Faraz Janan

University of Oxford, UK

Hindman argues against the journalists andpundits who have made sweeping claims aboutinternet transformative potential fordemocracy, and suggests that the new onlinebosses are not very different from the old ones.

The author is embedded in the idea that internethas challenged traditional media and less beyondthat in terms of electoral politics.

A broad analysis of US presidential campaignswith respect to the websites is given in thebook, while the focus remained on the onlinebloggers.

The book is based on two part analysis, itpresents a technical survey on the politicalwebsites and a case study of Howard Dean’sonline campaign

How open is the internet architecture?

The issue of gatekeepers is debatable, compromised

freedom

Are online audience more decentralized than the

audience of traditional media?

Internet is as diverse as human imagination

How many citizens are heard in the cyber space?

Author believes just a few

Are those who end up getting heard have a more

accurate reflection of the broader public?

Bloggers suggests that

The internet IS making the politics less exclusive and less expensive At least in terms of fundraising and mobilization

It is empowering citizens at the expense of elites The rise of Howard Dean as the front runner and success of his

support base suggests that

Internet campaigning encourages Personal involvement and collective action Howard dean known supporters rose from a couple of thousand

to 640K

Author suggests that significant number of previously inactive members returned into political activism as a result of online campaigning

Internet has challenged the status quo, vested political interests, encouraged public debate, or have blurred traditional distinction btw elite and the mass public The donors distribution and average value of individual

donation in the case of internet campaigning advocates that

Digital divide – minority at disadvantage

Medium barriers – may compromise openness

Internet means the end of broadcasting

through organized media?

Internet based political organization is less

important in practice

The role of ‘gate keepers’, who decide what

people get to see, could also be manipulated

in the internet age. An analysis on search

engines on how websites are rated is

presented.

Author observe Dean’s online campaign as a failure

It was the first online political campaign than span 13 months

Dean had a couple thousand known supporters and $157K in the bank

Dean collected $50m from 300K individuals, withan average donation size of $80, where 99% ofindividual donors contributed $200 or less

640K signed supporters online and 189K wereeither willing or participated in the monthlymeetings

Total cost of the online campaign was less than$1m and a team of 25 people.

Dean online victory provide new tangible metricsof realization, such as number of websitehits, supportive blogs, online following and sign-ups.

Overall, Dean’s online success was taken asevidence that he has broad grass root support

Gen. Wesley Clark followed Dean in onlinepursuit.

The author suggests that political behaviour inonline world follows unexpected fault lines

Some observers dismissed Dean’s candidacy as afailed referendum on the importance of digitalpolitics

Author suggests that internet is a campaign forresource than campaign for voters

Anyone can make a political website, but

hardly matters if few political websites

receive high number of visitors

The number of links pointing to a website

determine its visibility

A small portion of the group should receive

most of the links – power rule

Heavily linked websites should continue to

receive more links

What aut hor t hought

What Dean t hought

What act ual l y happened

While the role of internet in political process is a global and continually refining phenomena, a sample case of US presidential elections is generalized over the basic idea.

Social media, such as Facebook, twitter, etc. are observed to have played more vital role recently in domestic opinion making, than personalized websites, which is ignored all together.

It covers the case of Howard Dean online campaign in 2004. The role of social media from that point onwards has expanded exponentially. For instance, the number of Facebook users and average time per active user in: December 2004 = 1 million - less than 1.5 hour/user/month

December 2012 = 1.06 billion - more than 12 hours/user/month

Twitter reached from 4.5 million users in 2009 to over 500 million in 2012

The book was sent for publication in 2008, which means it has not seen the Arab spring movements in the Middle East, Anna Hazara movement in India and many others on a smaller scale, that has/had internet as the primary driving force behind it.

Digital democracy is far from a myth, and evident from the political changes around the globe, it is shaping as a sound reality in political arena.

Egyptian revolution – mobilization at Tahrir square

Anna Hazare – from hunger strike to mainstream

political party and national reforms

Imran Khan

Cricket mega star, multi millionaire, built the

biggest free health charity hospital and university in

Pakistan = FAIL

Facebook viral of simplicity gestures = MOST

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