Online political advocacy campaign has transformed electoral politics.
By lowering the financial barriers setting aside traditional
grassroots tactics and community strategies to enter into the national
and local political election debates, the Internet has energized
activists and given rise to new voices and new forms of news and
commentary.
While the Internet has become an integral part of
campaign infrastructure, it has also spawned the rise of bloggers and
other alternative media, empowering thousands of new political actors
and providing an important antidote to years of declining civic
participation. In the last election, there was also a record number of
small
online donors to political campaigns, diluting but not eliminating
the influence of big money in politics.
Unlike a highly centralized "one to many" traditional media
platform namely grassroots tactics and community strategies - which
limited political speech to those who could afford expensive
television and newspaper ads - the Internet's decentralized "many to
many" platform permits anyone to communicate with millions at little
or no cost through inexpensive
web hosting and
blogging services and hundreds of online forums. According to a
Pew/Internet report, 75 million Americans used the Internet during the
2004 election to get news, discuss issues and candidates, and
participate through volunteering for or donating to campaigns, a
significant increase from 2002. There is every reason to believe that
these numbers will continue to grow dramatically.
The success of online political advocacy campaign the as a tool for
political engagement brought scrutiny from Washington policymakers
about whether and how federal campaign finance reform laws should be
applied to the medium. Bloggers and free speech advocates fought
against applying the complex regulations to the Internet activities of
ordinary citizens, and they were successful in convincing the Federal
Election Commission to build into the regulations substantial
protections for individuals' online political activities.
The new campaign finance rules for the Internet leave the vast
majority of uncompensated citizen-initiated election activities on the
Internet free from any regulation. With few exceptions, you may
develop websites, blog,
e-mail campaign material, raise money, and
collaborate with your friends on election related activities
online without worrying about running afoul of the rules. Campaign
finance obligations kick in only in very limited circumstances -
primarily where payments are made to place advertisements and other
communications on third party blogs and websites.
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