Encyclopedia of Computer Science and Technology

political activism and the Internet 377cannot be pointed anywhere else. Java has gone even furtherby not including traditional pointers at all.Further ReadingJensen, Ted. “A Tutorial on Pointers and Arrays in C.” Availableonline. URL: http://home.netcom.com/~tjensen/ptr/pointers.htm. Accessed August 17, 2007.Parlante, Nick. “Pointers and Memory.” Available online. URL:http://cslibrary.stanford.edu/102/PointersAndMemory.pdf.Accessed August 17, 2007.Sebesta, Robert W. Concepts of Programming Languages. 8th ed.Boston: Pearson Addison-Wesley, 2007.Soulle, Juan. “Pointers [in C++].” Available online. URL: http://www.cplusplus.com/doc/tutorial/pointers.html. AccessedAugust 17, 2007.political activism and the InternetAlthough newspapers and particularly television remain themost popular sources used by voters to obtain informationabout candidates and issues, reports by the Pew Internet &American Life Project found that online media was usedby about a third of American voters in the 2006 midtermelections, and about 15 percent used it as their primaryinformation source. (The latter rate was about 35 percentamong young people who had access to broadband Internetconnections at home.) The researchers also found thatabout half of the online users had sought information notavailable elsewhere, while 41 percent believed that newspapersand television did not provide them with all the informationthey wanted.It is true that much of the political information usersfind online is news that originated with mainstream printor broadcast news outlets. However, a growing role is alsobeing played by blogs, issue-oriented Web sites, or sitescreated by candidates themselves, including profiles on theMySpace social networking site.A surprising number of people who look to the Internetfor political information participate actively, with about aquarter engaging in blogs or other online postings, whetherexpressing their own opinions or forwarding e-mail orreposting material. As users become more active (see usercreatedcontent), they are even becoming part of “official”debates, as in 2007 when primary candidates wereasked questions submitted as 30-second YouTube videos.Advantages and Pitfalls for CandidatesFor political candidates and campaigns, the Internet is amixed blessing. Advantages include:• can reach a large number of people at relatively lowcost• can bypass a possibly indifferent mainstream mediaand reach people directly• provides ways to organize and motivate supporters(see blogs and blogging, podcasting, and socialnetworking)• allows for easier fund-raising, including potentiallymillions of small donationsThe first major candidate to put together a campaignbased on these principles was Howard Dean, who for atime was frontrunner for the 2004 Democratic presidentialnomination. In the run-up to the 2008 race, libertarianRepublican Ron Paul, while barely registering in the polls,startled the mainstream media by raising more than $4 millionin one day from thousands of supporters organized onthe Web.However, there are pitfalls for politicians in the digitalage as well. It is hard to control or coordinate self-organizedactivists, who may adopt positions that contradict the candidate’sstated platform or engage in intemperate attacks.(In 2007 a video “mashup” by a Barack Obama supporterportraying Hillary Clinton as “big brother” in the famous1984 Apple Macintosh commercial led to denials that theObama campaign had anything to do with it.)Further, the legions of independent bloggers virtuallyguarantee that “stumbles” that might have been missed orignored by traditional media will be featured in blogs ordisplayed on YouTube for millions to ponder. (An examplewas Virginia senator George Allen, whose use of an obscureracial epithet macaca may have cost him reelection in 2006when it was captured by a video blogger.) It is unclearwhether the intense 24-hour scrutiny will force candidatesto become ever more tightly scripted in their public activitiesso as to avoid “macaca moments.”Some critics also suggest that the Internet may actuallyweaken democracy in some ways. Because of the increasingability to personalize or customize what news one seesand whom one converses with, people could end up beingsimply confirmed in their beliefs and isolated from largerdialog. Extremist groups already use Web sites not only torecruit people, but to keep followers motivated and focusedon their issues, while in effect filtering out opposing views.The creation of such isolated constituencies, able to chooseto see only the kinds of things that make them comfortable,could be bad for democracy. (This could be called a form ofself-censorship, as opposed to outwardly imposed censorship,as in China—see censorship and the Internet.) Onthe other hand, the sheer amount and variety of informationavailable may make it hard for people to cut themselvesoff in this way.Despite these misgivings, the importance of the Webfor political activism and campaigns is clear. No campaign,whether political or issue advocacy, can afford not to have aquality Web site and staff who are adept at the new media andforms of communication, expression, and social networking.Further ReadingChadwick, Andrew. Internet Politics: States, Citizens, and New CommunicationTechnologies. New York: Oxford University Press,2006.Garofoli, Joe. “Blogger Fest a Magnet for Liberal Politicos.” SanFrancisco Chronicle, July 29, 2007, p. A1. Available online.URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/07/29/MNGRVR91RU1.DTL. Accessed November 8, 2007.Guynn, Jessica. “Growing Internet Role in Election.” San FranciscoChronicle, June 4, 2007, p. C-1. Available online. URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2007/06/04/BUGI6Q5L181. DTL. Accessed November 8, 2007.