by Satanus 9 Replies latest jw friends
How much do y'all think that the internet has to do w the public opinion of the war? Could it be that the pro war side is mainly fed by television and radio, whereas the anti war side uses the internet more? What is your estimation of the internet influences and uses?
SS
Generally, mobs are stupid. However, w internet and other new technology like cell phones, mobs can be smart. Here is a blurb about a book on this subject.
http://www.smartmobs.com/book/index.html
Smart mobs emerge when communication and computing technologies amplify human talents for cooperation. The impacts of smart mob technology already appear to be both beneficial and destructive, used by some of its earliest adopters to support democracy and by others to coordinate terrorist attacks. The technologies that are beginning to make smart mobs possible are mobile communication devices and pervasive computing - inexpensive microprocessors embedded in everyday objects and environments. Already, governments have fallen, youth subcultures have blossomed from Asia to Scandinavia, new industries have been born and older industries have launched furious counterattacks.
Street demonstrators in the 1999 anti-WTO protests used dynamically updated websites, cell-phones, and "swarming" tactics in the "battle of Seattle." A million Filipinos toppled President Estrada through public demonstrations organized through salvos of text messages.
The pieces of the puzzle are all around us now, but haven't joined together yet. The radio chips designed to replace barcodes on manufactured objects are part of it. Wireless Internet nodes in cafes, hotels, and neighborhoods are part of it. Millions of people who lend their computers to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence are part of it. The way buyers and sellers rate each other on Internet auction site eBay is part of it. Research by biologists, sociologists, and economists into the nature of cooperation offer explanatory frameworks. At least one key global business question is part of it - why is the Japanese company DoCoMo profiting from enhanced wireless Internet services while US and European mobile telephony operators struggle to avoid failure?
The people who make up smart mobs cooperate in ways never before possible because they carry devices that possess both communication and computing capabilities. Their mobile devices connect them with other information devices in the environment as well as with other people's telephones. Dirt-cheap microprocessors embedded in everything from box tops to shoes are beginning to permeate furniture, buildings, neighborhoods, products with invisible intercommunicating smartifacts. When they connect the tangible objects and places of our daily lives with the Internet, handheld communication media mutate into wearable remote control devices for the physical world.
Media cartels and government agencies are seeking to reimpose the regime of the broadcast era in which the customers of technology will be deprived of the power to create and left only with the power to consume. That power struggle is what the battles over file-sharing, copy-protection, regulation of the radio spectrum are about. Are the populations of tomorrow going to be users, like the PC owners and website creators who turned technology to widespread innovation? Or will they be consumers, constrained from innovation and locked into the technology and business models of the most powerful entrenched interests?
SS
SS,
I am still trying to work my mind around a Canadian using the phrase "y'all". But in answer to your question, I think that you could be on to something. I no longer have cable and rely upon the internet for news regarding the war. The more I read, the more I think that this is an immoral war. My friends, who are pro-"liberating the Iraqis" get most of their news from cable. They remain quite gung-ho regarding this war.
Robyn
Hi SS - what a great article!
Power struggles..... they make the world go round!
I loved this line:
[quote]The people who make up smart mobs cooperate in ways never before possible[/quote]
I received the following e-mail from my ex-husband, who has been involved in defense R & D for over 20 years. It blew me away. [i]I can't stand this war or the persons who rail-roaded the US into it, but find it impossible to not 'support' (I guess I mean empathize) and care about the deployed troops.[/i]
Subject: FW: A message from Kuwait
Importance: High
All: FYI. Just remember, we who calculate also fight! --
Thought you might like to see this. I've sent the whole thread -- the
original message is at the bottom.
To: DL MDNTS Leadership Team
Subject: FW: Patriot & Math & the 10 year {PRE war} war
Interesting note from Kuwait!
-----Original Message-----
From: - SETA
Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2003 4:38 PM
Note from Kuwait via Pat ----- from ex-BMDOer, Maj Dan ----
that I know you'll especially appreciate
All, Timely proof our efforts are recognized. Andy
Ma'am, A little bit of validation of the mission.
MAJ Dan ---- worked at MDA in Project Hercules a couple of years ago.
He's now in Kuwait and sent this update. Good to hear...
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Thursday, March 20, 2003 11:02 PM
Subject: Patriot & Math & the 10 year {PRE war} war
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~> (This is the original message, forwarded to all the above)
[quote]Hello Missile defenders
Several Al Samud missiles were shot at us over yesterday and last
night. Our nation lost several good young people last night on the ground,
however none to missile hits.
My locations OK, guarded by Patriot intercepts. Good thing for those
math and science folks who burned the midnight oil in peacetime!
COL Newberry, Patriot PM, was actually in one of the Patriot batterys
when it engaged and intercepted one of the morning shots at us.
words can't say it all. ...stayn' alive .
dan[/quote]
ps- When someone asks you "What did you do in the great war?", just
answer, that you fought the war on a calculator, a computer, and a
physics book, 5 or 10 years before the intercept was needed.
thanks, missile defenders
MAJ Dan [email protected]
Local in Camp Doha, Kuwait- 438-4636
Peace, lauralisa
Robdar
I suppose saying 'you all' would be more canadian. Maybe it's the influence of the board :)
There is always the chicken and egg issue to consider, i.e. maybe there is also a tendency for the antis to migrate to the web. But i think it's smaller than the other one (the net influencing those already on it). Yet, farkel has been on the net since before it was created, and he remains pro war. Go figure.
SS
The web allows for a wider range of views, regardless of the forum. The media tends to be more specific.
I've noticed that the reporting and analysis on the 24/hr news channels have tended to be supportive of the war. While occasionally reporting on some of the anti-war protests here an abroad, for the most part they have shown the war from the perspective of the U.S. We've seen and heard about American casualties, the precision of the guided missiles that have avoided civilian areas, the happy Iraqis that emerged from their beleaguered mud huts on seeing the Allied Liberators, etc.
The Internet offers a wider, less pro-West perspective -- one beyond the control of media owners and boardrooms.
interesting post lauralisa,
I despise the idiots in charge of this stupid war but wish 'our blokes' the best (i know personally several already there and others soon to go - one guy, a helicopter mechanic i know is due to leave here for Iraq on August 5th .. long way off eh. )
thanks, unclebruce
g'day Unclebruce!!!!!!!!
or g'night, whichever the case may be... Let's go over there and kick butt. I bet they'd just stop all that nonsense at once. (You know how much of a bitch I can be!!!!!!!) *smile*
smooches, lauralisa
Could it be that the pro war side is mainly fed by television and radio, whereas the anti war side uses the internet more?
i dont know, i dont really think so personally. i do a lot of web searches on the war, and always read the links provided by the anti side, and have yet to read anything to change my prowar stance. i think the anti side does get the majority of their news from the web, but theres a good reason for that....namely that they discount 99% of the information coming from the mainstream news channels as "propaganda", and therefore flock to the internet in search of "alternative" news sources.
imo, the prowar side gets their propaganda from various sources, internet included, whereas the antiwar side prefers to get their propaganda from the internet only. bottom line, both sides are fed exactly what the feeders want them to eat.......ammunition for their stance.
aa
Thank all for your comments.
The thing about the internet that makes me happy, is that i can choose which issues to explore. In the popular media, the choices as to what is news and what isn't, and how it will be presented are made by those responsible to stockholders or other power blocks. Their concerns aren't necesarily truth or balance, but survival and expansion. This is not to say that every individual internaut is balanced and truthful, but at least he/she is allowed to grow in the directions he/she chooses, likely serving his/her own best interests, not some big cheese thousands of miles away.
SS
