In a fascinating new study entitled "A Tale of Two Blogospheres: Discursive Practices on the Left and Right" researchers affiliated with Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society found that left-wing and right-wing bloggers use technology differently. Left-wingers are more likely to choose a collective approach and form sites with multiple bloggers and that allow reader participation than right-wing bloggers who tend to favor individual blogger sites.
In some ways this isn't surprising because the major ideological distinction between left and right is how the collective and individual are valued, but what does this mean for the future of the internet? And even more importantly, what does this mean for the future of democracy? Can an individual use the power of the internet to influence politics more powerfully than in previous media environments such as print and television? What are the differences in the ways an individual can impact power using network technology? Is the internet just more of the same media power structure in a new form? Or will it develop in a way that allows individuals a new form of power that enables greater social impact by the individual? Can we envision a society with a new form of democratic public sphere in which power is distributed more equally because our individual voices are more powerful?
It seems to me that if the left continues to dominate the blogosphere, it may be possible to develop a society based on a decentralized power structure. It seems to me that the battles we are fighting today - from health care reform to Wall Street reform and to net neutrality - are over how power is distributed across the network of the new political economy we see taking form.
New Study: Liberals More Open Than Conservatives Online
The Sociology of Political Blogs: An Interview with Yochai Benkler
Education Debt in the Ownership Society
From Alternet:
Will the twin crises of housing and education debt freeze young people out of the American dream?
"Education and housing are inextricably intertwined in both the American imagination and our economy -- yet there has been very little talk about how the student debt crisis and the housing crisis relate to each other in terms of both long-term economic cycles and our changing American identity. As evidenced by the overblown debate over interest rates taking place in Congress, we remain focused on minor details, and have yet to examine the big picture of what these twin crises portend."
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