INTERNET AND DEMOCRACY

The aim of this essay is to discuses about the effect of internet, as a new form of communication technology, on democracy and in general politics.  First, discussion is about the effect of developing technology in every aspect of life such as culture and society, and then the effect on subdivisions aspect of society such as politics and democracy, which is the base part of developed society.  And finally answer this question that, dose internet creates democracy?

In current centaury, by developing a technology quickly and mixture of it in to all aspect of human’s life, the first thing was affected was the culture.  As Randall Packer state in “multimedia”, that multimedia is emerging as the defining medium of the twenty first century.  Parker mentioned that the most development of media technologies is happened in recent years.  Asst. Prof. Lim finds, mentioned in her research that Cultural and social factors existing in different countries result in technology being used in somewhat different ways.   Also Wesley Cooper mentioned in “Information Technology and Internet Culture”, that the internet changing the cultures and relations, and he shows this changes according to the utopian and dystopian theories.

However, today’s world is all about connection and information, and people from any culture and background need to connect to each other.  It is not very important how they will use the technology; the important thing is they need new generation of technology to be in harmony with other people in world.  News need to be transfer very fast to all around the world.  That is to say, limitation and filtering cannot stop the technology, and the result of this action is making bigger gap between the people in the world.  The international perfect society with the minimum of negative points, which everyone have access to the different source of technology, will happen only when democracy is happen.

According to the definitions, democracy is the government of people for people.  But the definition of democracy is deeper and especially in recent years there are so many different types and meaning of democracy is presented.  However, from basic definition, it can be determined that it is a part of utopia, or the perfect world, so anyone can have their own rights in peaceful society.  There are a number of views believe that, still there is no society with ideal level of democracy in this world, however all the developed societies trying to rich that level, but they might not successful because of some political reasons.  In other words, the idea of using the new generation of technology to make an ideal society was stated to developed, and one of that kind of societies was virtual society.

According to Andrea Zap, which mentioned in “networked narrative environments”, virtual life philosophy, which develop from new generation of technologies, gives people to have an experience to live in another life and to do something which are impossible in real life.  Starting the philosophy of virtual life and introducing the cyberspace, was the step that creators of virtual life start to make it as a utopia.  So they start to create the real democracy in their virtual society. 

Nearly most of the recourses believe that democracy is necessary for the society and they believe it successfully developed in internet culture because of no limitation in virtual space, which is created by this form of technology.

Joanne Jacobs mentioned in the article called “Democracy and Internet” that internet is a good example of democracy because of no limitation in cuter or information and anyone can do anything freely, or connect to anyone else in all around the world.  It is also mentioned in that article, the negative point of this democratic society is the way of accessing.  He believes people need to prepare some prerequisite tools like computers, internet and electricity, which will coast for them and because some people are not able to afford it, they cannot access to this democracy.  That is to say, there is a democracy but there is limitation for accruing to democracy. 

The theory of using the open source software was the good solution for the problem Jacobs mention, because it gives permission to all the people to use the technology for free.  However, people still need to buy a computer and need to pay for internet.

Also Alinta Thornton, in “dose internet creates democracy?”, point that, Communication in modern democracies can be broadly divided into two main notions; first, a democratised media, which participatory and alternative media including computer-mediated communication, and social the role of traditional media  - such as television, magazines and newspapers –  in modern democracy is increasingly problematic, and secondly, serious questions have arisen about its capacity as a site for political criticism or rational debate.  She also mentioned that, Democracy has become the dominant ideology of modern political life.  The Internet provides opportunities for limited revitalisation of the public sphere.  These are for the most part restricted to relatively privileged groups movements and groups using these media actively for social change. 

On the Summary of TAB working report No. 100, there is an article, which presents the Analysis of network-based communication from cultural aspects.  The writer mentioned that, one advantage of the development in recent years is the greater attention to empirical research into actual political forms of Internet utilisation, with increased focus on the central political actors.  The present study reflects this trend, while also confronting further reaching theoretical questions about democracy.  He also believes that, the Academic analysis has clearly focused on the positive potential of Internet use for the political culture.  Given the unsatisfactory developments in western democracies, such as political apathy, voter fatigue and problems with legitimating of the representative model of democracy in societies which are increasingly losing their hierarchical structures, Internet use seemed too many to be the natural approach to the problem.  New interactive possibilities for communication, deliberation and participation were seen as an opportunity to revive democracy.

Also there are some organizations, such as CCCE (Center for Communication and Civic Engagement), which are working on the quality of personal and civic life, and for democracy in general.  The citizens in many nations have begun to participate in activities contesting the human and environmental costs of trade and development regimes. Many of these citizen-activists have joined networks that cross national boundaries and forge connections across a range of issues, including: environmental   protection, labour standards, human rights, fair trade and sustainable development.  They try to develop the democracy in their society by using the internet.

However, the society and especially democracy is affected by changes in politics and different political views in society.  John Palfrey , in “The impact of the Internet on politics and civic life is greatest”, mentioned that, most political campaigns today have an “Internet strategy” of one sort or another.  He believes that the internet is a powerful tool for politicians in today’s world.

The new generation of technology let the politicians to transfer their idea easier and faster to the world.  They also have more opportunity to show themselves on public and advertise their party.  The first negative aspect of this is some politicians, who have more access to mass media, try to wash the people’s brain and change the views to whatever they want not what is real.  However in general, because of massive range of information and also a level of democracy, it is easier to know some basic views of different politicians.  Nowadays, all the big organizations and ideologies have their own website and also there is lots of information from them.  So it is giving them the ability to contact with people easily.

Microsoft mentioned in its official website that, The Internet can help create a more informed electorate and encourage greater participation in our democratic process. And the followings examples are given from Microsoft to supporting his idea:

·         In 1999, Steve Forbes became the first presidential candidate to announce his bid for office over the Internet. 

·         Since last April, more than 200,000 questions and comments have been submitted to Vice President Al Gore’s “Interactive Town Hall,” a location on his campaign’s Web site, where he and his staff provide answers on a variety of subjects. 

 ·         In the 48 hours after winning the New Hampshire GOP primary earlier this month, Senator John McCain raised more than $1 million in contributions over the Internet. ·         George W. Bush was the first presidential candidate to publish a complete list of his campaign contributors online. 

 ·         Bill Bradley, like many other candidates, has used the Web to detail his political agenda and substantive policy announcements.

 ·         Jesse Ventura organized a long shot and ultimately successful independent bid for the Minnesota statehouse in 1998, with a campaign that demonstrated the grass- roots power and fundraising capabilities of the Net. 

In other hand, some government try to control the people by filtering or checking their connections, because their feel their power is in danger.  Also the hackers and internet terrorists try to use the new technology for their aims.  That is to say, accessing to some information in internet is very hard and also is not a secure environment.  So how can democracy create in that society, when there is no security or connection to internet is dangerous or impossible?

Also if there is democracy in internet, who controls it and which organization centralize the idea of this democratic society? And finally is that real democracy, or the kind of democracy which have happen in Iraq, and people still have not have the basic amenities, but they have democracy!!!  These questions never have proper answers, because there if a huge source of views and information in that society. 

However, according to different view which presented before, there are some positive effects as well.  There is democracy in internet because of the structure of internet and ability of connectivity to anywhere.  The huge number of journals and weblogs are accessible as well as the information from politicians, also there are news and analysis of news from different views.  All of these source give people the ability of gaining the information they want, not only the thing which politicians try to penetrate to peoples brain from media, and this need a open mind and creativity to follow this information as a culture of living in new democratic society.  As it is mentioned before, it is the nature of power that anyone have power, wants to keep it with all possible tools and in any possible way, and because of that always the people in power has a problem with a people talking about democracy.  However, the big difference of real world and internet as a virtual world is, the internet and some sources can be filtered but no one can prevent the accessing to internet, and always there is a way to access to information even if they are filtered.  The good example of this is what happen in the developing countries, government try to limits the access of the people to internet and other types of media but every day the number of people how trying to develop and present the democracy in their weblogs or their websites are increased.

For conclusion, internet as a most popular form of new communication technology has so many effects on human’s life, such as cultural and political.  Because it power and effects on peoples thinking, politicians find it that a tool for their goals.  Also internet is a good example of democracy in society.  Its structure with virtual society, gives anyone the ability of using any information they look and saying anything they wish and connection to anyone they want.  But it is depend on how use the internet.

 

References:

 ·         When technology meets culture, Prof Lim finds http://www.nus.edu.sg/corporate/research/gallery/research110.htm

·         Information Technology and Internet Culture, Wesley Cooper, http://www.brandeis.edu/pubs/jove/HTML/V6/iculture.html

·         Internet Politics 2004: The Good, The Bad and the Unknown, John Palfrey, http://www.personaldemocracy.com/node/184

·         DEMOCRACY AND THE INTERNET, Joanne Jacobs, http://www.abc.net.au/ola/citizen/interdemoc/democ.htm

·         Dose internet creates democracy? ,Alinta Thornton, http://www.zip.com.au/~athornto/intro.htm

·       http://depts.washington.edu/ccce/Home.htm

·       http://www.tab.fzk.de/en/projekt/zusammenfassung/ab100.htm

·      Multimedia, from Wagner to virtual reality, Randall Parcker and Ken Jordan, W.W.Norton and Company, Network, 2001.

·         Communication technology and culture change, Gary Krug, Sage Publications, London, 2005.

·         Networked narrative environments (as imaginary space of being), Andrea Zapp, Miriad, faculty of art and design Manchester metropolitan university.

·        Electronic Democracy, The impacts of new Communication Technologies on Australian Democracy, Peter Chen, Rachel Gibson,Karin Geiselhart, The Australian National university,2006.  

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