Internet and Democracy in the Network Society

Jan A.G.M. van Dijk, "Internet and Democracy in the Network Society "
English | ISBN: 0815363028 | 2018 | 226 pages | EPUB | 2 MB
A seminal shift has taken place in the relationship between Internet usage and politics. At the turn of the century, it was presumed that digital communication would produce many positive political effects like improvements to political information retrieval, support for public debate and community formation or even enhancements in citizen participation in political decision-making. While there have been positive effects, negative effects have also occurred including fake news and other political disinformation, social media appropriation by terrorists and extremists, 'echo-chambers' and "filter bubbles", elections influenced by hostile hackers and campaign manipulation by micro-targeting marketing. It is time for critical re-evaluation.