Essay

The most important revolution in communication technology was the Internet which arrived in 1990s. It came from being the retreat of computer experts to a mainstream medium. Eventually the internet will take its place alongside the press, television and radio as a medium of mass communication. As legions of citizens flocked on-line and dramatically increased Internet traffic, media organizations such as private, businesses and individuals quickly established a presence in the Internet. Political people also joined as well. In this essay will explore uses/limits in terms of politics and/or democracy and discuss rethinking about the nature of political because of the revolution of the new communication. Furthermore, the essay will talk about the idea of "community" in the age of networked digital media.

Government departments and agencies established their web sites to show and explain government programs and provide on-line services. Political parties and candidates launched web sites to assist campaigns (Jansen, 2001). In this rush of intervention of politics in the Internet has changed political processes from the old traditional way. The new kind of internet democracy (E-democracy) represents a new force of the communication revolution especially with democratic politicians with their own political process with local communities and countries and on the international stage (Gunter, 2006). Politicians can organize and express their views for citizens. The candidates can use political web ‘portals’ which can provide interest citizens with up-to-the minute information that is fundamentally the way citizens heard about and get involved in important issues. Equally important are some web sites which can match a voter’s views on issues with different candidates. Furthermore, the Internet may also serve a medium for voter registration and online voting and because of that suggests a greater and more active citizen participation in the democratic electoral process. Voters will be able to cast their ballots from the convenience of their home or a nearby public facility. However, there are concerns about unequal access to the Internet which emphasizes about people who have the Internet and those who cannot especially who cannot vote from home. A case for point such as those who cannot vote from home will have to go to public spaces such as Internet cafes or universities where they might allow other people at those places who can inappropriate influence over those people, in a situation which doesn’t arise in the traditional voting station (Rubin, 2000).

The new revolution in communication technology has changed political process forever especially citizens using on-line politics instead of the traditional way. It has been suggested (Bruce Bimber, Richard Davis 2003, p.4) that on-line has greater and more active citizen participation in the democratic electoral process than before. And also the Internet might rival the television and radio combined as well. But, equally important, there are concerns about unequal access to the Internet and censorship such as filtering web sites by governments. Because of this revolution we should rethink about the nature of the old political ways. For example, Ken Carty's (1988) analysis of the Canadian party systems was linked in communications technology which changed in the Canadian national party system. Like the development of radio coincided had change from a local to a regional party focus while the emergence of television helped to make Canadian politics more national and more leader-driven than before. And also this cross-border network of global places has created the formation of new types of ‘global politics of places which contest a corporate globalization. This link in this new communication with global politics shows how politics has changed forever.

On the other hand, the idea of "community" in the age of networked digital media happened as well. People in virtual communities use words on screens to exchange pleasantries and argue, engage in intellectual discourse, conduct commerce, exchange knowledge, share emotional support, make plans, brainstorm, gossip, feud, fall in love, find friends and lose them, play games, flirt, create a little high art and a lot if idle talk. Some people use virtual communities as a form of psychotherapy (Mclelland, 2007). Others, such as the most addicted players of Minitel in France or Multi-User Dungeons (MUDs) on the international networks, spend eighty hours a week or more pretending they are someone else, living a life that does not exist outside a computer. Because MUDs not only are susceptible to pathologically obsessive use by some people but also create a strain on computer and communication resources, MUDding has been banned at universities such as Amherst and on the entire continent of Australia (Mclelland, 2007). Most people who get their news from conventional media have been unaware of the wildly varied assortment of new cultures that have evolved in the world's computer networks over the past ten years. Most people who have not yet used these new media remain unaware of how profoundly the social, political, and scientific experiments under way today via computer networks could change all our lives in the near future. Because of its potential influence on so many people's beliefs and perceptions, the future of the Net is connected to the future of community, democracy, education, science, and intellectual life--some of the human institutions people hold most dear, whether or not they know or care about the future of computer technology (Hersberger, Murray & Rious, 2007).

Additionally, Online communities provide this basis of staying in touch with people yet expand the limits of this far beyond your neighbor or region and these new communication technologies still carry the values of a community by involving people with shared understandings and interactive relationships (Galston, 1999). Nowadays on the internet communities are developed through common interests not proximity; “Life will be happier for the on-line individual because the people with whom one interacts most strongly will be selected more by commonality of interests and goals than by accidents of proximity” (Licklider and Taylor in Galston). The search for community has been satisfied with online interaction as it provides a basis for individualism and exploration that until now has been much harder to accomplish in daily society. "Because individuals — rather than households — are separately connected, the internet and the cell phone have transformed communication from house-to-house to person-to-person. This creates a new basis for community that author Barry Wellman has called “networked individualism”: Rather than relying on a single community for social capital, individuals often must actively seek out a variety of appropriate people and resources for different situations.” (Rainie et al, 2006). This also changes the nature of the political with more individualism created there is a need for governance online that cannot be accomplished with the concepts of true democracy at the forefront.

In conclusion, the new revolution in communication technology has changed political process forever especially citizens using on-line politics instead of the traditional way. Because of this revolution we should rethink about the nature of the old political ways. On the other hand, communication technology influences citizen’s regular life as well. People use communication technology in different areas, such, as, psychotherapy, exchange pleasantries and argue, engage in intellectual discourse, conduct commerce, exchange knowledge, share emotional support, make plans, brainstorm, gossip, feud, fall in love, find friends and lose them, play games, flirt, create a little high art and a lot if idle talk etc. the internet and the cell phone have transformed communication from house-to-house to person-to-person. This creates a new basis for community also changes the nature of the political.

Reference List

Bimber, B, & Davis, R (2003), Campaigning online: the Internet in U.S elections, Oxford University Press, New York.

Carty, R.K. (ed) (1988). Three Canadian party Systems: An interpretation of the development of national politics. In Perlin, Party Democracy in Canada: the politics of national party conventions (pp. 15-30).

Gunter, B. (2006). Advances in e-democracy: Overview. Emerald Group Publishing Limited 58(5), 361-370.

Galston, W. (1999), “Does the Internet Strengthen Community?”, Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy, Maryland School of Public Affairs, accessed

Hersberger, J. , Murray, A.L. & Rioux, K.S. (2007), ‘Examing information exchange and virtual communities: an emergent framework’, Online Information Review (31) 2, 135-147.

Jansen, H (2004), 'Is the Internet Politics as usual or Democracy's Future?', The Innovation Journal: The Public Sector Innovation Journal, Vol.9.


Mclelland, M. (2007), ‘Internet domain between China & India: beyond Anglophone paradinms’, Asian Studies Review 34 (4), 387-395.

Rainie, Lee et al (2006) (John Horrigan, Barry Wellman, Jeffrey Boase), “The Strength of Internet Ties” in Communities, Social Networking (Jan 25, 2006). Pew Internet & American Life Project, accessed via
http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2006/The-Strength-of-Internet-Ties.aspx

Rubin, A (2000), ‘Security Considerations for Remote Electronic voting over the Internet’. Viewed 30 November 2009. via
http://www.publicpolicy.umd.edu/IPPP/fall1999/internet_community.htm