Heather Sehmel
www.pested.org

As small environmental advocacy groups increasingly create Web sites, we need to better understand how they use them. Research combining interview, observation, and textual analysis of a small environmental group’s Web sites helps us see how one small group, the SEED Coalition, based in Austin, Texas, uses Web sites to meet various goals, such as informing the public and encouraging citizens to take action for the environment. An initial quantitative content analysis demonstrates that more space on the Web site is used to inform citizens than to persuade them or help them take action. However, more thorough consideration of content placement and combination of visual and verbal elements shows how the Web sites may actually do more to facilitate action than the initial analysis demonstrates. These and other results help us better understand how advocacy groups may be using Web sites as rhetorical and political tools.