Hi Lisa, "My question is, are they [politicians] listening?" I don't know. Probably when something directly affects them and their handlers let them know. The Blogosphere is so large with so many voices. The only model I have to go on is the Talk Radio Model. Here in Atlanta the morning radio talkmaster often refers to his "web wench" or "web lackey" who peruses the Internet while he is on the air looking for stories with which to generate calls/listeners. The Internet directly affects the content of the show. I'm sure the effective politicians have similar staff doing this work. Would it not be reasonable to assume that the Internet affects political thought as well? "And what does it say about the state of democracy in the western world if citizens are simultaneously mistrustful of the democratic process and skeptical about the willingness/ability of the media to provide truthful, in-depth and thoughtful reporting?" I would say that this is healthy and that western style democracy (here in the US) is alive and well due to two unbelievably close presidential elections. Ideas and problems are being vigorously debated through alternative sources that allow for freedom of expression away from controlling slanted agendas of the *Main Stream Media. The world is in a state of constant change. We have outgrown the *MSM and, because of the Internet, we are more informed than we used to be. So far this is good.