Is the Internet democratizing American politics? Do political Web sites and blogs mobilize inactive citizens and make the public sphere more inclusive? This book reveals that, contrary to popular belief, the Internet has done little to broaden political discourse but in fact empowers a small set of elites - some new, but most familiar. "Hindman's The Myth of Digital Democracy makes it possible to visualize the whole elephant. Comprehensiveness and rich data support Hindman's central claim about inegalitarian outcomes of the interactions of Internet and politics, and provide an excellent starting point for future research."---Meelis Kitsing, Journal of Politics