Details

Subject(s)

• Political participation—Political aspects—United States [Browse]
• Internet in political campaigns—United States [Browse]
• Internet—United States [Browse]

Summary note

Is the Internet democratizing American politics? Do political Web sites and blogs mobilize inactive citizens and make the public sphere more inclusive? The Myth of Digital Democracy reveals that, contrary to popular belief, the Internet has done little to broaden political discourse but in fact empowers a small set of elites--some new, but most familiar. Matthew Hindman argues that, though hundreds of thousands of Americans blog about politics, blogs receive only a miniscule portion of Web traffic, and most blog readership goes to a handful of mainstream, highly educated professionals. He shows how, despite the wealth of independent Web sites, online news audiences are concentrated on the top twenty outlets, and online organizing and fund-raising are dominated by a few powerful interest groups. Hindman tracks nearly three million Web pages, analyzing how their links are structured, how citizens search for political content, and how leading search engines like Google and Yahoo! funnel traffic to popular outlets. He finds that while the Internet has increased some forms of political participation and transformed the way interest groups and candidates organize, mobilize, and raise funds, elites still strongly shape how political material on the Web is presented and accessed. The Myth of Digital Democracy. debunks popular notions about political discourse in the digital age, revealing how the Internet has neither diminished the audience share of corporate media nor given greater voice to ordinary citizens.

Notes

Description based upon print version of record.

Source of description

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Mai 2019)

Language note

English

Contents

• Frontmatter
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Acknowledgment
• One. The Internet and the ''Democratization'' of Politics
• Two. The Lessons of Howard Dean
• Three. ''Googlearchy'': The Link Structure of Political Web Sites
• Four. Political Traffic and the Politics of Search
• Five. Online Concentration
• Six. Blogs: The New Elite Media
• Seven. Elite Politics and the ''Missing Middle''
• Appendix. On Data and Methodology
• References
• Index

Show 11 more Contents items

ISBN

• 1-282-96467-4
• 9786612964671
• 1-4008-3749-9

OCLC

• 701704259
• 1066185596

Doi

• 10.1515/9781400837496

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