Retooling Politics: How Digital Media Are Shaping Democracy

Contents
Acknowledgments
1 The Rise of Digital Media and the Retooling of Politics
1.1 What to Expect?
1.2 Digital Media and the Needs of Political Actors
	Access to the Flow of Political Information
	Reaching People
	Effects of Information
	Collective Action
	Organizations
	Seeing the World
	Serving or Breaking Democracy?
1.3 What Are the Drivers of Digital Media?s Impact on Politics?
	Lowering Information Costs
	Networked Communication
1.4 Retooling Politics: Providing New Tools in the Pursuit of Political Goals
2 The Flow of Political Information
2.1 The Role of Organizations in the Flow of Political Information
2.2 Media Systems
2.3 Controlling Access and Flow of Political Information
2.4 Challenges
	A Multitude of Voices
	Unbundling and Atomization
	The Business of News
2.5 Consequences
	New News Organizations
	Combining Old and New
	Who Watches the Gates?
	Who Determines What Is True?
2.6 Retooling the Flow of Political Information
3 Reaching People
3.1 Three Dimensions of Reach
3.2 Reaching People Directly and through Partners
3.3 Reaching People through News Media
3.4 Mass Media?s Declining Reach
3.5 Determining Reach
3.6 Mass Audience versus Niche Audiences
3.7 Echo Chambers and Filter Bubbles
3.8 Cutting Out the Middlemen
3.9 The Reach of Disinformation
3.10 Retooling the Reach of Political Information
4 The Effects of Political Information
4.1 What Do We Know?
4.2 Why Should the Effects of Digital Media Be Different?
4.3 Effects on Individuals
	Bringing People into Politics
	Informing and Changing Minds
	Political Talk
4.4 Effects on Society
	Polarization
	Digital Divides
4.5 Misreading the Effects of Digital Media
	The Setup
	The Sales Pitch
	The Elusive Promises and Dangers of Psychometric Targeting
	Where?s the Harm?
4.6 Coming to Terms with Limited and Contingent Effects of Digital Media
5 Digital Media and Collective Action
5.1 Two Types of Collective Dilemmas
5.2 The Organization of Protests
	Protests as a Coordination Problem
	Recruitment and Mobilization
5.3 Counteracting Protests
	The Strategic Problem for Governments
	Controlling the Internet
5.4 The Social Side of Individual Decisions
	The Cooperation Problem
	Identity and Social Capital
	Social Effects and Networks
	Getting Information about Others
5.5 Digital Media as a Strategic Tool
6 Changing Organizations
6.1 New Ways of Organizing in Politics
	Organizing without Organizations
	Decentralization and Hierarchy
	Many Paths to Organizing, Many Modes of Organizations
6.2 How Do Organizations Adapt?
	Rethinking Membership
	Rethinking Finance
	Rethinking Networks
6.3 New Ways of Organizing, New Ways of Running Organizations
7 Data in Politics
7.1 Making Social Life Countable
7.2 Promises of Digital Data
7.3 Challenges of Digital Data
7.4 Extending Transparency
7.5 Manipulating Digital Metrics
7.6 Data-Driven Campaigning
	Creating Data Infrastructures
	Data-Driven Targeting
	Data-Driven Outreach
	Impact of Data-Driven Campaigning
	The Future of Data-Driven Campaigning
7.7 Making Politics Countable
8 Digital Media and Democracy
8.1 Democracy as Delegation
	Controlling Politicians
	Information and Democracy
8.2 Digital Media, Accountability, and Representation
	Monitoring Politicians
	Unmediated Connections
	Reshaping Representation
	The Fragility of Information Spaces
	Disengaged Citizens?
8.3 Deepening Democracy
	The Deliberative Turn
	Redefining Participation
	Participation and Inequality
8.4 Digital Solutions and Non-digital Problems
9 Digital Media in Politics
9.1 What Have We Learned?
9.2 Why Do We Keep Getting This Wrong?
	Go Big or Go Home
	Tricksters Tell Tall Tales
	Success Is More Interesting Than Failure
	The Missing Long View
9.3 Getting It Right: Putting Digital Media into Context
	Focus on Actors
	Develop Mechanisms Linking Digital Media and Politics
	Establish Context and Constraints
9.4 What Comes Next?
9.5 The Final Account
References
Index