Government  |  Online Voting  |  Political Coverage  |  Grassroots Politics

—Donnell Alexander and Aliza Dichter (liza@mediachannel.org), editors

Legislative Revolution
Umar Ghali Na'Abba, Nigeria's Speaker of the House, is eager to bring information technology to the legislature, democracy's most strategic institution. As communication between representatives and the citizenry is enhanced, prospects such as virtual parliaments — in which representatives would remain in their communities — may reduce the likelihood of fragile democracies slipping into dictatorships. From AllAfrica, October 11 2000

The Big Business Of Running A Nation
Online democracy ultimately is as much about service delivery and tax collection as it is about elections and feedback. With government going digital, for-profit Internet companies are lining up to get a piece of the action. That's why e-government entrepreneurs were a major, behind the scenes presence at this year's party conventions in the United States, reports Theta Pavis. From Online Journalism Review, August 15 2000

E-Government Fundamentals
Though more than four years old, this report on "The Use of Information and Communications Technologies in Sub-Saharan Africa" is invaluably comprehensive. Subjects ranging from election management and freedom of information, to service delivery and decentralization, to political debate and human rights safeguards are covered in the study, released by the International Development Research Center. From International Development Research Centre, August 31 1996

Online Voting

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Online Voting Links

U.K. Experiments
This year in Britain, electronic voting and counting is being introduced in several local elections. Patrick Barkham looks at some important experiments that seek to resolve the issues of security, counting and access which will define the future of the ballot box. From Guardian Unlimited, April 27 2000

Elections, Inc.
Americans got a glimpse of how capital seeks to influence even the most basic task of the commonwealth when, earlier this year, Arizona Democrats engaged in a binding online vote. Voter turnout increased, but so did evidence of the digital divide, based in race as much as class, once again highlighting the tension between democratic values and the objectives of well-heeled commercial interests. From Benton Foundation, March 30 2000

Political Coverage

Related Items

Global political sites portal. International election resources Voting records and issue positions for U.S. candidates. U.S. Campaign Finance Data U.S. youth political community Article: Web's role grows in [U.S.] presidential campaign.

Free Info Marketplace
In the South Pacific and around the world, the Net has allowed journalists to break through traditional press controls and even spurred revolutions. As in the age of polemical pamphleteering, the Net's glut of contrasting opinion seems preferable to the offline media's narrowness. David Robie analyzes how online reporting has met recent regional challenges and shown the readiness of the next generation of journalists. From Asia-Pacific Network, July 21 1999

Data And Info Availability
Access to campaign finance reports and politicians' voting records as well as sites that specialize in voter education endow the Web with far greater breadth and depth of political information than traditional media. In the United States, commercial, political Web sites and nonprofits alike are seeking to set themselves apart by developing special coverage features. From Brills Content, November 1998

Russia's Politically Silent Web
This year in Moscow, where many more politicians than private citizens have access to the Internet, there was a test of the Internet's power to shape politics. Yet elected officials are hardly more engaged with cyberspace than the computer-free majority, and the Internet is an elections non-factor. In Russia, access will have to be the Kremlin's first online priority. From Freedom Forum, January 9 2000

Same Old Same Old
This Committee of Concerned Journalists study of Net news coverage of the 2000 U.S. presidential campaign concludes that the most popular online portals don't provide unfiltered and diverse information on politics. The results show that while anyone can put information online, a few monied players dominate the conversation. From Committee of Concerned Journalists, April 10 2000

Media Center Belgrade
Founded by the Independent Journalist Association of Serbia, this site has monitored the media culture and politics of Serbia and Yugoslavia since 1994.

Monitoring Project Zimbabwe
The goal of this nonprofit project is tracking and analyzing the presentation of news and public information in the media, with a special focus on freedom of expression and publicly funded journalism. The site pays careful attention to the role of media in elections, including balance and fairness.

Grassroots Politics

The Virtual Activist Toolkit
This training course from NetAction and Women's Work helps get the novice digital activist started. By the time students in this online classroom have run through a range of outreach and advocacy tools, learned advocacy Netiquette and policy issues and have settled into The Virtual Activist Reader, they will have been in touch with enough resources to take their cause to cyberspace. From NetAction

New Protest Forms
Online protest and dissent are taking a multitude of forms to change the world of human rights. Nick Ryan reports on Belgrade Radio B92's shift to Internet broadcasting after a government crackdown; Oneworld Online's championing of stories about social change; and action alerts circulated by the International Freedom of Expression Exchange, among others. From Geographical, July 2000

Wiring Kenyan Women
Mike Crawley reports that an initiative to get 30,000 women in Kenya plugged into computers is not just about teaching village women how to surf the Internet. Civic education is the key goal. From International Development Research Center Reports, September 17 1999

Net Benefits
Initially the Web was adopted by trade unions, NGOs and environmental groups, but now corporate profiteers dominate cyberspace. How to take on the powerful? David Jones considers the potential of the Internet for progressives. From Red Pepper, July 1999

AS THE MEDIA WATCH THE WORLD, WE WATCH THE MEDIA.