Online Cultures and Politics

In Terry Flew’s book New Media he addresses how new media technologies are allowing the emergence of virtual cultures. As I have observed, there are many different types of virtual communities that have evolved from people with specific interests and goals mobilizing and collaborating. Online cultures based around social networks, MMORPGs and wikis are possible due to technological developments accompanied by a change in the ways in which people use technology (Flew, 2005, p. 61). A consequence of people using technologies for social interaction is that they have altered the technologies to being ‘cultural technologies’, which are not merely “material forms that impact upon culture, but rather as themselves cultural forms” (Flew, 2005, p. 21).

Many people, including myself and my peers, engage in virtual cultures for an array of reasons such as social interaction and game play, however one reason that I believe is becoming particularly important in democracies is political involvement and activism. People’s engagement in politics online is changing the face of democracy, giving ordinary citizens “political leverage” (Flew, 2005, p. 62). Citizens can use online communities to organize, campaign and debate (Leadbeater, 2008) and by like-minded people mobilizing around a cause they can gain power (Leadbeater, 2008) and influence public opinion, as “in groups people can accomplish what they cannot do alone” (Noveck, 2005). Recently I have noticed that politicians have also caught onto the power of new media technologies for campaigning and reaching audiences that they were previously unable to reach. Many high profile politicians such as Hillary Clinton and Tony Blair have utilized YouTube and other social networking technologies to talk, blog and vlog (Coutts, 2007) with audiences around the world, and what was an "'information revolution' is becoming a social revolution” (Noveck, 2005).

However, there have been concerns about peoples’ increasing involvement with social technologies and how this may be fragmenting society, as people within specific online communities may get stuck in an ‘echo chamber’, choosing to network and debate only with people who share their views (Leadbeater, 2008). Out of their niche online groups then, people may “project their value system onto others and fail to comprehend how someone else may possibly think differently” (boyd, 2005, p. 199). Therefore, it is important for diverse online groups to connect and affect one another (boyd, 2005, p. 208) and for a range of political views to be expressed.

Due to technological innovations, politics is no longer spectatorial, it is a participatory practice (Jenkins, 2007), and I believe that both citizens and politicians are using the internet and other new media technologies to their advantage. With the political landscape shifting with technological changes, it will be interesting to see where the future for democracy is heading. As long as groups online do not get stuck in echo-chambers and become fragmented from society, I am sure that the future is a bright one.

References

boyd, d. (2005). Sociable technology and democracy. Retrieved April 7, 2008, from http://www.danah.org/papers/ExtremeDemocracy.pdf

Coutts, S. (2007, May 20). Politics and the internet. [Radio transcript]. Retrieved March 22, 2008, from http://www.abc.net.au/rn/backgroundbriefing/stories/2007/1924783.htm.

Flew, T. (2005). New media: An introduction. 2nd ed. South Melbourne: Oxford University Press.

Jenkins, H. (2007). Henry Jenkins@Beyond Broadcast 2007. [Interview with Jenny Attiyeh of ThoughtCast]. Retrieved April 4, 2008, from http://thoughtcast.org/casts/beyond-broadcast-2007.

Leadbeater, C. (2007). Social software for social change. Retrieved April 6, 2008, from http://www.charlesleadbeater.net/cms/xstandard/social_software.pdf.

Noveck, B. (2005). A democracy of groups. Retrieved April 7, 2008, from www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue10_11/noveck/.