Task 2
In reply to the lecture:
As Stephen Stockwell told us about today, the development in the communication and consumer technologies has opened the door for several options to take part in for example the political debate. This development in technologies includes viral campaigns that use music, humour, fuzzy logic, ambush promotion and interactivity to spread arguments of political parties among the population.
I think the viral campaigns are a clever idea, seen from the sender’s perspective. The modern consumers are becoming less sensitive to traditional mass media, and because we are bombarded with advertisement that tries to persuade us to buy different products, we do not ‘trust’ the sender (being either businesses or political parties) anymore. If we receive any direct mail as a result of marketing activities from businesses or political parties we immediately delete it (if it has not already been caught by our spam filter). On the other hand, if I receive an email or a post on my Facebook profile with my friend as the sender, I find it more reliable and I am more open to the message compared to the ‘persuasive’ sender. Whether or not this strategy is effective depends on the receiver’s ability to identify the ‘real’ sender of the message.
Political possibilities of the Internet:
As it is stated on our course’s site, I should only complete the tasks if I can stick to my political belief. These are the tasks that I felt I could complete without putting my political belief at risk.
- President Barack Obama is a busy man. Today his day has started off with the Presidential Daily Briefing in the Oval Office, followed by a meeting with his senior advisors. Around noon he is going to Cincinnati in Ohio to deliver his remark on the American Jobs Act. He is expected to be back at the White House at 5.25 pm (The White House).
- Censorship and filtering the web in a democracy:
With an example of the ‘Green Dam’ in China, a desktop web filter uses two different approaches (Chen & Wang, 2011). First it checks a requested URL against blacklists and then scans text for obscenities and politically sensitive phrases. To filter pornography, the Green Dam includes an image recognition software. If a human face is not the primary component, the filter classifies the image as pornographic and blocks the site. However, tests of the Green Dam have found the porn filter to be fallible, mistakenly filtering Garfield the cat, Johnny Depp, Paris Hilton, and flesh-colored pork (Chen & Wang, 2011).
The article presents a good argument: “As a mass medium, the Web is unique. Traditional print media such as books and newspapers require time to publish and distribute physically, while electronic mass media, namely radio and television, typically depend on official licenses for operation and are either state-regulated or self-censored in exchange for fewer regulations. In contrast, the Web lets individuals easily publish a rich range of content—such as multimedia, hyperlinks, and Java-Script—globally in real time to PCs and various mobile devices” (Chen & Wang, 2011, p. 94). Personally I think that what we know as ‘democracy’ is threatened in line with the censorship of the web. Because who then has to decide what information we can and cannot receive? I think what I have heard about the targeted search result you get based on your Google account is scary enough!
With an example of the ‘Green Dam’ in China, a desktop web filter uses two different approaches (Chen & Wang, 2011). First it checks a requested URL against blacklists and then scans text for obscenities and politically sensitive phrases. To filter pornography, the Green Dam includes an image recognition software. If a human face is not the primary component, the filter classifies the image as pornographic and blocks the site. However, tests of the Green Dam have found the porn filter to be fallible, mistakenly filtering Garfield the cat, Johnny Depp, Paris Hilton, and flesh-colored pork (Chen & Wang, 2011).
The article presents a good argument: “As a mass medium, the Web is unique. Traditional print media such as books and newspapers require time to publish and distribute physically, while electronic mass media, namely radio and television, typically depend on official licenses for operation and are either state-regulated or self-censored in exchange for fewer regulations. In contrast, the Web lets individuals easily publish a rich range of content—such as multimedia, hyperlinks, and Java-Script—globally in real time to PCs and various mobile devices” (Chen & Wang, 2011, p. 94). Personally I think that what we know as ‘democracy’ is threatened in line with the censorship of the web. Because who then has to decide what information we can and cannot receive? I think what I have heard about the targeted search result you get based on your Google account is scary enough!
- Being a Dane living abroad for the previous election in Denmark (last week), I had to go to the Royal Danish Consulate of Brisbane in Toowong to vote. As you can see on the picture below, the process of voting is not particularly influenced by the technological development. Even though we live in a highly developed global world (both in Denmark and Australia) I still had to physically write the name of the candidate that I wanted to vote for and then put this piece of paper into an envelope. This envelope was then shipped all the way to Denmark (approx. 16.000 km from here). So much for living in a high-tech world!
- I did actually send this candidate a message using Facebook. I found it easy and informal compared to email. (Previously, we were given the task to translate something into Spanish, to solve that task I used http://www.freetranslation.com/ to help me. I will warn you of the credibility of these translation tools. Whether or not you decide to try to translate this of course depends on your degree of curiosity J)
References:
Chen, T. M., & Wang, V. (2011). Web Filtering and Censoring. Computer , pp. 94-98.
Stockwell, S, “We’re all hackers now: Doing global democracy”, CreateWorld, AUC-Griffith University, 7-10 December 2008. http://createworld2008.edublogs.org/2008/12/24/hacking-for-global-democracy/
The White House. (n.d.). President's Schedule. Retrieved September 22, 2011, from The White House: http://www.whitehouse.gov/schedule/president/2011-09-22
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