Ch. 1: “Electronic Political Discussion”

This chapter offers an overview of various online communications, including electronic email lists, Usenet and blogs. Davis addresses the question of whether or not online discussions make any difference in political processes, institutions or societal behavior and ultimately decides that the prophesized utopia of direct democracy has not yet been achieved. The obstacles facing such restructuring include: inequality in the levels of accessibility and the fragmented nature of electronic political discussion. Even the more tempered notion of deliberative democracy faces hurdles - most notably human reliance on technological solutions.

This chapter is a helpful summary of current online discussion forums and briefly pulls apart the kind of Trippi-esque claims of revolution. I'm going to utilize the rest of this book in order to examine the broad claims of internet revolution which, in the case of much writing about the internet, seem devoid of factors like accessibility.

This resource is a classical book for politicians about the best way to increase voter turnout. I focused upon the chapter 5, whic is about online methods of registration, online listserves, blogs, and chatrooms. It gives a scientific method for politicians to figure out the best way to spend their funds in an election. Looking at blogs and the power of the internet in electorial politics, the chapter attempts to gauge the influence blogs could have upon potential voters and elections.

This website has a decent amount of information about blogs and the internet. Shirky has a varied and long background and has been on the forefront of emerging media. The website is very up to date and is a good place to find out about the different forms of open source media and their influence upon culture.

this site is an actual blog.  It varies on topics, but has a lot about political issues with a very liberal spin.  The resource is a blog that allows insight into how information is deseminated and how moderators focus their blogs.

This book is a great resource. It is one of the few books in the library about the emergence of discussion boards on the internet. Davis breaks down both the emergence and the influence of these types of forums upon American democracy and the way these new ways of mass communication influence politics. It's in depth analysis of the way in which blogs played an integral role in disseminating information during the 2004 Presidental election gives deep insight to the ways this medium can help shape a public's political consciousness.

This book is a bit dated, but is an early look at how weblogs have influenced society. It is a compilation of multiple articles and speaks about a varied number of topics. Most of the topics are about culture and the influence of weblogs upon social interaction and public forums. A good resource to use for preliminary stages of looking at internet blogs.

This is the best resource I have found in the library concerning teh use of blogs in American democracy. It is a short read coming in at about 150 pages and gives tons of information about bloggers and their actual participation in politics. Like most political books about stratifying an electorate, it has tons of data. Great resource.

This recent essay on the importance of blogs in politics is a very informative and compelling work. Denzer's essay has a deep focus upon the origins and the effects of blogs upon the American political structure. It also has a tremendous amount of links that lead to great resources for anyone interested in the internet and American politics. An excellent resource.

This journal article is somewhat boring, but effective. It is written in a classical Political Science style and is more interested in designs, graphs, and diagrams than in the theories behind the data. It is a good primary resource, but speaks very broadly about the varying ways the internet influences politics and vice-versa. Robertson has some great primary resources and could lead to better articles or essays.

This article is less than a year old and does not have to deal with American politics. However, it is a well written critique and analysis of the influences of political blogs upon a democracy. It gives an international take upon the importance of blogs upon a democratic populace.

This website has tons of links to great resources. Both profit and non-profit websites with political blogs are readily available. The information on the website allows for a good starting place to look into the relationship between blogs and politics in American. By seperating the different types of blogs out there, it makes it much easier to scoure the internet for information about blogs and politics.

This book is an older version of Davis' later Politics Online. Unlike his later endeavor, Web is a theory based book. It feels as if this book gives Davis' theory for how the internet should work with politics and Politics Online is his research into trying to prove his hypotheses. Still a good earlier work about the potential power of the internet in teh electoral process and delibrative democracy.

This is a journal entry about rhetoric and persausive ways in which internet blogs can influence people's opinions. It is a critique of the good and bad sides of blogs. Primarily focusing on the bad it talks about the issues that blogers face when trying to manuver their way through the blogisphere. Though it is not overtly about politics, Krause article raises key issues about the problems faced when lookin at a blog.