print and democracy

In the current edition of the New Yorker, Eric Alterman writes:

And so even if one agrees with all of Huffington’s jabs at the Times, and Edsall’s critique of the Washington Post, it is impossible not to wonder what will become of not just news but democracy itself, in a world in which we can no longer depend on newspapers to invest their unmatched resources and professional pride in helping the rest of us to learn, however imperfectly, what we need to know.

Yes, technologies are biases that enhance some forms of social organisation and inhibit others, but I remain unconvinced that the viability of a nation, let alone democracy as a whole, is dependent on the transmission of news remaining frozen at a certain level of mechanical and technological development.

If you want more, you’ll have to read my column in the print edition of Maclean’s now on sale.