Not really. It’s there, although many a folk would argue that the internet does little for democracy….
So, in the most irresponsible act I have made this year, (should tell you how fun I am), I fell asleep after an all night-er working, and missed my classes on Thursday, missing what I think was or would have been the most interesting, engaging class discussion yet this year in my emac 2321 class.
But anyway, we are supposed to find an interesting article that discusses democracy and the internet, and write about it, we are also supposed to write about how it related to the reading and discussion from last class, but that would be a little impossible since I did not attend. I am, however, told the class discussion was about democracy on the internet; the class had a spirited discussion on weather (weither?) or not the internet was encouraging, or asphyxiating democracy. Hmm, fascinating…I would have bitten my tongue all class again. Well, I better stop procrastinating, in the time honored tradition of writing half legible, sporadic, little-effort, and discombobulated posts, lets begin shall we?
An interesting article that discusses democracy and the internet. could you be any more vague? Oh well.
Lets start off by asking what a Democracy is…
Well scratch that, there will be plenty of time for me to set up that argument in the future net neutrality stuff, here is an interesting article that covers democracy and the internet:The Internet: Foe of Democracy? by Jonathan Shaw…It’s from harvardmagazine.com, sounds smart, it must be good.
Shaw basically talks about Cass Sunstein’s position, stating the internet hurts Democracy by allowing like minded folks to get together and cohort, Sunstein says that the internet is destroying the balance of different minded people by allowing like-minded people to come together, discuss issues, and become more extreme about the issue. Its an interesting point.
Beyond the article I wish to speak a little further how I feel about the internet and democracy, First of all, the content is mostly governed by the people, however the main gatekeepers govern how people use the internet, we will get into that discussion later this semester but I felt like I should make the point. Its an illusion of Democracy. Or as the thought poped into my head earlier….Anyway, I will leave the rest for another post.
Edit:
Finally, watch this, it was just tweeted, relates to the topic I feel.
Fin.