Page 222 - Information and American Democracy Technology in the Evolution of Political Power

P1: IBE/IRP/IQR/IRR
0 521 80067 6
CY101-Bimber
12:12
August 13, 2002
CY101-05
Theoretical Considerations
provides a higher degree of purposiveness and selectivity by permitting
citizens to control what information they acquire, where they acquire
it, and when they acquire it. From the instrumental perspective, the
evolution of information abundance has created the most potentially
important change in citizens’ information environment so far, by re-
ducing the cost of information, multiplying channels, and providing
possibilities for greater purposive control and selection. Subject to a law
of diminishing marginal returns, information abundance should lead
to greater information consumption and at least marginal increases in
participation rates. Specifically, as information costs fall, those who will
benefit the most from it are those with the highest uncertainty and who
also exhibit a strong preference over outcomes, all else being equal. Those
with low uncertainty stand to gain little from additional information,
as do those with high uncertainty but low interest or preferences over
outcomes.

Instrumental conceptions of information and behavior confront many
problems empirically, especially in laboratory experiments. When peo-
ple’s learning and “consumption” of information is observed directly,
it frequently deviates from predictions of the theory. A large body of
theoretical work and empirical evidence suggests a different set of expec-
tations. For convenience, I use the label “psychological” to describe this
approach, although it encompasses theories both inside and outside the
field of political psychology. Unlike the instrumental approach, which is
rooted in the theory of rational behavior, the psychological approach en-
compassesmanytheoriesandmodelsfromtheliteratureonmedia,public
opinion, political communication, and political psychology. While these
theories are disparate, they share a common premise and for this reason
can be classified together. The point of departure of the psychological
approach from the instrumental can be traced to Downs’s view that “the
term rational is never applied to an agent’s ends, only to his means,” and
therefore the process of acquiring information must be held theoretically
distinct from the goals or normative ends to which the information will
be put. 21 One foundation of the psychological tradition is the rejection
of this separation of means from ends and information from values. If
one accepts the premise that normative processes of choosing goals and
ends may be intertwined with processes of learning and acquiring infor-
mation, then a new theory and new set of expectations is required. In the

21
Delli Carpini and Keeter, “The Internet and an Informed Citizenry,” p. 13.
205