Mediacracy, mediocracy, or new democracy (where are the information age Jeffersons and Madisons when we need them?)

The indisputable technological star of our times is the field of information-its gathering, movement, processing, and display. Major advances are occurring at a dizzying pace in areas such as optoelectronics, microelectronics, biochips, artificial intelligence, computer architecture, and networking. From professional work stations to desktop publishing, from computer-integrated manufacturing to genetic engineering, it is the technological domain that is propelling us most powerfully and rapidly into a new era, the information or knowledge society. It is argued that from the standpoint of forecasting and planning, the assessment of the impact of a technology that is a prosthesis of man’s capabilities is of profound interest, but that the assessment of this technology is cruelly frustrating.