Information
By Amanda Liaw
The rise of the Internet has extended a certain level of democracy to the way news and information is conceived, received, and disseminated. Our previous two examples demonstrate this clearly - the sites of mobilization have taken place online as Chinese netizens work around the Great Firewall, Hong Kong students grow their Scholarism movement, and Japanese girls broadcast their lives in growing their idol fanbases. While there is always a danger with the idea of technological determinism, the reductionist belief that technology is inherently democratic or is the driving force behind systemic change, recent events have also shown that with exponentially more platforms the Internet offers, the more power is given, in a sense, to the "people". What are the social and political ramifications of a world in which we have come to rely more heavily on citizen journalism?
In Delhi, the AAP was formed in opposition to the main party Congress, which has held the political majority for over a decade. The AAP was founded on principles of anti-corruption, with its main figurehead Arvind Kejriwal even going on a hunger strike to demonstrate his dedication to the cause. However, as evident from the documentary An Insignificant Man that charts their journey through the election, AAP's foundation was destabilized simply by a video that claimed to expose AAP candidates taking bribes. This accusation of hypocrisy cost them the election, even though the video was later found to be doctored. As much as the Internet has enabled the masses to produce and share news, it has done little to regulate this content and, perhaps, even less to educate its users on what exactly "news" means when you're often faced with so many different versions of it. Platforms are not inherently democratic and, at their most equal, they can serve as reflections of particular hierarchies that already exist in a society.
Another case study in India of the manipulation of a medium involves the redefinition of what a technological system can do for a community. CGNet Swara is a media service that was created to give rural communities in India a chance to connect with each other. As a bottom-up model, it allows people to call in, tell a story in their own language, and listen to other stories, as moderated by people they elect themselves. In doing so, this service capitalizes on three main things - firstly, the much more readily accessible telecommunications network, since many people in rural areas still lack access to the Internet; secondly, the increasing erasure of indigenous languages that is rooted in a greater rural-urban problem; and lastly, the breakdown of an aristocratic communication system that is largely determined by who is able to speak louder. It is pertinent to both remember that an increase in the number of platforms is not always synonymous with an increase in representation, and to ask who holds more power in controlling how the Internet provides information.