Civic Engagement, in Many Contexts

Well, the 2005 Association of Internet Researchers conference is finally underway. We start the Thursday morning 'Civic Engagement' session at with a paper by Irene Ramos-Vielba on the use of political blogs in Portugal and Spain, and their potential contribution to democracy.

Irene Ramos-Vielba: Political Blogs in Spain and Portugal

Blogs have of course be recognised in the Anglo-Saxon context already, so how does this play out elsewhere? Are blogs creating an authentic political sphere for deliberation and political action? Journalism and politics are of course two of the key fields which have been affected by blogs as they comment on and promote discussion on political issues - but what is the contribution made? A polarisation between civil pessimists and civil optimists has now perhaps been overcome - we are no longer prediction either a utopia or dystopia that is likely to be brought about by blogs. Rather, what emerges is perhaps an additional political sphere which allows for communal and multidirectional exchange, and may enhance the democratic process.

What is the contribution of blogs to political participation? There is no unanimous answer. The blogosphere can help citizens improve their knowledge of the democratic system and promote participation and mobilisation; blogs can also suggest alternative agendas and influence the implementation of public policies as well as serve as an instrument for political marketing; however, there can also be a narcissist element here. Blogs can also lead to disinformation, either deliberate misinformation or accidental misinformation.

It is important not to take a technologically determinist argument here, of course - it isn't blog that drive all of this, but their use in social contexts, and the study will take this into account by analysing the Spanish and Portuguese context. The Spanish blogosphere is now attracting public attention, and has increased in size; controversial socio-political issues (Iraq, Madrid terror attacks) have also promoted the take-up of blogging as people felt a strong need to discuss such topics. The study will investigate the use of blogs by a cross-section of participants: politicians, newspapers, political journalists, social activists (but no 'average bloggers'?).

Blogging has developed late in Spain; mainly in 2004 and 2005. Use of blogs especially amongst politicians is also still fairly limited; there is no sense of a strong dialogue between them and their readers. Much of the use is still in political marketing, and hasn't yet invigorated the political sphere or impacted strongly on decision-making processes. While there is an exchange of opinions, it is not yet a participative and constructive debate yet; if anything, it creates closed communities of like-minded individuals.

In Portugal, some bloggers have highlighted the idea that blogs may become a privileged space for expression on political ideas. There is a stronger focus on opinions than information, especially in relation to important political events; the blogosphere therefore acts as a mirror of society, even though the participants are generally from more privileged groups, and mainly male. While there is no single list of blogs in Portugal, 2003 was an important year as the phenomenon grew significantly, and its involvement in politics became clearly visible during the national elections. There is a minimal number of politicians participating as bloggers, and again there are a number of group blogs of like-minded people.

The Anglo-Saxon experience is therefore not directly translatable to the Spanish and Portuguese environment, as yet. These countries started later, and their intrinsic political and social characteristics have affected how blogs are being used. There is no large political transformation towards stronger democracy which is visible yet, but it may also be too ealry to tell so far.

Felicia Song: Conceptualising Online Communities

The next speaker is Felicia Song from the University of Virginia. She notes that the democratic potential of Internet technology has long been noted, and whether they can replace the focal points for democratic engagement which have existed in the past. But what is community, democracy, or an online community in the first place? These terms have been used without proper definition in much of the available literature. Little has been observed also about how they might have changed over time since these terms were first introduced. The evolution of online communities bears great cultural significance, and might represent broader shifts in the overall cultural understanding of communities.

To begin with, then, Felicia presents a framework for conceptualising variants. She presents a list of three dimensions of association in the group which affects three dimensions of democracy which they enable - mission of the group -> disposition/habit of a citizen; mode/type of participation -> space for public deliberation and opinion formation; costs of entry -> tools and modes of action. She also offers a table presenting four models of community: niche services (Seniornet, iVillage); visionary community (The Well, Slashdot); clearinghouse (Idealist, Geocaching, FictionAlley); and technical interface (e.g. Meetup, Friendster, LiveJournal), each of which can be analysed using the three dimensions.

Felicia used these four models of community to analyse 11 communities, which were chosen from the winners of the Webby awards for communities; this sample therefore represents the kinds of site seen as the leaders and the most influential types of online communities as recognised by the industry itself - the have the power of resources and status and will have future influence on online community development. It is interesting that the study found a gradual shoft in community types over time - at first (1998-2001), niche services and visionary communities dominated; later, clearinghouses and technical interfaces took over. This represents a shift from online communities envisaged as a replacement for offline communities, to a concept of online communities as enhancing and connecting with offline groups, and may also indicate the increasing role of the Internet as a crucial component of everyday life. In the latter types, membership is about membership in a network, not necessarily membership in the group itself (as in Slashdot); it is what Barry Wellman calls 'networked individualism'.

However, these communities remain composed of actors which are clearly invested in these groups; they may be an example of 'personalism' (Lichterman) rather than 'individualism'. The community is not formative of members' identities but a vehicle for their established identities. Such institutions expect members to be capable of personal expression; further, they are dedicated to egalitarian group dynamics - these ideas are desirable for civic culture, but are highly dependent on personal expression styles and abilities. Such communities then are powerful but limited in ther democratic efficacy as such abilities are not evenly spread across participants.

Tobias Olsson: Alternative Political Identity Formation amongst Swedish Youth

Tobias Olsson from Lund and Växjö University in Sweden is the third speaker. His work is building on Peter Dahlgren's idea of civic culture and uses a series of studies of young people (conducted in good part through interviews) both in political parties' youth organisations, in alternative political organisations, and in 'non-political' organisations (e.g. sports clubs). He operates with the idea of 'alternative political identity', which combines online and offline identity components and is a non-mainstream (non-party political) identity, as well as utilising media in the construction of identity.

Tobias will focus here on findings of a study of two organisations: a 'green globalisation' movement, and an animal rights group, both based in a major urban are ain Sweden. There are three key themes to this study, then: these groups perception of traditional news media; their perception of the Internet as a resource for political identity; and their use of the Net as a resource. Generally, respondents felt that their organisations and their issues were hardly represented in the traditional news media, or where they were, that representation was mainly negative and oversimplified. On the other hand, the Internet was seen as a key resource for the construction of an alternative identity as information is available there which doesn't exist elsewhere; and it is also used by the organisations themselves: for internal coordination, for internal debates, for reading alternative information, for ad-busting, and for meeting like-minded people.

Clearly, then, these groups perceive and use the Net as an important resource in building and maintaining their alternative political identities. The traditional media, on the other hand, are not perceived as such. However, it is important to not ignore the traditional media: the Internet's role is important especially in relation to and combination with the traditional media, not in isolation from them.