To be specific, lecture eight did not technically take place. Due to our University's staff exercising (what I believe to be), their democratic rights. By coincidence,(hum mm...or not?...) democracy had a lot to do with Stephen Stockwell's lecture. Specifically, the lecture was concerned about how the Internet poses new political possibilities for our society.The Internet, being a social or communicative sphere logically meant that notions of democracy, would of course arise. The only way people implement democracy is through the communication of ideas, moralities, and societal values with one another. Stephen, wrote about the growing virtues of 'cyber-politics' and 'E-democracy', both courtesy of the Internet.
So what is cyber politics? To me it is people expressing their political ideas via the Internet for the Internet. This can often take place on 'blogs' or other social spheres available on the net. E-democracy, is users contributing to political events or ideas, that take place mostly, outside the Internet world. It is a new way for the populace to communicate their ideas, about political parties and their rule in general. At present we live in a 'representational democracy', or what i like to call an 'illusionary democracy'. Arguably, we have never lived in a 'direct' or 'true' democracy. Even though, many political analysts state that ancient Greece showed a close representation of democracy (due to the fact that citizens were able to have their say on state affairs and vote). They forget to mention, that women and slaves were not given the same 'Democratic' virtue. To me 'true democracy', would mean that all decisions are made by the people for the people. An equal rule so to speak...but maybe that's just wishful thinking on my part. The closest we have ever as a society in general, come to true democracy, is the ability to vote (which does not occur all that often). Of course political analysts say, that if the populace voted on every decision made by government, this would be so time consuming that nothing would ever get done.
As the lecture stated, there has been a serious reduction in people actually willing to vote. Why is this? Is it because they feel that they are only given 'representational' power? That their voices are not truly listened to? Maybe the Internet offers a new way for people to develop and implement democracy... There has been transformations in the public sphere due to new communication technologies, such as the Internet. We are now in what is called the 'second media age'. Where we have the ability to produce new politics of sorts, because now a multitude of people can communicate to a huge portion of other people. So, can the Internet bring us that bit closer to a true or direct democracy? Well arguably the second media wave, allows more people to have a say and possibly become more politically informed. People are affecting each other. But are they affecting the government's decisions? Well, if we use the case of Barack Obama election, than yes. The number of people voicing their oppions and complaining about the Republic party via cyber politics, was enormous. The amount of blogs written in support of the now elected president, was huge. Even to this day there is an 'I support Barack Obama' group on Facebook.
Because of the communicative nature of the Internet, it allows not only for users to take part in self expression, but also helps them to seek out the truth and be more critical of the world around them. Net users have a voice if not a face. Citizens are in effect able to recognise their political voices, which I believe almost every net user has done to some degree. Also, The more informed people are of the world the more likely they will question their environment and exercise personal democracy.
The net raises questions often concerning free speech and censorship. the groundwork of democracy. Democracy it can be said, cannot be exercised without the notion of free speech. There have be battles between what should be censored on the net and what should be considered to be free speech. Even if someone is censored eventually, the information has already been circulated, and therefore it has served its purpose. Conflict can often arise between free speech and copyright. Because who is to say that someone who downloads music off the Internet is not just exercising their free speech?
Hackers in society generally, have a bad name. We think of them as being people who may steal our credit card details on the net. But are they possibly just anarchists who reject society telling them what to do? They believe in the free and open exchange of ideas and data. In my brother's word's: They reject society's reality and implement their own (kudos!!!).Why not? The idea of democracy, often springs up ideas of the 'cyberpunk'. A cyber punk (often a hacker), is seen as a reaction in the literature world and in popular movie culture, to the safe story lines of 'space opera'. The cyberpunk fights against the conformations of society and searches for democracy in far off realites..He/she is connected to the science fiction genre mainly, and often rebels against governing bodies.
The cyberpunk might be you or I. Publishing a reaction to a political decision on the Internet via a blog. Starting an online perdition or downloading soft-wear when the government said we couldn't. He or she is a reaction possibly, to the restrictions imposed on us by the government.
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