Information and American Democracy pt I

Bimber's claim that technology has very few participation effects is an interesting one. Obviously voter turnout has been falling for decades as technology has improved, but why is this? People now have more resources to get informed with, but continue to avoid polls. Bimber doesn't seem to have an answer for this, but he does claim technology should add to information abundance, which should lead to postbureaucratic forms of politics. Whether this will ever happen, though, remains to be seen. People use technology to mobilize, but it does not appear to be that effective. It's interesting that although all these new technologies and new ways to campaign have arisen, politicians still use things like mail and other older forms of communication. Environmental groups seem to be the best at this, as they have used information to spread their causes as good as anyone, even though their numbers have fallen.