Workshop The Ethics of Conduct: The Impact of New Media on Parliamentary Democracy in Europe

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WorkshopThe Ethics of Conduct The Impact of New
Media on Parliamentary Democracy in Europe

• Dr Xiudian Dai
• The e-Parliament Project
• University of Hull
• www.hull.ac.uk/e-parliament
• Saturday 12 March 2005

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Aim of the Project

• The overall aim of this project is to investigate
  to what extent and in what ways the development
  of new media technologies in general and the
  Internet in particular is raising new ethical
  challenges to contemporary parliamentary
  democracy in Europe.

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The Project

• Launched in May 2004
• Funded by the University of Hull
• The Institute of Applied Ethics
• Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
• The research team
• Four members of staff from Hull
• One member from Liverpool University

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Comparative Studies

• The British Parliament
• The European Parliament
• The Portuguese Parliament
• The Swedish Parliament

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Progress

• Literature review
• Web surveys of parliamentarians usage of the
  internet
• A questionnaire has been designed
• Project office
• Project website www.hull.ac.uk/e-parliament

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Next Steps

• Postal questionnaire survey
• Interviews with selected parliamentarians from
  the four case study parliaments
• A conference to disseminate the results
• A special issue of the Journal of Legislative
  Studies, which will also be published as a book

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Objectives of the Workshop

• How is the internet being used by
  parliamentarians as a new tool for political
  communication?
• Are there any codes of conduct concerning
  parliamentarians use of the internet?
• What key issues are being raised by
  parliamentarians use of the internet?