Unit 2-4 Government and Politics

After completing this unit, you will be able to:

• Realize how multimedia can be used to improve access to state and local government.
• Assess how your state is using multimedia, and determine whether the way it is using multimedia is good or bad for its citizens.
• Understand how the city of Atlanta used multimedia to win its bid to host the Olympic Games.
• Question whether multimedia makes too much information available too quickly to the public during wartime.
• Realize how politicians are using the World Wide Web for virtual campaigning.
• Find out how to check up on your congressional representatives to see how well they are representing your views on important votes.
• Learn how the Internet is shifting the political power base from special interests groups to the citizenry.

Reading

Read chapter 6 of the Multimedia Literacy textbook to study the concepts covered by this unit.

Online Activities

Videoconferencing and the Internet provide ways for politicians to reach, canvass, and broaden their constituencies. Countries that want to be competitive in the new global economy are quickening the pace of the development of their national Information Superhighways. Governments are using the Internet to find out more about what is happening around the world and to document it for the United Nations. Since human nature unfortunately dictates that peacekeeping will inevitably break down, the military uses multimedia to wage war effectively. The following online activities reinforce these concepts and bring the reading to life:

• Government officials have turned increasingly to multimedia for solutions to problems inherent in governance. Multimedia kiosks make services more widely available and enable municipalities to respond more quickly to emergencies and disasters. Follow the Multilit Web site links for examples of governmental kiosking.
• The Gulf War and the wars in Bosnia and Iraq demonstrated how effectively multimedia can wage war. Imagine yourself in control of a smart bomb. You are seated at a multimedia computer, aiming a laser that steers the bomb. In a window you view a live video feed from a camera in the smart bomb, showing precisely where it is headed. Your multimedia computer provides such fine control that you can fly the bomb into an air duct to penetrate an otherwise highly fortified building. Follow the Multilit Web site links to learn more about information warfare.
• A big problem faced by the city of Atlanta at the outset of its bidding in 1988 for the 1996 Summer Olympics was lack of recognition as an international city. At that time only about 15 of the 90 voting members of the International Olympics Committee had ever been to Atlanta, which was known more for Gone With the Wind and similar visions of the Old South. Based on recommendations by Dr. Pat Crecine, then president of Georgia Tech, Atlanta used a multimedia campaign to promote a modern image of the city and project through realistic computer graphics what the planned stadium and other proposed facilities would be like. The computer models helped Atlanta win its bid to host the olympics, and as a result, computer modeling has become customary in olympic bidding. For more information, follow the Multilit Web site links to Olympic bidding.
• The Web has become a strategically important place to find out what is happening in politics and make your voice heard. If you follow the Multilit Web site links to VoteNet and VOTE.com, you will immediately see how the Web provides the most comprehensive vehicle for polling that the world has ever known. You can find out how your congressional representatives are voting by following the link to Thomas, where you'll find the congressional record online. By following the link to C-Span, you can follow live video Web coverage of the House and Senate, browse the C-Span programming guide, and get a free membership to C-SPAN in the Classroom. You can also take a free peek into the National Journal's Cloakroom, which is a members-only site that provides opportunities to make your voice heard, talk with others about issues that concern you, and reach out and communicate directly with decision-makers in politics and government. You can do all these things and more by following the links to politics at the Multilit Web site.

Assignments

One of the major assignments in this course is the term paper that you will write on a topic of your choosing related to a multimedia trend or issue in your chosen field. The other large assignment in this course is the multimedia application that you will develop and publish to the Web, again on a topic of your choosing. If government or politics is your field, it is possible that the readings in this unit will help you decide upon one of these topics. After you choose your topics, remember to respond to the assignments that ask you to tell your instructor what topics you have chosen:

• A major part of your grade in this course is determined by a term paper that you write on a topic of your choosing related to a multimedia trend or issue in the field of education or communications. Your paper must be about six pages long and contain at least six bibliographic references if you are taking this course for undergraduate credit, or about twelve pages long with at least twelve references for graduate credit. Before you write the paper, you need to have your topic approved. Please tell what your paper is going to be about. Say why you have chosen this topic, tell how you plan to research it, and indicate how the writing of this paper will help you achieve the goals you had for taking this course. Your instructor will respond by writing a comment on this assignment to let you know if your topic is approved.
• The largest part of your grade in this course is determined by the multimedia application that you will create. Your application must have at least seven screens if you are taking this course for undergraduate credit, or at least fourteen screens for graduate credit. Before you develop the application, you need to have your topic approved. Please tell what your application is going to be about. Say why you have chosen this topic, and tell how you plan to design it. Describe your intended audience, tell how they will use your application, and indicate how developing this app will help you achieve the goals you had for taking this course.