The Internet Impacts Citizen Participation

"Rock the Vote" is an organization aimed to encourage young people to participate in elections and vote. This organization was found twenty years ago and has evolved much over the years. When the internet became more widely used, "Rock the Vote" developed a website. The website contains information about upcoming elections and how to register to vote. One of the main problems among young people is that they don't feel like taking the time to register and they don't understand the importance of participating in elections. "Rock the Vote" makes is more simple and it has done a great job getting more citizens involved. One of the most valuable things about the internet is that it makes things more simple and much faster.

Political Campaign Ads

This past November, Carly Fiorina and Barbara Boxer were opposing candidates for Senator of California. Here are two examples of their campaign ads.

This ad paid for by "Carly for California," is known as the "Demon Sheep Ad." It is probably one of the strangest political commercials I have ever seen. It is quite long and is focused all on one person. Throughout the ad the narrator is constantly bashing Tom Campbell. There is no information whatsoever about Carly Fiorina and why she would be a better choice for California. After watching this commercial I had no desire to vote for her.


This is an ad for Barbara Boxer. I found this one to be much more effective in that it is shorter, and it is about why she would be a better pick for senator. The ads that focus on the weaknesses of opponents make the candidate putting out the ad look weak themselves. There should be something good about you to advertise rather than bashing your opponents.

The E-Commerce Taxation Issue

E-commerce refers to the buying and selling of products via the internet. You can buy something online that comes from across the country. Since the states collect sales tax, the states can't collect sales tax on something you purchased online that is coming from a different state. This issue causes problems for the stores on the street and for the states. Local stores suffer because more and more people use online shopping since it is both faster and there is not a sales tax. This has created a large blow to state tax revenues.
Solutions that are proposed in order to fix this problem require the altering of tax policies and models. The issue with this solution is that the tax policies that already exist for each state are complicated enough and to alter them for the internet would only multiply the complexity. This is a difficult issue to resolve because the tax laws were not written with the internet in mind.

Here is a video explaining the evolution of e-commerce.

Censoring the Media

Back in 1971, a man named Daniel Ellsberg, who worked for the Pentagon, stole classified documents titled, "The Pentagon Papers." He then gave these documents over to The New York Times, who published them for the public to view. Right away the US government filed for and was granted an order to stop the publishing of the papers. When this case was appealed to the Supreme Court, the justices came to the unanimous decision that the government could not censor information printed by The New York Times or any press related material. The government argued that it should be able to keep private things that could potentially cause danger to national security. Justice Hugo Black reasoned that "freedom of the press" is written in the Constitution so that the public can be informed of what the government is doing. How can the government take that right away from the people? I agree with the ruling of the Court for this case. The public has the right to know what goes on between the US and other countries, and the media has the right to publish whatever they want.

Online Print Media

The New York Times has a website that provides news articles about the United States and all around the world. Not only are there factual articles but there are also a wide variety of editorials. I trust that The New York Times provides accurate information. It acts as a good source for people who don't have much knowledge about recent political actions. Because the use of technology has become more and more abundant all over the US, it is almost essential for newspapers to start publishing online. This has had a positive impact on the public because there are also many people who aren't willing to pay for or can't afford a newspaper subscription. It is important that the public is well aware of what is going in both their own nation and all over the world.
Here is an article written by Dale Carpenter, expressing his opinions about gay marriage. It is helpful for people to have such easy access to editorials so that they can understand the views of others and then form their own opinions.

Political Commentary on Television

There are many television news shows that aren't at the same level of seriousness as the news shows on CNN or CBS. Shows like The Colbert Report and The Daily Show are mostly making fun of the political drama taking place everyday. Most find it amusing and entertaining but there are still those who don't take the jokes lightly and may be offended. These shows provide news updates but they shouldn't be considered a valuable or reliable source of information. It is important that the people watching these shows understand that these reporters aren't serious and that for better information they should watch reports from CNN or CBS. The more amusing shows have had a positive impact not only by being entertaining but they also give some form of an update to those who don't bother to watch the serious news reports. Comedians like John Stewart and Stephen Colbert do a great job attracting younger people into the world of politics.
Here is a video clip from Stephen Colbert's "The Colbert Report." He is making fun of the obsession people have had over President Obama's birth certificate.

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New York Times Co. v. United States (1971)

Daniel Ellsberg, a political scientist working for the Pentagon, stole classied papers called, “The Pentagon Papers.” He then gave these documents to The New York Times, which began publishing them. Just a couple days later, the government was granted an order to stop the publishing of these papers. The case was quickly appealed to the US Supreme Court. The question was: Could the government prevent the publication of materials because they could be endangering national security?

The Court’s decision was issued per curiam. This means that the decision came from the Court as whole, rather than there being one writer for the opinion, all nine justices wrote their own opinion. Justice Hugo L. Black wrote that he felt the whole reason behind “freedom of the press” in the First Amendment was so that the press could let out government secrets and inform the people. Justice William O. Douglas agreed and added that there is nothing barring the press from publishing this kind of information. I agree with the Court’s decision for this case. Justice Black’s argument makes perfect sense. Today there a lot of information gets leaked to the public. It is as if the freedom of the press keeps the government on its toes and prevents it from committing any acts of corruption. If the government could control everything that gets published, there would be much more “behind the scenes” things taking place.  

This case is often compared to Wikileaks, which is a company responsible for leaking much government information to the public. This video discusses the similarities and differences between these two situations.