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AMERICAN SPRING: NEW MEDIA. NEW DEMOCRACY? - Feature Length Documentary (pre-production)
Bloggers, Tweeters, and Facebookers around the world are jailed for their pro-democracy activism, yet barely half the eligible voters in the U.S. care to cast a ballot. Online a different story unfolds. Journalism 2.0 meets Government 2.0 in an attempt to re-invigorate American democracy.
American Spring: new media, new democracy? explores what democracy looks like in the 21st century as cell phones, laptops, and an ever-expanding toolkit of apps changes the power dynamic between citizens, the media, and politicians. The film takes as its starting place the excitement over how new media is impacting democratic participation in the Arab Spring. Activists around the world fight for the rights U.S citizens have, yet civic participation is dismally low in the oldest democratic experiment on the planet. More people use Facebook in the U.S. than voted in the last presidential election. American Spring: new media, new democracy? explores the potential for new media to reinvigorate civic engagement in the U.S.
The film will follow a keen observer from the Middle East as s/he meets online activists, candidates, bloggers, representatives from Twitter and Facebook, the Occupy Movement and the Tea Party, to assess the health of U.S. democracy. Similar to Alexis de Tocqueville, the French author of the early 1800's, s/he will ask, "what is the state of democracy in America?" - with a special focus on information tools of the 21st century. Will s/he be inspired by what s/he experiences? What lessons will s/he take away? What can the democratic struggles across the globe teach the U.S.? What lessons can their movements learn from us? We are working with PatchWork Films and Working Films in this collaborative project.
For more information visit American Spring:new media, new democracy? website.