Abstract
At the beginning of the twenty-first century it has become fashionable to describe, and propagate, the new interactive tools of communication as a kind of recipe for the advancement of democracy and human rights, the furthering of dialogue among social groups, and, ultimately, for the achievement of peace at the global level. The electronic media that enable users to be consumers and producers of information at the same time are portrayed almost as a magic wand that could change the very nature of human society. Marshall McLuhan’s prophetic slogan of the 1960s—“The medium is the message”—resonates in today’s many proclamations of a paradigm change supposedly brought about in terms of the construction of social life, or the “reinvention” of man as ζῷoν πoλιτιkόν in this era of global connectivity.
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Notes
- 1.
Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media: The extensions of man. London and New York: Routledge Classics, 2001, title of Part I, Chapter 1.
- 2.
“Macht der tausend Augen.” Spiegel-Gespräch with William Dutton, Der Spiegel 31/2011, p. 101.
- 3.
Loc. cit., p. 102.
- 4.
Jared Cohen is the Director of Google Ideas. Previously he served as a member of the Policy Planning Staff of the U.S. Secretary of State.
- 5.
Roger Cohen, “The Death of Diplomacy.” The New York Times/Der Standard (Vienna), Monday, June 27, 2011, p. 2.—This effect is not only evident in the dramatic events of the “Arab Spring;” with the seemingly unstoppable expansion of web-based communication tools, it is increasingly felt in the Western industrialized countries too. The English summer riots of 2011 are a case in point.
- 6.
To describe this dilemma of multiculturalism in today’s globalized environment, the author has used the term “non-simultaneous simultaneity.” Cf. Hans Köchler, “The Philosophy and Politics of Dialogue.” Centre for Dialogue Working Paper Series, No. 2010/1, La Trobe University, Melbourne, 2010, chapter II, point a.
- 7.
Marshall McLuhan coined the phrase “global village.” Cf. op. cit., p. 5: “As electrically contracted, the globe is no more than a village.”
- 8.
Marshall McLuhan, op. cit., p. 5.
- 9.
Evgeny Morozov, The Net Delusion: How Not to Liberate The World. London: Allen Lane, 2011, p. 253.
- 10.
Gustave Le Bon, The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind. Kitchener: Batoche Books, 2001. (Original French edition: La psychologie des foules, 1895.)
- 11.
Op. cit., p. 13.
- 12.
Op. cit., p. 15.
- 13.
Op. cit., p. 13.
- 14.
Op. cit., p. 17.
- 15.
Op. cit., p. 17f. Emphases added.
- 16.
Op. cit., p. 20.
- 17.
Edward L. Bernays, Propaganda. New York: Horace Liveright, 1928.
- 18.
“The psychological crowd is a provisional being formed of heterogeneous elements, which for a moment are combined, exactly as the cells which constitute a living body form by their reunion a new being which displays characteristics very different from those possessed by each of the cells singly.” (Op. cit., p. 15.)
- 19.
Op. cit., p. 13f.
- 20.
For details see Elias Groll, “Meet the Man Who Put the ‘Je Suis’ in the ‘Je Suis Charlie’.” Foreign Policy, January 19, 2015, http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/01/19/meet-the-man-who-put-the-je-suis-in-the-je-suis-charlie/.
- 21.
Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. (New Introduction by Andrew Postman.) Penguin Books: London, 2006, p. 157. (First published 1985.)
- 22.
In this regard, Evgeny Morozov has alerted us about the “mostly invisible revolving door between Silicon Valley and Washington.” As a case in point he mentions Jared Cohen’s transition from the U.S. State Department to Google. “The twentieth century roots of twenty-first century statecraft.” Foreign Policy (FP), 7 September 2010, neteffect.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/09/07/the_20th_century_roots_of_the_21st_century_statecraft.
- 23.
Edward Bernays, Propaganda, Chapter I: “Organizing Chaos,” p. 37.—Bernays, nephew of Sigmund Freud and considered the “father of public relations,” served with the United States “Committee on Public Information” during World War I and was subsequently invited by President Woodrow Wilson to attend the Peace Conference in Paris.
- 24.
In his analysis of organized crowds, Gustave Le Bon proved—more than a century ago—that he was well aware of those “invisible hands.” In Book II (“The Opinions and Beliefs of Crowds”) of his work The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind, he wrote: “The outburst and putting in practice of certain ideas among crowds present at times a startling suddenness. This is only a superficial effect, behind which must be sought a preliminary and preparatory action of long duration.” (P. 47.)
- 25.
For a case study (relating to the coverage of the Lockerbie case) see Ludwig De Braeckeleer, “Wikipedia and the Intelligence Services—Is the Net’s popular encyclopedia marred by disinformation?,” in: OhmyNews International, Seoul, Korea, 26 July 2007, english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?at_code=424653, accessed on 23 August 2011.
- 26.
On the impact of this essentially unreflected use of information technology on the mentality of youth see, inter alia, Larry D. Rosen, Rewired: Understanding the iGeneration and the Way They Learn. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010, ch. 5: “Real Life or Screen Life? The Educational Opportunities of Immersive Social Networking and Virtual Worlds,” p. 97ff.
- 27.
For an analysis of the paradigm change in terms of the public sphere see David Barney, “Invasions of Publicity: Digital Networks and the Privatization of the Public Sphere,” in: The Law Commission of Canada (ed.), New Perspectives on the Public-Private Divide (Legal Dimensions Series.) Vancouver and Toronto: UBC Press, 2003, pp. 94–122.
- 28.
Hans Köchler, Philosophy and Politics of Dialogue, p. 8.
- 29.
For an earlier vision of such a system at the international level, before the arrival of the internet, see Hans Köchler (ed.), The New International Information and Communication Order: Basis for Cultural Dialogue and Peaceful Coexistence among Nations. Studies in International Relations, Vol. X. Vienna: International Progress Organization, 1985.
- 30.
See also William Dutton’s optimistic assessment, fn. 2 above.—In view of the Fourth Estate’s dismal record (especially when it comes to covering controversial issues such as the “global war on terror”), it is understandable that expectations concerning the potential of the Fifth Estate are very high.
- 31.
The rise of Islamophobia in Europe and the United States is a case in point. See Emily Kianka, “Islamophobia and the Social Consequences of Social Media.” Islamophobia Today, Editorial, 28 July 2011, www.islamophobiatoday.com/2011/07/28/islamophobia-and-the-social-consequences-of-social-media/.
- 32.
For details of the initial project, which Unesco had to abandon, see: Address by Amadou Mahtar M’Bow, Director-General of Unesco, to the University of Bujumbura on the theme “Unesco and communication in the modern world.” Bujumbura, 5 February 1980. Unesco Doc. DG/80/2.—For an overview of the wide-ranging debates see: A New World Information and Communication Order: Towards a Wider and Better Balanced Flow of Information. A Bibliography of UNESCO Holdings, Supplement 1980–1981. COM/82/WS/12, Paris: UNESCO, 1982.
- 33.
Brave New World Revisited, chapter VI: “The Arts of Selling,” p. 47.
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Köchler, H. (2017). Idea and Politics of Communication in the Global Age. In: Friedrichsen, M., Kamalipour, Y. (eds) Digital Transformation in Journalism and News Media. Media Business and Innovation. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27786-8_2
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