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The speed and scale of mobilization in many contemporary protest events may reflect a transformation of movement organizations toward looser ties with members, enabling broader mobilization through the mechanism of dense individual-level political networks. This analysis explores the dynamics of this communication process in the case of U.S. protests against the Iraq war in 2003. We hypothesize that individual activists closest to the various sponsoring protest organizations were (a) disproportionately likely to affiliate with diverse political networks and (b) disproportionately likely to rely on digital communication media (lists, Web sites) for various types of information and action purposes. We test this model using a sample of demonstrators drawn from the United States protest sites of New York, San Francisco, and Seattle and find support for our hypotheses. Adapted from the source document.

A sobering look at the intimate relationship between political power and the news media, When the Press Fails argues the dependence of reporters on official sources disastrously thwarts coverage of dissenting voices from outside the Beltway. The result is both an indictment of official spin and an urgent call to action that questions why the mainstream press failed to challenge the Bush administration?s arguments for an invasion of Iraq or to illuminate administration policies underlying the Abu Ghraib controversy. Drawing on revealing interviews with Washington insiders and analysis of conten.

Democracies are experiencing historic disruptions affecting how people engage with core institutions such as the press, civil society organizations, parties, and elections. These processes of citizen interaction with institutions operate as a democratic interface shaping self-government and the quality of public life. The electoral dimension of the interface is important, as its operation can affect all others. This analysis explores a growing left-right imbalance in the electoral connection between citizens, parties, elections, and government. This imbalance is due, in part, to divergent left-right preferences for political engagement, organization, and communication. Support on the right for clearer social rules and simpler moral, racial and nationalist agendas are compatible with hierarchical, leader-centered party organizations that compete more effectively in elections. Parties on the left currently face greater challenges engaging citizens due to the popular meta-ideology of diversity and inclusiveness and demands for direct or deliberative democracy. What we term connective parties are developing technologies to perform core organizational functions, and some have achieved electoral success. However, when connective parties on the left try to develop shared authority processes, online and offline, they face significant challenges competing with more conventionally organized parties on the right.

Technological innovations can alter the organization of power in politics, and it is difficult to distinguish political systems from their communication technologies. This book explores how political organizations use new information technologies to construct public opinion, and analyzes what it means to be a citizen in a modern, representative democracy

Baker challenges the premises of deregulation of the media and government interventions in this sphere. While arguing for a constitutional conception of freedom of the press, he argues that economic and democratic theories justify deviations from free trade in media products

Based on three series of protest surveys across nations, issues, and time, this study examines to what extent the use of digital media permits activists to sustain multiple engagements in different protest events and different movement organizations. We find that digital media use stimulates multiple activisms. Through information and communication technologies (ICTs), activists can maintain multiple engagements and manage weak ties with diverse protest and movement communities. The data also suggest that these multiple engagements and overlapping activisms effectively provide linkages to and integration within social movement networks. Core activists who are closely linked to protest organizations rely more on ICTs to manage their multiple commitments. Even activists less closely tied to core protest organizations can link to more diverse communities through Internet use. These basic patterns systematically hold across nations, across issues, and across time. Adapted from the source document.

1. Introduction Thomas Risse 1. - Part I. How to Grasp the Europeanization of Public Spheres: Theory, Methods, Empirics: 2. Theorizing communication flows within a European public sphere Barbara Pfetsch and Annett Heft 29. - 3. How advanced is the Europeanization of public spheres? Comparing German and European structures of political communication Ruud Koopmans 53. - 4. National media as transnational discourse arenas: the case of humanitarian military interventions Cathleen Kantner 84. - 5. European issue publics online: the cases of climate change and fair trade W. Lance Bennett, Sabine Lang and Alexandra Segerberg 108. - Part II. Consequences: Does the Europeanization of Public Spheres Matter?: 6. European public spheres, the politicization of EU affairs, and its consequences Thomas Risse 141. - 7. Media and identity: the paradox of legitimacy and the making of European citizens Sarah Harrison and Michael Bruter 165. - 8. The restructuring of political conflict in Europe and the politicization of European integration Edgar Grande and Hanspeter Kriesi 190. - Part III. Theoretical and Normative Implications: 9. Identity, Europe and the world beyond public spheres Jeffrey T. Checkel 227. - 10. Democracy, identity, and European public spheres Andreas Follesdal 247