Reaching Digital Public: The Filter Bubble

The prevalent discourse around new media suggests that they have had a positive effect on democracy in terms of providing a public space for political discourse. However, recent studies have shown that the growing trend to use the Internet to obtain online information could represent a problem for democracy, as individuals are not always exposed to two sides of important public issues, as discussed in Eli Pariser’s Ted Talk on “Filter Bubble” and Alisa Miller’s Ted Talk on “The News About the News” (“small world”) videos, as well as in the readings.

Where do you stand on this? Think and discuss in terms of a) in the first place do new media have positive effect on democracy and b) either way, is the ‘filter bubble’ effect something to be worried about in terms of its effect on democratic discourse? Please explain and cite specific examples, using other sources as far as possible that throw different light on the debate.

Textbook Readings:

Gainous, J. & Wagner, K. M. (2011). Rebooting American Politics: The Internet Revolution, Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. Gainous and Wagner are political communication scholars.

• Chapter 1 “Evolution, Revolution and the Internet”
• Chapter 2 “A Descriptive Summary of the Measurement and the Story”
• Chapter 3 “The Digital Political Public: Information Gathering, Political Knowledge and the Digital Divide”
• Chapter 6 “The Internet: Two Sided Information Flow.”

Doctor, K. (2010), Newsonomics: Twelve Trends That Will Shape the News You Get,  New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press.

• Chapter 1,” (Links to an external site.)In the Age of Darwinian Content You Are Your Own Editor”

Articles:

1. Pole, A. (2010). Blogging the Political: Politics and Participation in a Networked Society, New York, NY: Routledge. Chapters 1 “Political Blogging: Politics and Participation” and Chapter 2 “Rainbow Bloggers: Race and the Blogosphere.” Link Pole is a political communication scholar. Her work builds on classical political participation theory (pp. 3-4) and examines blogging as a new channel for political communication in interplay with elected representative and government officials.
2. Kovach, B. & Rosenstiel, T. (2010). Blur: How to Know What’s True in the Age of Information, Bloomsbury USA. Chapter 9 “What We Need from the Next Journalism,” Epilogue “The New Way of Knowing,” and Appendix: “Tools for Covering a News Event Online.”
3. Barber, R. B. (2001). The Uncertainty of Digital Politics. Harvard International Review. 23 (1). This article points to the pivotal role of news in actual governing processes, through building publics which are exposed to at least two sides of important political issues.