Reflective Action in the Digital Age

• In Event: Thinking About Technology

Abstract

In digitalization some see great opportunities for democracy while others see it as a threat to a free opinion-forming process. The way we collect information, as well as the effects of new technologies on our brain and on our information processing as well as the possibilities of manipulation through algorithms are seen as a danger for reflective opinion formation and thus for democracy. Reflective judgements are more likely if different and qualitatively high information is included in a decision and if divergent viewpoints and positions have been weighed against each other. Especially the elites play a central role when it comes to the shaping of a nation's political structure. It is thus essential that they form reflective opinions with the inclusion of divergent positions. In order to find out how broadly based the opinions of these key players are in the digital age, qualitative interviews were conducted with 32 Swiss decision makers from politics, business, administration, science, media and the IT sector. The study finds that the decision makers rely on the offline world to meet different viewpoints and abstain from discussing key issues in new media channels with an unknown public. Their position gives them a decisive advantage, since they do not have to actively search for other views, but are automatically confronted with other perspectives in public talks. The omnipresent availability of information is often and willingly used, but the overload of information leads to the fact that in the end only a few familiar sources will be relied upon.

Authors

• Aline Clauss, University of Fribourg

• Regula Haenggli, U of Fribourg