Citizen’s Political Participation on Internet: the Project of Robert Wajda

Ana Luisa Méndez Cota; ID 140345; R.I. - UDLAP

For the coming presidential election, all candidates have stated their point of views and values in respect to the different political issues in the agenda. Health care and job have been Obama’s strong point, while Church, crime control and foreign policy have been the most popularly discussed amongst Republicans. But, what about internet censorship? In Politico, there is a huge database of news and articles regarding the stats and polls about the candidates for the Republican Party, as well as Obama’s pronunciations and his everlasting popularity amongst some sectors; however, about internet censorship in general, there is little information whatsoever.

An impossible fact to ignore in today’s American society is the importance of the information found in the web; articles, polls, news, videos, tape records, publicity and much more are shared through social networks and billions of e-mails every day.  Suddenly, public decisions started to be actually public and left behind the shadows of the bureaucrat’s office desks. How does this even affect American society? Even if the “Stop Online Piracy Act” (SOPA) has little time of being enacted, it has attracted a lot more of attention from the regular internet user regarding the information on the internet. Political information, in this age, has become essential to the voters.

However, how is it possible to decide where to go in a world where every possibility is available at just one click away? Which are the sources a regular citizen can trust to form his opinion about politics? Sure there are governmental sites and the official pages of the Congress and politic parties but, what about public opinion? Where will those citizens thoroughly concerned with politics, those that wish to encounter a truly impartial and informative site not just bunches of blogs and websites that have the façade of being so, turn to when the time comes? Robert G. Wajda, resident of Jacksonville, Florida, answered to this claim on 1998 founding presidentialelection.com.

So, what is this site about? This site intends to create a more educated and empowered U.S. voting public by providing comprehensive, non party affiliated, information service and information relating to the trending political issues. By providing actual facts about the different processes, candidates and political parties regarding the presidential elections, this site presents a very organized mechanism for voters and new internet users; the information presented is usefully divided in sections with links to other articles and facilities to register, by state, to vote. Besides that, another tool this site keeps permanently actualized is information about the process required to contact each state authorities and information about the different education programs available for all U.S. citizens.

In contrast, whether there is no doubt the SOPA is meaningfully changing how the internet is and will be used, it for sure has brought attention to information sites regarding politics and society. A project like Wajda’s, which has been functioning for 14 years now and has passed through 4 different presidential elections, is a living proof that the political participation of the citizenship in U.S. is growing and expanding throughout the internet as the new mass media communication.