July 1, 2016

With both major party conventions this month and the Democratic National Convention coming to Philadelphia, this podcast has explored the relationship between technology and politics. Media technology has always played a role in elections and political campaigns, but with tech being increasingly prominent in the US economy, it seems more intertwined with politics than ever.

New technology enables new ways of informing and engaging citizens. With this in mind, novel civic innovation and public interest initiatives are being supported by the Knight and MacArthur Foundations, among many others. Code for America has provided new opportunities for technologists to pursue public service. And everyone, from large news organizations to individuals, is now able to add their voice to the online conversation, particularly those involving politics.

But the unlimited supply of content and opinions has also solidified the dreaded echo chamber, where one’s beliefs are simply confirmed by like-minded posts on Facebook and Twitter. Have we forever lost our ability engage in civilized political discourse and debate? The facts have seemingly become malleable and no one ever loses an election… it’s simply “stolen” from them by nefarious forces. It’s hard to campaign and govern in good faith when your views are always under attack.

But technology also offers reasons for optimism. Recent actions in Congress supporting gun control measures would not have gained significant attention without social media. News of Senator Chris Murphy’s filibuster on the Senate floor first spread on Facebook and Twitter, well before the news was picked up by major news outlets, enabling a large number of people to engage immediately and even ask questions in real-time. The sit-in staged by a large block of Democrats in the House of Representatives, was streamed by members of Congress themselves via Periscope and Facebook Live, after the C-SPAN broadcast was shut down by the House Speaker. This is what technology is best at: overcoming artificial barriers to disseminating information immediately at scale. I believe the current cost of online echo chambers and fractured politics will ultimately be outweighed by long-term gains in transparency, for time and again throughout history, greater transparency has meant greater justice overall, benefiting society as a whole.