From the ashes of the Senate's trial of President Clinton, a new political force has emerged: the fifth estate. The fourth estate, the print and broadcast media, is going down in flames. Members of the fifth estate, rooted in and legitimized by the Internet with its nearly seventy million users, speak to one another without being interrupted by pundits, press secretaries, or politicians. The fifth estate is the people. And power is in our hands again for the first time in many decades.The unimpeachment of President Clinton -- American politics through the Looking Glass -- signals the demise of...
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The unimpeachment of President Clinton -- American politics through the Looking Glass -- signals the demise of media power. The public is switching channels. A cultural revolution is taking place. Any politician able to deliver something of value earns popular support, whatever his personal character.
We are no longer a nation of viewers and readers. We live in a chat-room republic. The pluralism of the Net, where everybody is an editor and publisher, makes diversity of opinion inevitable. It permits an endless series of dialogues. Morris predicts that:
-- The Internet will replace polling and the power of legislatures will decline.
-- The Internet will kill lobbying. The focus of special interests will turn from elected officials directly to the public.
-- Money will, therefore, cease to dominate politics.
-- New popular movements (such as the environment, genetic science, and spiritual issues) and new strategies (volunteerism and other alternatives to government) will emerge.
Scandal will no longer be a weapon. The electorate of the future, empowered by the Internet, will control its own destiny unhampered by the power brokers of the past. A new age of democracy is dawning.
- ISBN10 1580631630
- ISBN13 9781580631631
- Publish Date 31 December 1998
- Publish Status Unknown
- Publish Country US
- Publisher Renaissance Books
- Imprint Renaissance Books,U.S.
- Format Paperback
- Pages 236
- Language English