Communication Technology UAMG 3053

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Communication Technology UAMG 3053

• Week 13
• Technology Enhanced Lifestyle and Democracy

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Democracy

• 1. a government by the people especially rule
  of the majority
• b a government in which the supreme power is
  vested in the people and exercised by them
  directly or indirectly through a system of
  representation usually involving periodically
  held free elections

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Technology and Democracy

• Information technology refines not just media but
  society itself on a global level
• Guternbergs invention coincided with the rise of
  modern nation
• Digital revolution transforms the notion of
  nationhood how?

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Technology and Democracy

• The advancement in information technology are
  destroying the ability of elites to control what
  people know, hear, or read
• New technology changed the way wealth is created
  and the concept of sovereignty
• Media and information technology posted a great
  threat to totalitarian regimes

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Examples

• 1. Fax bypass state-controlled print media
• 2. Direct-dial telephone difficult for a state
  to control interpersonal communication
• 3. Satellite bypass state controlled television
  channels - possible for many closed societies

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Internet and Democracy

• 1. The first medium that allows the democracies
  principles of free speech and self-governance to
  play themselves out unrestricted
• 2. Foster horizontal communication - This enable
  the public to escape from the oppressive
  top-down (vertical) politics view

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Internet and Democracy

• 3. Pluralism - It enables unlimited access all
  voices or opinions
• The Internet provides highly differentiated
  social and political information and ideas
• The media are independent not dominated by one
  single point of views
• E.g., DAP Malaysia, Malaysiakini.com, UTAR survey

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Electronic Information via the Internet

• A comparison of political campaign 1996 and 2000
• Internet the main source of election news and
  information
• Convenience is the key reason for online
  election news and information
• The Internet is affecting the way candidates and
  voters interact

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Electronic Information via the Internet

• Young people are more likely to go online for
  election news
• 50 said that the online election information
  made them want to vote for or against a candidate

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Technology and Employment

• The challenge
• - Using instant messenger as an assistive
  technology to communicate with colleagues,
  clients and business associates are quite common
  nowadays.
• - But it is a further example of the way
  assistive technology can make employment easier
  for an untapped labor market.
• - Now, it is no surprise that people with
  disabilities have access to employment than the
  typical working individual.

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• Heard of Jobstreet.com Malaysia
• What kind of innovative technologies do jobstreet
  .com use for online recruitment?
• Currently looking at technologies such as
  components for multi-tier distributed systems,
  specifically COM and XML for data exchange and
  integration
• When talking about the technology related to
  jobsites, how does jobstreet .com s technology
  come across as user friendly?
• It depends on the their execution. If large
  portion of jobseekers gets job and employers get
  hires, it shows how well it can be done.

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• JobStreet.com
• Employee Confidence Index

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• JobStreet.com
• Employee Confidence Index (JobStreet ECI)
• The JobStreet ECI is a measure of a jobseeker's
  confidence in finding a job. It ranges from zero
  (very poor) to 100 (very good). A low index shows
  a tough job market where many people find it
  difficult to get a job. A high index shows a
  comfortable job market where many people are able
  to secure a good job. The index fluctuates with
  time and its trend is an important indication of
  the production and economic development of the
  nation. The sampling size for each month's index
  averages 3,000 respondents.

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• Government filtering the Internet
• For many years, countries with relatively
  regulated and censored media have been concerned
  about their inability to exclude totally media
  produced under more liberal or dissident
  (disagreeing strongly with government policies)
  regimes.
• According to Internet Censorship Explorer (ICE)
  2005, VOIP technology has been targetted for
  blocking in the past, but now websites that
  provide software are being targetted for
  filtering.

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Internet Filtering in Iran in 2004 - 2005

• Irans Internet filtering system is one of the
  worlds most substantial censorship regimes.
• Research shows that Iran is among several
  countries in the Middle east that focuses its
  censorship efforts on expression through local
  language, like Farsi.
• Iran also rely upon commercial software developed
  by for-profit U. S companies to carry out its
  filtering regime.

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Internet Filtering in Thailand in 2005

• The target of filtering was pornography,
  specially local pornography but would also target
  subjects such Royal Family, sites that are a
  threat to security, violent online games, and
  illegal web sites such as those for online
  gambling
• Once a national filtering system is in place it
  governments may be tempted to use it as a tool of
  political censorship.

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Malaysia Filtering on the Horizon 2005

• Malaysia has approved recommendations to restrict
  access to pornography. In addition, schools and
  libraries are now required to install filtering
  software.
• Also to provide optional filtering services, a
  complaint centre where Internet users can report
  obscene content and awareness campaigns against
  pornography.
• Malaysia could easily add additional sites to the
  block lists for political reasons. Malaysia has a
  record of harassing online publications for
  political reasons.

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Internet Filtering in China in 2004 2005

• China operates the most extensive, technological
  sophisticated, and broad-reaching system of
  Internet filtering in the world.
• Testing found efforts to prevent access to a wide
  range of sensitive materials, from pornography to
  religious material to political dissent.
• However, most major American media sites, such as
  CNN, MSNBC, and ABC are generally available in
  China (though the BBC remains blocked)

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Internet Filtering in Uzbekistan 2005

• Uzbekistan is one of the worst violators of
  freedom of speech and extensively censors the
  Internet

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Internet Filtering in Kyrgyzstan 2005

• Chinas neighbour, also considering something
  similar.
• Declares about the necessity to register
  internet-sites as electronic mass media but yet
  to imposed the jurisdiction of local legislation
  relating to web-sites.

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Tutorial Questions Week 14

• Explain the Internet and Democracy?
• The role and concept of regulation for
  governments have been shifting towards the dual
  goal of educating citizens on the dangers of the
  cyber-world and the promotion of technology.
  Discuss.

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References

• Pavlik, J. V. (1998). New media technology,
  London Allyn and Bacon.
• What is piracy. Retrieved on March 29, 2005 from
  www.ifpi.org
• Piracy Study First Annual BSA and IDC Global
  Software
• Green,L. (2001) Chapter 8. Pg 133