Tools for Whom?

Tools for Whom? Technology is historically 30 years ahead of society, according to the late and lamented federal Office of Technology Assessment. Television was around long before it became common in our homes. When it was invented, many people had trouble imagining the utility of the telephone. How then will the Internet play out in our communities? Technology continues to put more communications tools in citizens' hands than ever before. Yet, paradoxically, many community organizations told Good News/Good Deeds that it has never been more challenging for citizens to communicate effectively. This crisis in communication may exist because we don't know how to use the tools. Or we may be suffering from information overload. The problem could even be that we lack the common values that undergird good communication: honesty, responsibility, humility, mutual respect.

"There is a concern," said one executive director during a Good News/Good Deeds large agency focus group, "that fewer people are watching the 'common things' in the community. Maybe the Internet will start to do some of the community function. ...I don't look for traditional media to be able to do that in today's environment."

Through there is nothing inherently democratic about new technology, it does provide an unprecedented opportunity for melding the power of community organizations, news media, and government, into a laboratory for developing a communication system that works for citizens and strengthens democracy. In fact, today's interactive tools suggest that the U.S. has the potential to shift from traditional representative democracy — the dominant model covered by the news media — to a stronger and more participatory form of democracy inherent in the mew media. They could allow, for example, plebiscites where citizens can weigh in on issues with their elected representatives. They could offer opportunities for deliberative dialogue and pooled wisdom. They make geographic boundaries less important. Conversations that used to happen over the back fence routinely occur on-line, with globally dispersed participants.