These papers represent a good deal of the research that I undertook during my senior year at Colby College. As a government major with a strong concentration in American government, my classes were focused on the Presidential election campaign. As an 'net junkie, I followed the campaign on web sites such as PoliticsNow, AllPolitics and Project VoteSmart. I became intrigued with the possibilities that these and other electronic resources held for rejuvenating the stagnancy of the American electorate. Especially interesting was the Internet's potential to provide factual, impartial, issue-based information -- more and more a rarity in the traditional media -- and whether or not the availability of this information would affect the ways in which citizens participated in the political process. These papers cover that topic in detail.
An in-depth study of the two-way political communication enabled by the Internet. A detailed quantitative and qualitative analysis of usage patterns based on data extracted from the server log files of the Reform Party web site. Includes background on the state of politics on the Internet (mostly from Politics on the Internet - 1996, below) as well as a look at the future of political interaction via the Internet. (Presented at the annual meeting of the New England Political Science Association, New Britain, Conn., May 1997)
Contents:
Introduction
Background - Politics on the Internet
Description of the Reform Party Site
Analyzing Web Site Usage
The Reform Party Site: Patterns and Analysis
Aggregate Analysis
Pattern Over Time
Page and Section Analysis
Comparisons Over Time
Issues Information
State-By-State Information
Press Releases
The Future of Electronic Democracy
Conclusions
A quantitative look at the merging of politics and the Internet during the 1996 presidential campaign. Includes an overview of the types of political information available, the demographics of 1996's online electorate and the ways in which online political information was gathered and utilized by voters. (December, 1996)
Contents:
Introduction
Modes of Presenting Political Information
Demographics of the Internet
Use of On-line Sources for Political Information
Patterns of On-line Information Use
Usage Patterns Within Political Information Sites
Conclusions