International Encyclopedia of Communication Online

Extract

For a political system to be democratic – for ordinary people to have a meaningful role in the formation of public policy – an active citizenry must have the means to communicate their views about ideas and issues, among themselves and to political leaders. In a period of unprecedented advances in communication technology – more ways for more people to send more information ever more rapidly to others – one might assume that such changes mean more democracy. The post-World War II experience in the United States suggests that such an assumption is unwarranted. The increased capacity for communication does not automatically deepen democracy, and can in fact be an obstacle to attempts to deepen democracy when elite-run economic institutions have a dominant role in the development and deployment of technology, and when other social and cultural forces work to undermine active public involvement. Hence the paradox: The final decades of the twentieth and first years of the twenty-first centuries have seen an atrophying of meaningful democracy along with the refinement of radio and television broadcasting technology; a dizzying expansion of →  cable television and satellite channels (→  Satellite Television ); changes in printing technologies to make high-quality publications more affordable; and the creation of the →  Internet and a dramatic expansion of its scope and use. Citizens ... log in or subscribe to read full text