Self-Representation Online

Abstract

Are the particular tensions constraining self-representation finally removed in the online spaces that do not belong to long-established institutions like broadcasting or museums? It is both remarkable and genuinely new that making a self-representation no longer requires intermediaries to call, invite, edit or prescribe in any way what the text produced will turn out to be. In the online setting people do not need broadcasters to provide a platform, to invite or to edit their self-representations. People do not need museums or artists to make displays or works to provide an outlet for their voices. In this never-ending platform, epitomising the possibilities of a digital culture, it seems as if ‘ordinary people’ might really ‘speak for themselves’.