Sept 22's Reading

September 22, 2008’s reading for com 430z was titled “Democratizing Democracy: Strong Democracy, US Political Campaigns and the Internet” by Jennifer Stromer-Galley, which was published in 2000 in Peter Ferdinand (Ed), The Internet, democracy and democratization.

This reading really brings to light an important issue; how democratic are we really? This is something that I worry about every time I think about the US and our government. The overall message in this reading is that the US is practicing something the author, citing Benjamin Barber, refers to as “thin democracy”(p. 36). This basically states that everyday people are not participating in politics. In fact, it is stating that the people who mostly participate in politics are people who are either pushed to for their own self-interest or people who make a career out of it. This is a problem because I know when I think of democracy, I think that it is a government ran by the people, and this doesn’t seem so true for us anymore.

The author then goes on to mention that the media is what is taking control of what the public is focusing on. Basically, whatever the top story of the day is what people focus on the most. So, there are gatekeepers that can control what is going to be the next big issue. The idea in this reading is that maybe the internet can change this. People are now able to focus on whatever they want to and veer away from main stream media. Basically, the internet creates more communication between the people and maybe issues that are being ignored can finally be brought to attention. Recent research shows from Barber that even though that this more involved democracy is now possible it is not the case, but maybe in the future we can find a way to use the internet to achieve a “strong democracy”(p.56)