Gina,
We're doing a follow-up email survey to tease out many of the finer points of political participation and Internet use, and as we get articles out, I'll be sure to keep you all posted.
i for one would love to hear more about the research project. i hope my email didn't smell of technological determinism; that wasn't my intention. perhaps it's because i'm here in wired seattle, but saturday's peace march had all kinds of cybertech-trimmings, many of which i mentioned in the last post. that said, i'd be curious to hear how your survey teases out less obvious intersections between the net and the global peace movement. i'm thinking of folks who have used the net to gain knowledge not contained within mainstream media and the ways in which that knowledge may have influenced their participation in the march. ("ooh, i didn't hear about this on CNN, maybe i'll make my way down to the march to get a better idea of what's going on?") i'm thinking about how a number of folks, especially in the US, have used the net to discover that despite what the polls or media say, there is a strong and global peace movement growing and perhaps now's the time to join. ("wow, campus and town squares are relatively quiet but things are buzzing online ... maybe i have more allies than i thought?") and i'm thinking about the hyperactive activity on sites like indymedia.org where folks extend their local marches into the global sphere, perhaps a necessary step if a global movement will survive. in other words, i'm interested in these kinds of scenerios and how they fit into your survey. david