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| 10.05.03 (2:42 pm) [edit] |
Much like back in the day when people told stories as a way of passing on information - today we rely on the media to find out about and make sense of the world around us. Its just that these days the stories are filtered through a variety of sources before they reach us, even if you hear it from a mate the chances are they 'saw it on telly last night'.
Whilst new technologies allow for greater coverage of news, the mediation that occurs muddles the original message. Also, rather than experiencing things first hand, one nolonger has to go to a primary source or order a book, with the click of a mouse you can find what you're looking for using a search engine. You just have to know what you're looking for.
As much as we rely on the media as technological story telling, the media relies on us to consume the stories. If cyberspace is supposedly a 'free space for all' then it certainly includes the media. Cyberspace is littered with elements of the 'real world' and the media is no exception. Also, Cyberspace as a 'free space for all', a cyber-democracy creates its own kinds of media.
"Apart from promoting community, cyberspace is also projected as a panacea for most of our political problems. All the problems of representative democracy are going to be solved, we are told, when everyone gets online and starts voting on everything. In a cyber-led society, citizens will not only be better informed but will also be able to side-step varieties of pressure groups to participate in decision making." (Sardar, Pg. 745, CCR)
Weblogs can be considered a tool for 'side-stepping' the so called pressure groups - such as the mainstream media - by acting as filters for the huge amounts of information in cyberspace. The frequent updating of these individual and collaborative sites and the linkages between produce a way of ordering common topics and highlighting perhaps little known stories.
(alice)
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