Page 252 - Comparing Political Communication Theories, Cases, and Challenge

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Thomas Zittel

States and Scandinavian countries, the number of those with access to
the Internet has already passed the 50 percent threshold (NUA 2001).
The contemporary debate on electronic democracy is also driven by
the fact that computer networks have matured in technological terms.
They provide new opportunities for networked communication that
are now readily available to everyone. Traditional mass media such as
radio and television are channel media that enable a limited number
of people to broadcast a small amount of information to a homoge-
neous mass audience in a unidirectional fashion. Contrary to this, the
Internet is a network medium that allows for decentralized and inter-
active mass communication at low cost. It makes no distinction be-
tween sender and receiver in technological terms and it increases band-
width in substantial ways. Every individual who cares to do so is able
to broadcast information in various formats such as one-to-many or
one-to-few. Every person is also able to enter into conversations with
groups of people who may be scattered across the globe (H¨ oflich 1994;
Negroponte 1995; Morris and Ogan 1996). Some theorists even argue
that the Internet allows for genuine social interaction rather than mere
communication. Those students refer to applications such as Multi-User
Dungeons (MUDs) that simulate a space independent from the physical
worldsurroundingus(Loader1997,2–3;Lyon1997;Ravetz1998;Jordan
1999, 20).
The majority of political scientists has been more or less skeptical
about these claims and still perceives e-democracy as the domain of
techno-maniacs. Some outspoken cyber-skeptics stress that computer
networks are being used by political actors in quite traditional ways. On
the basis of case studies and impressionistic evidence they conclude that
the Internet will reinforce established political structures rather than
transforming them (Margolis and Resnick 2000). Hans Kleinsteuber and
Martin Hagen added a comparative note to this debate. They perceive
electronic democracy to be a secular development that will be restricted
to the American political system while leaving many other established
democracies untouched (Kleinsteuber 1995; Hagen 1997; Kleinsteuber
and Hagen 1998; Hagen 2000).
This paper aims at an empirical test of this latter hypothesis. In its first
part we will map the discourse on electronic democracy to delineate a
framework for comparative empirical research. This theoretical analysis
has to deal with the fact that electronic democracy is a vague and multi-
faceted concept that does not provide a coherent framework for focused
comparative research.

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