LECTURE 8 COMM 2920

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LECTURE 8 - COMM 2920 Transnational
Communications II Politics and the Internet 16
November 2006
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THE QUESTION What is the impact of the INTERNET
on POLITICS?
1. THE INTERNET
2. POLITICS AND COMMUNICATIONS
3. POLITICS AND THE INTERNET
a. The INTERNET DEMOCRACY (what difference
does the Internet make?)
b. The INTERNET against DEMOCRACY?
4. CONCLUSIONS
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1. THE INTERNET
Internet a series of inter-networked computers
communicating with each other in a common
language
1962 JCR Liklander Wide Area
Networking Packet Switching technology for
data transmission
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1. THE INTERNET
1969 ARPANET
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1. POLITICS AND COMMUNICATIONS
communication is an essential part of politics.
Nothing in politics, especially in a democratic
society, is possible without some form of
communication (Hill and Hughes, 1998)
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3. POLITICS AND THE INTERNET
Q Why is the Internet particularly associated
with politics? Why isnt the telephone, for
example, so easily associated with politics?
- The Network Society (Manuel Castells)
- Internet ?? Democracy
Visualization of the various routes through a
portion of the Internet (Source Wikipedia)
Q What is democracy?
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3.a The INTERNET DEMOCRACY
The utopians propose that as more and more
people connect to the Internet and engage in
political conversation, governments will become
more accountable to the people, direct citizen
input into the political process will become
ubiquitous, and viable on-line political
communities will form (Hill and Hughes, 1998)
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3.a The INTERNET DEMOCRACY
- E-government E-Government refers to the use by
government agencies of information technologies
(such as Wide Area Networks, the Internet, and
mobile computing) that have the ability to
transform relations with citizens, businesses,
and other arms of government (World Bank,
www.worldbank.org)
- More efficient government management
- Greater access to government information for
the public
- Making government more accountable
(transparency)
Hansard EXAMPLE
- Civic engagement (participation, interaction,
inclusion)
Labour Party Website EXAMPLE
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3.a The INTERNET DEMOCRACY The International
Dimension
Internationally, the most significant political
role that the Internet has played is promoting
links between community groups, non-governmental
organizations and political activists from
different parts of the world (Thussu 2001)

• A global public sphere
• (concept from Jürgen Habermas, 1962, The
  Structural
• Transformation of the Public Sphere)

-Development of transnational NGOs (now more
efficient and cheaper to communicate)
-Social movements use ICTs for -Organisation -M
obilization -Debate (Cammaerts 2005)
Greenpeace EXAMPLE
Take Action!
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3.a The INTERNET DEMOCRACY What
Difference Does it Make?

• The importance of offline dimension

Example the case of Lappersfront 2001
Action alert EXAMPLE
for a direct action and/or mobilisation to be
truly successful, the mainstream media, local
constituencies and an active civil society
mediating between activists and formal politics
are also crucial (Cammaerts 2005) ? Media
strategy plays an important role, but should not
be exaggerated
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3.a The INTERNET DEMOCRACY What
Difference Does it Make?

• A transnational public sphere?
• Example the case of LABOURSTART.ORG

(http//labourstart.org/)
While the issues addressed might be
transnational, participants are often located in
the Western hemisphere, discussion often happens
between like-minded activists and the importance
of language, local cultures as well as the
potential for flaming, conflicts with the
conceptualisation of a unified Habermasian-
transnational public sphere (Cammaerts 2005)
- Many social movements use the internet to do
what they have always done, simply by other means
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3.a The INTERNET AGAINST DEMOCRACY?
- Internet not necessarily helping democracy
What is democracy anyway?
Is large scale participation to decision-making a
good thing?
You can express your opinion, but who is
listening?
- Not just multiculturalism travels across the
Internet
BNP Manifesto
- Global electronic surveillance Governments do
not have to confiscate printing presses producing
subversive propaganda from underground bunkers,
they can simply route all Internet traffic
through electronic gateways, which they can
control (Shapiro, 1999)
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3.a The INTERNET AGAINST DEMOCRACY?

• -The global digital divide
• In 1998, nearly 88 per cent of Internet users
  were in the North, home to less that 15 of the
  worlds population.
• In 1999 more than 86 of all Web pages were in
  English
• Less than 3 of the world population, generally
  male, middle class and fluent in English, is part
  of this cyberculture
• English is used as almost 80 per cent of
  websites, although fewer than one in ten people
  worldwide speak that language
• (Thussu 2001)

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INTERNET SERVERS 2001
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INTERNET USERS 2001
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5. CONCLUSIONS
- Technology is not democratic by its nature
- Relationship between the online and offline
dimensions
- Importance of empirical research to put claims
about the Internet into perspective
THE KEY QUESTION WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT REALLY
MAKE?