In kitchens, living rooms, dens, bedrooms, and workplaces throughout the nation, citizens have begun to apply … electronic devices to political purposes, giving those who use them a degree of empowerment they never had before. Digital computer networks provide the means for like-minded folks across America to unite, plan, share information, organize, and plot small political upheavals … Of course, not only individuals but also large, sophisticated, and well-financed interest groups and professional lobbying organizations also have learned how to use these sophisticated new tools of political influence.
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: ”We are only just beginning to experience the powerful political impact of the new personal electronic media – faxed petitions, E-mail lobbies, interactive on-line networks, keypad voters, 900 telephone number polls, the use of modems, telecomputers, and telecompressors to share information and register views. In kitchens, living rooms, dens, bedrooms, and workplaces throughout the nation, citizens have begun to apply … electronic devices to political purposes, giving those who use them a degree of empowerment they never had before. Digital computer networks provide the means for like-minded folks across America to unite, plan, share information, organize, and plot small political upheavals … Of course, not only individuals but also large, sophisticated, and well-financed interest groups and professional lobbying organizations also have learned how to use these sophisticated new tools of political influence.”
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: General
Name of publication: The Electronic Republic (book)
Title, headline, chapter name: Chapter 7: The Shape of the Electronic Republic: The Citizens, the Congress, the Presidency, and the Judiciary
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Page 146
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Guarino, Jennifer Anne