of democracy and zombies

The Jenkins and Thorburn article, The Digital Revolution, the Informed Citizen, and the Culture of Democracy discusses the digital revolution and democracy in the context of computer networks and how they facilitate free, democratic action. A place where any citizen can reach hundreds of thousands of other citizens to exchange and share ideas without much fear of censorship is truly utopian. In a political sense, people have the ability to really become informed on political issues, discuss them with others, and in turn make better more educated political decisions. But what quality or condition has enabled this system to remain outside of the capitalistic control that has plagued the television, radio and newspaper spheres? What makes the Internet and computer networks so effective in voicing citizen political views is the lack of an ultimate central control node. Unlike other media, the very condition of the Internet network as an impossibly large intricate web of connections is what makes it so powerful: without a central commanding node or 'mother computer', it is nearly impossible to have total control over any bit of it!
Beaurocratize THAT!
Even the government cannot deny the logic and power of such a decentralized, dispersed system. Jenkins and Thorburn state that "both the left and the right...understood computer networks in opposition to bureaucratic control". They even praise it as a strategic military tool. For them, "a distributed system (is) essential so that it (can) operate even if central nodes were destroyed".
Voila. Everyone agrees, the internet is one powerful tool for freedom and democracy.

But what does that have to to with zombies?

It's simple: Zombies are powerful in the same way that the Internet is powerful. Like computer networks, zombies have no centralized power. A zombie horde is nothing like an army. To deliver a powerful blow to an army, you HAVE to hit a general, a leader. To do the same to zombies is impossible: knock one out and the rest will keep coming for your brains. Trust me that. Therefore, much like a zombie army cannot be taken down easily, nor will our realm of free cyber-speech!

So, a system that works for the ghouls will work for the Internet as a whole and netizens everywhere. For now, we're safe...

Sweet dreams!

Or..concerned about protection against an undead uprising? Check out Max Brooks' Zombie Survival Guide: http://www.randomhouse.com/crown/zombiesurvivalguide/index2.html

welcome

This of course is the official beginning of my blog on citizen media and the public sphere. At this point I would hope that none of us are still trying to decide what citizen media is...like I was for roughly 2 weeks. The problem is that citizen media is a broad term. The public sphere is self-explanatory- the sphere or realm that the public and and masses inhabit. Citizen media can take the form of any media-related artifact the public chooses to use or produce media. It takes form in the page you're reading right now -a blog-, in cyber social networks like Facebook, gadgets like iPhones, in laptops, in 'zines...the list literally goes on and on. The Internet has of course revolutionized the practice of citizen media by effectively holding gatekeepers at bay, so that anyone can tell anyone what they think about anything. Anytime. Ahh, the internet. One could write a blog on that alone. However, our focus here is to comment and observe on citizen media practices as a whole. Of course though, to observe and comment on the way that the general public uses media is to actually look at yourself- the way YOU use media in your personal life, and to what extent you contribute. What to YOU offer to the cyberworld? What messages would you love communicate?
Cyber relations are very complex, and a new rhetoric has begun to emerge of this 'technological frontier'. My goal is to objectively observe this new rhetoric, comment on different relations and phenomena in the public sphere, and try to understand the role of citizen media in today's contemporary society.
.............and also try desperately to make some sense of it.

Later!