The prediction, in brief:

Through the use of increasingly sophisticated two-way digital broadband communications networks, members of the public are gaining a seat of their own at a table of political power. Even as the public’s impatience with government rises, the inexorable progress of democratization, together with remarkable advances in interactive telecommunications, are turning people themselves into the new fourth branch of government. In the electronic republic, it will no longer be the press but the public that functions as the nation’s powerful “fourth estate,” along side the executive, the legislative, and the judiciary.

Predictor: Grossman, Lawrence K.

Prediction, in context:

In his 1995 book “The Electronic Republic: Reshaping Democracy in the Information Age,” Lawrence Grossman, former president of NBC News and PBS, writes:”Through the use of increasingly sophisticated two-way digital broadband communications networks, members of the public are gaining a seat of their own at a table of political power. Even as the public’s impatience with government rises, the inexorable progress of democratization, together with remarkable advances in interactive telecommunications, are turning people themselves into the new fourth branch of government. In the electronic republic, it will no longer be the press but the public that functions as the nation’s powerful ‘fourth estate,’ along side the executive, the legislative, and the judiciary.”

Biography:

Lawrence Grossman wrote the book “The Electronic Republic: Reshaping Democracy in an Information Age” (Penguin, 1995). The former executive at NBC and PBS urged people to realize that digital communications had altered how things can and should be done. (Author/Editor/Journalist.)

Date of prediction: January 1, 1995

Topic of prediction: Global Relationships/Politics

Subtopic: Democracy

Name of publication: The Electronic Republic (book)

Title, headline, chapter name: Introduction

Quote Type: Direct quote

Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Page 4

This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Guarino, Jennifer Anne