What Is an Informed Citizen?

All four of this week’s readings either directly or indirectly addressed the idea of the “informed citizen,” the requirements and contributions to becoming an informed citizen, and/or the way knowledge is received and perceived by citizens. As I read through these articles, specifically the pieces by Carpini and Lodge, et al, I found myself asking what exactly an informed citizen is. Is an informed citizen an individual voter who can simply acquire knowledge and remember it? Or is an informed citizen a person who can apply their knowledge in order to make rational and factually based decisions? Lodge, et al argues that when the online model of voter responsiveness is utilized, the conception of an informed citizen is “radically different” from the notion of an informed citizen used in the conventional memory based model (311). According to the online model, informed citizens are not necessarily able to recall certain facts from campaigns; however, they are able to utilize or recall certain facets of or feelings on campaign information in order to make a political choice. They are able to evaluate information and apply it in order to make political decisions, even if they cannot remember certain specifics. In my opinion, there are many voters who have a lot of information on important political issues, but the extent to which they are able to use and evaluate this information in making important decisions is debatable. Being able to use information productively is completely different from simply possessing information and reciting facts.

Along the same lines, I started to question whether an informed (or more often misinformed) citizen necessarily equals a good citizen. Ultimately, I agree with Lodge’s, et al assertion that “information holding” is simply one standard of good citizenship (322), but also with Carpini’s statement that any notion of the “good citizen” must include the “informed citizen (129).” Furthermore, I started to think about the role information plays in politics for those committed to partisan lines, as described in “Same Facts, Different Interpretations” by Gaines, et al. I know many well-informed individuals who have strong partisan leanings, yet after reading Gaines’ piece, I began to wonder if these know-it-all partisans are really what we want when it comes to informed citizens. As the authors describe, information (especially information pertaining to controversial issues like WMD’s or American causalities) can be interpreted is vastly different ways in order to fit party lines, objectives, and agendas. Too often, the power and effects of interpretation is undermined when it comes to discussions on the informed citizen.

Finally, with the rise of other models of political decision making like the heuristic, online, elite, and pluralist models, is an informed citizenry an essential component required to sustain a successful democracy?