Oblak Črnič, Tanja in Jernej Prodnik - Pristranosti interneta in (ne)moč spletnih občinstev (original) (raw)

2012, Družboslovne razprave (2012, no. 70, vol. 28, pp. 51-70)

Oblak Črnič, Tanja in Jernej Prodnik - Pristranosti interneta in (ne)moč spletnih občinstev. This article was published in the journal Družboslovne razprave, številka 70, letnik XXVIII, str. 51-70, september 2012. Weblink: http://druzboslovnerazprave.org/clanek/2012/70/3/ ENGLISH: Title: The biases of the internet and the (un)power of web audiences. Abstract: The main purpose of this article is to lay out the main limitations when it comes to the »emancipatory« potentials of the Internet, and to show certain biases of this technology in regards to the audiences and individual agency online. The text first conceptualizes cyberspace as an assemblage of material infrastructure, public representations and everyday practices, which enables to differentiate key levels through which relations between different actors on the Web are formed. After that, authors provide a critique of technological determinism by focusing on their own model of material, incorporated, and structural biases that constrain the power of audiences and possible emancipatory potentials that could develop online. While material biases derive from the technical infrastructure of the web that is based in network structure and web links, embedded biases are referred to digital competencies, homogenization of choice, and mechanisms of authority. When it comes to structural biases a crucial point is assigned to commodification, privatization, and concentration, which are transmitted both on the technical infrastructure as well as on content and applications. Authors conclude with consideration of possible consequences of such findings for understanding of complicated relations when it comes to studying audiences on the Web. EXTENDED SUMMARY: The present article lays out main limitations of the “emancipatory” potentials of the Internet as a medium, which was throughout its history presented in mostly utopian terms. It was commonly considered as a medium that will bring positive social and political change that will enable equality between users, non-hierarchical relations and consequently also new potentials for fully developed democracy. Article demonstrates certain biases of this new technology in regards to the audiences and individual agency on the Net, by providing a critique of the before mentioned simplistic notions of its possible use and development in a wider social context. These biases are either connected to the material limitations and are therefore dictated by the technical biases of technology as such, or reflect wider socio-structural limitations that are mirrored through the Net. The Internet, being a part of wider social relations, much like other technologies either enables or constrains audiences and their autonomy. On the basis of these preliminary presuppositions, authors first conceptualize cyberspace as an assemblage of material infrastructure, public representations and everyday practices, which enables them to analytically differentiate key levels through which relations between different actors are constituted. After this initial clarification, authors provide a critique of technological determinism, which presents technological changes as independent, neutral and autonomous from society. This approach is connected to the “ideology of technology”, which can be seen as providing an influential interpretations of technological and social changes, especially of its supposedly positive outcomes (which seem necessary and inevitable in this interpretation). As an alternative, authors present Innis’s theory of the biases of communication, which was often accused of technological determinism. They demonstrate that a closer interpretation of this theory can offer a much more nuanced and complex picture of the role technology plays in society. This offers a solid ground for authors to focus on their own model of material, embedded and structural biases of the Internet that constrain and limit the power of audiences on the Internet and with it also possible emancipatory potentials that could develop through the use of this new technology. Firstly, material biases develop from the technical infrastructure of the Net that is based in network structure and web links. This bias shows a tendency towards the politics of winners-take-all (e.g. the concept of “Googlearchy”), while autonomy of audiences can also be limited through choices of architecture or design of specific medium or technology (and may seem self-evident or even natural when they are completely implemented). Secondly, embedded biases are connected to digital competencies, homogenization of choice, and mechanisms of authority. These biases can change with use and practice of audiences, but nevertheless seriously constrain activities of individual users. They are connected to the wider social relations, for example to the social norms, regulation, hierarchies or social inequalities. A crucial part when it comes to the third type of biases, the structural ones, is assigned to commodification, privatization, and concentration on (and of) the Internet. These processes are transmitted both on the technical infrastructure of the networks (privatization) as well as on the content and applications running on this material basis. The Internet is a part of capitalist societies, which produce serious inequalities, while there is also a constant tendency toward monopolization. These processes reinstate new (old) hierarchies and (re)produce concentration of power both through the Net and on it. Authors claim that all these biases and their different levels of influence seriously impede possibilities for possible autonomy of audiences and users when it comes to their activities and choices on the Internet. They note that particular biases are usually at the same time in complex reciprocal relation with one another and can either enhance or even contradict each other. While a certain bias of new technology can provide new means of autonomy (e.g. reduction of exclusivity when it comes to the production of content), others can seriously impede such possibilities (e.g. new monopolies and economic elites, concentration of the web-traffic, or privatization of technological infrastructure and large parts of the Web). It is therefore possible to see several contradictions and antagonisms at work both within the Internet and within society, which fully normalized this new technology. Authors conclude their article with a consideration of possible consequences of these findings for understanding of complicated relations when it comes to studying audiences on the Web, by pointing at different possibilities of political empowerment. Keywords: biases and cyberspace, web-audiences, the web and the Internet, inequality and hierarchies, concentration of power Povzetek Namen prispevka je pokazati na omejitve »emancipatornih« potencialov interneta kot medija in opozoriti na svojstvene pristranosti, ki zmanjšujejo avtonomijo pri delovanju ter izbirah posameznikov na spletu. Avtorja najprej konceptualizirata kibernetski prostor kot skupek materialne infrastrukture, javnih reprezentacij in vsakodnevnih praks, kar jima omogoči, da analitično razmejita ključne ravni, prek katerih se vzpostavljajo razmerja med spletnimi akterji. V nadaljevanju prek kritike tehnološkega determinizma predstavita lasten model materialnih, vgrajenih in strukturnih pristranosti. Medtem ko materialne pristranosti izhajajo iz same tehnične infrastrukture interneta, ki temelji v mrežni strukturi in spletnih povezavah, so vgrajene pristranosti povezane z digitalnimi veščinami, homogenizacijo izbire in mehanizmi avtoritete. Pri strukturnih pristranostih igrajo ključno vlogo komodifikacija, privatizacija in koncentracija, ki se prenašajo tako na tehnično infrastrukturo samih omrežij kot na vsebine in aplikacije, ki tečejo na omenjeni materialni platformi. Avtorja članek skleneta z razmislekom o posledicah teh ugotovitev za proučevanje spletnih občinstev. Ključne besede: pristranosti in kibernetski prostor, občinstva, splet in internet, neenakosti, hierarhičnost, koncentracija moči