(LH)This past week we sent Rich Dean, our internet commentator, into the jungle of the World Wide Web, checking on political sites. He survived, but just barely.
(RD)The 1994 election was supposed to be the first real time the internet was used to try and sway votes. Those fledgling attempts probably didn't have much of an impact because so few people paid attention to the world wide web 2 years ago. This year its an all- out war for your vote online... or so the media would have you think.
What has happened since the great online awakening in 1994 is an explosion in the number of internet connected people and a corresponding growth in the number of political campaigns online. The result is more chaos than you can imagine and literally thousands upon thousands of web sites representing political points of view you probably never heard of. Like mail bomb propoganda, these web sites promise unfiltered access to the truth about the candidates. (:35)
But like the old computer saying goes... garbage in, garbage out. Wading through all the digital tidbits and discerning truth from fiction might make even the harshest media critic long for a jaded reporter to filter the information.
Lets start our search with Yahoo! The granddaddy of all internet directories. Look under the politics section and you'll find no less than a thousand potential sites listed. Political Campaigns, parodies, grassroots orgaizations, strange political parties... the mind reels at where to start. Well, lets stay focused... Clinton and Dole are easy to find online... Dole even gave out his web page address during the first debate. 1:10
The clinton gore site is a monster... taking over three minutes to download on my home computer. It is clearly designed for folks making their political decisions on their high speed internet access at work. The Dole site on the other hand is faster, and allows you to customize your home page. I can track the issues I care about and find things related to my state.
While the Dole site might win web design kudos for its use of the latest web technologies, it shares in my view the same fault as Clinton's: they are no better than a recitation of everything you have already heard them say or read about in the papers. In terms of entertainment value, Clinton-Gore give you screen savers and desktop patterns. Dole gives you a simple way to calculate the 15% tax cut he's been promising. I'm sure the IRS just loves that bit of functionality. All the other candidates - Ross Perot, Harry Browne, Ralph Nader have their web sites, and all are pretty similar. 2:00
If you're looking to actually become educated, try one of the nonpartisan sites like Politics Now, which does more to educate voters than all of the other sites combined. here you can find non-partisan discssions of the issues, links to voting records of members of congress, quality discussion groups about the issues and features on many state races.
The Center for Responsive politics has an interesting site where you can follow the trail of PAC money to your favorite congressperson... although th site's design is a bit cheesy, the information behind it all is fascinating.... it makes clear why so many people want campaign finance reforms.
Devoid of modem-crashing gratuitous graphics, vote-smart has an incredibly useful series of links to local level ballot initiatives and state races... which are , after all, probably more interesting to most people than the presidential race. (2:45)
Unlike the nonstop negativism of partisan sites, vote-smart has adopted a positive tone, tracking issues the candidates SUPPORT, rhather than those they oppose. Assuming the candidates in your area answered vote-smart's questionnaire, you can find out their positions on a wide range of issues. By the way, Bob Dole answered the questions, Bill Clinton did not. The questions are very straight forward, so it was disappointing to find that the only people in my part of massachusetts who answered the questions were those who had no chance of winning.
Finally, I'll leave you with my favorite political site... Wired Magazine's Netizen. Full of the kind of journalism you expect from these folks, it takes a hard look at what's really happening in the online world... and challenges the assumptions of the mainstream media.
Other places to start looking include the keyword "politics" on America Online, and Excite's online reviews and listings of many many political sites.
Perhaps the thing almost all of these sites have in common is that they just don't get it. The designers think shovelling more and more data surrounded by pretty graphics will somehow sway votes. If the rest of us have discovered anything about the internet in the last couple years is that people want to be entertained... and they want functionality that helps them... like registering online, or non- partisan explanations of local ballot issues, but re-live the televised debates? no thanks, we were bored the first time.
So when you fire up the modem over the next ten days for political info, beware of digital overload... and remember: the web is a place where anyone can be a publisher, and hardly anyone has hired an editor. 4:15
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