Week 9 Response

My questions of the week were:

1. If infoenterpropagainment is the order of the day for political media platforms, is the constituency just as complicit in allowing out-of-context information to stand in for the truth?

2. Doses the advent of Web 2.0 technologies truly mean that the political due process is in the hands of a community-by-community basis rather than a centralized political machine?

3. Are grass-roots social networking sites more powerful than the traditional central governments in regards to making immediate, localized social change?

The current trend for political parties, both established and grass roots is to rely on digital communication to rally their constituencies. While the use of media isn’t new, the speed of organization and mobilization has changed dramatically. Since new technology is controlled and personalized on a user basis, there is also a greater emphasis on responsibility. For instance, the rise of infopropagainment by organizations such as the Tea Party has lead to the skewing of facts and blatant usurpation and distortion of the truth. This type of behavior is not only irresponsible but should also be a criminal act. Another example that has come to mind on Web 2.0 politics is Gunnar Grimmson’s lecture on his country’s political machine. The rise of the Shadow government was to mobilize the facebook oriented population towards libertarian goals. Iceland and other nations have led to a form of community activism that  has never been heard of before. There are several concerns that come out of this reliance on digital technology.

Since today’s social activists rely on social networks to get out the word they are also at the mercy of the private companies that own the said site. For instance, Grimmson mentioned in his lecture that the established political parties in Iceland immediately complained to the offices of Facebook that their opponents site was spreading unsubtatiated claims about the economic policies of the incumbent parties and the effectiveness of central government. As a result the Shadow government and other activist sites were closed by facebook. All on hearsay. What will happen to activist organizations in other parts of the world?

Tags: infopropagainment