What evidence is there to support the view that new media

technologies are helping to mobilize political participation and

civic engagement?
Introduction-
The spread and use of new digital technologies, especially the Internet has created an entirely

new interactive environment for human communication at many levels and in many ways.

Increasingly, technology is viewed not as a distinctively external communicative tool-box

used by society but as an integral part of a mutual co-evolution.

Technical change has always had a great influence on the political and social situation. The

beginning of the 20th century, electronic communication has developed to become a decisive

factor in political life. The new media and information communication technology (ICT) has

involved the people together. New media has given a pace to some extent to civil mobilising.

It have some examples which indicates that new media really creating a new feature of

people richness to know the realty and quickly by the means of audio as well as video. There

is also a general agreement that fundamental societal changes by new technologies are

underway, especially in terms of how we interact, communicate, produce and exchange

knowledge through the medium of virtual environment. A decade ago television acclaimed a

revolution in politics and societal activity. Now the people could see their candidate in action,

answering questions messaging up, making the activity live and clear. By the time technology

has growing up to their highest richness by providing now direct, electronic entree in to

democracy for the masses with everything from video debate to Q and A session with

candidate and broad outreach and fundraising campaign via the internet. The most prompt

evidence for the strong support of this activity in Indian television news channel NDTV

where anyone can raise question and give up a comment which help to shape the debate and

change the environment. People could participate by online discussion board. Some more

activity which is really generating and keeping close to citizen through the new media

technology specially the Vidal effect of internet which create entirely a broad platform to any
community religion and country nationals. Like Myriad political web logs- blogs in cyber

parlance- slice and dice the latest campaign news, and anyone with a computer can make his

or her voice heard, although it’s becoming harder to hear one self above the democratic din.

Internet is now a power as a political tool has only begun to reveal itself to a wider audience

in recent year during the 2004 US presidential race; democratic contender Howard Dean used

the internet to harvest remarkable sums of campaign money from large numbers of donors. In

his prowess marked a turning point in the way the internet is perceived by both candidate and

what one study calls “online political citizen”.

Civic engagement and participation-

Civic engagement is a multifacetated concept, consisting of political interest, political

discussion, and political knowledge with the help of new media and technology people

participation has growing. The internet has provide new political information venues sites for

discussion and networks for mobilization for e.g.- face book, YouTube, Orkut or MySpace

etc. Politics online would increasingly fragment the sense of political community or

accelerate the declining of social capital, I find that internet use actually increase civic

engagement citizen appear to gain political knowledge increase the frequency of political

discussion and raise their political interest when reading about politics online. The internet

effect on political knowledge is greater for the young who are most likely to turn to the

internet as a source of political information. Young people are also the least likely to be

knowledge about politics so the internet has the potential to fill an important gap. While

information and knowledge are empowering, the evidence shows that all individual (young

and old) who read news online are more likely to discuss politics which friends and family

and express an interest in politics. The three elements – knowledge, discussion and interest-

create a condition of civic engagement. The evidence that the internet is linked to civic

engagement is clear. The political Internet emerged dramatically between the 1996 and 2000

US presidential campaigns. The proportion of people using the Internet to collect news or
research policy alternatives increased significantly as the technology diffused. Exit polls in

2000 revealed that a third of the electorate used the Internet to do some kind of research on

candidates (Howard, Jones, & Rainie, 2001). From inside the campaigns, the Internet and

related Internet tools let a number of campaigns make significant advances in fundraising,

volunteer coordination, logistics, and opposition research (Witte & Howard, 2002). The use

of online news in consistently associated with all three elements of civic engagement across

all three election include in this study ( 2000, 2002, 2004 ), the use of internet has a

substantial effect, producing an average up to 20 and 307 percent increase for discussion and

knowledge. According to a report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, the number

of Americans in 2006 who used the Internet as their main source for political news doubled

since the previous midterm election in 2002. Although the percentage is still under 20

percent, it has grown steadily over the past decade. The new media has given a tremendous

space and broad Conesus about political participation and civic engagement as some recently

evidence shows how much could internet play a role to build-up the government by recently

US election 2008 has a quick idea as the 2008 presidential election progresses, a variety of

factors contribute to the complexity of the election. The stances taken by democratic and

republican candidates have become polarized regarding the war in Iraq and universal health

care; not to mention that the two democratic candidates are vying to be both the first black

male president and the first female president. Additionally, the 2008 presidential election has

seen an increase in internet use in terms of acquiring information, and supporting candidates.

These examples also draw on the fact that cost is no longer an obstacle for wide-scale

publishing and distribution of information via the Internet and cell phones—at least for those

connected to the network. Anyone can be a pundit, a reporter, or a political organizer using

tools such as text messages, e-mails, wikis, blogs, video, and websites. In the United States,

the “Yes We Can” video supporting the campaign of Barack Obama was filmed in two days

at the end of January 2008. A month later, it had been viewed 20 million times. In the
parlance of the Internet, it had gone viral. As a result, the internet has had a significant impact

on the way the public perceives political candidates. The Pew internet and American life

project has just released a report on the role of the internet in the election which analyses

trends in how people consume political news and information and the ways they use the

internet to engage with politics . the figure shows that, more than half (55%) of the voting-

age population has used the Internet to get involved in the political process during the

election year (74% of Internet users). The Internet has become a paramount tool for people’s

engagement in the political process, not only as a source of information (60% of Internet

users have gone online to look for political information in 2008 compared to 22% in

1996), but as a tool for active participation. 18% of Internet users actively engaged online by

posting comments on the campaign on online forums such as blogs or social networking sites

and 45% watched online videos related to the campaign.Young voters (18-24 year olds)

showed the highest levels of political involvement online. They engaged heavily in the

political debate through social networking sites: two-thirds of young people with a social

networking profile took part in some form of online political activity. The benefit of civic

engagement should also be realized in the form of increase political participation, i found

abundant evidence that internet use facilitate vowing the most common form of political

participation in the associated with civic engagement , is also leads to a greater likelihood of

voting at least during the two most recent presidential election. Online news may reduce

information cost for busy citizen through greater convenience, continuous availability and a

broader diversity of sources, promoting political participation. Evidence which I found about

new media advancement to access the Burma’s people to make a voice against the military

regime that has run the country since 1962. Due to the tightly controlled media environment

in Burma, it is generally difficult to get access to information about the situation on the

ground, especially during times of citizen unrest. This protest, however, was different. The

movement that came to be known as the Saffron Revolution caught global attention as
bloggers and digital activists flooded cyberspace with grainy images and videos of saffron-

robed monks leading large, peaceful demonstrations against the government. Burmese

citizens took pictures and videos, many on their mobile phones, and secretly uploaded them

from Internet cafes or sent digital files across the border to be uploaded. Online dissemination

of news and information about the Saffron Revolution represents perhaps one of the most

notable manifestations of the new mass media model. Despite efforts by the government to

control all media outlets, this attempted revolution demonstrated that the Internet does not

lend itself easily to control. Seemingly benign technologies such as cell phones are sufficient

for taking images and videos and passing them to the outside world through the Internet—

something that was unimaginable under the old mass media model. This activity with the help

of new technology has fosters the civic mobilizing against and favour of the institution and

organization to enhance the potential ability to the world. In other words we can say that it

has a redefines traditional tools and communication, consultation and decision making,

forcing public servant to rethink their roles and the process and structure designed in the post

war era. The evidence of the convergence of new technology more of internet by Canada

primary internet site, it was a designed to be the single window to Canadian federal

department and services. Just after a month a referendum that nearly resulted in the breakup

of the country and was instantly used just as much as a front door to the government of

Canada, the site was adopted by the people of Canadians eager to express their opinion and

emotion. The Canada’s federal government strategy was primary to disseminate information

through the internet, the peoples expectation have forces the federal government to think

their internet presence a new tool for communication with citizen for two-way. Later on the

growing disenchantment about and democratic process the public perceives the internet and

new technology as a key element in making deliberative democracies work better.

This is some more active evidence which are pushing active people to participate in political

environment via new media. The accessible work which really generating effort to move
citizen and engage to access their power. If we look at the evidence of new media to creating

people to rise question and query for right, in January 2001, huge numbers of Philippines

citizen who access cell phone, they took part in massive demonstration against the president

this called “people power 2”. This event was the first time in history that the mobile phone

has played an instrumental role in removing the sitting president of the nation state. Joseph

Estrada was sworn in as the thirteenth president of the Philippines. The massive

demonstration of the people power 2 lasted for four days, from January 16 to 20. The group

of senator judges serving at the impeachment trial resigned in January 17 and the case was

suspended indefinitely. The new coverage of the demonstration invariably highlights the role

of the new communication technology especially SMS and the Internet, in facilitating the

civic engagement and enabling people to rise against any acceptable thing. The president of

Philippines was accused of receiving US $ 80 million from gambling pay off scheme, and

several millions more from tobacco tone kickback anti Estrada information begun accumulate

in online forums as soon as he took office in 1998, which culminated in some two hundred

websites and about a hundred email discussion group by the time people power 2. A famous

on line forum was e-laigda.com which collected 91000 e-signatures to support the

impeachment through both the internet and SMS. Some more evidence came of the

mobilization of the people through new media. They take of the leader in year 2002 south

Korean elected a new president Roh Moo Hyun, whose victory has been widely attribute in

major part to Nasamo online supporter group own by the Korean acronym for “people who

lave Roh”. The internet and mobile phone based communication being systematically utilized

to get together people in a one platform. Internet based campaign had provided the core

political network to join the young people voters on election and this was probably reverse

the result. Roh age, policy and personality gave him strong popularity among young voters.

Just as president Bill Clinton appealed to many American baby boomers. When Roh Moo

Hyun lost his parliamentary election due to low turnout of young voters then Nasamo
(www.nasamo.org) came in to being. On June 6, 2002 Nasamo was framed when around a

hundred founding members convinced in Taejon. The new media had actively and heavily

used by Roh campaign team. Nasamo was a voluntary organization self funded by the

membership fees and informally affiliated by Roh. Within five month the membership figures

jumped from 10 to 5000 and within a two year it crossed the figures of 70000, forming a

most formidable political force. Nasamo members raised more than US$ 7 million over the

internet. The electronic online polls, text message and electronic bulletins to generate a

collective decision and coordinate campaign activities all the decision about their activities

made through an electronic voting system and the final decision making through online

committee has its monthly meeting in chat rooms, this activity heavily fosters the future use

of new media to encourage and engage the citizen of the nation to mobilize political

participation. ( Mobile Communication and Society,186, 194 )

As new technology has growing to their certain speed it is highly affect the social life as well

public concern. The new media has given the right of create own space and a digital

identities. The new media is generating a virtual world to the creation of new environment to

build up public sphere and social capital to enhance the day to day life as the result new

online social community taking a big space by the time to foster civic engagement to the

public network. With the help of new social community society taking a new shape and it is

building social capital. Internet saw it as stimulating positive change in people’s lives by

creating new forms of online interaction and Enhancing offline relationships. The Internet

would restore community by providing a meeting space for people with common interests,

overcoming limitations of space and time. Online communities would promote open,

democratic discourse, allow for multiple perspectives, and mobilize collective action. The

new media specially the Internet as playing an increasingly central role in everyday life

would argue that it increases communication, offline as well as online. In this view, the

Internet not only afford opportunities to contact friends and kin at low cost, it also enhances
face-to-face and telephone communication as network members: (1) become more aware of

each others’ needs and stimulate their relationships through more frequent contact (Homans,

1961); (2) exchange songs, pictures, and other files; and (3) make online arrangements to

meet in-person and by telephone. The Internet can also increase organizational involvement

by facilitating the flow of information between face-to-face meetings and arranging these

meetings themselves. But at the more advancement of new media technology has some

inverse affect that the cause of declining social capital likes Internet may be diverting people

from “true” community because online interactions are inherently inferior to face-to-face and

even phone interactions. Online ties may be less able than offline ties to foster complex

friendship, provide intangible resources such as emotional support, and provide tangible

material aid. There are discrepant findings about whether online time sinks do or do not pull

people away from other interactions inside and outside the household. The Internet can draw

people's attention away from their immediate physical environment because when they are

online, they pay less attention to their physical and social surroundings. Some researchers see

a parallel in the impact of the Internet with the way that television had a similar absorptive

effect that reduced social interaction in the home (Steiner, 1963), as well as social and

political involvement outside One longitudinal study of “newbie’s” to the Internet found that

as Internet use increases, social contact offline decreases, and depression and loneliness

increase. The link between internet use and participation is paralleled by heightened

engagement. By facilitating civic engagement, internet use may represent a more

fundamental transformation, altering citizen orientation toward politics and society, and

motivating individuals to participate over the long term. There are conflicting accounts of the

impact of the internet on civic engagement in particular and social capital more generally.

Some researches early has been done and shows that the internet is less affect over the

declining of political participation and civic engagements and that certain respect it may even

exacerbate this grim trend. With the high technical advancement it has alter the use of
particular people who are less user and educated of new invention technology medium and

poor, they are also less likely to vote or participate overall.

Conclusion –

Control of new media and communication has been a major source of power throughout

history. The advent of the internet and new mode communication allows the development of

many to many and one to one horizontal communication channel that bypass political or

social control. Therefore new avenue are open for autonomous proess of social and political

mobilization that do not rely on formal politics and do not depend on their framing in the

mass media. The relative autonomy of the content and process of communication does not

necessary lead to social change.