March 17, 2003
Internet may mobilize largest antiwar protests ever seen, professor predicts
The Internet could help unleash the largest antiwar protests in human history, according to a University of Washington expert in the rise of online activism.
“We’re seeing mass mobilization without leaders — a digital swarm,” said Lance Bennett, a UW political science and communications professor who on Friday will keynote the 10th Politics Online Conference at George Washington University.
Bennett will chart the rise of “viral organizing” via the Internet and the advancement of “personal digital networks” that provide information tailored to individual tastes.
The Internet also recently enabled a “virtual march” to swamp Senate and White House telephone switchboards, fax machines and e-mail boxes with hundreds of thousands of messages opposing military action against Iraq. The coalition of 32 organizations claimed that more than 400,000 people registered to participate in the call-in campaign.
In addition to analyzing the e-protest movement, Bennett will outline digital communications trends in electoral politics as candidates preparing for presidential and congressional campaigns increasingly use the Internet as a way to cheaply and efficiently engage turned-off voters.
“Online politics can resolve the dilemma of how to reach people who no longer see themselves as part of a political party,” said Bennett, whose six books include “News: The Politics of Illusion” and “The Governing Crisis: Media, Money, and Marketing in American Elections.”
Political candidates will rely as never before on digital networks targeted to particular issues, he added.
The all-day conference at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., is sponsored by the Institute for Politics, Democracy & the Internet. The institute, funded by a grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts, says its mission is to promote the development of U.S. online politics in a manner that upholds democratic values.
Attending the conference will be leaders in the use of the Internet in politics and advocacy. They include Julius Chambers, treasurer of the Edwards for President campaign; Chuck DeFeo; online director for the Republican National Committee; Zack Exley of moveon.org; James Faulkner, political adviser to the McCain 2000 campaign; William Greene; a former partner of direct mail-legend Richard Viguerie; Eric Loeb, chief Internet architect for the Democratic National Committee; Harrison “Lee” Rainie, director of Pew Internet & American Life and former managing editor of U.S. News & World Report; Stuart Trevelyan, a veteran of the 1992 Clinton-Gore “War Room,” and Gena Wright, the e-advocacy director for AARP.
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For more information, contact Bennett at (206) 612-6084 (cell phone) or lbennett@u.washington.edu. The conference Web site is www.ipdi.org/politicsonline. The Web site for Bennett’s Center for Communication and Civic Engagement, in Seattle, is www.engagedcitizen.org. More UW sources on international events can be found at www.washington.edu/newsroom/war
