How can technology affect democracy in the United States?

"New technologies and innovations in the social practices surrounding them are revolutionizing democracy. The potential is both positive and negative. On one hand, blogging and other social media are moving society away from a hierarchical, broadcast model of information flow. A much more horizontal and participatory information culture is emerging. People who have high-speed Internet access and the skills to use that access can find, organize, share, and archive information in unprecedented volume and at unprecedented speeds. As a result, the Internet and mobile telephony are emerging as our most powerful media ever for promoting public accountability and political mobilization. On the other hand, the digital divides have not disappeared. A widening gap persists between those who do and do not have broadband access plus the necessary digital and media literacy skills to deploy new tools effectively. The digital 'have-not's' risk falling into second-class citizenship. The fracturing of the media audience threatens the economic sustainability of original and verified news reporting, which is the lifeblood of democracy. Tools of free expression can also become tools of propaganda and surveillance. For all these reasons, it is not technology alone that will determine the future. It is people – and the laws, policies and institutional practices through which we collectively shape the new information and communications ecology."

Peter M. Shane
Jacob E. Davis and Jacob E. Davis II Chair in Law