Dissertation Research: The Political Internet in Northern Ireland

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY

Investigators

Abstract

This study uses the case of Northern Ireland to examine the effect of the Internet on efforts to build a democratic polity in a deeply divided society with an historical problem of democratic representation. The Internet both exacerbates problems of community detachment and opens news opportunities for communication. Northern Ireland provides an excellent site for this exploration of information technology and democracy because the region combines a long history of Western parliamentary politics, a rich free press tradition, and a developed economy with long-term political divisions characterized by violence and segmented communities. This research will move forward the relatively undeveloped literature on the Internet and democracy by charting out the patterns of the heterogeneous effects of the Internet on political and religious dialogue and conflict. In moving between the fields of science and technology studies, particularly its participation and design focus, and media studies, especially regarding the impact of media, the project will examine in detail the relationship between technology and democracy in a multi-ethnic society. As a result, this study will examine the potential impact of the Internet from the creation and design of web sites through user experiences in comparison to other communications technologies. The project uses interviews and archival research to explore how the construction and use of web sites reveal interpretations of a multi-ethnic democracy, and how the Internet compares with other media in representing political views of a multi-ethnic democracy. The larger concern of the project in focusing on the fragility of democracy in a multi-ethnic society is the potential of technology to reduce divisions that give rise to violence. This project will contribute to an analysis of democracy, technological development, and multi-ethnic societies.