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RSS FeedEngaging citizens in governance: Is online civic engagement as effective as face-to-face outreach?
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| Yes | 51% | 21 votes | Total: 41 votes | |
| No | 49% | 20 votes |
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Add to FavoritesIn many ways, online civic engagement is more effective than face-to-face outreach because it doesn't limit itself to space. People from all over the world can share their views, debate and even argue at the click of a mouse. Person-to-person interaction of this kind would be much more limited.
Another plus is the glut of information one can find on the internet. I personally receive at least 10 newsletters from various political organizations, Christian organizations, and blog posts. I even get a few from places that have different views so I can get both sides of the information.
I open up my email box every day and find the news, along with various opinions, right there for me to read. It's so much easier to stay informed with the ability to have information in a matter of seconds from many sources. While you have to watch your sources because a lot of bad information can find its way on-line as well, a discerning reader can stay current every day.
At least three of the newsletters I receive keep me updated on what's going on in Congress. When a bill is being pushed through that I disagree with, I am informed and often given an opportunity via the net and the newsletter's Web page to share my opinion with my representatives. I can also sign petitions that are delivered to the representatives. How easy is that? We can all call or e-mail our representatives any time we want to, but it's so much easier to do now that we can do most of it online.
When I find out a politician is trying to stop a bill or slide one through, I can share this information with others via e-mail and blogging and chat rooms. No longer can our representatives sneak something through because we have instant access to information and we can respond and let them know what we do or don't want. Our representatives can find out right away what the people want. Whether they listen to us or not is another matter, but because we can share the information with a lot of people in a very short time, they often comply because they know we are the ones who vote them into office.
Politics will never be the same as citizen journalism and citizens' engaging in governance via the internet continues to increase. In many ways, this allows us to keep our politicians in check because they know we will have that information quickly and will not have a problem letting our voices be heard. We're watching them, and they know it. They will have to change politics as usual just to deal with this growing trend.
Online civic engagement allows everyone who has access to internet to participate in governance. Even the poor often have access at their local library, so that includes almost everyone. So many times in the past people have felt that their voice didn't matter so they didn't try. Now their voice can be heard and they have an opportunity to do something when they like or don't like something that is happening in our government.
Maybe, due to online civic engagement, we will finally become a true democracy as the people of the US (and the world) give voice to what they want and need from the government. We can keep track of what's going on and we can make a difference through all the venues offered us online. Face-to-face outreach is nice, but online civic engagement offers much more to all.
Learn more about this author, Angela S. Young.
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No
While online civic engagement has a few positive features it will never replace the effectiveness of face to face outreach.
One positive feature of online civiic engagement is that people who in the past were unable to attend town meetings and join in the conversation there, can now do so at the click of a mouse.
The computer has brought new freedom to many people who have been unable to physically attend political discussions because physical challenges have kept them home. The challenge might be that someone is confined to a wheelchair and access to the meeting is unavailable or an illness has left someone incapable of hearing or speaking so they don't attend. Without leaving their homes, the voices of these people can now be heard and that is definitely a positive feature of online civic engagement
With online civic engagement the opinions of many can be heard and the government has a much clearer picture of how the majority of people feel about important issues. Whether or not the opinions expressed by the people impacts any decision made by government remains to be seen but the fact that many more people are able to speak up and be heard makes online engagement effective.
Face to face outreach to me is more effective for obvious reasons. For one, the number of people allowed to gather in a meeting place is usually restricted to only the number of people a meeting place legally allows. This is done not only for reasons of fire safety but it is also an effective measure of crowd control. People who might get noisy and out of control are more easily removed from a public meeting place . Also, having the ability to speak directly with a politician makes most people feel thst they have really been heard and what they have said is important to the person they have spoken to.
With online engagement there is no way to know that what someone has said was actuially seen by anyone in government as comments are generally seen first by office personnel. There is no personal acknoledgement that a message was received and being acknowledged is important to people.
Another issue is the large number of people who get online and send messages. With thousands of people going online to express their opinions, there is no "crowd control" when it comes to negative input. Case and point is the latest online " citizens meeting" where the President who had asked for questions from the public earlier in the week, went online to answer some of the most important questions. It was embarassing to hear from the President that the most important question seemed to be "would pot be legalized as it would help our economy" ?
I hate to think that the majority of people asked this question but no one will know because it was an online question and many still don't have access to a computer. Hope still remains that more people were concerned about more important issues than legalizing pot.
Online interaction in government has it's advantages but give me face to face discussions any day.
Learn more about this author, Megan O'Brian.
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