Book contents
- We Hold These Truths
- We Hold These Truths
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Figures
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 Updating the Framers
- 2 The People
- 3 Selling Policy
- 4 The Public Forum
- 5 Mass Democracy
- 6 The “Extended Republic”
- 7 Making Law
- 8 Implementing Law
- 9 Interpreting Law
- 10 Democracy Evolving
- Appendix A Community-Based Redistricting Algorithm
- References
- Index
4 - The Public Forum
Mass Media and the Web
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 November 2023
- We Hold These Truths
- We Hold These Truths
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Figures
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 Updating the Framers
- 2 The People
- 3 Selling Policy
- 4 The Public Forum
- 5 Mass Democracy
- 6 The “Extended Republic”
- 7 Making Law
- 8 Implementing Law
- 9 Interpreting Law
- 10 Democracy Evolving
- Appendix A Community-Based Redistricting Algorithm
- References
- Index
Summary
This chapter starts by reviewing the history of American news media since 1789, focusing on how new production technologies and business models led to a comparatively unbiased, objective journalism in the mid-20th Century. The difference today that audiences have become far more polarized. This has enabled market segmentation strategies in which each broadcaster avoid competition by pandering to a different political viewpoint. More recently, the rise of the Web has accelerated the rate at which new political messages can be invented, tested on audiences, and eventually refined to the point where mainstream outlets are prepared to broadcast it. The question remains how effectively large news organizations and Web platforms can suppress information they disagree with. The chapter explores when and to what extent todays markets permit this.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- We Hold These TruthsUpdating the Framers' Vision of American Democracy, pp. 98 - 135Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023