short answer
Chapter 13
Politics and New Media
Objectives
To understand:
How the shift towards narrowcasting and digital media might change the nature of political participation
How online media are creating a new space and a new set of challenges for the conduct of political debate
How the shift towards a greater degree of social and political surveillance may alter the broader political landscape
How myths of the digital sublime shape our views of electronic democracy
How media and new media tools are central to advancing social and political economic change
Web 2.0 Structuration and the End of Politics
Argument for democratic emancipatory potential of the Internet
In reality, there is a shrinking of a public sphere
Within the capitalist market economy, there is a contradiction between the formal equality of political participation and the inequalities of income and opportunity that define the relationships of the market
Web 2.0 Structuration and the End of Politics, cont’d
Media’s relationship with political power—an unofficial watchdog role, acting as a series of checks and balances on those who exercise power
Political economy analysis suggests “democracy” is tolerated by big business as long as real control is off-limits to popular deliberation
Leaps in Logic?
An idealized view of the democratizing power of the Internet is a hopeful prediction; however, this requires leaps in logic:
Internet is no less susceptible to being manipulated by political parties and sectional interest groups than the current system
Issues under consideration in politics online are still determined by those in power positions and do not necessarily address key issues for a broader community
The control of sites by those who wish to promote their own interests will greatly diminish the credibility of the polling results within political circles
Leaps in Logic? cont’d
E-democracy
People make their own history, just not within conditions of their choosing
Structuration: structures may be formal (laws, policies, regulations), formalized (in institutions or organizations), or relatively informal (class, gender or race)
Degree of agency that one can exercise is dependent on these structures, but the human ability to exercise this agency means that they can be changed
New media are contemporary tools used in this process
The Internet as an Election Campaign Tool
Beginning of twenty-first century: politicians in Canada began to embrace the significance and power of using the Internet to reach constituents
The Internet has become an increasingly necessary tool
Cost efficiency
Relative lack of regulation control
Production simplicity
Swift narrowcasting via active interaction with the individual
New technologies in election campaigns are not always used to expand the voter base; sometimes they are used to suppress it
Online Politics and the Reportorial Community
Digital media convergence is shifting the borders of the reportorial community
Blogging has become influential in politics and agenda setting
Too much time is spent on following the leaders, which then frames the content and non-critical tone of media coverage
Online Politics and the Reportorial Community, cont’d
More coverage of policy in media stories, but reportorial opinion focuses on strategy behind the political announcement rather than the content
Political journalists must deal with use of social media by citizens, especially the issue of citizens reporting on issues and events that the mainstream media did not know about or choose to report
Are Bloggers the Future of Democracy?
Alternative media try to contribute to societal transformation by providing critical media content that questions dominative social relations
Live blogging: journalist blogs at the scene of the action and updates every few minutes
Twitter is becoming a source of information for journalists
Political blogging has always been partisan
New Media, Speed, and the Permanent Campaign
Internet has heightened the speed at which society engages in everything from shopping to private relationships
Political parties and governments have felt the impact of speed as an important priority in getting out messages to citizens, disseminated instantly to large groups
In Canada and elsewhere, the length of election campaigns has steadily declined over several decades
New Media, Speed, and the Permanent Campaign, cont’d
Permanent campaign
When a government engages in permanent campaigning, less time is spent on actually governing
Governing itself also subject to permanent campaign; instant communication can reap political rewards for governments by framing issues quickly and setting the agenda
New and social media provide means for governments to accomplish strategies both quickly and deeply, even if they are contentious
Interactivity and Power: A Strength of the Internet?
Internet allows politicians to determine which issues are most newsworthy and enables them to communicate directly with potential voters any time, anywhere
Narrowcasting further fragments the audience of consumers for commercial purposes; likewise, far from constituting an active and organized collective, the shift of politics online may further fragment the audience of citizens
E-Democracy: A Digital Renaissance?
Internet bridged distance and time, thus dramatically bringing us closer to those who govern us
But scale of influence by citizens into governing process remains limited
Information and services available online are still largely determined by governments
Role of citizenship is diminishing as the service provision and information infrastructure development for e-government is contracted out to the private sector
Inequality of Access
Access to necessary infrastructure is not available to some social groups
Despite continued strong increases in the growth rates of Internet use in the last few years, there still exists lesser access to technology and a slower uptake among those in the lower income brackets
Latest federal government’s restructuring of online access to government information is meant to reduce the number of access points to government departments and channel them through the smallest gateway
Decreasing access to government while increasing control over surveillance and content
Cyberdemocracy: A Digital Myth?
Digital myth suggests that access to and the value of information, hence knowledge, can be equated with power, and the Internet has empowered us both as individuals and as organizations
But e-democracy trials in several countries seem to also contribute to the growth of social surveillance and continued commodification of citizenship
Political Activism, Social Movements, and Democratic Media
Use of new media in politics—political activism
Use of existing commercial social networking tools like Facebook and YouTube to inform and coordinate oppositional action
Digital myth: advantage of convergence includes a much freer, more democratic dissemination of information, because the information travels from many to many, instead of one to many
Democratic media could broaden the numbers of those producing, sharing, and distributing content, and link media content with political action
Political Activism, Social Movements, and Democratic Media, cont’d
Arab Spring, 2011: In Tunisia activists opposing the regime used the Internet as an important tool to communicate their dissent, create networks of supporters and activists, and subvert traditional media and state censorship
We shouldn’t assume that traditional economic and social structures won’t be replicated in political activism or the new media environment
To date, “any assessment of the utilization of the Internet and ICTs for political engagement reveals a decidedly mixed score card”
Alternative Media, Politics, and the Internet
Digital myth that the Internet is decentralizing the conventional media’s power base and structures
Internet has reshaped our current understanding of interactivity and thus an opportunity presents itself, but this opportunity appears to be rapidly closing
In Canada, we still have relatively general access to Internet: we can choose what information to digest or reject, and to what extent we exercise our agency
Benefits of access to information can have positive impact on creation and development of different ways of thinking and doing
Alternative Media, Politics, and the Internet, cont’d
One way is through what is alternative, autonomous, critical, or independent media
These media are found at the global, national, and local/ community levels
Often linked to social and political movements as a means of communicating the key messages from the movements, as well as communicating alternative issues and perspectives not found in the mainstream press
As a whole, however, general intent for progressive forms is to advance what we identified as a radical democratic approach
Alternative Media, Politics, and the Internet, cont’d
Alternative media tend to challenge dominant media in three important and overlapping areas: structure, participation, activism
As many of these media are not reliant on commercial means of revenue, they have traditionally struggled with both production costs and building vast distribution networks
Open source software
One motivating factor behind development of alternative media in Canada is high level of consolidation in the commercial media sector in the country