ABSTRACT
An established tenet of U.S. political culture is that the democratic process should be “firmly anchored in the judgments of the demos” (Dahl, 1989: 338). By this standard, there is reason to suspect that Americans are living in democratically troubled times-a period of history characterized by a persistently under-informed citizenry, substantial declines in traditional indicators of civic and political engagement (Althaus, 1999; Bartels, 1996; Converse, 1990; Delli Carpini and Keeter, 2003), and reduced political self-efficacy (Brody, 1978; Miller and Shanks, 1996). While connections between the state of democracy and technology have always existed, advances in information and communication technology just prior to the onset of the new millennium have made these connections all the more salient.
