"A pox on both your houses", is how many commentators read the mediocre performances of both major parties, and the rise of independents and mavericks such as Pauline Hanson.

In the UK, meanwhile, the June Brexit vote shocked the world with its implied rebuke of established politics. There, too, radical outsiders such as Nigel Farrage and his UK Independence party won out over politics-as-usual, and persuaded 20 million Brits to support leaving the European Union.

It was undemocratic, the Brexiteers said. A majority of the people agreed, and the UK political establishment was humiliated.

And then there's Trump, the first openly racist, KKK-endorsed, quasi-fascistic candidate for the US presidency to have a serious chance of winning the White House.

Like Hitler in the 1930s, Trump is a product of the democratic process, his status as Republican nominee a sign that many Americans are thoroughly sick of mainstream politics.

This is not where many of us thought we would be in the second decade of the digital age. For the digital optimists – and I am among them, still, just – it seemed that the unprecedented communicative power of the internet and social media would enhance democracy, empower citizens, and help counter the abuse of power by political elites.

And it has done that, to an extent.

The Panama Papers embarrassed many wealthy politicians, in democratic and authoritarian countries alike, with its evidence of money stashed away in tax havens.

WikiLeaks shamed the United States with its release of the "Collateral Murder" video and other evidence of war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan post-9/11.

A serving solider with a digital camera exposed the horrors of Abu Ghraib to the world. Our political and business elites today know they inhabit a world where damaging news travels fast and far, and where there are few places to hide.

At the public end of the democratic process, online advocacy organisations like GetUp and IndigenousX have impacted on mainstream political debate in positive ways. Social media create the possibility of popular political networks which cross barriers of time and space, and which enable real pressure to be put on politicians and governments.

All good.

But here's the thing. These same digital tools are available for use by the bad guys.

ISIS have perfected the art of terrorising global publics with horrific but professionally produced videos of sadistic violence, uploaded to YouTube and other social networks.

Recent research found some 40,000 Twitter accounts linked to ISIS.

Donald Trump has made Twitter his communicative channel of choice, using it to insult opponents with crude schoolyard-style jibes, and to provoke the hated Washington elite with outlandish policy proposals.

His popular base has lapped it up, and as a consequence he was able to swat aside 16 other candidates for the GOP nomination.

The resurgence of Pauline Hanson and One Nation, and of white pride and nativist movements all over the world, has been facilitated by digital technology and its capacity to bypass traditional media gatekeepers.

So here we are, in 2016, enjoying a digital media environment of unprecedented richness and accessability, while our democratic structures are slipping into extremist patterns not seen since WWII.

The people are speaking, but not all of what they say is comforting to those who believed that civility and social order were permanent and irreversible qualities of our democracies.

Digital media present both challenges and opportunities therefore. They come with costs and benefits in relation to our political culture. On Thursday, September 15, at Queensland State Library, QUT's Digital Media Research Centre will host a public debate on these questions featuring distinguished scholars, politicians and journalists. I'll be there, and I hope you can join us.

Brian McNair is Professor of Journalism, Media & Communication, and Chief Investigator at QUT's Digital Media Research Centre (DMRC).

Democracy and the Media in the Digital Age

Join Professor John Keane of Sydney University (The Life and Death of Democracy, 2009), David Fagan (former state editorial director of News Corp and Adjunct Professor at Queensland University of Technology), Simon Holt (Editor-in-Chief, Brisbane Times, Fairfax), the Honourable Paul Lucas (former deputy premier, Queensland), Liz Minchin (Queensland editor, The Conversation) and Amanda Gearing (Walkley-award winning journalist and author of The Torrent: Toowoomba and the Lockyer Valley) to discuss how digital technology is impacting on our democratic process and the media which support it.

Have the rise of the Internet and social media strengthened our democracy, or made it chaotic and unruly? Has the culture of the hashtag and Facebook helped to engage people in politics, or strengthened the voice of demagogues such as Donald Trump?

Are the established print and broadcast media losing their authority and influence as online voices and sources of news proliferate?

Event details

Thursday, September 15, 2016, 6pm-8pm, Auditorium 2, State Library of Queensland Registration.

Paste this link below in to your browser to reserve a free place: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/digital-democracy- symposium-tickets-26994766072