Elections back in 1924...

I found Susan Crawford's blog at some point in the past two weeks as I've been looking for resources. She's a professor of cyberlaw and communications law who blogs about those areas as well as the impact of technology on different aspects of society.

This post came through the RSS feeder this evening on how technology had a major impact on elections in 1924:

"... The new technology was remarkable. It had found a way to dispense with political middlemen. In a fashion it had restored the demos upon which republican government is founded. No candidate would be able to stand up to it who was unprepared to enlighten the electorate. It potentially gave to every member of the electorate the possibility of a direct reaction to the candidates themselvs. It reproduced to some degree, for the first time in the United States, the conditions of the Athenian democracy where every voter, for himself, could hear and judge the candidates.

The year was 1924: “…America finds herself this year in the act of virtually choosing her chief executive by an instrument that was up to a brief two years ago generally considered a freakish fad.”

“Politics,” the newspapers said, was “radio’s next big job.”

Worth a mention here because of how it relates to my other world of newspapers and dealing with change and the impact of new technology.