Tension and Power: Who’s Controlling the Future?
Arab Spring, Black Lives Matter, #MeToo, anti-mask protests, and white supremacist protests, are all examples of recent uprisings largely facilitated by the dissemination of information on the Internet (McChesney). But, is access to the World Wide Web facilitating free expression if it’s controlled by a few mega-corporations? These protests are a sign of increased freedom of citizen expression, but also of increasing tension between the “publics” and institutional power. Such tension re-shapes our societies, but do we have authentic information, and are resources divided equally or increasingly divided, as we move through the process of reconstruction? Big Five Tech currently holds the keys to the gates of information, to our data, and to global political economy, thus wielding unprecedented power with little existing countering mechanism of check and balance. People with unlimited access have an advantage over those without, and while Western tech firms’ capital and power increases, that profitability doesn’t reach the populaces working in their factories for far less than less than a living wage.
Journalism has long been a foundation of democracy, serving a critical check and balance role since the inception of democracy and enabling people’s expression of free speech. Journalism has undergone a profound shift; it’s now rolled into the great new media of the Internet. This new internet, with its citizen journalism and even with its trolls, has potential to continue being the “fourth estate” but only if it’s not controlled by corporate interests and if its access is available to all. Traditional media has gatekeepers, editors, publishers, who decide what the public will focus on, “… what the public thinks is important, and the policies developed to deal with the issues (Soroka, 2002; Wanta & Ghanem, 2007; Symbalic and Bereska, pp. ???).
McChesney points out power has moved away from traditional, mainstream, conglomerate media, with two-thirds of Americans now getting their news from sources such as those found on social media (54:26), and while the messaging from traditional media has been concentrated to a few streams of information dictated by a handful of conglomerates, the information we find on the Internet is even more controlled, and potentially, more manipulative. Gatekeeping information on new Internet is deceptive, an “ideological filter bubble” (54:28), that pushes filtered material to people based on their algorithmic preferences. The tremendous democratic potential of the internet and new technology is undermined by commercialism (44:12).
“The power of the Big Five in the tech world is unquestioned and its impact on national economies and governments, not the least through its influence on journalism, is profound” (Mosco, 2017, Ch. 3). Mosco argues free expression and political economy would be best served by an Internet of global social utility. He argues “… the communications infrastructure cannot be left in the hands of major corporations if public interest is to be served” (Sussman, 2018, pp. 67).
Mosco agues governments are, understandably, enthusiastic in the dissemination of information communications systems throughout society, but there’s “…a worrisome lack of concern for some of the less than positive social consequences, including expanding surveillance, environmental damage, and the loss of jobs …” (2017, pp. ). He goes on to state the Big Five control and benefit from a global division of labour. “The Big Five controls and benefits from a global division of labor whose human cost is rarely captured in the logistics charts that map the world economy” (2017, Ch. 3 ).
Surveillance, data mining and the sale of personal data, loss of privacy, algorithmic determination of content, and targeted persuasion is becoming a naturalized part of Internet technology, and further emphasizes the critical impact of Internet technology on foundational democratic principles. And governments, even in Canada, have no compunction against using such surveillance and persuasion. According to the Ottawa citizen, the Canadian military was recently data-mining Canadians’ social media.
A team assigned to a Canadian military intelligence unit monitored and collected information from people’s social media accounts in Ontario, claiming such data-mining was needed to help troops working in long-term care homes during the coronavirus pandemic. (Pugliese, 2020).
Facebook, Reddit, Instagram and Twitter accounts were scanned by the five-person group called the Precision Information Team or PiT (Pugliese, 2020). It’s not the first time democratic governments have come under fire for citizen surveillance. Edward Snowden faced international prosecution for leaking information about such surveillance undertaken by the US, Canadian, UK, Australian, and New Zealand governments. Why, he asks, are governments gathering data against its citizens (Philosophy tube)? According to French philosopher Michel Foucault, such surveillance is a technology of subjugation intended to control a population and expand a government’s, or institution’s, power (Philosophy tube).
“The conflict view of law argues that the ruling class creates and uses the law as a tool for oppressing powerless groups in society and serving its own interests” (Symbalic and Bereska Ch. 11). Governments implicated in the Snowden case indicated defense against terrorism was the purpose of their covert surveillance, but the leaked documents showed overwise (Philosophy Tube) as did the recent Canadian surveillance (Pugliese, 2020) with average citizens, journalists, and peaceful protestors’ personal information data-mined. For what purposes? New Internet media has the potential for a global, information-based economy, with democratizing elements foundationally explicit as necessary criterium for its future development, but only if the power structures currently in place are forced to give up control, even, or especially, that which is surreptitious and pervasive.
References
Media Education Foundation. (2018, January 1). Digital Disconnect. https://library.macewan.ca/full-record/edskan/edskan.2730810
Vincent Mosco. (2017). Becoming Digital : Toward a Post-Internet Society: Vol. 1st ed. Emerald Publishing Limited. https://library.macewan.ca/full-record/nlebk/1572696
Pugliese, David. (2020, July 21). Team with Canadian military intelligence unit data-mined social media accounts of Ontarians during pandemic. Ottawa Citizen. https://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/team-with-canadian-military-intelligence-unit-data-mined-social-media-accounts-of-ontarians-during-pandemic
Sussman, G. (2018). Becoming Digital: Toward a Post-Internet Society. Journal of Communication, 68(2), E8–E10. https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqy012
Symbaluk, Diane G. & Bereska, Tami M. (2020) Sociology in action: a Canadian perspective [2nd ed.] / (n.d.).