I struggled to grasp any of the concepts raised in today is lecture...
Therefore I shall try to collect my notes together.....
DIGITAL DIVIDE-
Major issue- only some have access to computers and less to net- how can all interests be represented in on-line debate? Solution: improved access via cheaper computers and internet time at more public places- libraries.
ON-LINE DEMOCRACY-
It is important to distinguish between the idealist view of a democracy on the web encompassing all citizens (cyberdemocracy) and the democratic uses of the internet to improve the quality of access to existing democracy. The net has become a valuable addition to the ways that debate occurs in our society.
DEFINING DEMOCRACY-
- the rule of the many ; the rule of the majority and; 'government of the people, by the people, for the people'.
Do these simple accounts of democracy measure up to the actual practices of representative democracy which governs us now? The last 200 yrs, representative democracy has broadened (free speech) and narrowed (the power of parties).
Although D is nearly accepted, the political process is still questioned: 80% adults in Aust and US express an interest in politics etc. Despite compulsory participation in elections almost 1 in 5 fail to vote. This show it is difficult to avoid Moira Rayner's- that there is 'a genuine crisis of faith in the processes of democracy'.
Most obvious alternative to RD is participatory or direct D- where all citizens have right and duty to be involved in all decisions made. PD argues D only works where citizens understand that they have a duty to foster democratic processes as a common undertaking.Participation is crucial.
Democratic theory requires constant renewal as new conditions, social formations, technologies and complexity arise.
GAPS IN MASS MEDIA
The increasing concentration, centralisation and commercialisation of the mass media have restricted avenues for democratic participation in currently existing representative democracy.
Theorists believe theres potential to remake what Habermas calls 'the public sphere': domain where 'public opinion' forms. He says commercialisation of press in the 19th C saw transformation of public sphere.
McLuhan raised possibility that electronic media might extend opportunities for involvement in a space similar to the public sphere. Mark Posters says we are presently witnessing 'the second media age'- centralised broadcast media, from a few to many consumers.
While the Internet is an open system. But the rapid commercialisation of the space, along with the potential to record and analyse all information transmitted, suggests that the Net may quickly become open to more invasive manipulation than older media forms.
Stuart Hall argued that the message intended by the producers may be read in a variety of ways by the audience: they might accept, negotiate their own reading, or produce an oppositional reading by rejecting.
John Fiske argues that viewers appropriate media output for their own purposes, that they talk about it, subvert it and 'read between the lines' to produce their own interpretations.
John Hartley notes post-modernity has seen the transformation of what constitutes 'knowledge'- meanings are now liable to constant negotiation. This shows that media theory is the negotiated meaning which produces two-way communication.
Public sphere located in 'the private domain [of] home, suburbia and television'- 'engage readers not only in self-expression and communication, but also in truth-seeking description and critical argument'. TV provides 'a mechanism for communicating across class, gender, ethnic, national, and other boundaries', allows audience to be citizens of a symbolic community.
How 'citizens of the media' might create greater deliberative participation in existing representative institutions and how citizens can gain the necessary skills to intervene effectively in the mass media in order to realise their demotic voice.
FREE SPEECH & CENSORSHIP
Deliberation and discussion are key attributes of democracy. In Australia we don't have the constitutional right to free speech. In using free speech people make democracy happen.
CITIZEN-HACKER: DOING GLOBAL DEMOCRACY
Where are the opps to liberate the world when technology requires us to think like machines? Hackers, comp programmers, desire to understand the intricacies of computing systems to find obscure/hidden info. They see computing systems as part of common wealth and dont believe it is wrong to break in and look around and understand.
The 1986 Hacker's Manifesto- 'We explore... We seek after knowledge?' Hackers created the space for a free exchange of ideas down to the level of data.
Hackers= bad name. Chasing hackers gives the authorities the illusion that they are doing something about computer crime. Hugo Cornwall notes 2 uses of hacker: 'those involved in the recreational and educational sport of unauthorised entry into computers and the enthusiasts 'who love working with the beasties for their own sake, as opposed to operating them in order to enrich a company?' They seek to free info & are at pains to distinguish themselves from crackers, intruders who damage or steal data.
They are anti-authoritarian, anti-bureaucratic, anti-centralisation and really believe that information wants to be free. They are both opposed to and utilise both anonymity and security weaknesses in computers. They exist because of the gap between expectation about and actual performance of any given computer program.
PRIMER & PRE-HISTORY OF TIME TRAVEL
It addresses time travel as a plot device and raise the ethical issues inherent in crossing time. As a yet unrealised form of new communication technology, time travel raises political and philosophical issues that apply more broadly to technology itself.
The possibility that we might traverse through time as we travel through the other dimensions has been of recurring interest to thinkers, writers and film-makers.
BLACK HOLES
Although it is theoretically possible to slow time by an infinite amount and almost bring it to a standstill you can never reverse it. Time is halted, however, in BH.
If you were in a BH you could never get out because you would have already traveled beyond eternity. If you were to go on inside the black hole you would be in a region of space and time that would appear normal to you. The only thing is you would never get out. You'd hit the 'centre' of this unknowable object and then you would leave space and time. At the center of a black hole, space and time do literally have boundaries.
ONE MORE POSSIBILTY
Computers do not have memories in the same way that humans do. Past events do not grow dim with age. Therefore time never passes - it is simply continually expanded. If you could link in to a memory by means of a device which triggered all of your senses you could relive past experiences as constantly new, constantly present. There would be no division between past and present experiences - yours or other peoples. You could experience the lives, the memories, of other people. You would travel in time.
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