Description
This volume explores the nature of the Internet's impact on civil society, addressing the following central questions:
- is the Internet qualitatively different from the more traditional forms of the media?
- has the Internet demonstrated real potential to improve civil society through a wider provision of information, an enhancement of communication between government and citizen, or via better state transparency?
- does the Internet pose a threat to the coherence of civil society as people are encouraged to abandon shared media experiences and pursue narrow interests?
- in authoritarian states, does the Internet function as a beacon for free speech or as another tool for propaganda?
Table of Contents
1 The Internet, Civil Society and Democracy: A Comparative Perspective Sarah Oates and Rachel Gibson 2 The Internet and Youth Civic Engagement in the United States Diana Owen 3 The Minnesota E-Democracy Project: Mobilizing the Mobilised? Jakob Linaa Jensen 4 Hunting Online Action: Mobilisation, Participation and Protest in the Countryside Alliance Wainer Lusoli and Stephen Ward 5 Design Matters: The Politics Efficacy of Government-Run Discussion Boards Scott Wright 6 Cybercortical Warfare: The Case of Hizbollah.org Maura Conway 7 Civil Society, Terrorism and the Internet: Case Studies from Northern Ireland Paul Reilly 8 Virtual Parties in a Virtual World: The Use of the Internet by Russian Political Parties Luke March 9 Hard to Connect: Trans-national Networks, Non-Governmental Organisations and the Internet in Russia Diana Schmidt 10 Murder, Journalism and the Web: How the Gongadze Case Launched the Internet News Era in Ukraine Natalya Krasnoboka and Holli A. Semetko 11 Pathologies of the Virtual Public Sphere Heinz Brandenburg
