Can Technology Rescue Democracy?
A collection of essays from technologists and scholars about how machines are reshaping civil society
Rethinking Ethics Training in Silicon Valley
“If technology can mold us, and technologists are the ones who shape that technology, we should demand some level of ethics training for technologists.”
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Aaron Josefczyk / Reuters The Case for Standardized and Secure Voting Technology
Officials in the United States should make ballots verifiable—or go back to paper.
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Shannon Stapleton / Reuters What People Really Want From News Organizations
Pundits complain that people are satisfied with the echo chambers they’re in, but that’s not quite right.
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Yuri Gripas / Reuters Why News Organizations Can't Go It Alone
Journalists still expect people to turn to them first to make sense of the world. They shouldn’t.
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Paul Hackett / Reuters Podcasting Is the New Talk-Radio
The intimacy of the format has the potential to make listeners feel things—and emotional resonance affects how people perceive information.
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Andrea Comas / Reuters How Bots and Humans Might Work Together to Stop Harassment
Platforms and news organizations both need to do more with technology to protect people.
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Ricardo Moraes / Reuters / Zak Bickel / ... How Applied Mathematics Could Improve the Democratic Process
A low-tech solution to America’s voting problems
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Reuters / Zak Bickel / The Atlantic Getting to Know Your Online Doppleganger
Platforms should give users the opportunity to experience informational environments as others see them.
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Fabian Bimmer / Reuters / Zak Bickel / ... Corporate Surveillance Is Turning Human Workers Into Fungible Cogs
Emerging technologies are enabling more invasive management practices.
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Darren Staples / Reuters Gratitude for Invisible Systems
One way to improve democracy is for more people to appreciate its complex technological underpinnings.
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Fred Prouser / Reuters/ Zak Bickel / The ... Democracy Has a Design Problem
“What exactly do you do when you go to the polling place?”
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U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs / Reuters Freeing Technology From the Pace of Bureaucracy
Machines and software can improve how well our democracy works for its citizens—but only with human-guided efforts.
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Seth Wenig / Reuters/ Zak Bickel / The ... Protecting the Public Commons
At a moment when institutional distrust is surging, there’s an urgent need to support civics education.
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Tyrone Siu / Reuters / Zak Bickel / ... The Thinning Line Between Commercial and Government Surveillance
Privacy doesn’t just benefit individuals. It’s crucial for a functioning democracy.
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Does Technology Aid Political Action or Distract From It?
This month, as part of our ongoing series about how technology is transforming civic life, we asked readers to share…
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Lucas Jackson / Reuters / Zak Bickel / ... Broken Technology Hurts Democracy
… and fixing both begins in American schools.
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Shannon Stapleton / Reuters / Zak Bickel Restoring the Public's Trust in American Journalism
Faith in crucial institutions requires the free flow of reliable information.
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Jochen Luebke / Reuters / Zak Bickel / ... How Platforms Are Poisoning Conversations
Political discussions online are perceived as less respectful, less likely to be resolved, less civil, and more angry than discussions in other forums.
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Carlo Allegri / Reuters / Zak Bickel / ... The Voting Technology We Really Need? Paper
Software-independent backup systems are more important than ever.
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Lucy Nicholson / Reuters / Zak Bickel / ... Online Voting Won’t Save Democracy
But letting people use the internet to register to vote is a start.
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CDIC / Reuters / Zak Bickel / The ... Disentangling Democracy From Geography
It’s time for representative government to catch up with internet-era concepts of community.
