| This research focuses on the use of a new communication medium, the World Wide Web, by environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and explores the application of a new theoretical framework, meshworking, to the structure, functioning and characteristics of this communication relationship. Meshworking theory examines how complex horizontal and non-linear “networks,” composed of animate and inanimate nodes and history, interact to generate new characteristics and patterns that evolve as part of cultural, social and political changes.; Three main goals of NGOs were identified: (1) build identity to legitimize beliefs and values shared in the organization, (2) provide opportunities for social, cultural and political agency, and (3) create and share in the process of knowledge production.; The home pages of 17 environmental NGOs' web sites were examined through content analysis, hyperlinks were mapped to show content, functional and connectivity capacity, and the archived bulletin board messages of a local environmental NGO site were analyzed to determine the characteristics of meshworking in a computer-mediated communication environment.; Results suggest that web sites and computer-mediated communication have been assimilated into environmental NGO communication structure and strategy, and strongly reflect the characteristics of the organization in terms of the group's identity, forms of agency and degree of knowledge production. Results also indicate that meshworking is a useful theoretical framework for studying online communication systems used by NGOs and other online organizations. In addition to the major meshworking concepts of self-organization and articulation of heterogeneous elements, this work suggests that another major characteristic is that meshworks exponentially enhance the use-value of any discrete element or node within the cybermeshwork. Meshworking theory is adaptable and applicable for communication research focused on analyzing and understanding the use of the Internet, the World Wide Web and computer-mediated communication. |
