International Communication Association Preconference (San Diego, California)

Title: Electronic Networks and Democracy: Setting the Research Agenda

Time: Friday, May 23, 2003 8:30 am to 5:30 pm

General Objective: Among the most hotly contested issues in research addressing new technologies are claims regarding the potential for new information and communication technologies to extend democratic practices in society. This literature is replete with prognostications that suggest, on the one hand, that new ICTs can support and even enhance the practice and functioning of democracy and nearly as many, on the other hand, that predict with a sense of doom that ICTs threaten to erode democracy with further centralization, surveillance, the promotion of anti-democratic decision making processes, and with problems of access. Unfortunately, researchers have not always agreed on the meaning of democracy. Some reviews of the literature have located as many as five theoretical visions of democracy implicated in these debates. For any significant advances in theory building and testing to occur in this area, researchers must begin to clarify their uses of the term democracy and locate themselves within research agendas that are commonly recognized.

This one day pre-conference will build on a colloquium held in The Netherlands in October, 2002, sponsored by the European Institute of Communication and Culture (Euricom). The Euricom Colloquium brought together an international group of scholars who share as a central concern an interest in the variety of claims related to the use of electronic communication networks to enhance democratic practices. One of the purposes of the October meetings was to establish cross-national dialogue on a set of common themes encompassed in the scholarship investigating the relationship between new media technologies and democratic practices. A further purpose of these meetings was to explore the possibilities for creating joint research projects that cross national boundaries and that show promise in addressing some of the central questions in advancing research agendas related to the technology/democracy relationship. This pre-conference is proposed as a way of involving more scholars with similar interests and furthering work toward the second objective. Our goal now is develop and articulate a shared sense of prioritized questions that can help to advance research in this area.

The day will be organized around discussions focusing on four coherent research themes. In panel discussions devoted to each theme, scholars will offer 15 minute presentations of their choices for 1 or 2 research questions with priority for advancing theory building and testing devoted to the particular theme under consideration. The presentations will be supported by short papers that will be accessible before the pre-conference on one or more Web sites supporting this event (http://baserv.uci.kun.nl/~jankow/Euricom/ is currently available). A respondent for each panel will comment and offer reflections on the contributions with the goal of synthesizing or drawing attention to divergences in the research questions proposed, followed by open discussion with other participants. A final set of commentaries on the day's discussions will be offered by well known researchers in the area.

Format and Participants:

8:30 – 9:00 – Coffee and Pastries

9:00 -- 9:15 Welcome and Introduction

Teri Harrison, University at Albany
Ken Hacker, New Mexico State University
Nick Jankowski, University of Nijmegen

9:15 -- 10:30 Getting Past the Digital Divide

Participants:

Sorin Matei, University of Kentucky
Jan Van Dijk, University of Twente
Rod Carveth, Texas Tech University

Respondent: Ken Hacker, New Mexico State University

10:30 – 10:45 Break

10:45 -- 12:15 Using New Technologies to Enhance Political Engagement

Participants:

Kirsten Foot, University of Washington
Carlo Hagemann, University of Nijmegen
Steven Schneider, SUNY Institute of Technology

Respondent: Nick Jankowski, University of Nijmegen

12:15 – 1:30 – Lunch, on your own

1:30 – 3:00 Building Communities, Citizenship, and Political Action through New Technologies

Participants:

Leigh Keeble, University of Teeside
Joseph Schmitz, Organizational Dynamics
Jim Zappen, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Respondent: Brian Loader, University of Teeside

3:00 -- 3:15 Break

3:15 – 4:45 New Technologies and the Nature of Democratic Discourse

Participants:

Jenny Stromer-Galley, University at Albany
Vincent Price, U of Pennsylvania
Randy Kluver, Nanyang Technological U

Respondent: Bruce Bimber, University of California, Santa Barbara

4:45 -- 5:30 Reflections on the Day

William Dutton, Oxford Internet Institute