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The right of Stephen Coleman to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published in 2017 by Polity Press

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ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-0836-5

ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-0837-2 (pb)

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Preface

I began writing this book in the months leading up to the jolt of Brexit and concluded the final passages shortly after the thud of the Trump victory. During these turbulent months I observed how information was routinely distorted, public debate was impoverished and voting citizens were infantilized. I was left with the strong feeling that democracy deserved better than this; and, in particular, that spaces for meaningful and consequential public exchange of ideas and experiences were in worryingly short supply.

As populism has prospered, filling the void created by the sterility of ‘politics as usual’, some critics have blamed the Internet for giving undeserved prominence to the raucous claims of know-nothing bigots and cynical fake news purveyors. Others argue that the digital circulation of non-elite voices constitutes the best opportunity available of denting the dominance of mass-media-framed reality. My aim in writing this book has been to move the debate away from what the Internet does to democracy and open a discussion about the kind of democracy we want to make for ourselves.

Of three things we can be sure. Firstly, the Internet does not shape democracy, but, like every medium before it, from the alphabet to television, is shaped by the ways that society chooses to use its available tools. Secondly, the Internet will not go away. Even if one were to accept the alarmist claims that digital technologies are producing new generations of distracted, inconsiderate, gullible addicts, the solution is unlikely to lie in undoing the popularity of the Internet. Thirdly, just as the Internet is not a fixed entity with pre-determined effects, neither is democracy. Indeed, the main argument of the pages that follow is that reconfiguring democratic politics is even more important than coming to terms with the Internet as a feature of our age.

I am grateful to Louise Knight and her colleagues at Polity Press for encouraging me to reflect upon the political and moral significance of the Internet. I have spent much of the past two decades attempting to make sense of what the Internet might mean for the distribution and exercise of political power. Over those years, I have benefited from the intellectual stimulus of friends and associates, including my former colleagues at the Oxford Internet Institute and the many staff and students with whom I now have the pleasure of interacting in the School of Media and Communication at the University of Leeds.

Jay Blumler and John Corner will find their intellectual imprints in this text, but are certainly not responsible for its shortcomings. I am grateful to Victoria Jaynes for being a terrific research assistant, to Justin Dyer for copy-editing the text so very diligently and to Simon Osler for being an excellent guide to online political sources. As ever, Bernadette Coleman has been invaluable in helping to shape my thinking.

The period in which this book was written has been a worrying one for those of us who believe that democracy amounts to more than the tyranny of deluded majorities. This book is dedicated to those who share these worries and are prepared to take a stand for something better.