The prediction, in brief:

By this time next year, it’s clear someone will have a real shot at being elected president from a third party, and the reason is because of the Internet, C-Span and talk radio.

Predictor: Bunnell, David

Prediction, in context:

In a 1995 article for The Seattle Times by Paul Andrews, David Bunnell is quoted. Andrews writes:”An ‘electronic candidate’ emerging from a third-party effort in the 1996 presidential campaign; Bill Gates changing hats at Microsoft; Phone companies supplying Internet access: These and other predictions for 1996 were made at the MIT Enterprise Forum’s third annual Technology Outlook last night by a panel of magazine editors at the Bellevue Hyatt Regency Hotel. ‘By this time next year, it’s clear someone will have a real shot at being elected president from a third party, and the reason is because of the Internet, C-Span and talk radio,’ said David Bunnell, founder of NewMedia magazine. ‘There will be a lot of talk about electronic democracy.’ The Internet also will spawn the ‘fastest-growing media company in the world,’ Bunnell said, a possible reference to his own ‘content.com’ project to put well-known book authors’ works on the Net. ‘People will look back and say it didn’t make a lot of sense to do these big mega-media mergers when what’s really happening is this opportunity to create new media companies.’ The online service Prodigy will either go out of business or be sold or merged with another service, Bunnell added. America Online will still be around ‘but will not be very profitable,’ while The Microsoft Network will have 5 million customers, 2 million more than today’s leader, America Online.”

Date of prediction: September 7, 1995

Topic of prediction: Global Relationships/Politics

Subtopic: Campaigns/Voting

Name of publication: Seattle Times

Title, headline, chapter name: Observers Of Online World Make Predictions For 1996

Quote Type: Direct quote

Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe/document?_m=c0e29d0a87883f27204e71008263a116&_docnum=2&wchp=dGLbVlz-lSlzV&_md5=82868e2229a4155f727cc4dc407b0b1f

This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Burnham, Jay