Ignorant Bliss

Another day and another discussion about new media and democracy crops up. In fact the issue was the subject for my political communications lecture this morning delivered by Simon Goldsworthy. The first point raised was the issue of bewildering variety and speed of change when it comes to new technology and media. How can anyone be expected to keep up and use this technology in any strategic way?

The pace of change is so rapid that academic research on its impact can not keep up. Furthermore many of those who put themselves forward as experts are merely marketing their own particular product. It is very difficult to get a clear sense of what is going on out there. By the time research on blogging or podcasting comes out, we’ll be on to the next thing.

Politicians like PR people like to portray themselves as being on top of these new developments. They love to be associated with modernity. The reality is that most senior politicians, and most senior PR people, actually haven’t got a clue. This all leads to sweeping general ideas that new media is going to perform wonders for PR and for politics without any hard evidence to back this up. It’s just that as everyone seems to be saying this technology will be great, so these people don’t feel like they want to question it and look out of touch.

Essentially politicians don’t really understand new media. They get swept along by the hype in to believing that it offers some great new hope for a new public sphere which will create a more engaged, more informed democracy. They're ignorant bliss will undoubtedly be shattered.