[an error occurred while processing this directive] Week 8: Political effects: 'cyberdemocracy' or 'cybertyranny'
What are the political implications of the new media technologies? Are they inherently transformative towards a new kind of democratic society, or is technology produced and used within existing systems of power? Or both? Two key dimensions of this will be addressed: the effects on governance and democracy of the increase of information in the public domain which can be accessed easily and inexpensively by ordinary people; and the use of two-way electronic communication to affect the political process (which might be televoting but is not confined to this). Before this discussion students need to assess the meaning of 'democracy' and how democratic systems actually work.

Core Reading

o Downing, John. Radical Media: Rebellious communication and social movements. London: Sage, 2001.
o Held, D. Models of Democracy, 2nd ed, Oxford: Polity Press, 1996
o Lyons, David. Surveillance Society: Monitoring Everyday Life. Open university Press, 2001.
o Poster, Mark.'CyberDemocracy: Internet and the Public Sphere', online at http://www.humanities.uci.edu/mposter/writings/democ.html

Supplementary reading

o Barnett, S 'New media, old problems - New technology and the political
process', European Journal of Communication, Vol.12, No.2, (1997) pp.193-218
o De Sola Pool, I. Technologies of Freedom: On Free Speech in the Democratic Age, Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1983
o Grossman, Lawrence K. The Electronic Republic: Reshaping Democracy in the Information Age, Penguin, 1996
o Gutstein, Donald E.Con : How the Internet Undermines Democracy, Stoddart, 1999
o Hall, M. 'One-to-one politics in cyberspace', Media Studies Journal, Vol.11, No.1, (1997) p.97
o Loader, Brian (ed)  The Governance of Cyberspace, London: Routledge, 1997 (Policing Cyberspace: Privacy and Surveillance', Part III)
o Lyon, David The Electronic Eye: The Rise of Surveillance Society, Cambridge: Polity Press, 1994
o Rash Jr, Wayne. Politics on the Nets: Wiring the Political Process, W.H. Freeman, 1997
o Robins, Kevin and Webster, Times of the Technoculture: From The Information Society To The Virtual Life.London; Routledge, 1999.
o Van de Donk,, W. Snellen, I. and Tops, P. (eds) Orwell in Athens: A Perspective on Informatization and Democracy, Amsterdam: IOS Press, 1995
o Van Dijk, J 'Models of Democracy - Behind the Design and Use of New Media in Politics', Javnost-The Public, , Vol.3, No.1, (1996) Pp. 43-56
Return to contents

 

Publication Details
Page Created By: Kate O'Riordan
Email: k.s.o-riordan@sussex.ac.uk
Page Last Modified: Thursday, 18-Jul-2002 12:53:30 BST [an error occurred while processing this directive]