February 2006

Introduction

In many see the Internet as a tool that can change for the better relations between citizens and political institutions .. this perspective is certainly legitimate, but we must also consider the fact that, at least the moment, in Italy, the internet can not yet be regarded as a means of mass communication. The audience of our country in fact, despite a marked increase does not exceed one-fifth of the population! significant in this regard is the fact that during the last election (in 2001) only 0.1% of voters turned to the "network" for information.

should also be noted how the same political parties and their leaders are not yet able to exploit the opportunities offered by the Internet and new technologies. It is easy to notice a common trend to export models in the virtual world of communication, expression and organization of their real world. However, even if the public still tend to have a relationship a bit 'conflicted and distrustful of politics, the basis for a significant improvement in this respect are very solid.

Internet and new technologies have spawned a number of activities related to the world political as the production of new material and forms of mobilization and political struggle, the possibility for citizens to be consulted on the adoption of decisions result, the possibility of access to information time available only to insiders and many more.

In conclusion we can say that the Internet tends to redefine the political activities and to foster new .

Part I

despite you the considerations made in the introduction is no doubt that the internet, if exploited adeguatame nte, could offer many benefits to the economy as a political communication system, the speed of communication, lack of boundaries, multimedia and interactivity.

crucial element is the aspect of ' ECONOMY. The creation or operation of a website, the organization of a mailing list, preparing a newsletter to send to your subscribers, are all operations that involve a very small financial investment: this, at a time when the cost to acquire a space of presence in traditional media is growing exponentially, represents an important innovation.

It is the secondary aspect of SPEED . With the use of internet time that elapses between the production and the main Linux distributions is reduced almost to disappear, the supply reaches immediately att ravers the network, millions of individuals. In addition there is the possibility to update or change any information in real time!

Another element that characterizes this "new" technology of political communication is the lack of boundaries . The communication flows can also branch out quickly worldwide, up by fact, the limits of national borders, whereas you have to face the traditional means of communication.

No less important is the aspect of the previous MULTIMEDIA . Internet, in fact, allows the development of communicative messages through various codes: the written text, data, photos, movies and sound. In practice allows a synchronic dissemination of texts and data that would normally belong to each medium.

Equally innovative is the element of ' INTERACTIVITY . This is a very unique state that has no equal in the traditional media. You can talk about interactivity in two cases: when the user interacts with the common offering a political site by sending an e-mail or participating in a discussion forum, or, in the second case, when the 'user interacts with other those with whom he is interested in discussing such topics as in c asi discussion groups or forums.

With the Internet changing from a communication model of the type "one to many", ie a communication one to many to type "many to many" that is, by many (broadcasters) to many (recipients). The first model can also be defined as "broadcast" and is the typical model of television, where there is only one offer that meets the needs of the public. The second model is also referred to "netcast" and that is what takes place in the Internet which allows a communication "many to many", he manages to create a very diversified offer to satisfy all requests.

Part II

The main actors policy on the Internet are not just political parties. An important role is also played by so-called social movements (pressure groups, interest groups, etc.). Which would seem to be even more than other persons who are entitled to the benefits that the network provides.
better, we will analyze the two "protagonists" of politics in cyberspace, starting from the subject party.

Political parties play a role of "mediator" between public institutions and civil society and to do that performs many functions, such as gatekeeping. This term refers to the ability of parties to intercept the needs that come from citizens, syntetizing and making them fit with the collective interest.
The party also performs the task of socializing members of society to the political dimension. Ie it must educate citizens to the rules of democracy, making him accept the fact that the public interest must be placed in the private sector.
Another important function of political parties is to control the actions of rulers. The party stands, in fact, as the link between government and citizens and making public the decisions of the first recognizable.
Parties must also develop public policies, ie they should be in terms of government programs with which the election is presentatao in front of voters.
These functions, sometimes they are or had to adapt to the changes that have involved political parties, as happened recently in Western societies. Here
were abandoned sections of mass parties to take those professional electoral party. In doing so the parties have lost their identification with a very specific part of the electorate, have deideologizzati, have marginalized the role of activist.
In this way there was a noticeable loss of involvement of the voters that the parties now hope to recover thanks to the possibilities offered by internet but could not provide the media traditional.

Social movements are characterized by a substantial preference for direct democracy as opposed to what happens to political parties, supporters, of course, a political representative.

Social movements, being marked by a strong heterogeneity, are difficult to identify.

Nevertheless, there are those, like Della Porta (2001), has classified four different types of movements:

groups public interest,
new voluntary associations,
cultural circles (characterized these by universalistic identity)
committees of citizens (whose identity more local content)

social movements because, as mentioned above, who have a vision of a direct democracy see the Internet as the ideal way to give all citizens the opportunity to speak and act, finally directly in decision-making processes.

Part III

Both political parties that the movements have as their main aim to succeed in mobilizing their supporters and to expand the number so which increases the strength and visibility of its actions. The means to carry out the most of this activity is undoubtedly one of the nternet. Logically
parties and movements while having the same purpose differ on the methods adopted to achieve it.
The intense activity for the mobilization and "recruitment" of new subjects for political parties, there is a result of the elections. During this period, then the party uses its site to accommodate the election program, lists of candidates, the statements of the main exponents, information relating to all events associated with the campaign: events, meetings, dinners ... etc. This
outreach and recruitment is not limited, however, only during the elections, but continues, albeit less conspicuous, constantly. As
regards mobilization, citizens can be called to demonstrate in the streets in support of or against such government initiatives, may be invited to sending a to e-mail to members of parliament or to alert others to a ' ongoing initiative.
Appeals boaters to send other people e-mail in which the reasons of argomentino require membership and staff represents the most widely used form of mobilization in Italy and abroad.
Regarding the recruitment has become a habit for all parties who have a website, offer enrollment via the Internet, thus relieving so future memebri from the boredom of going to the party headquarters closer.
The online presence allows, finally, to the parties to reach funds through the sale of items bearing the logo of the party.

With regard to social movements, mobilization activities and the recruitment tend to coincide and to present innovative features in comparison to those of the political parties. In fact, next to an mobilization consisting of appeals to supporters to participate in the planned initiatives and a call to involve other parties through the use of electronic mail, have developed other, more or less articulated, such as the mobilization of computerized activism, the war in the information base, up to the electronic civil disobedience.
computerized activism can be defined as the use of infrastructure of the Internet by activists of a movement to communicate. He was born in the second half of the 80's but sees his great affirmation with the global reach of the Internet, through which considerably increase the sites where activists can come together to coordinate the various "lobbying." The next step
computerized activism War is the basic information.
It 's a "war of words" conducted worldwide by the militants. Go through the simple act of describing the facts and the Internet becomes a vehicle to call the action all the supporters.
Civil Disobedience, finally, is characterized by the organization of actions carried out concurrent disorder, or vviamente via the internet.
must say that the actions of mobilization, described above, will probably cover only a small part of the diverse world that is moving into cyberspace and that changes from day to day, following trials more effective.

Part IV

Another key advantage that the medium of the Internet would make is that they make it possible to create alternative forms of citizen participation in political life conjugated with opportunity for interactivity. In this case
is clear the distinction between the political parties and movements, it is the size of the investment that the interactivity is almost essential prerogatives of the movements, but we can not say the same about parties.
With the crisis of political parties Western, in fact, is missing the social roots of the subject left the area and are reduced the number of militants and sections.
gatekeeping function is carried out by professional politicians. The parties have virtually no more direct contact with citizens and tend to leave more and more civil society.
Internet includes this gap, offering people the opportunity to the people and the initiatives of the parties to interact with them. The opportunities are many and range from the possibility of the surfers to contribute to the construction of the platform of the programmatic party to the discussions on the line to take, etc.. tools offered by the web of interaction are the e-mail, which allows citizens to make known its views on specific topics, discussion forums, which allow an exchange of views among citizens on issues concerning party or not, polls, and then discussions with the leaders, which allow surfers to ask questions in person.
R ilevante is also the role played by the newsletter that is from the party that regularly sends messages to users, full of information on current activities. must be said, however, that political parties have so far been able to little advantage of the opportunities offered by new technologies and the vast majority of cases have accont entati to offer within their sites of contact with basic e-mail.
Therefore, despite the enormous potential of the internet, user involvement in sites of parties is still very low. Completely different is the situation with regard to the sites of social movements, just think of the fact that increased opportunities for direct citizen participation is the basis of the birth of the movements themselves.
On these sites there is a greater attention to the size of your participation there is more space allocated to the occasion of interaction between the media, internet makes it possible to overcome the sense of isolation resulting from the absence of face to face contact, emphasizing the sharing of ideals and strategies.
The 'physical isolation "is to be overcome by the consciousness of being part of a global movement, with terminals throughout the world and held together by their sharing of certain ideals.
Social movements as opposed to political parties are so very careful about unlocking the potential of the network being aware of the incredible contribution it could make the implementation of measures to combat global otherwise would be impossible. Moreover, the typical model
netcast network fully meets the expectations of movements, which reject organi centralized organization "own party", and instead feed the contribution made by many "nodes" scattered.