Politics on the nets

Different political organizations - from splinter and single-issue groups to the major parties - are using the Internet and other on-line services to gather support and disseminate information. On-line communications are an inexpensive means of reaching many people and targeting particular segments of the population, making these networks well-suited to contemporary political activity. Using the 1996 presidential elections as a way to gauge the effects of on-line services, Wayne Rash examines the degree to which different political entities used the nets effectively and also evaluates the impact of the nets on forms of communication that have traditionally affected the outcome of our elections. A well-known Washington-based journalist and authority on the Internet, Rash studies these and other issues raised by politics on-line: Did the nets play the key role in the 1996 political process that television played in 1960? Do the nets tend to give an edge to one end of the political spectrum over the other? Are fringe groups aided disproportionately by electronic communications?