E - Participation, broadcasting and democracy in the UK

Convergence

Volumn 9, Issue 1, 2003, Pages 47-65

  Hibberd, Matthew ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 61049344194     PISSN: 13548565     EISSN: 17487382     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/135485650300900104     Document Type: Article

References (46)

1. P. Norris, Digital Divide. Civic Engagement, Information Poverty, and the Internet Worldwide (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001)
2. W.A. Gamson, 'Promoting Political Engagement', in Mediated Politics. Communications in the Future of Democracy, eds. W. Lance Bennett and M. Entman (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001)
3. Office of the UK e-Envoy, Annual Report, 2001. Available at www.e-envoy.gov.uk (December 2002)
4. Office of the e-Envoy, In the service of democracy. A consultation paper on a policy for electronic democracy (London: HMSO, 2002)
5. Department of Trade and Industry (DTI)/Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) A New Future for Communications: Communications White Paper (London: HMSO, 2001), 3.8.1
6. S. Chambers and A. Costain (eds) Deliberation, Democracy and the Media (Boulder: Rowman and Littlefield, 2000), p. xi
7. S. Harvey, 'Access, authorship and the voice: The emergence of community programming at the BBC', in From Grierson to the Docu-Soap: Breaking the Boundaries, eds. J. Izod, R. Kilborn and M. Hibberd (Luton: University of Luton Press, 2000), p. 161
8. R. Day, Grand Inquisitor. Memoirs (London: Butler and Tanner, 1989), p. 182
9. Although internet discussion boards date back to 1979
10. J. Blumler and S. Coleman, Realising Democracy Online. A Civic Commons Online (London: IPPR, 2001), p. 14
11. Stirling Media Research Institute, The Scottish Parliament Communications Audit. Confidential Report, 2001
12. M. Hibberd, R. Kilborn, S. Marriott, B. McNair, and P. Schlesinger, Consenting Adults? (London: Broadcasting Standards Commission, 2000)
13. S. Kevill, 'Beyond the Soundbite: BBC research into public disillusion with politics', paper presented to the Public Access Broadcasting and Democratic Participation in the Age of Mediated Politics seminar, University of Stirling, 28 January 2002
14. S. Diplock, None of the Above. Non-voters and 2001 election (London: Hansard Society, 2001)
15. J. Blumler and M. Gurevitch, The Crisis of Public Communication (London: Routledge, 1995
16. Blumler and Gurevitch
17. Norris
18. M. Castells, The Internet Galaxy. Reflections on the Internet, Business, and Society (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), pp. 2-3
19. A. Giddens, Runaway World. How Globalisation is Reshaping our Lives, 2nd edition (London: Profile, 2002)
20. W.L. Bennett, 'Introduction: Communication and Civic Engagement in Comparative Perspective', Political Communication, 17 (2000), pp. 307-312
21. Quoted in S. Coleman and J. Gøtze, Bowling Together: Online Public Engagement in Policy Deliberation (London: Hansard Society, 2001), p. 5
22. Blumler and Coleman (2001) summarise thus the benefits that online civic engagement has brought to the democratic process: Transcending Time. Online debates allow time for reflective debate and a space to develop arguments. Transcending Place. Participation can take place regardless of geographical distances. Making Connections. Internet chat facilitates contacts between groups and politicians and citizens. Language of the People. Online discussions often involve ordinary people who can push their own agendas. Community Building. Online participation can lead to the formation of networks. Recruitment of experience and expertise. Online debates can often benefit from people with relevant experience and expertise. Learning to deliberate. Online civic engagement can provide the source of new ideas and ways of thinking. (2001), pp. 14-15
23. Gamson, p. 58
24. A. Briggs, The History of British Broadcasting in the United Kingdom: Volume Four. Sound and Vision (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1979)
25. S. Coleman, Election Call: A democratic public forum? (London: The Hansard Society, 1999), p. 25
26. R. Putnam, Bowling Alone: the collapse and revival of American community (New York, Simon & Schuster, 2000)
27. P. Bourdieu, On Television and Journalism (London: Verso, 1999)
28. Blumler and Coleman, p. 13
29. S. Coleman (ed), 2001: Cyber Space Odyssey. The Internet in the UK Election (London: Hansard Society, 2001), p. 7
30. B. McNair, M. Hibberd and P. Schlesinger, 'Public Access Broadcasting and Democratic Participation in the Age of Mediated Politics', Journalism Studies, 3, no. 3 (2002), pp. 407-422
31. Kevill, p. 1
32. Coleman and Gotze (pp. 36-45) outline national case studies of 'innovative and pioneering' efforts to use online technologies to reinvigorate the democratic process. Reading through these case studies, one is immediately struck by the lack of research into actual public engagement with these new methods of democratic participation. The authors acknowledge that these are experiments with broad normative aims. They also acknowledge that_the main problems are that too few people know about them and that governments have thus far failed to integrate them into the policy process. Bearing in mind that they are experiments, though, it is imperative that useful survey data is collected in order to examine who uses these sites, why they participate and their general effectiveness
33. Demographics measure the population in terms of occupational class. For the purposes of this paper, the following categories are used: A Upper Middle Class Higher managerial, administrative or professional B Middle Class Intermediate managerial, administrative or professional C1 Lower Middle Class Supervisory or clerical and junior managerial, administrative or professional C2 Skilled working class Skilled manual workers D Working class Unskilled manual workers E Lowest subsistence levels State pensioners or widows (no other earnings), casual workers
34. McNair, et al, 2002
35. See A. Macintosh, A. Malina, and A. Whyte, 'Designing e-democracy for the information age'. Paper presented to the European Colloquium Conference on E-Networks, Piran, Slovenia, September, 2001. This provides an overview of the work undertaken by the Teledemocracy Centre at Napier University, Edinburgh, Scotland
36. Stirling Media Research Institute, 2001
37. This finding is supported by recent work into the BBC's Election Call programme, where the researchers found a 70/30 split in the percentage of calls from male and female members of the audience. Furthermore, the researchers found significant differences in terms of political priorities and interests between male and female callers. The report reaffirms the basic argument of our research that while access programmes contribute to democratic life, the narrow range of people taking part in them can at times hinder their role in the public sphere. See B. McNair, M. Hibberd and P. Schlesinger, Mediated Access (Luton: University of Luton Press, 2003)
38. Office for National Statistics, Internet Access. Households and Individuals 26 September 2001. Available at www.statistics.gov.uk (December 2002)
39. Diplock, 2001
40. J. Jones, 'Wired, disenfranchised but not necessarily out of touch: youth attitudes towards mediated democracy', paper presented to the MECCSA National Conference, University of Reading, 18-20 December 2002
41. Coleman, 1999
42. Coleman, 2001, p. 7
43. Damian Tambini quoted in Blumler and Coleman, 2001, p. 19
44. P. Dahlgren, 'The Internet and the Public Sphere', in Bennett, Lance and Entman (eds), 2001, p. 51
45. Blumler and Coleman, 2001
46. Quoted in S. Ranger, 'Online elections by 2007, says e-Envoy'. Available at www.Vnunet.com (4 April 2002)