ABSTRACT

New communication technologies tend to emerge on the scene like new babies whose arrival is heralded with excitement and grand expectations. The shortcomings of previous information delivery mechanisms are seen as evaporating in the face of the capabilities of the new technology. Radio and later television were heralded as overcoming the one-way elite nature of print journalism. 1 Each new technology was supposed to create a well-informed citizenry that would use the technology to connect, communicate, and deliberate with the result of higher satisfaction, better policy, and the fulfi llment of democratic goals. After each new launch, a group of naysayers emerges to point out the failure of the most recent initiatives due to misuse or the appropriation of the technology by current power-holders to bolster their own positions. The debate between the “bright new future” and the “same old, same old” camps surround each new innovation. The truth usually resides somewhere in the middle, with new technologies seldom reaching their promised potential (and often not the one expected), but harboring identifi able consequences (both good and bad, intended and unintended).