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ICTs in the Contemporary World seminar
Web 2.0 Interactive : Current Debate and Anticipated Impact
Sophia Kaitatzi-Whitlock
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Tuesday 5 February, 2008
3.00 - 5.00 p.m.
Fifth Floor, Tower One
Web 2.0 interactive is a challenge for a serious and systematic approach both by analysts and decision-makers. The growth of blogging, of web forums and of an ‘electronic discursive commons’ for unhindered multilateral discussion threaten the current allocation of communicative resources as well as the control of communication and information flows. The ‘gate-keeping’ and ‘agenda setting’ by media professionals and barons, along with other such abusive practices, are being challenged.
Especially among the predominant demographic categories of media–users (young, highly educated, males), the processes of legitimacy and trust building are being reconfigured. New ways of disseminating knowledge and information will inevitably alter existing modes of perception, cognition and learning. The traditional processes of opinion forming, influence, ideological grounding and orientation are being challenged and deconstructed. These trends create possibilities for more symmetrical interactive exchanges and feed-back, and open up the possibility of freer debate and argument in the arena of ideas.
This presentation will explore the current and anticipated impact of these shifts in the allocation of symbolic and communicative resources. At issue are the options for democratizing content flows, the terms of participation in the public sphere, and the options for levelling access prerogatives: for a new ‘fair play’ in public communication. Are such options realistic and realizable or are they merely counterfactuals? What political measures, if any, have been taken in this direction? Are our decision-makers up to the challenge of providing new organizational structures to overcome the democratic legitimacy crisis by keeping pace with these developments? I will elaborate on the rise of active information-seeking and interactive communication rights on the Web, by ‘ordinary citizens’ entering this free, frontierless communication domain from the entire global geopolitical spectrum. This burgeoning activity, with the potential to give global reach and influence to individual and private communication efforts, lies at the heart of the anticipated ‘power shift’ in mediated political communication. This unique rise in symmetrical communication at the horizontal level creates new challenges as to the optimal, rational, purposeful and socio-politically beneficial exploitation of these new resources.
Dr Sophia Kaitatzi-Whitlock is assistant professor at the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. She has published extensively in academic journals and publications on European audiovisual policy-making, political communication, the political economy of the media and on new media and technology policy. Her current research interests include democracy theory, power relations and the media, the interlocking between communicative and political practices within the new media domains.
Please note places will be available on a first-come-first-serve basis - registration is not required.
For any further queries regarding this seminar or to request information about future events please contact Frances White, Research Coordinator
Page last updated 05 February 2009 ^
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