Information and American Democracy (by B. Bimber) the second half

On Tuesday's class we talked about how our identities/affiliations affect our political decisions. I think it's a very interesting topic. For persons like me, who don't have a lot of opinions of their own (for politics...) or are not very involved in political activities, who they are, where they are, and who they think they are really important factors for them to make a decision. Of course, these factor also affect what they hear. Can WEB 2.0 make a big difference? Information is more affluent, it is more convenient for people to interact and cooperate. But does it affect what they listen to? There are so many blogs, wikis, podcast, etc., but how many of them really reached out instead of sharing information in a small circle? Today I went to a webcast on new information technologies and libraries. The speaker talked a lot about the new and exciting stuff. But they also emphasized that don't use a technology because it's cool, use it when you really wanna serve certain purposes. Libraries have always been engaging in user's participation, so these new techs can enhance that function. So does election or other political activities. But what if there are just too many feeds, podcasts, blogs, or simply too much information?