?
- With the media becoming more vulgar over time, and political campaign ads on politician's websites more controversial and hostile than on TV, how do you see campaign ads evolving over time?
- Was what Trippi did to win the straw poll for Walter Mondale at the Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinner in 1983 legal? Ethical? Explain.
- Besides campaigns, how do you think the Internet will impact politics and how politicians are elected?
- Do you think there will ever be a blog that a presidential candidate actually takes part in?
- Do you think blogs will be influential in the next election? Why or why not?
Technology & Society
- In thinking about the WAVE community...are you involved in any online communities? Do you think they are the same as real life communities? Why or why not?
- Has the Internet influenced your perception of a specific political party? If yes, How so? If not, why don't you think so?
- Will you vote online in the future or will you vote at a physical polling station? Why did you choose what you chose?
- Do you vote currently? If you don't would being able to vote from a computer at home persaude you into voting? If you do, would you be interested in voting from home in the future?
- As a voter, what is the most effective way you are reached by a political
campaign?
- Have you ever joined a group (political, activist, etc.), and did that strengthen your commitment to its cause, weaken it, or have no affect? Do you think that joining a political campaign online would have this same effect and why?
- Do you think the internet will help to maintain or strengthen the relationship between the politician and the people, or will the internet increase the gap between the two? Explain your reasoning.
- Do you think that more people will actually run for office now that the Internet offers a more affordable way to campaign? Explain your reasoning
- If the Internet technology could "spare" the political candidates from traveling around the country by allowing them to talk to their supporters through a computer screen, would this online meeting effectively replace the face to face interaction? Explain.
- Are traditional political campaigns too impersonal?
- Will the Internet chatrooms and email substitute for old-fashioned political rallies and speeches to gain political support for campaigns?
- How can the proliferation of Internet in the political realm influence the type and number of people who participate and follow politics?
- Do you think people who do not have internet access are at a disadvantage in terms of political knowledge? Explain.
- As these articles discussed, internet support is one thing, but money is another. What could the possible future be of internet support and raising enough money to actually see that support put into play? Will the money always prevail?
- Can websites be compared when the product or party is not opposite or competing? Explain.
- Years ago when the editorial page of a local newspaper choose to run
which candidates they endorse, those endorsement where a good predictor
as to which candidates would win that election. The editorial board
does not have as much leverage as they once had, people read their
endorsements as one of many sources on that issue. Is the reason that
the Internet has gotten so popular as a news source because there is
so much information so that they can form their own opinion?
- Some possible drawbacks of IT and politics lie in the tendency to read blogs/sources that support and reiterate your own opinions. RSS and other technology are making this easier to do. How will this affect the ability of candidates to tap into the theoretical "reach" the Internet opens up to them? How can this be offset?
- Why did the Bush web-designers create a site that basically required the audience to have up-to-date technology with speedy access, when the "red" states, where Bush received a large chunk of his support, were in large rural populations with slow access?
- With the increasing focus on using the internet to reach voters, do you see any potential for problems with certain groups and inviduals without access to the internet missing out?
- Is using the internet as a main source of information typically a generational thing or to you think it is more for people who want to hear more than just one argument.
- Will internet technology cause more youth to get more involved with politics and vote? Explain.
Technology & Media
- Which do you trust more: newspapers or websites?
- Do you prefer to get your news from the internet or local television?
- Which media news source do you most trust and use when looking for
important informative information such as politics? Internet, newspaper
or other media?
Are the reactions to new media by older forms, actually making a difference in terms of keeping their membership? If no, why not? - With all the talk of new media replacing old, do you think old media can experience a rebirth through updating the format?
- Can the internet in its current state be a reliable substitute to traditional news formats?
- Do you see a negative impact in the adoption of print media by online sources?
- It is easy to understand why people have replaced their morning newspaper with the Internet as a source for national news, however where will people get their local news from, if it is not coming from their local newspaper? Are their very many credible sources for local news on the Internet?
- Which news source is most regularly read and why is this important to politicians?
- s each generation becomes more computer/internet capable, will print media eventually take the back seat to political campaigns? How so?
- In future years will more people bypass traditional media sources and turn entirely to the internet for their political and news information?
- How will the increasing popularity of the internet change other news sources like TV and newspapers?
- Given that the print, radio, and movie industry, which was thought to be on the brink of "extinction" with the debut of television, adapted, evolved, and fought to survive, won't newspapers somehow do the same with their coverage of local and national political information to combat the Internet?
- This is the very process that EPIC predicted, now that we have seen the process and reality of the prediction, will it come true? Will it hurt news to have it mostly online? Will the accessibility become a problem for those people who do not have access to online news? (The movement is based on the assumption that everyone has access)
- Can the immediacy of online news lead to more and more stories being published without complete verification? Is this good or bad for society?
- Do you see the Internet's tendency to make news out of stories that sometimes purposely get dropped between the cracks as a positive or negative thing?
Social Norms
- What are some of the negative aspects of campaigning online?
- How do you feel the internet affects the personableness of online campaigning?