The Electronic Commonwealth: The Impact of New Media Technologies on Democratic Politics by Jeffrey B. Abramson, et al

Abstract

TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 195 The Electronic Commonwealth: The Impact of New Media Technologies on Democratic Politics. By Jeffrey B. Abramson, F. Christopher Arterton , and Gary R. Orren. New York: Basic Books, 1988. Pp. xiv + 331; notes, index. $21.95. It took Jeffrey B. Abramson, F. Christopher Arterton, and Gary R. Orren, along with a supporting group of fourteen scholars, three years for the research and another three to produce The Electronic Commonwealth, a study of the effect of new media technologies on democratic politics in the United States. The outcome was not worthy of the expense of time and the financial support provided by the Markle Foundation. Evaluating this book as a communications researcher with great interest in the influence of new communications technologies on society and as a person who is less knowledgeable about political theory, I found that only two or three chapters had new things to say about new media and the political process. The rest was warmed-over descriptions and predictions of how those technologies might be used, with lengthy summaries of the work of one of the original members of the study group, Ithiel de Sola Pool. And as anyone who works in this area knows, descriptions of today’s technological capability quickly become outmoded. The problems in conducting research for a book that aims to deal with a topic alien to the primary expertise of the authors could be alleviated through an interdisciplinary approach. Apparently the study group was insufficient in this regard, and the authors needed long-term advice from someone well versed in the field. Chapters reviewing the history of FCC policy, describing the various forms of electronic delivery of information, and comparing the broadcast philosophies of several European countries with that of the United States have been written before, have been treated with greater depth, and have more accurately assessed the situation. For example, the authors fail to note that the advent of cable, direct broadcast satellite, and VCRs in Europe, along with the trend to privatization of broadcast channels, are leading European media to look more like the U.S. model than the reverse. Financing European public broadcasting has become an increasing problem, with Britain taking the lead in asking the BBC to pay for itself. The exclusion of critical scholars in the study group eliminated the possibility for any radical evaluation of technology’s role in a capital­ istic society. That is not to say that the authors write a glowing account that assigns quick-fix technological solutions to the problems of lower voter turnout, lack of participation in discussions of social issues, and general public apathy to politics. In fact, the most interesting sections of this book are the realistic assessments of what can be expected of 196 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE communication technologies. Although the authors would like to see the public become more involved in the political process through home voting, electronic town meetings, and such, they do a good job of evaluating the failures of Qube, the Reading, Pennsylvania, elec­ tronic town meeting experiments, and the Hawaii televote case. And they are generally pessimistic about the idea that multiple channels offered through cable systems and increasingly sophisticated polling techniques will cause the electorate to be more informed or the politicians to pay more attention to the desires and opinions of their constituents. The authors instead call for changes in broadcast policy that would allow a public broadcast system financed by commercial stations and dedicated to representing a wide range of social groups in the United States, instead of the elite groups PBS now serves. And they worry that the speed and reach of new media will lead to greater control over the plebiscite rather than increasingly involving the citizens in debates, discussions, and dialogues with political representatives. So in the end, the authors note that it is those in control of the technology who will decide how it is to be used. That use will most likely support the maintenance of the present system rather than bring any funda­ mental expansion of democracy. So what else is new? Christine Ogan Dr. Ogan is an associate professor in the School of Journalism, Indiana...