New media technologies greatly extended democratic deliberation in Britain beginning in the 1920s. In the 1920s, political parties in Britain developed programs to disseminate a large volume of printed material outside of specific political campaigns. In 1927, which was not an election year, just one party organization published twenty million pamphlets and leaflets and six million copies of political magazines.^ That number is equivalent to a little over two pamphlets for every man, woman, and child in Britain at that time. Another political party was described as flooding the country with political literature.^ Cinema vans were developed to show political-themed films around the country. By the end of the 1920s, a fleet of 23 cinema vans presented films to about 160,000 persons per week.^ In 1922, the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) formed to broadcast radio programs nation-wide. By the end of 1926, 2.25 million radio receiver licenses had been issued. The BBC fostered a national culture of knowledge, style, and taste led by a male London elite with an ethos of public service.

These media developments fostered democratic deliberation. They are also associated with a large expansion of the electoral franchise and a sharp increase in the ratio of men to women in prison.