Print, Electronic, and Social Media and the Transformation of Democratic Representation

The chapter examines the current state of print, electronic, and social media in Europe and the US, and how its evolution has influenced mass behaviour, political representation, and democratic governance. We begin by surveying the dramatic changes that have taken place in the media environment—the shift in media technology from print to broadcast to the Internet, and how these changes influence the information environment and thus, the behaviour of citizens and elites. We then assess how various facets of the electronic media—that is, broadcast news, cable, partisan news, the Internet, and social media—influence political behaviour and representation. Despite a few exceptions, transformations in print, electronic, and social media in liberal democracies have tended to degrade the quality of representation in the last two decades, particularly in the US, where market forces are stronger and government regulations designed to buffer the market are weaker.