Playing The Political Game On-Line:The Israeli Case-Study

The Internet is becoming a dominant medium of political communication, especially throughout the western democracies, and mostly the U.S (Davis, 1999; Selnow, 1998).  A short glance at the ongoing campaign for American presidency reveals the impressive role that this new medium plays (Nicholson, 2000). Both Al Gore and George. W Bush run their own very sophisticated and attractive web sites, through which they give highlights from the campaigns, review of their personal and professional history, call for donations and volunteers, comments for media coverage, etc. The big media frequently quote political messages from these sites and from other on-line sources. Politicians and their staff make intensive use of e-mail in order to reach relevant journalists and affect them. Growing portions of the public claim they use Internet for political information as well as for e-mail exchange with politicians. On-line Political satire is also flourishing now days and even some limited and experimental on-line voting projects have been already taken place throughout the U.S.

In this paper I will analyze the new web site of the Israeli parliament sub-committee for Internet and information technology and I will claim that it has the potential to play a substantive role in the Israeli political arena.

Before discussing the Israeli case study let me begin by giving a full description of the various ways in which the Internet functions as a political medium.

Though it’s potential in the field of political communication is yet farfrom being fully realized, it is quite clear that  the Internet brings with it some relevant functions to the political world. What are the Internet’s main applications as a medium of political communication?

At the present there seem to be nine such applications:

1.  Web Sites That Promote “Direct Democracy” or “Direct Governance”

These sites use the new Internet based technologies in order to enable people to have direct contacts with governance agencies and officials, from national to local levels (Coleman, 1999; Tzagarousianou, 1999). Numerous government agencies in the U.S and many European states have already launched their web sites. Those sites are mainly meant to serve two functions: useful information and services for every citizen and a chance to influence political processes and decision-making by participating in many forms of interactive activities between elected officials and citizens (Bimber, 1999; Freidland, 1996; Brants et-al, 1996; Poullet, 1998, Musso et-al, 2000).

2.  Web Sites That Act as Vehicles of Political Propaganda for In-Office Politicians in Times of Elections as well
     as a Part of a Permanent Campaign

The Internet provides a new channel of political propaganda (Davis, 1999; Margolis, Resnick & Wolfe, 1999). It’s cheap, it’s easy to handle and it isn’t exposed to direct media criticism and editing mechanisms. As the number of Internet’s users increases so does the potential of this new vehicle. As mentioned before, the ongoing campaign for the American presidency is a good example of the way a well-designed web site serves the political needs of both candidates. The American political scene also provides a good example of how may the Internet help nurturing a permanent campaign (Owen, Davis & Strickler, 1999). Many of the American congress members run their own web sites (in addition to congress sites). Those sites enable them to remain at the center of their voter’s attention even at times when there are no election campaigns going on.

3.  Web sites that serve non-parliament groups

The benefits of the Internet as a propaganda tool are even more relevant when it comes to non-parliament groups (Selnow, 1998; Whine, 1997). Being short of budgets and suffering difficulties in getting a say in the mass media, these groups find the new medium highly helpful. As long as the Internet is not fully controlled by exactly the same forces that affect the off-line world (be them political or financial), and as long as ethical and formal rules that restrict the mass media are less relevant to the Internet, non-parliament bodies, even the most extreme ones, may benefit from the (almost) free and easy to reach stage that this new medium offers them.

4.  Web sites that host discussion groups and chats over political Issues

These sites are in many cases a private enterprise but they may also be a part of a larger site handled by political, media or commerce factors. The relevant activity at these sites is “ideas exchange” through chats and discussion group. The issues are  mainly political. The participants are interested Internet users as well as politicians, political and communication assistants and journalists.

5. Web sites that invite people to vote on actual issues, to send emails or take a part in a petition of a political kind

Here again, there are private enterprises dedicated to voting (like Vote.com) as well as larger political or media web sites that invite their audiences to vote, among other activities. The voting results can be seen as another source of knowledge about public attitudes. It may not be scientific and fully representing all society elements, but in many cases these sites present some worth-thinking materials.  

6.  Political satire on the web

Political satire on the web is becoming a new and interesting political phenomenon (Warnick, 1998). As a private-independent site, or as a part of a propaganda site, where the politician is making fun of his / her rival, political satire on the web is making use of the relative freedom of speech that characterizes the Internet (in comparison to conventional mass media).

7.  E-mail exchange between politicians and their staff

This implication is mostly relevant to the work of parties, politicians and their staff. It makes communication and daily work easier and sometimes even chipper. Still, Gibson & Ward (1999) claim that this application has some significant implications for the whole political system. In their research of British parties using Internet based technologies the scholars found out that E-mail exchange may affect power distribution to make it more horizontal and liberal.

8.  E-mail exchange between politicians and journalists 

This application can be analyzed in two ways. The first is email sending initiated by politicians and their staff, and addressed to relevant journalists. This new vehicle makes it easier to reach journalists and deliver them political messages. On the other hand, journalists find email as another way to make contact with their sources.

9. On-line media

Internet contains three forms of on-line media:

1.     On-line versions of the big media, presenting the same contents within another medium.

2.     On-line versions of the big media, presenting Internet-unique contents.

3.     On-line independent media, established especially for the Internet.

4.     All of these forms of on-line media have political impact (especially those “extensions” of the already known media) since they provide another channel of news framing and agenda setting.

One of the most intriguing and debated Internet’s political applications is the attempt to reinforce democracy using the new medium’s virtues.

What is a well-founded democracy? Among the many answers may be - a democracy in which:

1.     Citizens are politically informed and make rational and knowledge-based decisions.

2.     Citizens are interested in political processes.

3.     Citizens are involved in political actions, communicate with decision makers and other members of society, initiate and make efforts to improve their life and the lives of other community members.

4.     Elected officials are aware of their citizen’s needs, wishes and aspirations and take these into consideration when prioritizing goals.

5.     Citizens find the political system and especially the legislative body satisfactory and distinguished. 

6.     Everyone who has a say and wishes to express it in public can find his / her way to the public sphere without severe restrictions.

The “direct governance” sites initiators are led by the belief that Internet based technologies have the potential to contribute to this important issue. What attributes of the Internet may render it capable of fulfilling this task?

Thought some scholars are quite doubtful about Internet’s impact in this field (Davis, 1999; Weise, 2000; McChesney, 1996; Gibson & Ward, 1999; Norris, 2000), there are others that speak about the various possibilities the new medium offers people interested in political and democratic processes on the one hand, and society as a whole on the other hand (Poullet, 1998; Margolis, Resnick & Wolfe, 1999; Bouras et-al, 1999; Tsaliki & Rovolis, 1999; Tambini, 1999). At the top of Internet’s unique characters, stands the potential to run interactive activities and diminish the gap between citizens and politicians. Moreover, it is of significance that people connected to the web have equal access and standing in this medium. If the citizens of a well established democracy are supposed to be politically informed than the Internet can be helpful for that matter too. The new medium is also known for the large amount of information that it contains, much of it over various aspects of the political world. Still, as Davis (1999) notes, the very existence of political information is not enough. If it isn’t qualitative and reliable and if citizens are not actively looking for it than the growing dominance of the Internet in the political arena might be even harmful in the sense of nurturing democratic values.  

In Israel the Internet has not, yet, achieved the status of an important political medium. The number of the subscribers is still (relatively) low (proximally 17-20% of the total population) and the number of political applications is poor. Many parliament members have personal web sites, but they don’t pay enough attention to emails and they don’t keep their sites updated and attractive. Considering these facts it is quite impressing to find a new site, at its final stages of becoming active, which tries to alter the rules of the Israeli Internet landscape. This is the web site of the Knesset (the Israeli parliament) sub-committee of Internet and information technologies, whose chairmen is Knesset member Michael Eitan.

Like similar web sites around the world this site’s main and declared raison d’etre is to advance and reinforce the foundations of democracy, so to create a new and up-to-date version of direct democracy. It aims to make all of the aforementioned conditions for a “healthy democracy” possible and vivid.

First, volunteers will do much of the work, a fact that nicely expresses the idea of civic society. Interested citizens from various positions and fields are the leading force behind this project. The site consists of 16 theme-domains, in turn consisting of several work-groups. At the head of each theme-domain stands a volunteer, experienced in some way in his field. Many theme-domains have other members, responsible for particular work-groups. The writer of this paper will lead the “Democracy on-line” theme-domain, whose mission is to actually fulfill the idea of using Internet based techniques to reinforce democracy by offering many opportunities for debating, participating, persuading and learning about various political issues. Among the other theme-domains are the following: “Promoting e-commerce”, “Advancing Internet’s penetration to the Israeli-Arab community”, “Creating an available governance”, “Ensuring freedom of information”, “Promoting Internet use in the education system”, etc. The sub-committee will be the mediating factor between volunteers and parliament members, giving the required political and legal backup.

The Israeli site invites the public to send their own bills and comments to legislators. But it doesn’t stop there. Unlike similar sites, this site declares its commitment for lobbying the public proposals and comments. Lobbying is supposed to take place by asking relevant parliament members to take direct responsibility of certain proposals and make sure they will receive the most serious treatment from the legislative body. By doing that citizens will (hopefully) get the notion of a real chance to influence, change and be a part of main political-democratic processes. A current report of the on-going activities will indicate who are the collaborating politicians and who is ignoring people’s questions and bills. Being aware of that fact will probably encourage parliament members to perform a highly involved image to the public.

The site will also enable the common citizen to have an active role in chats with house members, hear them in a non-mediated way and make their elected officials pay attention to whatever is on their minds. The site also provides information through academic articles (most of them written especially for this project), formal documents and other sources of information dealing with Israeli politics and democracy in general. Users are invited to comment on these articles and add their own essays. Finally, the Internet committee’s sessions will be transparent to the public. Using on-line video techniques citizens will be able to watch these meetings, ask questions and suggest new topics for discussion. Since most of the committee’s sessions will be dedicated to handle people’s bills this will be another effective way to get the public to participate in political processes and to prove the site’s real commitment to advance citizens initiatives. 

Serving democracy is not all there to it in the Israeli site. In this last section I will examine the relevance of each and every one of the political applications, mentioned above, to this new site.

1.  Political propaganda for in-office politicians

In addition to the fact that links from the site refer participants to parliament members personal web sites, the new site will probably function as a propaganda vehicle for these politicians, simply by hosting them in chats and discussions group. Having no editors and journalists around, the stage is almost completely theirs. Indeed, criticism may be heard from time to time by other participants, but generally speaking, this is a unique and precious opportunity for politicians to determine their own framing, their own agenda and try to improve images by sharing a close-unmediated contacts with citizens, etc. It may not exactly be what the Internet’s sub committee had in mind when it launched this site, but this is an un-avoided outcome of letting politicians express themselves over a stage that is clear from professional criticism.  

2.  Propaganda for non-parliament groups

The site provides a free stage for any non-parliament group whose existence and declared aspirations are not threats to democracy. It will be possible to introduce one self, targets, achievements, activities and future plans. This stage can be used in order to call for new members and contributors. It may also serve the need to gain the attention of in-office politicians for the causes of help and expressions of support or criticism.

3.  Public voting and e-mail sending

Hot and actual issues will be open for public voting and e-mail sending. Citizens will enjoy the chance to express their points of view and affect political decisions making, knowing the voting data will be directly presented to the eyes of parliament members.

4.  Discussion-groups and chats

As mentioned before, participants will be able to take an active role in discussion-groups and chats between citizens and politicians. At this stage, it seems that the possibility to speak with elected officials on a live form is going to be highly attractive for citizens and interests groups. From the point of view of parliament members as well this is an intriguing new way of communicating with citizens. As responsible representatives they will be able to learn their public needs and attitudes. At the same time, as sophisticated politicians, house members will have the opportunity to affect the participants and even to reshape some of their political opinions. On the other hand, these very same politicians take the chance of getting too close to their potential voters and too exposed to criticism (what is of course, a positive outcome of the new site).

5.  Political satire

At the moment this function has no formal stand within the site. Even so, political satire may well be made and sound as the product of participants initiatives. Political criticism and political satire are, after all, close members of the same family…

Still, one reservation must be made: one should not forget that this is an official site.  Freedom of speech, by no means a leading value of this project, will probably suffer some restrictions (rare and minimal as possible), which might not exist in other non-formal sites.

6.  Email exchange between politicians and their staff

Not relevant at all to the new Israeli site.

7.  Email exchange between politicians and journalists

This interesting application may have some surprising expressions using the tools that are given by the web site. True, politicians are not expected to use this forum in order to contact journalists, at least not directly. It is the way journalists may use this new channel that arouse our interest. It won’t happen at the beginning. First this new site will have to earn its credibility and make the impression of a significant political arena. When that happens, journalists may use this tool for increasing their control over political information simply by sending emails and participating in discussion groups and chats. As participants in these interactive activities some of the journalists may skip their real names and titles, hoping to enjoy maximum openness on behalf of the elected officials. When journalists will join the game this new site will gain much more political impact.

8.  On-line media

The presence of the new Israeli site has no special relation to on-line media. They may mention it’s existence and follow it’s activities, but not in a unique way that contribute to our discussion.

Discussion

As I was trying to show along this paper, the new Israeli web site of parliament’s sub committee for Internet and information technologies can have a significant impact over all the main players in the political arena: politicians, non-parliament groups, journalists and the public. While in-office politicians will probably find the site a new vehicle of potential self-marketing, image controlling and a way of getting close to the public, citizens who are willing to participate in the political process will be offered some attractive, efficient and affecting channels of activity.  Lobbying citizens’ bills to the degree of making them an integral part of parliament work is significant not only for the satisfaction of the public political aspirations but also for enhancing the democratic aspect of the parliament’s work. As for non-parliament groups, making a wise use of the free stage that this new site gives them might reinforce their political dominance in a way no other medium could ever do.

Journalists, as it has already been claimed, are the toughest players. They will probably not embrace the new site and they will not make it their favorite working tool from the very beginning, but as time goes by and the web site will prove its political and public appeal, many of the journalists may indeed use it in order to learn more about politicians, the way they think, talk and behave in respond to public initiatives.

The new site of the Israeli parliament sub committee of Internet and information technologies is hardly present yet but taking all of its components into account makes it look like the next best thing, at least on the Israeli political scene.

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