The Digital Media Age

INTRODUCTION:

“(..) As President of the United States, there are times where I wish information didn't flow so freely because then I wouldn't have to listen to people criticizing me all the time. I think people naturally are -- when they're in positions of power sometimes thinks, oh, how could that person say that about me, or that's irresponsible, or -- but the truth is that because in the United States information is free, and I have a lot of critics in the United States who can say all kinds of things about me, I actually think that that makes our democracy stronger and it makes me a better leader because it forces me to hear opinions that I don't want to hear. It forces me to examine what I'm doing on a day-to-day basis to see, am I really doing the very best that I could be doing for the people of the United States.” (President Obama, Town Hall Meeting, China, 2009)

The President in this response to a question about the firewall and the usage of Twitter freely, emphasises the importance of the Internet. He states that the free flow of information makes societies stronger as it helps the citizens hold their governments accountable and gives them a platform to think for themselves, hence generating new ideas and encouraging creativity.

In this digital age, the nature of media has been altered largely. The public has become both the consumers and producers of media content. With blogging, social networking, podcasting and various such technological advancements, the public has the chance to gain information as well as deliver information and they can be involved in conversations and discussions concerning various issues. The telephone and telegram enabled conversation but did not involve dissemination of information to lar...

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... democracy through citizen oversight.“ (Video the Vote, Volunteer)

The Internet has certainly reactivated the grassroots of an egalitarian public of writers and readers. However, computer-mediated communication in the web can claim unequivocal democratic merits only for a special context: It can undermine the censorship of authoritarian regimes that try to control and repress public opinion. In the context of liberal regimes, the rise of millions of fragmented chat rooms across the world tend instead to lead to the fragmentation of large but politically focused mass audiences into a huge number of isolated issue publics. Within established national public spheres, the online debates of web users only promote political communication, when news groups crystallize around the focal points of the quality press, for example, national newspapers and political magazines.