Framing Post – Week 4

Wow there sure are a lot of words in this book, aren’t there? This whole book is free online in search-able HTML – pretty meta considering what he’s talking about.

He starts by mentioning “the Internet Revolution.” Are we really calling the Internet a revolution still? Let’s all get on MySpace and blog about Sanjaya guys, we’re hip. But seriously, in an age when even the term “Web 2.0” is cliche as they come, is an analysis of digital networks going to be that mind-blowing? Spoiler alert: we’re all related, amateurs are empowered, etc.

Benkler notes that a networked information economy has shifted the mass-mediated public sphere to a networked public sphere. What are the key differences, and is one necessarily better than the other? Was this shift a good thing?

He also makes sure to point out the rise of individual practical capabilities. As society becomes continually more interrelated and interdependent, what place does the individual still have in all of this? Is he pushed to the margins or a cog in the machine?

Tags: framing, Wealth of Networks