The U.S. Congress Responds to Online Communication Needs

Abstract

The U.S. Congress, after a relatively slow start in the 1990s, is now making some progress in meeting the demands of online communications. Fueled by the growing use of e-mail by constituents and the development of online grassroots efforts, Congress has been inundated with e-mail. By using filtering systems, better software and hardware, and, most of all, better management techniques, many offices are now equipped to handle the great increase in electronic mail. While several steps behind the private sector, through fits and starts, Congress is attempting to catch up and meet the rising demand and volume of electronic communication. In some offices, there has been considerable progress in developing effective, interactive Web sites. These exceptional Web sites should serve as models of dynamic online communications, but for most congressional Web sites, there is a long way to go. Much depends on the attitudes and priorities set by lawmakers and their senior Staff.     

It's a Man's World?

Abstract

This study focuses on the role of gender in Internet campaigning. Empirically, the research is expanded beyond the United States by exploring candidate Web campaigning in the 2003 Finnish parliamentary elections. The results of the empirical analysis show that female candidates put up Web sites in a higher degree than their male counterparts. However, gender itself is not a significant factor for being online. Moreover, utilizing a matched-pairs design, the analysis suggests that male and female candidates take advantage of the new communication technology in a similar way and that female candidates do not build a distinct feminine candidate profile online.     

Attention to Counter-Attitudinal Messages in a State Election Campaign

Research following the "selective exposure" model has focused on avoidance of political messages with which a person might disagree. But positive attention to such "counter-attitudinal" messages is worthy of study, in part because normative theories of democracy value exposure to information that might disturb citizens' political predispositions. Surveys of youth (N = 417) and parents (N = 430) examine attention to newspaper, television, and Web messages about candidates. While there is somewhat more attention to messages about and for a person's favored political candidate or party, forms of political involvement (knowledge, curiosity, and discussion) that predict this "attitude-consistent" attention also predict counter-attitudinal attention at least as strongly. Parents' education and students' exposure to civics lessons also predict both kinds of attention. These results suggest that attention to counterattitudinal political messages is worthy of further study as an important goal of political socialization and a criterion of citizen performance in democracy.     

A Review of: “The U.S. Catholic Press on Central America: From Cold War Anticommunism to Social Justice,by Edward T. Brett”

In a few short years, the World Wide Web has become a standard part of candidates' campaign tool kits. Virtually all candidates have their own sites, and voters, journalists, and activists visit the sites with increasing frequency. In this article, we study what candidates do on these sites—in terms of the information they present—by exploring one of the most enduring and widely debated campaign strategies: “going negative.” Comparing data from over 700 congressional candidate Web sites, over three election cycles (2002, 2004, and 2006), with television advertising data, we show that candidates go negative with similar likelihoods across these media. We also find that while similar dynamics drive negativity on the Web and in television advertising, there are some notable differences. These differences likely stem, in part, from the truncated sample available with television data (i.e., many candidates do not produce ads). Our results have implications for understanding negative campaigning and for the ways in which scholars can study campaign dynamics.     

Data protection legislation: What is at stake for our society and democracy?

The author starts by questioning the main privacy challenges raised by our present and future information society viewed as a “global village”. Apart from a comparison with the traditional village of our parents, he identifies the two complementary and not dissociable facets of our privacy: the right to seclusion and the right to participate fully in our society. According to the first German Constitutional Court recognizing the right to informational self-determination as a new constitutional right, he underlines the need to analyse the data protection as a tool for ensuring both the citizens' dignity and our democracy.     

谈网址在网络司法管辖权确定中的法律地位

有失国际私法的问题研究，尤其是互联网中私法管辖权确定的问题上，目前还没有一种为各国普遍接受的标准，本文拟从网址的法律地位这一法律角度来探讨网络管辖权的确认问题，以期从中得到解决的方法。     

基于Web服务的数据上传

随着Web的迅速普及和跨平台需求的日益增加，Web Services的应用也越来越广，人们有时要通过Web Services来传递大批量的数据信息。基于Web服务的数据上传方法，有效地克服了端对端通信方法受防火墙限制的缺陷，实际应用效果很好。     

A Comparative Study of Nonprofit and For-Profit Web-Based Issue Advocacy

Abstract

Using the Web to advocate positions and actions on public issues is an emerging and potentially powerful means of shaping public opinion and action. Building on studies of Web advocacy in the political sector, this research employs content analysis to examine Web-based advocacy by U.S. for-profit and nonprofit organizations. For-profit organizations were found to engage in much more Web advocacy than nonprofit organizations. Those organizations that did engage in extensive advocacy, or were committed to multiple social values, appear to have come to adopt these postures or activities consistent with what a cost-benefit analysis of the impact on their enterprise would predict. With respect to region, the Northeast and South evidenced a higher and lower pattern of advocacy, respectively. Finally, greater financial resources predicted more extensive advocacy content generally; the particular issue areas this study examined were community focus, charitable causes, environmental issues, and diversity.     

社会治安与稳定视野下的网络舆情

从维护社会治安与稳定的角度观察,网络舆情既可成为社会和谐、稳定的助长力,也可能成为社会动荡和不安定因素的扩大器。如何善用舆情,引导舆情,扬利去弊,占领网络舆情的思想高地,促进治安管理和社会维定,是当前公安工作的重要课题。     

浅谈静态网页制作中DIV＋CSS在网页布局中的优劣势

在网页设计中，网页布局非常重要，直接影响到页面的显示效果。目前，采用CSS＋DIV的方式进行网页布局，是网页布局的主要技术之一，它具有结构与表现分离、页面载入快、易被搜索、字体控制与排版能力强，以及对浏览器具有亲和力等优点，同时也存在程序编写难度高、调用复杂等缺点。