Cyber politics

Cyber politics

 Is a term widely employed across the world, largely by academics interested in analyzing its breadth and scope, of the use of the Internet for political activity. It embraces all forms of social software. It includes journalism, fundraising, blogging, volunteer recruitment, and organization building.

Cyber politics is a domain of inquiry into the role of new information technologies in contemporary political life. It is an exciting domain of inquiry because not all of the things that communication scholars learned by studying mass media systems and interpersonal communication hold up in digital media environments. Studying cyberpolitics usually means one of two things. It can mean investigating the ways in which political actors use new technologies in creative—and sometimes problematic—ways. Some voters use digital media to improve their knowledge of public affairs, others use the same media to limit the flow of news and information.

Internet activism (also known as online activism, digital campaigning, digital activism, online organizing, electronic advocacy, cyber activism, e-campaigning, and e-activism) is the use of electronic communication technologies such as social media, especially Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, e-mail, and podcasts for various forms of activism to enable faster communication by citizen movements and the delivery of local information to a large audience.

The rapid proliferation of information technology has led to major social changes in the economy, politics and culture. Various globalization processes have depended on technological innovations of communication and production, especially the microchip, computer, and electronic networks of financial and information flows, which are now often integrated in the activity of networks via the Internet.

Cyberactivism and Social Movements: Toward a New Politics

The nature of social mobilization is changing before our eyes. “Cyberactivism,” the extensive use of the Internet to provide counter-hegemonic information and inspire social mobilizations, is a new phenomenon in which a variety of new forms of movements and protests are using the most modern information technologies. Some organizations and efforts have been local, such as the Zapatistas. Some movements have focused on specific issues, such as in the Landmine Treaty or dolphin safe tuna fishing. Some of the net-mediated alternative globalization mobilizations have had a major impact, such as the widely publicized moblizations in Seattle, Washington DC, Prague, Porto Alegre, Quebec City, Genoa, etc. The emergence of such movements requires us to take a descriptive survey to understand how the Internet is used that may help elucidate the causes of such movements and what shall the fate of such movements be. Hence, we focus here on the actual use of the Internet.

The Internet is a foundational moment of contemporary globalization. The Internet has made once private information available to a greater number of people. Actions of private corporations and governments are now more transparent, accessible to larger numbers of people—much of which those in power might not wish public. In many authoritarian States where governments control information and the media, a variety of “alternative” web sites are popping up—as has been happening recently in the Middle East. Insofar as the global economy depends on vast networks, these same networks have the potential of offering new forms of communication, resistance, and progressive mobilization.

BY MKULA DENNIS