http://www.city.ba/dogadjaji/izlozbe/4816-zajednicka-izlozba-florijanivanvladimir-josip-mickovic

soc300_podcast2

ivan mickovic’s Podcast

soc300_podcast2 by Video is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License.
Based on a work at ivanmickovic.podomatic.com.

Towards the end of the chapter Benkler raises concern about who will fill the role of the watchdog? He argues that web2.0 has brought us the freedom of expression which is great but only government and big corporate power can actually fight the battles of the “complex world” (Benkler 261). Benkler disagrees with this and just like Shirky in her book, he uses the case of the Senator Lott. The mass media didnt cover the Senator Lott comments but individual bloggers did. As they continued covering Senators comments they were eventually able to capture enough attention and Senator Lott resigned soon after(Benkler 264). This intervention was a good example of networked information environment community acting as a watchdog by proving that we don’t need big “corporate power” to act as a watchdog!

However, with Web 2.0 the information flow has changed drastically. The consumers are now able to create, provide, control the information and distribute it without the control of the established mass-media. Hence, the name of the chapter “Everyone is a media outlet”. This has left the old-school media professionals surprised and really slow to adapt to the change. Author argues that the web didn’t introduced the new competitor into old ecosystem but it created the new ecosystem in which consumers are thriving while the old school media business corporations are fighting for the “survival”(Shirky 59).

In the web 2.0 environment publishing of the information is easy. Anyone with an access to internet can control and create the news.  Shirky argues that this has created the mass amateurization of the information and communication process. On the one hand the trustworthiness of the information that is available on many blogs, tweets or facebooks etc,.. might be lower then that of established outlets like The New York Times but author says that “the same way you do not have to be a professional driver to drive, you no longer have to be professional publisher to publish”(Shirky 65).

Because of the networked information economy or internet accessibility, individuals are able to navigate better outside of the mass-media control (i.e. TV, radio etc,..). Benkler argues that networked information economy although some might look at it as “technological utopianism” (131) provides individuals with necessary tools to design, create  and share knowledge which will not only serve as a response to the status quo which have institutions placed upon us but also it will improve economic injustice and create better environment for the individuals within the same community.

Benkler then argues that TV has molded individuals into passive couch-potato-easily manipulated consumers. He looks at online video game community how it has evolved individuals into “active makers of the entertainment environment that they occupy” rather then inert seekers of the experience given and provided by TV. (Benkler 136) He belives that the online video games create a new networked information economy kind of user: someone who is unconstrained by the “TV” cultural control, someone who can act independently, create, share and recive information independetly of the one constructed and spoon fed by existing cultural and political institutions.

Author argues that networked information economy “is space for much more expression, from diverse sources and of diverse qualities. Freedom – the freedom to speak, but also to be free from manipulation” (Benkler 168).  It kind of sounds like one of the definitions of anarchy “A social state in which there is no governing person or group of people, but each individual has absolute liberty“.  Whatever it is, it doesn’t matter anymore. The shift is happening and individuals have alternative communication voices rather then TV, institution, etc,…

Benkler argues that most advanced economies have two systems of the market based production: old way so-called pre-internet way and new way which is organized in much more decentralized way using the internet(2). He calls the second system ‘networked information economy’ which is slowly but surely replacing the old market which is based on the industrial information economy. Author argues that economies of industrial production have imposed certain limitations in the way liberal democracies control individuals in obtaining personal freedom and market flexibility. Benkler believes that the ‘networked information economy’ allows individuals to operate  outside traditional market sphere and price system but more importantly the ‘networked information economy’ ”enhances their ability to do more for and by themselves”  (8). In a sense we are allowed to seek out the information that we need with the less dependence on the commercial mass media of the twentieth century. This allows us to have stronger control of our own lives with much greater autonomy for individual freedom.

What I find amazing is the low-cost of the ‘networked information economy’.  By using web2.0 environment and sites like etsy, ebay etc,… people can cheaply sidestep economies organized in industrial information market.  Benkler argues that ‘networked information economy’ cannot solve world hunger and disease but serves individuals and non traditional groups as an outlet to speak, engage and challenge democratic public sphere.