The major portion of our class discussion this week centered on Castells’ argument on the use of mobile technology to create a new public sphere, an arena in which traditional authority can be challenged and grassroots social movements can take place. Although, Castells admits, while some of these uprisings and movements are successful, like in the Phillipines in 2001 and South Korea in 2002, others were not so successful, as was the case for protestors at the Republican National Convention in New York in 2004. Whether or not a social movement has the capability to be successful is based on several factors—among them the message and organization of the group hoping to inspire change, and the ability of counter-protestors to navigate the technology being used against them. This was a major factor in the RNC protests, as well as the student protests in Iran—those who were being challenged could follow where protestors were organizing, could create forums of counter-protest, etc.
One issue I felt wasn’t addressed entirely in our readings this week was the fact that although the “new media” technology gives the audience tremendous power, those who are using it to organize are subject to the limits of the technological distributor. For example, Twitter is a great social mobilizing force, so long as it remains neutral. And in the interest of keeping their business growing, one would imagine they wouldn’t pick sides on any issue—unless one was more profitable. Hanson examines the ways in which communication and communication technologies enable or restrain actors within the global network, but it seems pretty obvious that those companies wielding the power of access are the ones who enable or restrain actors, overall.
I do think that new media can have an impact but unfortunately many times these efforts for change by the civil society fail because of the reactions by the totalitarian state (that it many times is). Sometimes it almost seems forgotten that the government itself has the power to use the exact same tools and also the power to control the access. I think that new media can be a way to open up the international discussion and to use the boomerang effect and in that way get some change on the ground. All thorough times people have found ways to get around the hinders set up by the state and in todays globalized world people are not limited by the borders of the nation-state. To get an international movement especially when it comes to questions about human rights internationally I definitely see possible.
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