Page 212 - Information and American Democracy Technology in the Evolution of Political Power

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Summary of the Cases 18:0
was about 48 million, up from 20 million in 1998. 222 This comes to an
average of nearly 2,000 messages per week for each representative, and
clearly presents problems for an institution accustomed to managing
correspondence by hand. It was obvious by at least the year 2000 that
membersofCongresspaidlittleornoattentiontothejunkelectronicmail
inthisflood.ForCongress,junkmailincludesmessagessentfromcitizens
notresidentinamember’sstateordistrictandimpersonal,massmessages
obviously composed by an organizer and simply forwarded along by
citizens without effort. As an official of Hill and Knowlton puts it, “[i]f
it is Spam, or e-mail from beyond their constituency, they don’t care.” 223
On the other hand, it was also clear by 2000 that many members of
Congress were attentive to personal messages that appeared to signal real
political intent. Legislators are indeed solicitous of relevant information
about constituents’ interests and the possible course that various issues
might take in the future. Many members were finding that electronic
messages can, under the right circumstances, convey such information.
StephanieVance,formerChiefofStaffforamemberofCongressandnow
an official at an on-line advocacy firm, confirms that members are indeed
looking for relevant information in the flood of e-mail. She describes
a form of cheap-talk funnel, estimating informally that 90 percent of
electronic mail to members of Congress was being discarded in 2000,
because it failed to identify the author as a constituent. Most of the rest
of the electronic mail, she says, is form letters and mass mailings that
are noted by members’ offices but not treated as terribly important. The
remainder constitutes thoughtful, original letters sent by constituents at
someeffort;theseprovideusefulinformationtolegislators.Astaffperson
for Votenet, another firm with an obvious investment in electronic mail,
reportsroughlythesamestory,namely,thatcongressionalstafftheywork
withdistinguishseriousfromnonseriouselectronicmail,treatingserious
electronic mail largely like letters by printing it out and providing counts
by issue. 224
A survey of congressional members’ offices in 1998 found that many
separate communications from citizens fall into three tiers: letters,

222 Kathy Goldschmidt, “E-Mail Overload in Congress: Managing a Communications
Crisis,” the Congress Online Project, a joint project of the George Washington Uni-
versity and the Congressional Management Foundation, March 19, 2001, http://
www.congressonlineproject.org/email.html.
223 Anonymous staff member, Hill and Knowlton, telephone interview by Eric Patterson
for the author, July 25, 2000.
224 Dell and Tuteur interviews.

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