All: Those of you in the London area may be interested in attending the panel described below, related to recent Internet and politics publications, particularly The Internet and National Elections: A Comparative Study of Web Campaigning (Routledge: May 2007; editors: Randy Kluver, Nicholas Jankowski, Kirsten Foot, Steven Schneider). Details on the book are available at: http://international.tamu.edu/ipotest/book/index.asp Those of you unable to attend the live event may be interested in the webcast; see the site of the Stanhope Centre for Communication Policy Research: <http://www.stanhopecentre.org/2007/>http://www.stanhopecentre.org/2007/ Nick Jankowski THE INTERNET & POLITICS: ASSESSING THE CLAIMS AND REVIEWING THE EVIDENCE Panel Discussion Monday, May 14, 2007, 5.30 – 7.30 p.m. City University Northampton Square, London EC1V 0HB Convocation Suite Travel instructions: <http://www.city.ac.uk/maps/northamptonsquare/index.html>http://www.city.ac.uk/maps/northamptonsquare/index.html Open to the Public One of the long-standing claims of the Internet is that politics is becoming an open playing field, allowing persons previously excluded from the political process to become engaged. This and related claims have concerned a legion of activists and scholars during the past decade, but only recently have empirically-grounded studies been conducted that examine and – in some cases – contest these ideas. As a contribution to this continuing debate, the Stanhope Centre for Communication Policy Research (<http://www.stanhopecentre.org/2007/>http://www.stanhopecentre.org/2007/) is organizing a panel involving scholars active in this area. The editors and authors of three recent or about-to-be published books will be taking part, together with staff members from the Department of Sociology at City University. The most immediate publication in this genre is entitled The Internet and National Elections: A Comparative Study of Web Campaigning, to be released by Routledge in May 2007. This volume provides a comparative analysis of the use of the Web in countries around the world during political campaigns. Drawing upon a common conceptual framework, the book examines how the Internet is employed by a variety of political actors. Details of this publication are available at: <http://international.tamu.edu/ipotest/book/index.asp>http://international.tamu.edu/ipotest/book/index.asp At the conclusion of the discussion a reception will be held celebrating publication of The Internet and National Elections. Scholars participating in the panel are: · Jean Chalaby, Professor, City University, author of “American Cultural Primacy in a New Media Order: A European Perspective” (Gazette, 2006) · Endre Dányi, Research student, University of Lancaster, author of chapter in The Internet and National Elections · Kirsten Foot, Associate Professor, University of Washington; co-editor of The Internet and National Elections and co-author of Web Campaigning (MIT Press, 2006) · Nicholas Jankowski, Visiting Fellow, Virtual Knowledge Studio, Amsterdam, co-editor of The Internet and National Elections · Randy Kluver, Director, Institute for Pacific Asia, Texas A&M University, co-editor of The Internet and National Elections · Wainer Lusoli, Assistant Professor, Chester University, author of Voice and E-Quality: The State of Electronic Democracy in Britain (Hampton Press, forthcoming) · Steven Schneider, Professor, State University New York, co-editor of The Internet and National Elections and co-author of Web Campaigning (MIT Press, 2006) · Frank Webster, Professor, City University, author of Theories of the Information Society (Routledge, 2002) The panel discussion will be webcast; details available at: <http://www.stanhopecentre.org/2007/>http://www.stanhopecentre.org/2007/ For further information, contact: Stanhope Centre for Communication Policy Research Northampton Square, City University, London Tel. +44 (0) 20 7040 4566