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Digital
Democracy,Communication
Rights and New Media
Review of Social Problems of New Media
Rhetoric and Reality on the Internet
Ideology of the Internet
The Right to Communication
Ideology of the Internet ( Birdsall et
al)
 Rise of neo liberal thinking about the new
economy
 Celebrate Joseph Schumpeter
 Create Industry Councils to deliberate on
future of Internet
 Decline to regulate the Internet
 Link up Schools as sole sop to universality
 Fail to provide for Canadian content on
education Internet websites
The Right to Communicate
 Birdsall et al refrain from a full articulation.
 Why? Citizens should be involved in
defining it
 Yet 1991 Canadian Act in Broadcasting did
not involve Citizens….1996 US Act
involved citizens, but the civic agenda lost
Communication Rights
1. Right to inform and be informed
2. Right of active participation in
communication process
3. Right of equitable access to
communication resources and
information
4. Right to privacy: individual and collective
source: Birdsall et al in courseware.
Constitutional Framework
 Stipulates “freedom of thought, belief, opinion and
expression, including freedom of speech and the press
and other media
 In legal interpretation, both a shield and a sword (
unstable history) since may be subject to ‘reasonable
limits’
 Need more affirmation of a Right to Communicate
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A charter amendment
A new judicial discourse
A public internet policy( Birdsall et al)
Irony: In Canada, most jurisprudence brought by individuals
against the laws, not groups against corporations or state
Responsibilities to Communicate
 Democracy thrives on creation of a culture of citizenship
 Individuals have to assume responsibility to keep
informed, participate in the political process, and direct
their communication rights
 The issue: if these responsibilities honoured, does the
State have to ensure there is non-commercial space for
communication alternatives?
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Intervene to ensure choice
Fund alternative news sources
Support the CBC
But also support indie media more fully, in advertising, editorial
development, training and media literacy programs
 This asserts there must be a positive role of the State in
providing citizens with the capacity to exert their franchise
Review
 What is the theoretical framework for this class?
 What do people say are the effects of the
media?
 What are some of the central problematics in the
study of the media in Canada and around the
world?
The Overall Framework
 Cultural Model of communication
 How do the media and communication processes construct a
map of meaning in which people travel over time?
 Explores the predominant democratic values,
constitutional frameworks and ideologies about what the
media ‘ought’ to do
 Also implies point of view in evaluating how well they do
 Explores lack of ‘culture of citizenship in the media’
 From a sociological perspective, embraces both conflict
and interactionist perspectives
Assumptions of the “Cultural
Model”
 Both market and state decisions about the media create our cultural
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worlds
Systems and structures of ownership and control create professional
environments and values which promote a certain capitalist world
view
“cultivation” of world views, consequences on social stability,
political cohesion and democracy are profound
They are cumulative: long term: still only in second generation of
their effects
If you are a liberal/pro democracy, this is not fundamentally
disturbing
If you are critical of capitalism, you explore the operation of
hegemony working to suppress minorities, workers and the
dispossessed.
The Impact of Television: A
Canadian Natural Experiment
 Communities like Igloolik twice voted
against having TV in the North
 Eventually conceded
 A study by Tannis McBeth Williams looked
at a natural experiment: before and after
introduction in 1970s. There was ‘notel’
‘mulitel’ and a control
 A multi part study
Impact of TV on Creativity ( Key
to Culture of Citizenship)
 Does TV facilitate or inhibit creative
thinking or imagination?
 Looked at the alternate uses task
 (e.g. tell me the different ways you can use a
newspaper)
 Total number and originality scored
Findings: Creativity
 Notel scored higher before TV
 A drop in length people would try to solve
problems
 Other dimensions: vocabulary use, spatial ability,
reading IQ followed similar trends
 Particularly marked among children
 Why?
 TV displaced other activities where creativity is
valued: displaced deeper information processing,
encouraged convergent, not divergent thinking
 TV suppresses a culture of creativity, intrinsic to a
culture of citizenship
Findings: Aggression/Civility (
Key to Culture of Citizenship)
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Looked at patterns of children’s play
Aggression used in place of a social solution more often
Stereotyping and other expectations more prevalent.
Emotion, not Rational problem solving during conflict
promoted
 Rejection of any effects not logically tenable
 TV cultivates a ‘mean world’ syndrome which
saps a culture of citizenship, a sense of
community empowerment
 Clearly, proven to displace other leisure pursuits
What are the Cultural Effects?
 Media now predominantly commercially driven ( less
than 3% of TV viewing is now non commercial)
 Exist to sell ideas, products values
 Promote consumerism, individualism, will to gratify individual
choice
 Promote ‘lifestyle’ politics: branding of self and identities
 “post” modern valorization of choice, diversity, difference
 All as superficial style
 Promote an ethical relativism:
 its all a matter of taste, if you don’t like it, switch it off
 TV commodifies politics, creates a culture of consumers,
not citizens ( See Fletcher and McGrath)
What are the Political Effects?
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Media set the agenda for what the public thinks is important
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‘Frame’ news in a certain way
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Public opinion polls repeatedly find what people say is the top problem facing the nation is
what the media are covering
So that elections are about the “horserace” and not the issues : Mayor DaVinci
So that there is a “war on terrorism” which legitimates almost total suspension of civil liberties
Guilty of war, not peacemongering?
Annenberg: cultivate a “mainstream world view” heavy TV viewers, lack of
tolerance for diversity or complexity
Historically: media focus on “ the now”: do not provide the past or contrary interpretations of the
past and present
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Indirectly, send the political system into disrepute
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may be contributing to the decline of party loyalty, rise of swing voters, or decline of voting levels ( Taras,
Fletcher and McGrath
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Structural view: Key agent of socialization into values of democratic capitalism
Critical View: Key agent of hegemony: maintenance of power and exploitation
of weak
The Conflict of Values in News
Manufacture: Democracy’s Oxygen
 What sells
 What is ‘hot’ recent
 What is close and
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relevant
Reports stars
Involves conflict
Easily labels: reductionist
Unexpected, novel
 What the society thinks it
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values
What matters:
What is not ambulance
chasing
Reports broad
newsmakers and NGOs
Features conflict
resolution
Complex
Context: history, a map to
interpreting complexity
What are the social effects?
 Fleras: media express dominant culture, contain minority
cultures, establish hierarchy, exclusion or inclusion
 Promote social tolerance/intolerance or empathy/
indifference to ethnocultural or other difference
 Now, media interaction requires higher and higher
access to money for the technology and literacy: creating
a wider digital divide: a middle class gated community?
 The sociology of community is white, middle class and
gated
Several core dichotomies ( or
myths)
 Citizen versus consumer
 Market versus state
 Regulation versus deregulation
 Censorship versus freedom of expression
 Liberal versus reform responsibility
 Democracy versus Propaganda
Citizen versus Consumer
 The audience is the commodity in commercial media: access to
them is bought and sold to advertisers
 Their individual purchase/protest/switch off power is limited
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Consumer can veto in the marketplace ( Napster) and win partial victory
Teeth of the self-regulatory bodies are weak
Consumer Sovereignty not all that is supposed
As citizens, they control the lawmakers
Are shareholders in the CBC: their only non commercial ( and
largest news source outside of Canada and in Canada)
 Can complain/mobilize against offensive media
 BUT fewer than 10% do so( MediaWatch Survey): most just think they
can turn off/ not turn to an alternative/or formulate community standards
 Can argue for ownership laws: is a social movement arising in the US?
Citizen versus Consumer
 CITIZENS
 See a right to communicate
is central
 Maximize collective public
goods
 Concerned about digital
divide and growing gap rich
and poor
 Focus on public interest,
social responsibility views
 Positive rights
 CONSUMERS
 See freedom of choice
 Maximize individual wants
 See media as mostly
entertainment, and a luxury, for
those who can afford
 Focus on right to make/spend
money, neo-liberal views
 Negative rights only
Market versus State
 Fleras, Winseck, Murray all make the case that the market is a
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social institution
The market has its own form of economic and social censorship–
both direct and indirect
The market is structured by State
There is rarely a period of complete absence of economic regulation
in the media ( usually chaos at first introduction of a new medium
eg. Radio is ended by the industry’s request for regulation)
With concentration of ownership, there is a concern over fair
competition, adequate diversity of expression
State has been less likely to intervene in some media: with
globalization it is increasingly hard to intervene against the Multi
Nationals
Regulation versus Deregulation
 There are many forms of regulation to promote Canadian cultural
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industries in the face of US’s comparative advantage in cultural
production
Fleras argues that there are many tools ( can con quota,
simultaneous substitution rule, income tax breaks, intellectual
property law) in film and TV and entertainment
Canada faces unique economic challenges in globalization due to
the nature of the cultural commodity, and needs to negotiate the
freedom to invent its cultural policy in its own image with a cultural
accord
Regulation is needed by smaller markets, to offset competitive
disadvantage
Even when there is so called “deregulation”– that is no direct state
intervention-- there is indirect social regulation: the control of public
outrage or public controversy
Regulation versus Deregulation
 Regulation
 Typical of electronic media
 Treat communication as a
scarce resource
 Enact legislation ( eg.
Broadcasting Act)
 Regulate: entry, terms of
service, standards of
service
 Eg. Canadian content
quota, simultaneous
substitution rule, tax laws
 To preserve a Canadian
choice
 Deregulation
 Typical of print and new
media ( irony: computers)
 Treat communication as
service best provided by
competitors at market
 Resist legislation
 Allow some forms of selfregulation ( anti spam etc)
 Now refers to removal of
ownership or other content
provisions
 To preserve free trade and
open markets
Censorship versus Freedom of
Expression
 There is no absolute right to freedom of expression in
the Canadian constitution
 There are unique protections for minority expression, the
consideration of when, in certain cases, social good may
outweigh individual or corporate freedom of expression
 Canada has some of the most progressive standards in
the world ( Gendersetting, Violence in Media etc)
 But every case is different: there is a superordinate
freedom of expression, and some communities value it
more highly than others: but citizens must be aware of
how to influence community standards in its
interpretation and what are the main tests for evaluating
media contents
Censorship Versus Freedom of
Expression
 Censorship
 May override basic freedoms
when limits are ‘reasonable’,
‘democratic’( that is,
prescribed by law) and
demonstrably justified in a
free, democratic and
multicultural society
 Censorship is social control by
the majority, necessary and
normal
 Censorship may be enacted to
protect the minority from the
majority( hate)
 Censorship can have effect:
that is, reduce risk or change
behavior
 Freedom of Expression
 Fundamental to the individual,
includes the media
 Should therefore be absolute
 Censorship is by an
elite/control oriented and often
misdirected at symptom, not
underlying cause of social
problems
 Censorship is ineffective in
changing behavior: thwarts
rather than advances
democracy by hiding the
unpleasant or drawing more
attention to it
 ( see page 96: Fleras)
Liberal versus Reform
responsibility
 What has been a pendulum in favour of privatization,
commercialization and a neo liberal view of the media has swung
abruptly back
 Even very free market states like the US are involved in huge
military and security interventions
 Most countries in the world, with the exception of the US ( and some
other regimes) consider the media a public good and subject to
responsibilities
 Even in the US, a constant struggle between reformers and pro
marketers, with latter in the bare minority
 But what we have now is a mixed economy: neo liberal versus
social responsibility views intermingle for the various media
 With convergence: will there be a race to the bottom? Progressive
liberalization? What hope for poor countries?
Neo Liberal ( or neo-classical)
Ideology
 Looks at cultural products like any other
 Restricts role of State in regulation
 Sees only a negative role for the state:
preventing market abuse
 Looks at maximization of individual self- interest
as the most liberating communication force
 Advancing aggressive platform for free trade
globally
 Pushing for domestic deregulation
Reform Liberal Ideology
 Treats culture as a public good not like a private
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one
Expands role of State in regulation
Sees State as providing positive rights:
capacities for citizens to engage culturally
Looks at maximization of the public/citizen’s
interests
Looking for protections in the push to global
trade( a special covenant internationally on
cultural standards)
Pushing for reregulation: smaller
business/creator entry, restraint of dominant
players
Reform Liberal Ideology
 A public good problem of cultural products is
recognized
 Metaphor is not a commodity but a (natural) resource:
like air or water: scarce, but renewable, and common
property
 Cultural/Information/Media Products are more important
than other products: they are either renewable( artistic
creation) or non-renewable( the Buddhist statues ruined
by Taliban)
 The public good arguments:
 ( liberal humanist goal of ideal citizenry/continuity of a
society/political integrity/ creativity of expression/)
 (nation-building) a sense of belonging
 ( multi-culturalism) a protection of minorities
Democracy Versus Propaganda
 Historically, State’s have used propaganda against their enemies in
war, and certain techniques on their own troops/citizens to mobilize
in a ‘just’, democratically constituted war
 Traditional propaganda during war has now expanded into ‘war on
terrorism’ with no clear time horizon or clear enemy
 Democratic regimes now use political marketing, techniques of
persuasion widely
 Sole protections: Ethics Commissioner, Access to Information Acts,
vigilant public press and vigilant public
 Various Homeland Security Acts/ covenants on Terrorism pose a
real threat to press freedoms and public’s rights to privacy and to
know…especially raise the issue of racial profiling, new forms of
State oppression
 ( See Fleras, pp. 53-57)
Media in a Time of Crisis
 Aftermath of 9-11 proves civil liberties are
vulnerable
 State control of military intelligence
information is now very tight
 Press not able to find out: about interned
prisoners ( importance of Arar case)
 Canada not able to challenge US military
intelligence or find out about detained
citizens
Crisis Cont’d
 US now threatening video surveillance cameras
at the border: ‘dictating’ 3 fold increase in
military expenditures ( Rumsfeld); a new
Canadian identity card; “surveillance society” of
George Orwell’s 1984 that threatens spillover
 In the US, dissent is unpatriotic, or worse,
terrorist
 A return to propaganda, racial profiling, risk of
McCarthy era in Cold War: and which press is
writing about this? The story is only beginning
The Media, Politics,
Marketplace and Democracy
 We have been and will continue to be
involved in major global transformations of
economies, democracies, cultures and
societies
 The best way to monitor the impact of
such change is through a vigorous news
media, committed artistic community, and
impassioned debates over ethical and
democratic issues
Media Reform Movements in
Canada
 Social movements emerging ( Mediawatch, CRARR, Impacs, Fraser
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Institute)
Anti war,and pro privacy
Calls for increasing support for CBC: merging it with the press
councils ( ending the individual ombudsman)
Increasing $ to alternative media
Federal investigation into mainstream oligopolies: a pressure which
is rising now that Minister Rock wants to deregulate the restriction
on 20% foreign ownership
More teeth– and supreme court challenges—on complaints on the
quality of media coverage to do with equity, or fairness
More studies of the content of the media: is it good or bad or why
The Public Opportunity
 Venues like the World Information Summit
( sponsored by the UN)
 The International Cultural Accord which
calls for fair trade in Culture ( UNESCO)
led by Canada and supported by over 50
countries
 WTO: challenging again and again the
economism of their world view
Recommendations for Democratic
Communication
CULTURAL DEMOCRACY
 Support public,
alternative, noncommercial space for the
media
 Build media literacy and
awareness
 Monitor and critique
mainstream media
 Increase the quality and
coordination of selfregulation
 CULTURAL
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INDUSTRIES
Protect the Freedom of
the Press
Support private media
outlets against unfair
competition from the US
Build audiences for
Canadian media
Monitor and critique
alternative media
Remove regulation: there
is sufficient competition to
let the market decide
CMNS 130 Bottom Line
 Media Politics Matter
 Citizens must be aware of the democratic
consequences of the media worlds they
swim in
 The best counsel for media tyranny is
indifference: beware of the Brave New
World