Summary
Contents
Subject index
Digital Democracy offers an invaluable in-depth explanation of what issues of theory and application are most important to the emergence and development of computer-mediated communication systems for political purposes. It addresses how the Internet, and computer-mediated political communication are affecting democracy and focuses on the various theoretical and practical issues involved in digital democracy.
The White House Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) System and Political Interactivity
The White House Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) System and Political Interactivity
As we have seen in the previous chapters of this book, there are many and varied claims made regarding digital democracy. Unfortunately, many of them lack rigorous theoretical and/or empirical grounding. Often, the results of computer-mediated political communication technologies fall behind the rhetorical claims made regarding their role in new forms of political communication and changing democratic systems. Moreover, observers may neglect to acknowledge the possible negative effects of computer-mediated communication systems.
This chapter acknowledges these issues while addressing some specific practice issues in regard to the role of the Clinton White House computer-mediated communication (CMC) system. Since 1993, this system has had the potential of making contributions to democratization, political interactivity and new forms of political communication. As with most emerging systems and technologies, it has done some good, while it has also fallen short of accomplishing its stated objectives.
The White House CMC (WHCMC) system goals are described in this chapter in relation to the claims made by the White House concerning how this technology would facilitate democracy in the United States. The White House claims are evaluated in light of data gathered (by system evaluators) on system users reported in 1996 (the last year that such data have been available for public scrutiny). They are also compared to the standards of democratic communication suggested by a typology of democracies and various perspectives of democratic communication. The conclusions reached in this chapter focus on what the system planners promised and what the system has delivered as a new means of political communication. Finally, some early groundwork for initiating some theoretical constructs and models of political interactivity is presented in an effort to usefully relate democracy and communication in ways that can influence future WHCMC development and evaluation.
The White House (WHCMC) Technology/System
The Clinton WHCMC system (http://www.whitehouse.gov) began as an extension of the intensive uses of new communication technologies by the Clinton presidential campaign in 1992. Of the three major campaigns (Bush, Clinton, Perot) in 1992, only the Clinton campaign made early use of computer networks to disseminate its messages. The distribution of Clinton campaign documents began with the use of CompuServe (Chapman, 1993). In time, all three campaigns eventually used computer networking for such purposes (Hacker et al., 1996).
After the election victory, the Clinton-Gore team moved into the White House in 1993 and installed new phone lines, computers, modems, FAX machines and e-mail technology (Diamond and Silverman, 1997). The staff perceived that they were ending a Dark Ages of communication technologies used by the Bush administration. For example, President Bush did not get direct dial tone on his own phone; he had to place his calls with the assistance of his operator. Whether or not the Clinton WHCMC system ever accomplished its stated objectives for democracy, its designers can legitimately claim that the Clinton administration was the first to make CMC part of US government communication with its citizens (Davis and Owen, 1998).
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