The Internet's World Wide Web and Political Accountability

Abstract

Despite extensive criticism in recent decades of political journalism, institutions are resistant to change and public discourse is left wanting. The situation suggests, in part, the need for more attempts at public information and discourse innovation. The authors argue that features in certain Internet information presentations, notably different in form from anything found in traditional press, can address these complaints. In particular, a new level of practical accountability for public speech and actions is possible if cyclically delivered, story-centered news is augmented with nontemporal, modularized, and malleable information spaces. This article briefly discusses some issues and presents examples created for the 1996 presidential debates on the World Wide Web.