Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
foment mutual understandings within a broader, heterogeneous, differentiated civil
society. Of course, the reality of unequal digital access is never a perfect reflection
of the idealized norm: the digital divide, at multiple spatial scales, signifies that
social and spatial inequalities are reproduced inside of cyberspace. That said, at
minimal cost and easy to use, the internet allows for the construction of a nego-
tiated consensus that lies at the heart of legitimate political rule. As Froomkin
(
2003
, p. 856) puts it, ''In Habermasian terms, the Internet draws power back into
the public sphere, away from other systems.'' More generally, by shifting the
production of meaning from the few to the many, unfettered electronic commu-
nication allows truth to be uncoupled from power.
Given this ideal, internet censorship represents a particularly egregious
infringement not only upon democratic norms of liberty, equality, and informed
dissent, but upon the discursive capacity of citizens to construct their worlds. Far
from challenging existing power relations, censorship of cyberspace thus amplifies
them. At risk, when and where censorship succeeds, is the production of reason
itself: if, following Habermas, truth is the consensual outcome of reasoned debate,
then government limitations on internet access and attempts to shape the contents
of cyberspace fly in the face of peaceful resolutions of differences. Ever since
Foucault, social science has concerned itself greatly with the ways in which power
and knowledge are hopelessly entwined with one another. Censorship of whatever
type is thus an affirmation that rational consensus, and thus truth, is impossible in
the face of force.
3.4 Conclusions
Many groups in closed societies can view digital information in a manner
unavailable in censored print or broadcast media, undermining state monopolies
over the media, and enhancing, if slowly and contingently, moves toward demo-
cratic governance (Slane
2007
). Precisely because cyberspace facilitates relatively
easy, unfettered access to information, it has been viewed with alarm by numerous
governments. In and of itself, of course, the internet does not simply produce
positive or negative effects, for its information is always filtered through national
and local cultures, biases, and predispositions. However, as ever larger numbers of
people are brought into contact with one another on-line, cyberspace may expand
opportunities for engaging in political activity, some of which challenges or del-
egitimizes prevailing models of authority by undermining the monopoly of tra-
ditional elites over the means of communication. The internet is relatively low in
cost and easy to use, and thus reduces a major obstacle to the participation in
public debate by the poor. Because it allows access to multiple sources of infor-
mation, including films and images, the internet has facilitated a generalized
growth in awareness of foreign ideas, products, and political norms. Indeed, as
Yang
(
2003
)
suggests,
given
how
widespread
digital
communications
have
