Cyber Spheres

As I prepared to critique Sunstein's essay "Is the Internet really a blessing for democracy" I noticed that it was written in 2001 and since much has changed since then, I decided to cut the author some slack.  Sunstein gives the mainstream media far too much credit by describing it as a source for facts and unbiased opinion rather than acknowledging the fact that mainstream media has actually contributed the need for people to search elsewhere for facts and create new public spheres.  The internet and social media have replaced the old physical public spheres such as town meetings and public gatherings with a new cyber sphere where average citizens have access to more information than ever and can share this information with people all over the world in a matter of seconds.

We've described the public sphere as the social space where information and ideas can circulate freely, debate can take place, and opinion can be formed and this space is critical for democracy to function.  But the "physical" public space is something of the past.  When was the last time you actually saw a public debate amoung citizens taking place at a park or other public area? I think back to the previous city that I lived which was experiencing a huge scandal with it's public officials, if you read the social media's pages and blogs filled with opinions and heated debates criticizing the city's public officials, you would think that there would be lines out the door at the village meetings waiting to confront the officials.  Surprisingly the meeting I attended had very low turnouts and very little debate or confrontation.  The internet has made it much more convenient for people to gather and share their opinions with others so much so that I predict that the existing format of town meetings will soon be obsolute and replaced by cyber meetings in which people can gather and discuss important topics without even leaving their house.

Rather than highlighting the benifits this new cyber space creates for citizens, it's surprising that Sunstein's essay doesn't support the idea that the internet is good for democracy.  Instead she provides support for mainstream media and television as the ideal outlet for citizens to gather facts and unbiased opinions. This couldn't be further from the truth. As I mentioned in previous blogs, the News on the major media channels does very little to provide enough facts or unbiased opinions for the average citizen to learn about a current issues and form their own educated opinions about those issues.  When it comes to the public space that Sunstein describes, I would argue that these have actually forced people to these cyber worlds rather than conventional physical spaces.  If you watch any major channel's morning or evening news, the major stories, especially in Chicago are reports of what seems to be senseless murders or other crime that has taken place.  This does very little to entice people in those areas to feel comfortable being out in their neighborhood let alone engage in debates or discussions with neighbors.  The news does provide individuals with very high level reports of current events but doesn't provide nearly enough information for viewers to form educated opinions.  For this additional information, there is no better resource available than the internet.  Of course all information on the internet isn't always accurate or unbiased, but at least it gives the individual the opportunity to decide what information they want to read instead of what the elites who control mainstream media choose for them.