Nation states that call themselves 'democracies' aren't necessarily 'liberal' democracies...Germany was a democracy when Hilter took power...so was Italy...in some ways so was Russia under Yeltsin. Hungarians that I know certainly think of Urban as a 'democrat'...even though he wants to maintain the basic ethnicity of Hungary. He does not want to see Hungary's ethnic mix altered by immigration.
So, I am fascinated by the idea that democracy is better understood as a means of communication, and therefore, the technologies of communication become determinative....democracy in the US is different now than from its founding and newsletters and in the 1900s with radio and then later television and now Twitter and advocacy radio and entertainment news.
Sesame Street teaches children to love television as well as to learn spelling and numbers. Commercial TV must be entertaining as well as educational...It must first, however, be entertaining. Twitter must be captivating and only then the means of organizing similar interests.
Marshall McLuhan..famous for his phrase...'the medium is the message' is prescient.
Podcasting is a very important innovation I think because it has aspects of print journalism and exploration in greater detail and its continous with no interruptions.
Here's a wonderful discussion of these ideas by Ezra Klein
a podcaster for the NYT.
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