User:Natasa Siencnik/essay/draft/

Essay Draft

I like Revolution. About the possible democratic potential of the Internet and how people think they change the world.

Working Title

1. Introduction
   • What do I want to examine?
   • political implications of Web 2.0
   • debate about democratising nature of the Internet
   • utopian visions of the internet
   • concept of participation
   • concern or lack of public participation in modern (Western) societies
   • optimism concerning the potential of new technologies
2. Web 2.0 and Participation
   • Short description of Web 2.0 / the social web
   • plethora of social media available on the internet
   • read/write web > blogs, photo and file sharing systems (eg Flickr, SlideShare, YouTube), wikis, social network sites (eg Friendster, mySpace, Second Life, Facebook)
   • largely designed for personal presentation
   • shift from earlier, supposedly less participatory, web technologies
   • liberation ascribed to the particpatory and collaborative possibilities of new technologies
   • political speeach and action sometimes emerge
3. Public Sphere
   • what is the "public sphere" (#*> Habermas)
   • individual autonomy in terms of social relations
   • public sphere is not a forum for political action
   • public sphere is a forum for debate
   • seperate from the political apparatus
   • space for democratic form of political debate
   • can Internet offer a better medium for a public sphere?
4. Networked Public Sphere / The Social Web (#*> Benkler)
   • nonmarket modes of participation and production of content (user-generated content)
   • decentralized individual action
   • empowerment of individuals
   • elimination of communication costs
   • allow new, more democratic and participative, form of political communication
   • but "if everyone can speak at once, no one can be heard"?
5. Networked vs. mass-mediated Public Sphere
   • democratising effects measured as compared to commercia, mass-media-based public sphere
   • not compared to an idealized utopia
   • more democratic than traditional mass media
   • active participants of Web vs. passive reader, listereners or viewers of mass media?
   • sceptical about ascvribing passivity to the mass media audience
   • but industrial model of mass media situats audience as consumers of media products
6. Criteria for a new networked Public sphere:
   • must be open to everyone
   • filtering relevant information
   • accrediting infromation that is likely to be reliable
   • forming public opinion, bringing together individuals
   • independent from government control
7. Economics / Capitalism / Liberalism in Postindustrial Societies
   • presume that removal of corporate ownership and control allows organic decentralisation and empowerment of individuals
   • but the Internet is based and shaped by a liberal market rather than politics
   • collectively constructed works have clear economic value
   • but are not participating in an economic market as such
   • free labour likely to be exploited
   • but intenret does not automatically turn every user into an active producer
8. Conclusion
   • more critical or sceptical approach to the political promise of Web 2.0
   • true participation must mean more than simply new technologies of participation
   • it is a politico-economic project, not simply a technological one

Bibliography

Auge, Marc

Benjamin, Walter

Applebaum, Anne (2010) 'The Twitter Revolution that wasn't', in The Washington Post, April 21, 2009

Boler, Megan (2008) Digital Media and Democracy. Tactics in Hard Times, Cambridge: The MIT Press

Breindl, Yana (2010) 'Critique of the Democratic Potentialities of the Internet: A Review of Current Theory and Practice', in tripleC Vol. 8, No. 1 (pp. 43–59)

Deibert, Ronald J (2008) 'Black Code Redux: Censorchip, Surveillance, and the Militarization of Cyberspace', in Boler, Megan (ed) Digital Media and Democracy. Tactics in Hard Times, Cambridge: The MIT Press (pp. 137–153)

De Certeau, Michel

Foucault, Michel (2004) Die Geburt der Biopolitik. Geschichte der Gouvernementalität II, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2006

Gladwell, Malcolm (2010) 'Small Change. Why the Revolution will not be tweeted', in The New Yorker, October 4, 2010

Habermas, Jürgen (1989) The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere, Cambridge: Polity Press, 2005

Renzi, Alessandra (2008) 'The Space of Tactical Media', in Boler, Megan (ed) Digital Media and Democracy. Tactics in Hard Times, Cambridge: The MIT Press (pp. 71–90)

Roberts, Ben (2009) 'Beyond the Networked Public Sphere: Politics, Participation and Technics in Web 2.0', in The Fibreculture Journal Vol. 14, Fibreculture Publications / The Open Humanities Press

Scholz, Trebor (2008) 'Where the Activism is', in Boler, Megan (ed) Digital Media and Democracy. Tactics in Hard Times, Cambridge: The MIT Press (pp. 355–363)

Sontag, Susan (2003) Regarding the Pain of Others, New York: Picador

Further Reading

Bourdieu, Pierre (1993) The Field of Cultural Production, New York City: Columbia University Press

Deleuze, Gilles (1990) The Logic of Sense, London: Athlone Press

Donk, Wim van de (2006) Cyberprotest. New Media, Citizens and Social Movements, London: Routledge

Earl, Jennifer / Kimport, Katrina (2011) Digitally Enabled Social Change. Activism in the Internet Age, The MIT Press

Halloway, John / Matamoros, Fernando / Tischler, Sergio (2009) Negativity and Revolution. Adorno and Political Activism, London: Pluto Press

McLuhan, Marshall (2001) The Medium is the Message. An Inventory of Effects, Corte Madera: Gingko Press

McLuhan, Marshall (2002) Understanding Media. The Extensions of Man, London / New York: Routledge

Mossberger, Karen / Tolbert, Caroline J / McNeal, Ramona S (2007) Digital Citizenship. The Internet, Society and Participation, The MIT Press