International Civic Engagement

When Academia Meets the Blogosphere

Theda Skocpol, the Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology and former Dean of the Graduate School at Harvard University, has been blogging for TPMCafe.  In yesterday's post, "True Campaign Reform: Bring People into Politics," Skocpol attempted to defend from a civic engagement perspective Barack Obama's decision to stay out of the public financing system for the 2008 general election campaign.  One TPMCafe reader blasted Skocpol, prompting this response from another reader:

You might want to think twice before you use such a pedestrian blog-o-sphere insult with one of America's most distinguished social scientists.

This mode of interaction is extraordinarily democratic, you get to talk trash to a Harvard dean. But since Prof. Skocpol is here, I'm sure she knows what she is getting into. And being a professor doesn't always make her right, but I would guess she knows a little more about social and political movements than you do.

So you might want to show a little respect and perhaps try to learn something or at least engage in a more thoughtful discourse. Sorry "this isn't the 1800's" probably doesn't pass for a thoughtful argument.

Should scholars receive respect and deferential treatment when they enter the blogosphere?  Clearly civility and traditional mores do not seem to apply in cyberspace.  However, some scholars would argue that academic department meetings often lack civility and respectful behavior.

Lawmakers' Blogs Share Views, Insights

From Stateline.org:

More than 50 state lawmakers across the country regularly blog and more are joining the blogosphere every year. It’s cheaper than mailing out newsletters, and constituents can add their two cents online.

The Stateline article includes links to individual lawmakers' blogs.

The Millennials, Facebook and Social Change

Check out this PhilanthroMedia post by Carla E. Dearing in which she describes the relationship between the philanthropy establishment and the millennial generation.

ASPA Section on Democracy and Social Justice Launches Blog

The American Society for Public Administration's (ASPA) newest section, the Section on Democracy and Social Justice (DSJ), launched its blog over the weekend.  Administered by Lisa Zanetti (University of Missouri) and Richard Box (University of Nebraska at Omaha), this blog will undoubtedly provide an important forum for critical thought and analysis.  Check out Lisa Zanetti's post titled "Henry Giroux and counternarratives."

DSJ is thought to be the first ASPA section to launch a blog.

Summer Slump for Political Internet Traffic

Heather Greenfield notes in today's GovExec.com On Politics column that web traffic is down for conservative (and liberal) political web sites and blogs.  Here are some findings:

• Alexa.com, which tracks Web traffic, shows a sharp decline to BillOReilly.com since March, when it had more than 100,000 visits for every 1 million Internet surfers. The decline has been steady and gradual, with visits dropping below 50,000 in August, according to a graph. Another summary pegs the traffic drop over the past three months at 30 percent.
• Even the recent controversy over Ann Coulter's remarks about Sept. 11 victims did not boost traffic to her site. Ratings there have decreased 16 percent over the last three months. Ditto for Rush Limbaugh, who is down 14 percent, and even the revered conservative site The Drudge Report has fallen 10 percent.
• RedState traffic is down 28 percent but page views are up 12 percent over the past three months. RedState underwent a redesign and management overhaul this summer. Right Wing News dropped 20 percent over the same time, Blogs for Bush was down 13 percent, and Townhall, which also was recently redesigned after an acquisition, dropped 14 percent.
• By contrast to the big drops for RedState and Right Wing News, readership at the liberal Huffington Post is down 14 percent, and the drop is 12 percent at Daily Kos, the most trafficked blog. Some liberal bloggers even saw gains. Traffic at MyDD is up 9 percent, as is Alternet, and traffic to Virginia's Raising Kaine grew 119 percent over the past three months.
• As for the Republican National Committee versus the Democratic National Committee, both saw traffic declines. The DNC was down 24 percent, and the RNC dropped twice as much at 48 percent.

By contrast, YouTube video traffic is up 137 percent over the past three months; the MySpace social network had 5 percent more visitors; the eBay online auction site snagged 17 percent more visitors; and 38 percent more people tuned in to the Napster music-downloading service.

Government 2.0

University of Missouri-Columbia associate professor James K. Scott launched this month his Government 2.0 blog.  He describes it as follows:

This blog is designed to support my research and teaching on the use of the web in government and politics. The blog helps me: 1) monitor emerging trends in the development and delivery of web-based public services; 2) explore the implications of these trends for people and institutions; and 3) connect with practitioners and scholars that share these interests.

Each spring since 2004 Scott has conducted a detailed analysis of the content and design features of the 100 largest US municipal government web sites.  This blog will be beneficial to scholars, researchers, students and others interested in e-government.

New Blog - ILF Post

ILF Post features weekly commentaries by a core group of Fellows of the International Leadership Forum– former US Ambassador to NATO Harlan Cleveland, author/filmmaker Michael Crichton, anthropologist Mary Catherine Bateson, psychoanalyst Douglass Carmichael, Biospherian Jane Poynter, survey researcher Daniel Yankelovich, former president of Planned Parenthood Gloria Feldt, actress and former Chairman of the National Endowment of the Arts Jane Alexander, Yale economist and political scientist Charles Lindblom and other ILF Fellows and guest experts, plus highlights and policy reports from the ILF conferences.

A New Blog: THE INDIA-CHINA PROJECT

The aim of the blog is to bring together important reportage and commentary on strategic matters pertaining to China with an India-centric perspective. The blog is aimed at generating some informed discussion on the rise of China and its implications for India and the larger Asia-Pacific region. It is sponsored by the M. L. Sondhi Institute of Asia-Pacific Affairs, New Delhi.

Communication and Civic Engagement

I came across an interesting blog/journal today, one which should serve as a great model for a wide variety of university courses.

The Communication and Civic Engagement community was born with the Media, Self, and Society class at the University of Colorado's School of Journalism and Mass Communication. The class was designed to help freshmen as they begin to think of themselves as socially engaged actors in the media professions and in the societies of which they are a part. Service learning is a major component of the class, meaning that each student is required to participate in a volunteer activity that gets them involved with people whose backgrounds differ from their own. They're blogging about their service experiences, their readings in civic engagement and communication ethics, and about how their reflections on these things relate to what's going on in the world around them today.