Online journalism and citizenship: New voices, new votes

"Technology and the Internet are changing democracy in America. Personal Democracy Forum is a hub for the exciting conversation underway between political professionals, technologists, and anyone else invigorated by the remarkable potential of technology to engage citizens in the democratic process." http://www.personaldemocracy.com "Face au citoyen, ça connecte, ça branche, ça circule en réseaux, bref, ça “communique”, mais le citoyen sent confusément que ça l’exclut." (Ramonet 1999/2001 : 63) The new communication possibilities generated by internet have a beneficial influence on democracy, so it seems. They invite citizens to participate in the political debate, because they create a forum that is in principle easily accessible to everybody. Rhetoricians can examine in what ways in certain domains, like politics or media, these new forms of communication develop, and how they relate to the old ones. In a more general way, we can also ask ourselves whether it is somehow possible to evaluate the kind of citizenship made possible by these new forms of communication. If this is possible, we must find other than the well-know technical or quantitative arguments that prove the democratic quality of internet communication. In this paper, I will discuss some answers to this question.status: publishe