Abbott's Internet

It was very exciting to have the lecture this week on Politics and the Internet occurring during campaigning for the Australian federal election. Professor Stephen Stockwell reflected on a question posed to him by a journalist, how can people get involved in this election. He suggested to connect on a grassroots level people could research policies for local candidate’s on the internet, attend local meetings of candidate’s and  call the phone numbers on the pamphlets you receive in the mail for further information. Yet, while frustrated with their situation, so many people remain disconnected from policy and it appears to me to be the role of political ads and activist groups to engage, inform and inspire action.

The lecture discussed McLuhan's theory that the spread of the electricity network decentralises power, meaning that people at the edges of society have an enhanced participation in democracy and the wider global village if they are connected to the system (Peters, 2003). I found it funny that the following Labor Party ad used this same idea of a global village created through connectivity, to criticise the Coalitions broadband policy. The ad implies the Coalitions plan is an unfair deal for Australian citizens and as a result they will miss out on the economic and social benefits which are flowing from affordable, high speed internet to the rest of the world.

Ms. Virtue

Reference List

Peters, J, 2003, ‘Space, time and communications theory’, Canadian Journal of Communication, vol. 28, no.4, pp. 397-411, viewed 29 August 2013, via ProQuest Central database

Abbott's internet, 2013, political advertisement, Reality Check, Youtube, 25 August.

Social networks and social revolution

In the essay “Studying Internet Studies Through the Ages,” Barry Wellman, the Director of NetLab in the Department of Sociology at the University of Toronto, discusses the work of his program in analysing the kinds of relationships the internet does and does not foster. This research follows continuing academic debate about the loss of community, firstly following industrialisation and urbanisation and now in the context of television and the internet (Wellman, 2009). Wellman proposes that through the third age of the internet, where social media has replaced groupware so the internet is a “utility of the masses, rather than the plaything of computer scientists,”(Wellman, 2009, p.1) the online connectivity provided by the internet intertwined with offline relationships has benefited community ties. This is due to “the evolving personalization, portability, ubiquitous connectivity, and wireless mobility” offered by the internet, which allows each person to act as a “communication and information switchboard, between persons, networks and institutions” (Wellman, 2009, p.1).

The ability of individuals to act as a “portal” (Wellman, 2009, p.1) for a group’s message of revolution was demonstrated during the Arab Spring, where protesters overcame internet blocks using advice of online activist group anonymous, and also communicated messages to those outside censored jurisdictions that were re-communicated via social media (Empire- social networks, social revolution, 2011). The following episode of AlJazeera’s Empire, looks at the marriage between social movements and social networks, and the failing of the mainstream media during the Arab Spring to report on events which are representative of the mainstream thought. 

Ms. Virtue

Reference List

Wellman, B 2009, Studying Internet through the Ages, viewed 28/08/2013, <http://homes.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman/publications/internet-10-5-0/4-ages.htm>

Social networks, social revolution, Empire 2011, television program, AlJazeeraEnglish, Youtube, 17 February.

Cyberpunk and the dematerialisation of the ocean

I have always hated sci-fi! Accordingly, I wasn’t too thrilled when last week's studies for New Communication Technologies included Ridley Scott’s cyberpunk film, Bladerunner. Yet, I found the dystopian society presented in the film and the underlying message, a question of what it truly means to be human, resonated strongly in my context of climate change, technological advances and social existence via internet networks. 

While researching the gloomy future presented in Bladerunner, I came across the informative essay by Christopher Connery, ‘There was No More Sea: the supersession of the ocean, from the bible to cyberspace’, which argues that Scott's cyber punk vision, “where California meets Tokyo through a disappeared Pacific”(p. 497), reflects attempts in society by postmodern networked capitalism, to “annihilate the ocean”(p. 497). Connery supports his argument by referring to a 1990 Merrill Lynch advertisement that included a photograph of a scene in the open sea and the caption, ‘for us, this doesn't exist,’ which he claims dematerialises the ocean by portraying the open space as a burden and “a meaningless materiality transcended by instantaneous information flow” (p. 497). The ad generally makes no sense, as throughout history the ocean has functioned as an “optimum space for connectivity”, and finance capital relies on the “unification of the globe” (p. 497) for trade, thus Connery claims that such acts which dematerialise the ocean are “linked to the long project of capital's concealment of its spatial and social character”(p. 497-498). 

Ms. Virtue 

Reference list

Connery, C 2006, ‘There was No More Sea: the supersession of the ocean, from the bible to cyberspace’ Journal of Historical Geography, vol. 32, no. 3, pp. 494-511.

Scott, R 1982, Bladerunner, film, Warner Brothers

Mind Control and the Internet

Imagine a simple implant that could access a dictionary of every language in just second, and allowed you to store an up to date map of every city in your head so you never go lost. Oh, the places you'll go! However, Sue Halpern proposes in ‘Mind Control and the Internet’ that arguments to enhance the human brain using biochip technologies, so that the internet would become part of us, are naïve as they do not take into account the true control over information exercised by search engines such as Google. According to Halpern, since December 2009 “ Google has aimed to contour every search to fit the profile of the person making the query,” (Halpern, 2011 p 1).  This means that while two people may search the same term, Google directs each person to material that is most likely to reinforce their own worldview, ideology, and assumptions. Consequently true evaluation and critical thinking is hindered as each person may get different results that appear objective but are lacking dissenting opinion and conflicting points of views (Halpern, 2011).

While the ‘personalisation’ of results alarms me as it establishes a framework for censorship and misinformation, I am also concerned about my privacy in a future with biochip implants. In the wake of the NSA spying scandal, secure email provider Lavabit shut down abruptly last week rather than become complicit in what it considered crimes against the American people. Owner/operator Ladar Levison claimed he was not allowed to provide the reasons that lead to his decision, however warned “ I would _strongly_ recommend against anyone trusting their private data to a company with physical ties to the United States.”(Levison, 2013) Already it is evident that the US government has or demands access to all online communications, I am not so sure I would want to receive an implant and potentially allow access to the information in my head aswell …

Ms. Virtue

Reference List

Halpern, S 2011, 'Mind Control and the Internet' New York Review of Books, June 23.

Levison, L 2013, Lavabit, viewed 15/08/2013 <http://lavabit.com/>

New communication technologies, privacy and free speech

My research in New Communication Technologies this week led me to discover the very interesting site Deletionpedia which houses an archive of pages deleted from Wikipedia. Initially, I wondered how long the battle had been ragging between PR firms and online trolls to correct the information about the celebrities and products on the ‘edited 200times or more’ page. However, I soon realised that other edited pages contained information notably of a political or religious nature. I do not know if the information in any of the deleted posts I read is true, that would require much more research, but I appreciate the work of Deletionpedia in fighting against internet censorship and protecting free speech.

The course this week also asked me to consider what new communication technologies are important to me. Unlike a lot of my peers, Facebook and similar social networking sites such as Twitter don’t play a very big role in my life. For me, the only benefit of Facebook is that it allows me to stay connected with friends I met travelling overseas because I cannot afford to call them or visit regularly. I admit that as a self-centered 18 year old, posting on the free site was a daily routine, but over recent years I have come to appreciate more intimate communication with my friends and family. When I first created Facebook, I was clueless to the true invasion of my privacy I was consenting too and I became disillusioned with the site very quickly when I learnt it is able sell my data to advertisers. I started to wonder who else might have access to my information when I was only intending to share it with my friends.

Well, Edward Snowden has confirmed the NSA has access to not only Facebook, but anything I do online through the Digital Network Intelligence system, XKeyscore."I, sitting at my desk, could wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant, to a federal judge or even the president, if I had a personal email," said Snowden (Greenwald, 2013). However, it is not only the invasions of my privacy that concerns me about XKeyscore, but also the ability of governments to use the technology to control online exchanges of information by oppressing people who share unlawfully obtained or controversial content that is still in the public interest. It puts an unrealistic trust in governments to act in the public interest when history says they probably won’t.

While identifying as an atheist, I find my beliefs about free speech also sit comfortably with the Swedish philosophy Copism, which teaches that all knowledge belongs equally to everyone and should be copied because the ownership of information is a sin, and will only make all humanity stupider than it needs to be(Copism, 2013). Consequently, I am slightly addicted to Reddit, a networking site driven by user based content, as it provides a platform for these exchanges of knowledge to occur, whilst also offering a daily dose of cat pictures. Sadly, one of the founders of Reddit, Aaron Swartz, died in January this year before facing federal prosecution on computer fraud charges. Here is the link to an interview by The Project with Simon Sheikh which gives an interesting perspective on the anticensorship campaigner’s death.

Ms Virtue

Reference list

Copism- the free sharing of idea’s and data, viewed 2/8/2012 < http://www.copyism.org/>
Greenwald, G 2013, XKeyscore: NSA tool collects 'nearly everything a user does on the internet,' viewed 2/8/2013, <http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/31/nsa-top-secret-program-online-data>.