Thesis (M.A.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / Hannah Arendt's meditations on the changing landscape of political life and private life in the 20th century still speak to us today. Her work anticipates the extent to which feelings of alienation stemming from post-World War II economic expansion and the subsequent suburban exodus resulted in a retreat from political and public life in America. Modern man took up shelter in his home, ideologically turning away from public and political life, and mass society's alienation of man only seemed to reinforce his conviction. Urban planners substituted neutral spaces for public social spaces in their designs, making these areas inhospitable to public gatherings. Thus, as man retreated into the shelter of the household and into familial intimacy, the outside world dissociated from the public until the public forum had all but disappeared. Reclaiming some sense of what was lost in the dissolution of the public realm is the antidote to the alienation we face as modern social beings. Mass society gathers us up into a huddled mass and yet fails to relate us to one another, and our own attempt to reach out to others and connect in a meaningful way through online social networks has set us adrift in a sea of passing acquaintances. Electronic social networking, still in its infancy, has the potential to help us connect with one another across great distances, and so the challenge is redesigning it to make it more conducive to the development of closer, more personal relationships. New designs for urban development must be implemented such that spaces previously designed to keep communities segregated and prevent people from gathering together are remade to create more open, yet carefully articulated space, as well as specialized areas that exist solely as public social spaces. In redefining our new social medium and reconfiguring our public spaces, we may yet address the problem of alienation and find the means to fulfillment as social beings. / 2999-01-01

Online public fora based on social media facilitate social interaction and synchronous online discussion. Social-media-based public fora resemble real-life political talks, and induce a larger number of and a wider variety of participants than blogs or Usenet newsgroups. By investigating two online groups centered on political discussions on Twitter, this study explores how information and influence flow, how diverse the actual discourse is, and to what extent the online groups communicate with the government. Using network analysis and content analysis/co-word analysis, this study has the findings as follows: In terms of the structural qualities, online public fora are relatively inclusive, but are centralized on a few participants and do not have a statistically significant indication of being equitable in discussion. The two-step flow of communication operates along with the presence of opinion leaders who turn out to be influentials but not content creators. Interestingly, the flow of influence is likely to be less centralized than the flow of information, which implies the importance of the reliability of a given message rather than that of the author. In terms of the actual discourse, participants turn to like-minded fellow citizens’ remarks. Discourses are more emotional than cognitive and exhibits more anger than anxiety. Influential discourses are those with negative emotion more so than with positive emotion and those that are cognitive rather than emotional. Among cognitive components, assertive and strong discourses have greater social influence than analytical discourses. In terms of the interaction with the e-government outlet, the distance between public authorities and private citizens is continuously present despite the decline of temporal and physical distance via the Internet. Based on the results, this study suggests a reconsideration of the Habermasian public sphere in online public fora. It contributes to the literature by empirically confirming the presence of the two-step flow of communication in online public fora and testing the difference between the flow of information and the flow of influence. In addition, it broadens the realm of research on political communication by exploring not only sources/ideological perspectives but also emotional/cognitive aspects in discussions. Methodologically, structure/context, multi-level, and quantitative/qualitative analyses allow this study to have a comprehensive account of online public fora. Practically, this study proposes to improve the interactivity with citizens as the next stage of e-government development. / text

"Mémoire présenté à la Faculté des études supérieures en vue de l'obtention du grade de maîtrise en droit option droit des technologies de l'information" / Ce mémoire de maîtrise présente une situation dans laquelle un citoyen ordinaire tente de diffuser sur Internet une opinion critique qu'il dirige contre une grande entreprise commerciale et tente d'analyser les éléments favorables à la diffusion de cette opinion critique ainsi que les embûches qui sont à prévoir. Cet exemple permet d'illustrer les forces et les faiblesses d'Internet en matière de liberté d'expression. Il permet de poser une mise en garde concernant les dangers de transposer les limites actuelles à la liberté d'expression des citoyens au contexte d'Internet. La première partie de l'analyse souligne les caractéristiques d'Internet et les différentes façons d'aborder la question de la liberté d'expression sur Internet selon les approches libertaire, libérale ou interventionniste, pour finalement faire le point sur l'apport d'Internet en matière d'information et de communication. La deuxième partie de l'analyse aborde la question de l'efficience en identifiant les éléments qui encouragent l'exercice de la liberté d'expression et ceux qui découragent les utilisateurs de s'exprimer sur Internet. L'exemple des critiques dirigées contre les oligopoles permet d'illustrer la nécessité d'établir des règles propres à Internet en matière de liberté d'expression. Cet exemple fait ressortir le caractère inadéquat des limites actuelles à la liberté d'expression établies par le droit de la presse, le droit de la radiodiffusion, le droit de propriété et le droit de la propriété intellectuelle. L'auteur vient à la conclusion qu'en matière de liberté d'expression, il serait souhaitable: 1) Que Internet soit considéré comme un espace public de discussion; 2) Que la préséance des intérêts économiques sur les intérêts démocratiques au niveau du développement de la société de l'information soit avouée; 3) Que les inégalités en termes d'opportunités d'expression soient reconnues; 4) Que les limites imposées en vertu des règles du droit de la propriété soient reconsidérées à la lumière des caractéristiques d'Internet. / This master thesis presents a case in which an ordinary citizen tries to spread on the Internet a criticizing opinion aimed at a large company, and attempts to analyse what are the elements in favour of this criticism broadcasting, as weil as the obstacles to be expected. This example allows us to illustrate the strengths and weaknesses of the Internet in matter of freedom of speech. It also allows to put forward a warning concerning the risks of transposing current Iimits of freedom of speech in an Internet context. The first part of the analysis underlines the Internet's characteristics and the different ways to broach the subject of freedom of speech over the Internet, following severaI approaches, to finally focus on the Internet's contribution in matter of information and communication. The second part of the analysis deals with the question of efficiency, while identifying the elements that encourage the exercise of freedom of speech and those that discourage Internet users from expressing themselves. The example of criticism aimed toward large companies allows to illustrate the need to establish the Internet's own rules in matter of freedom of speech. What emerges from this example is the inadequate character of current limits to freedom of speech as set up by freedom of the press, broadcasting law, property and intellectual property law. The author concludes that in matter of freedom of speech, it wouId be recommended: 1) that the Internet be considered as a public forum; 2) that the predominance of economic interests over democratic interests in the development of the information society be admitted; 3) that the inequalities in terms of expression opportunities be recognized; 4) that the limits imposed in accordance with property law be reconsidered in an Internet context.

Ce mémoire de maîtrise présente une situation dans laquelle un citoyen ordinaire tente de diffuser sur Internet une opinion critique qu'il dirige contre une grande entreprise commerciale et tente d'analyser les éléments favorables à la diffusion de cette opinion critique ainsi que les embûches qui sont à prévoir. Cet exemple permet d'illustrer les forces et les faiblesses d'Internet en matière de liberté d'expression. Il permet de poser une mise en garde concernant les dangers de transposer les limites actuelles à la liberté d'expression des citoyens au contexte d'Internet. La première partie de l'analyse souligne les caractéristiques d'Internet et les différentes façons d'aborder la question de la liberté d'expression sur Internet selon les approches libertaire, libérale ou interventionniste, pour finalement faire le point sur l'apport d'Internet en matière d'information et de communication. La deuxième partie de l'analyse aborde la question de l'efficience en identifiant les éléments qui encouragent l'exercice de la liberté d'expression et ceux qui découragent les utilisateurs de s'exprimer sur Internet. L'exemple des critiques dirigées contre les oligopoles permet d'illustrer la nécessité d'établir des règles propres à Internet en matière de liberté d'expression. Cet exemple fait ressortir le caractère inadéquat des limites actuelles à la liberté d'expression établies par le droit de la presse, le droit de la radiodiffusion, le droit de propriété et le droit de la propriété intellectuelle. L'auteur vient à la conclusion qu'en matière de liberté d'expression, il serait souhaitable: 1) Que Internet soit considéré comme un espace public de discussion; 2) Que la préséance des intérêts économiques sur les intérêts démocratiques au niveau du développement de la société de l'information soit avouée; 3) Que les inégalités en termes d'opportunités d'expression soient reconnues; 4) Que les limites imposées en vertu des règles du droit de la propriété soient reconsidérées à la lumière des caractéristiques d'Internet. / This master thesis presents a case in which an ordinary citizen tries to spread on the Internet a criticizing opinion aimed at a large company, and attempts to analyse what are the elements in favour of this criticism broadcasting, as weil as the obstacles to be expected. This example allows us to illustrate the strengths and weaknesses of the Internet in matter of freedom of speech. It also allows to put forward a warning concerning the risks of transposing current Iimits of freedom of speech in an Internet context. The first part of the analysis underlines the Internet's characteristics and the different ways to broach the subject of freedom of speech over the Internet, following severaI approaches, to finally focus on the Internet's contribution in matter of information and communication. The second part of the analysis deals with the question of efficiency, while identifying the elements that encourage the exercise of freedom of speech and those that discourage Internet users from expressing themselves. The example of criticism aimed toward large companies allows to illustrate the need to establish the Internet's own rules in matter of freedom of speech. What emerges from this example is the inadequate character of current limits to freedom of speech as set up by freedom of the press, broadcasting law, property and intellectual property law. The author concludes that in matter of freedom of speech, it wouId be recommended: 1) that the Internet be considered as a public forum; 2) that the predominance of economic interests over democratic interests in the development of the information society be admitted; 3) that the inequalities in terms of expression opportunities be recognized; 4) that the limits imposed in accordance with property law be reconsidered in an Internet context. / "Mémoire présenté à la Faculté des études supérieures en vue de l'obtention du grade de maîtrise en droit option droit des technologies de l'information"

自一九八Ｏ年代起，現代資訊與通訊科技(Information and Communication Technology or ICT)、電腦中介傳播(Computer-Mediated Communication or CMC)、網際網路(Internet)及全球資訊網(World Wide Web or WWW)的發展和普及化，已被學者、政治人物、以及論者們認為是可用以加強實踐公民參與及民主政治之有效工具。本研究即探討政府如何透過網際網路來提供公民參與機制。 本研究以網際網路之公民參與機制的理論為基礎，建構一個完整的網際網路之公民參與機制，亦即建構一個理想的網路公共論壇版面。並檢視台北市政府於全球資訊網網站上之公共論壇版面的運作現況及其成效，檢驗其中公民參與公共事務價值的實踐程度。最後，將探討網際網路之公民參與機制的實踐會有哪些侷限，應如何加以突破，藉此提供學術界及實務界研究貢獻。 / Since the 1980's, many scholars, statesmen, and researchers have come to realize that the development and popularity of modern Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Computer-mediated Communication (CMC), Internet, and the World Wide Web (WWW) will become the effective mechanism for citizen participation. The main purpose of this research paper is to study how government provides citizen participation through Internet. First, the paper will take the theory of Internet citizen participation to construct an ideal mechanism of Internet citizen participation, i.e., to build an ideal operational procedural of Internet Public Forum. Second, the paper will use Taipei City Government's "Citizen Forum" in the World Wide Web as a case study to compare and analyze this case with the ideal operational procedural of Internet Public Forum. Last, the paper will discuss the constraints of Internet citizen participation, and search for solutions to these constraints.