THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 4, 1996 TAG: 9608020600
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J1 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: 165 lines
Since Americans last elected a president, in 1992, the Internet has burst upon us. It has become mostly synonymous with the World Wide Web, which links ``sites'' around the world and makes them accessible to anyone with a computer and a modem.
After a slow start, politics has flourished on the Web. You can find sites about everything from Rush Limbaugh to Thomas Jefferson, from the Democratic Party to the Christian Coalition. You can send e-mail to your representatives, the president and most candidates.
It's a potpourri for the voter looking to find more information than he or she can get from newspapers and television. However, it's an utterly disorganized babel of voices, not unlike the raucous democracy we've built.
So, here are a few pointers to the best of the Web. Most sites either advocate or attack some brand of politics. While that can be useful, we've chosen to concentrate on the impartial sites that seek to inform, educate, and occasionally entertain.
There are many, many more sites than those mentioned here. But, using these, you can easily find your way to others.
Politics Now
(http://www.politicsnow.com/)
For well-presented, comprehensive and up-to-date information, this is easily the front-runner among political sites. Formed from two predecessors, ElectionLine and PoliticsUSA, it has the resources and credibility of its major partners - ABC, The Washington Post, Newsweek and the Associated Press.
This site is packed with news, analysis, opinion and background. You can browse through the online text of the Constitution, jump over to see the latest polls on Clinton, Dole and Perot, or find out who's giving money to the candidates. Politics Now also includes the contents of the Almanac of American Politics (equipped with a search tool) and a guide to other political Web sites.
It would take a political junkie many hours to exhaust what's available.
Thankfully, the designers intelligently avoided time-consuming photos and huge, flashy graphics, concentrating on text and multiple small graphics. Mind you, there are so many of these little icons you'll still be happier surfing this one with a 28,800 modem rather than a 14,400. But that's true of much of the Web these days.
Snazzy Interactive Feature: You can vote on several issues, from a balanced-budget amendment to the Bosnia arms embargo, and Politics Now will tell you how well your views match up with those of your senator or representative, based on their past votes.
The Atlantic Monthly
(http://www.theatlantic.com/)
This is a general interest print magazine, but it has always offered thoughtful political commentary, and for the campaign season the magazine's Web site has added a couple of neat features.
Executive Decision allows you to be the president (oh, joy) and decide how to handle a major national issue. You're presented with briefing papers on the alternatives and you pick which you think will work best. Later, you can check how everyone else decided the same issue.
The other new feature is Post and Riposte (one day Web sites will run out of clever Net-related names), a password-controlled forum where readers - surfers? - can exchange views on politics.
The Atlantic has helped promote its Web presence by offering e-mail notification of additions to the site.
The Netizen
(http://www.netizen.com/netizen/)
The Netizen - net citizen, get it? - is not solely about politics, but it probably will focus more on the campaigns as we get closer to November. Netizen is the issues-oriented site of Wired, the aggressively cutting-edge print magazine about computers. (Translation: The bright colors and wacky layout will burn out your retinas. The Web site, ironically, is actually calmer.)
This is definitely a site with an attitude, aimed at young, perhaps slightly cynical netsurfers. One of its best features is ``Impolitic,'' a regular column by John Heilemann, who writes from the campaign trails (including the Russian - he went to Moscow for Yeltsin's re-election effort) on a laptop.
Indecision '96
(http://comcentral.com/indecision/indec.shtml)
Tired of taking the election seriously, bunkie? Ready for a laugh at the candidates' expense? This is the place for you.
``They Can Run. But They Can't Hide.'' With that slogan, Comedy Central launches its barbs at the '96 candidates. The TV channel, which dove into comic political coverage from the day of its birth, actually has a fairly mild Web site, so far, on this campaign.
``Bill and Bob Through the Years'' is a straight but tongue-in-cheek comparison of what was happening in the U.S. when Bob Dole and Bill Clinton reached the same age. So, when Clinton turned 48 in 1994, ``Pulp Fiction'' was a hit movie; when Bob Dole was 48, in 1971, the talked-about film was ``Clockwork Orange.'' You get the idea.
Unfortunately, one of the funnier features, creating a fake campaign speech from words you pick, wasn't working a few days ago.
Comedy Central recently advertised that it had sent a correspondent to live in a trailer on the last parcel of land sold in the Whitewater development in Arkansas. There's no sign of those dispatches here. Another chapter in the Whitewater mystery?
Vote Smart Web
(http://www.vote-smart.org/)
``It's Time to Hire the Help'' is the refreshing power-to-the-people slogan of this site, the Internet presence of Project Vote Smart. Vote Smart conducts activities year-round to educate voters and the media.
Thus, you won't find any ads here, and naturally it's pretty serious; no games or offbeat features.
The site has a distinct educational tone, and no news, either. It includes biographical information on all the candidates, including third parties like the Veterans Industrial Party and the Natural Law Party. The candidates' stands on the issues are laid out, along with their voting record, if any, and rankings by special interest groups.
All Politics
(http://www.allpolitics.com/)
All Politics is the rival site to Politics Now. The partners in this one are CNN and Time magazine, and it certainly emphasizes news. This one tends to overtly promote its founding partners more heavily than Politics Now does.
It has a good section on the issues of the campaign, complete with links to news stories and polls that relate to each issue. Occasionally, however, the polls seem to be used as a substitute for more in-depth analysis of the issues.
This site also has a calendar telling where each of the major candidates will be every day.
It certainly is not as comprehensive as Politics Now.
Offbeat feature: VPick, which treats the selection of a Republican vice presidential nominee like a basketball tournament, using netsurfers' votes to ``eliminate'' candidates. Instructions for the game are not very clear, however.
The New York Times
(http://www.nytimes.com/)
What else can you say? It's The New York Times. The newspaper's Web site requires a login and password, but there's no charge to register, so you might as well.
The site's political coverage is nearly as extensive as the paper's, with its full profiles of Clinton and Dole, and for context, the Times' recent series on the economy, ``The Downsizing of America.''
The Jefferson Project
(http://www.voxpop.org/jefferson/)
Despite its grand name, this is essentially a set of lists of links to other sites on politics, with little original content of its own. However, it is a comprehensive list. One feature is ``The Zipper,'' a program that allows you to type in your zip code and get information on your U.S. representatives and senators.
American Voter '96
(http://voter96.cqalert.com/)
This site is presented by Congressional Quarterly, and as such can rely on the resources of that respected magazine. Naturally, it tends to lean toward coverage of Congress, but that does allow for in-depth information about Bob Dole.
KEYWORDS: WORLD WIDE WEB INTERNET ELECTION
SITES PUBLIC JOURNALISM by CNB