American democracy is at a decisive moment in history. Headlines run ad nauseam, warning that democracy itself is “on the ballot”; all the while, voter apathy persists. Dwindling public trust in the news media, assaults on press freedoms, suppression of civil and human rights replete with censored and banned books, and politically revised history and educational curricula would easily explain why Americans feel pessimistic about the state of the State.
This special edition of The Progressive presents interventions for unpacking the confluence of factors undermining our democratic institutions and submits perspectives challenging seemingly intractable problems. The authors in these pages illustrate a renewed commitment to ethical journalism, an unfettered press, and a civic courage that resists the pressures of cancel culture.
Today’s mediascape demands critical thinking, media literacy, and access to facts that transcend information silos, confirmation biases, and divisive horse race elections reporting. Considering the complicated relationship that politicians and those in high places have with objective truths, the public still depends on the press to gather and interpret information, and to uphold the right to know. The Progressive-Project Censored collaborative compendium offers critical support for election preparation and some new approaches to decoding the news and political messaging that dominate our public and private infosphere.
A century ago, Wisconsin U.S. Senator Robert M. La Follette argued that in times of crisis and war, citizens must exercise their right to speak out and demand that their government act with a moral conviction reflective of its citizens. Today’s widespread demonstrations on college campuses condemning the atrocities in Gaza illustrate the type of First Amendment action resonant with La Follette’s counsel. Coalescing as a voice of conscience, students are urging universities to divest from companies that do business in or help to arm Israel. This, compounded by growing numbers of “undecided,” “uncommitted,” or “uninstructed” voters, promises to bear out in the upcoming election, which is sensationalized as the first presidential rematch in more than sixty years.
Mickey Huff and Andy Lee Roth recall the political past as prologue and refute the erasure of public memory. Addressing the formulaic, hyperpartisan reporting of the apparent 2024 contenders, mass media coverage thus far shows to be largely lacking in nuanced analysis and removed from citizen concerns. One hundred years ago, the political spectrum that La Follette inhabited may not have been so different from today. National struggles such as war, civil rights, socioeconomic inequality, corporate monopolies, media rife with propaganda, and two political parties powered by elite interests top the list of reasons why La Follette then, and the contemporary undecided, uncommitted, and uninstructed voters now, find negligible differences between Republicans and Democrats.
As Nolan Higdon lays out, the presumptive presidential candidates’ penchant for certain cable networks colors their perception of reality “red” or “blue.” These distinctions factor into ideological polarization and voters’ perceptions that leaders are out of touch with those they purport to represent. Wajahat Ali elaborates that American democracy does not need more “both sides” partisan hack coverage; it needs ethical journalism centered on citizens’ rights and interests.
Whether we consume news from traditional sources or from digital media platforms, the “fake content industry” jeopardizes access to accurate information. Within the digital ecosystem, deepfakes and disinformation campaigns have the capacity to distort reality, increase human tendencies toward cognitive biases and groupthink, and even induce citizens to vote against their own best interests. In their essay, Kate Horgan, Reagan Haynie, and Shealeigh Voitl provide insight into the effects that social media content-filtering has on audiences, highlighting corporate profiteering priorities at cross-purposes with free and fair democratic processes.
Heidi Boghosian and Steve Macek each bring to light forces that seek to subvert democratic norms and exert undue influence in each branch of government, and society at large. Macek’s investigation follows the surreptitious role that dark money plays in electoral campaigns, and as La Follette did before, he decries its corrosive effects on American democracy. Boghosian’s report parses the ways in which militant factions of the religious right distort the democratic principles of church-and-state separation in their crusade to re-elect former President Trump. Anthony DiMaggio’s chapter from Censorship, Digital Media, and the Global Crackdown on Freedom of Expression (a new volume edited by Robin Andersen, Nolan Higdon, and Steve Macek) also spotlights an extremist voting bloc not above using violence as a political tool.
If, as many insist, this is the most pivotal presidential election of our lifetime, then voters deserve to engage with media that prioritize human, civil, and environmental rights and social matters of consequence. By positioning media as a public good, journalism as public service, and critical media literacy as civic empowerment, the authors in this special edition champion media-literate citizens to exercise their agency as the guardians of American democracy—not only on Election Day, but every day.