"Adding Up the Costs of Cyberdemocracy"

[Dave Monroe]

>From "Adding Up the Costs of Cyberdemocracy" by
Alexander Stille, The New York Times, Saturday, June
2nd, 2001 ...

As Cass Sunstein, a professor of law at the University
of Chicago, saw himself being skewered on various Web
sites discussing his recent book, "Republic.com," he
had the odd satisfaction of watching some of the
book's themes unfold before his eyes. On the
conservative Web site "FreeRepublic.com," the
discussion began by referring relatively mildly to Mr.
Sunstein's book about the political consequences of
the Internet as "thinly veiled liberal." But as the
discussion picked up steam, the rhetoric of the
respondents, who insisted that they had not and would
not read the book itself, became more heated.
Eventually, they were referring to Mr. Sunstein as "a
nazi" and a "pointy headed socialist windbag." 

The discussion illustrated the phenomenon that Mr.
Sunstein and various social scientists have called
"group polarization" in which like-minded people in an
isolated group reinforce one another's views, which
then harden into more extreme positions. Even one of 
his critics on the site acknowledged the shift.
"Amazingly enough," he wrote, "it looks like Sunstein
has polarized this group into unanimous agreement
about him." An expletive followed.

To Mr. Sunstein, such polarization is just one of the
negative political effects of the Internet, which
allows people to filter out unwanted information,
tailor their own news and congregate at specialized
Web sites that closely reflect their own views. A
"shared culture," which results partly from exposure
to a wide range of opinion, is important for a
functioning democracy, he argues.  But as the role of
newspapers and television news diminishes, he wrote,
"and the customization of our communications universe
increases, society is in danger of fragmenting, shared
communities in danger of dissolving."

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/02/technology/02INTE.html

And see ...

Sunstein, Cass R.  Republic.com.
   Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 2001.

Thanks to Doug for mentioning this a while back ...



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