Lecture Seven Summary

Summary of Lecture: Political possibilities and the internet
* Defining democracy: The way a citizen interacts with the collective. Decisions made in parliament affect day to day life.
* Two ways new communication technologies and politics interact:
1. Cyber politics and democracy (related to the digital divide)
2. Digital divide
*Political hierarchy in websites/online sites and games (such as second life)
*Political campaigns use the internet to spread their message (e.g.- Obama and Kevin Rudd campaign)
* Understanding the difference between a scientific opinion poll (represents a level of participation) and a voluntary poll in a political vote.
* Twitter and new technologies have introduced a degree of transparency in the party room (attracting an audience who are interested in party decisions and results).
* What is the citizen of a new media politics- the “future citizen”? The skills of getting in and finding information and getting your message across are the skills of a hacker (computer expert). The hacker produces the result they want to produce. To do this they use persistence, a willingness to engage the machine, a capability to utilise skills in order to produce a result (to be an active citizen).
* The internet allows us to have one on one conversations (however take on a degree of permanency).
*Cyberpunk- form of science fiction emerged in the 1980’s. As an alternative to space opera (foundation trilogy, star wars etc). Outlines a world where computers communicate with other computers- set in the future. Themes include: technology and methology, utopia and dystopia, cities as machines, technological change and the shift from moderism to postmodernism.