Cyberpolitics: Citizen Activism in the Age of the Internet (People, Passions, and Power: Social Movements, Interest Organizations, and the P)

Hill and Hughes conducted extensive research online attempting to answer a basic question about the role of the Internet in the political scene: how do regular citizens actually use the Internet to discuss politics? In their research, they found a number of surprising things. For example, the lasting political content of the Internet is primarily conservative, yet when ongoing interaction is monitored it turns out that liberals outnumber conservatives among the actual users.

Among the various issues they faced in their research was determining who the users and content providers actually are. How do people tend to interact both in asynchronous political conversation--such as posting on bulletin boards or conversing through e-mail--and in such real-time communication as Internet Relay Chat (IRC) and America Online chat? They explored how political communities form online and what differences there are between U.S.-based and international communities. They looked as well at the question of how the fully open nature of the Internet, where anyone can provide information or misinformation based on any level of knowledge, can both promote and interfere with the functioning of a democratic system. Among the primary points to emerge from their study is that, while the Internet will grow to play a vital role in government, it is unlikely to change the nature of politics in any profound manner. On the other hand, as more people find their virtual homes and voices online, politics may have a profound influence on the nature of Internet discourse. This is a scholarly book (though not laden with a dense, academic style) loaded with thought-provoking observations. A wide variety of charts and graphs make the research results easier to follow. --Elizabeth Lewis