Lecture Week 8

Communication in Government and Politics:



Golden thread in democracy: capability of individuals in society to communicate and have crucial role in free speech.



Connection of Entertainment(Gaming, Shooting Games etc.) with Military/US Army skills, source of recruitment.



Argument: as nature of democracy is changing (shift from nation states + centralised media used to build political support) as shift moves to global media apparatus/stage, creating the next level of political institutions. How do national citizens intervene in these processes and participate in these discussions?
ie. Street demonstrations becoming "obsolete" taking street attitude into streets of global communication ie. via computer networks, internet. These are the tools that are going to allow us to enter into politics on the global level.

Cyber Politics: politics of the internet

E-Democracy: intervention and contribute to real world politics that exists predominantly off the internet. We use the net to affect politics OFF the net.

Will politics move onto the net?

DEMOCRACY:

Liberal Democracy: developed in 19th Century

Institutions of representative governments (participatory i.e. Ancient Greece) have relatively short history and change will come - citizens need to ensure change is good.

Good of Society vs. Good of Individuals
-Contribution that people can make is dependent on their ability to engage in free speech in representative government.
-Mass media dominant vehicle of debate
-How do WE get into the debate?
-Mass media isn't THAT monolithic, has cracks in facade, gaps that cunning people can push ideas into, gains publicity for position you are interested in, way to get messages through.
(Letters to editor, talk-back radio, opinion pieces)
One gap=Thinking visually.

Free Speech= Crucial to functioning of Democracy. People need to feel a sense of equal contribution.
Danger to Free Speech is CENSORSHIP.
-Moral panics around dangers of internet, Paedophiles, Hackers etc. used as an excuse to extend censorship on the internet.

CYBERPUNK- (comes from connecting cyber+punk= style anarchist political philosophy) artistic genre, rehearses issues with regard to political responsibilities of the hacker. (William Gibson).


Discussion:

So this lecture of Stephen's packed a LOT of information into a very short space of time. Still at least I was able to take notes unlike in Jason's lectures which are very distracting. I must admit I found this topic quite difficult to comprehend-particularly at 8am.

I think the most important point that Stephen made though, or the thing he intended us to take away from the lecture was that as the nature of democracy moves to a more global stage, we need to find more ways to participate and have a voice and that the internet is one avenue of doing this. And I suppose it's the easiest way to discuss world issues on a global stage. I ashamedly admit that I know very little about politics and world issues aside from what I learn at uni, or from my parents or from the media. Engaging in a forum with people from around the world to learn about issues and discuss them would be far less intimidating than attempting to read about them by myself.

And as far as censorship goes, I dunno...does the government reserve the right to decide what we should and shouldn't see? I mean, surely as adults we can discern what is good and bad, or at least we deserve to have that choice. The internet is about sharing and while a few do abuse this privilege this shouldn't create restrictions for the rest. I guess I just don't really understand it all...