Tuesday 7 June 2011

The Impact of the Electric Telegraph and the Internet on Politics

4. When publishing changes, so does society. Investigate and compare the impact of two publication technologies, one pre-1900 and one post-1962, on a specific aspect of society (e.g. education, politics, creative industries, science, entertainment, social relationships).

In general terms, publishing refers to the process of making some sort of information known to the public. The concept is one hard to define, firstly due to the large variety of publication forms, many of which serve different purposes from each other. Also, with advancements in technology come advancements in the publishing process, thus, more publication technologies are being created overtime. Publishing is continuously adapting within our society, and its effects on politics have therefore changed throughout history, for the degree to which individuals are affected by publishing has intensified. The electric telegraph and the internet are two publication technologies which have both impacted on politics within society. The impacts of each of these differ, due to the times with which they were invented. Therefore, the internet formed a larger impact on politics, due to the added political purposes with which it held.

The Electric Telegraph

The electric telegraph is an electrical circuit which transmits messages from one point to another. This piece of technology converted “messages into electric impulses that travelled instantaneously by wire to distant receivers, where they were converted back into readable text.”[1] There were several stages in the invention of the electric telegraph. In 1830 the potential of this telegraph was displayed, but still not officially used. Eight years later, Samuel Morse created a demo of the electric telegraph which “popularized the machine.”[2] It was only in 1843 that Morse was given approval to fund the telegraph line, which first ran from Washington to Baltimore.[3]


                                                    An Example of the Electric Telegraph

                              (Source: http://zkahlina.ca/eng/2010/10/07/information-technology-oldies/)



This invention impacted on politics during this time in a number of ways. Prior to the electric telegraph, information which was to be communicated to different parts of the world required a slow and demanding process. Messages could only be exchanged at the speed of a sailing ship or a galloping horse[4], for written documents were the only form of communication at this time, which had to be physically received on the other end in order to be communicated. In regards to politics, this was described as was “an unreliable process and one that could produce ambiguous results.”[5] Therefore, the electric telegraph allowed for enormous changes in communication, particularly in terms of speed and reliability. Telegraphs travelled at lightning speed across oceans, and the process of coding and decoding these messages allowed for telegraphs to be available within hours after they were created.

Telegraphs firstly impacted on politics in the way that they positively contributed to the work of policymakers. Due to the speed of which messages could now be sent, information of a crisis which occurred could now be available to policymakers within hours of it occurring. This allowed for them to react to any issue involving intense difficulty, trouble or danger; something which may have otherwise been overlooked for weeks.[6] Therefore, the issue could be resolved more efficiently. This ability to resolve things at a faster speed, however, also “placed time pressures upon political leaders.”[7] The news of international government disputes was now capable of reaching the public just as fast. This created challenges for foreign ministries, who now had to perform careful diplomacy at a faster speed, without the time for precise planning with which they were used to. Often, policymakers had to resolve issues before they reached the public, which put much more time pressure on them.


                                              Messengers prior to the Electric Telegraph

                                            (Source: http://scienceservice.si.edu/pages/128004.htm)



The electric telegraph also impacted on politics in the way the functions of diplomatic representatives soon began to change.[8] In the past, important persons were expected to make enormous decisions by themselves, for they were not able to receive their instructions in time. As further explained by John Shaw, “They were compelled to make important decisions before they could receive instructions from home.”[9] Telegraphs reduced this pressure on diplomats, for almost instantaneous communication could now take place between different representatives. This reduced the possibilities of errors within the government, as decisions could be made with much deliberation and negotiation, yet still in a short amount of time.[10]

Diplomats also began to learn how to write more concisely as a way to reduce the amount of writing, and therefore reduce telegraph expenses.[11] This efficient skill was only formed as a result of the electric telegraph. This publication technology also brought upon the threat of spies, who could potentially track the messages being transmitted. This resulted in the creation of codes among international ministries, to keep contents secret from spies. Therefore, telegraphs also increased the threat of leaking important and secret information to the public; a delicate issue which still exists in other forms of publication today.

As it can be seen, the introduction of the electrical telegraph greatly changed the way politics worked and existed in the 19th Century. In regards to benefiting politics within society, the telegraph allowed for issues to be heard and resolved more efficiently than before, created the need for coding messaged, allowed for more global communication among diplomacies, and improved the roles of certain representatives. The negative impacts of the telegraph concern the potential threat of the public as well as spies having access to secret and important government information. So, through this advancement in publication technology, the way in which governments functioned was both heightened and put at risk.

The Internet

The evolution of the internet has reshaped our society, as it has influenced numerous aspects of our world, including social relationships, education, politics, entertainment and business. Politics is one aspect which has predominantly changed, following the introduction of the internet. These changes are seen to be both beneficial and detrimental, for the following reasons.


                                                           The Power of the Internet

                                   (Source: http://www.skuggen.com/2010/02/the-internet-makes-us-smarter/)


Internet has firstly impacted on politics in the way that it has created a new platform for politicians to launch their campaigns and communicate with the voting public. Prior to the internet, politicians could only reach the public through platforms such as television, radio, newspapers or magazines, or by meeting people on the street.[12] The internet has allowed for a completely new form of communication;

 Firstly, it has become a lever for direct democracy, in the way that politicians can now provide necessary information to the public, through the internet, in order to gain their vote. Political candidates are now adapting their campaigns through Internet technology, such as weblogs.[13] For example, politicians such as Kevin Rudd have created their own Twitter accounts in order to gain public attention through having other twitter users follow their daily movements. This allows for the public to keep up to date on the campaigns of candidates which, in time, influences their vote, for they are able to further understand the value of each candidate.

Secondly, politicians can communicate with the public on a more personal level, as average citizens can now interact with websites and voice their opinion on certain political issues. This is further shown in an article which explains the way that Thai politicians recently turned to social media for campaigning, describing how “the Democrats have launched a recruiting campaign on Facebook called "Future Thai Leaders". A week after its launch, the page has drawn more than 1,370 fans.”[14] These fans now have the opportunity to communicate with their government through interacting with the Facebook page.

Another political impact which the internet has created is the fact that in the modern day, almost anyone can be a democratiser due to the social media which surrounds us. The internet has created the notion of online political discussion. Following the introduction of social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, a new level of human interaction has been made possible, whereby individuals can now engage with political discussions with another and voice their opinions to the social networking world. Studies show that “Facebook is serving as an arena for political debate among members.”[15] Also, Charlie Brooker explains the way that YouTube is now commonly used by people to voice their opinions and videos on politics to the unknown public.[16] The internet has therefore allowed for average citizens to express their political opinion to the public, enabling them to also influence the public’s vote, as there is now great potential for users to receive political information which they would have otherwise not known about.


                                                                              Politicians and the Internet

                                           (Source: http://socialmediabattle.blogspot.com/2011/02/last-words.html)


The final impact which the internet has had on politics may be viewed as an issue which can be detrimental to Governments around the world. A new level of crime has formed due to the introduction of the internet. Computers can now be used in the commission of crime, for example, crimes such as cracking, copyright infringement, child pornography and financial theft. These have resulted in the need for tighter Government security, as well as the introduction of new policies, with the aim of prohibiting cybercrime among society. Policies have been created around the world, following the continuous crimes being committed over the internet. For example, in May 2011, the United States expanded the US Penal Code on fraud and related activity to ensure it was also connected to fraud within computers.[17] This is just one example of the laws which are continuing to be created to stop cybercrime, showing the way in which the internet has negatively impacted on politics.

Finally, politics have been put at risk due to the internet being created, for the leaking of secret Government information to the public has become a growing trend among society. Many members of society use Wikileaks to read about recently leaked diplomatic cables. This site illegally provides government documents to its users, which the government were intending on guarding from the public. Certain types of information are attempted to be kept away from the public eye, so that the Government can deal with foreign affairs and issues within themselves, in an efficient, safe and productive manner. Wikileaks disrupts this process, and allows for the public to become involved in something which they should not have insight into. David Wilkins, former US ambassador to Canada stated that “it is important that those frank opinions and judgments be stated in secret cables. That is what they are supposed to be — secret and confidential.”[18] This issue is similar to that of the electric telegraph, whereby spies could track messages which were being transmitted by the government, to gain insight into private government information. Therefore, both the telegraph and the internet increased potential threat of unauthorized persons accessing private information, which resulted in the tightening of government security in both circumstances.

However in regards to other impacts, it can be seen that the internet tends to affect politics to a greater extent. Firstly, the public have become further involved in politics following the introduction of the internet, as they can now interact with democratic persons as well as express their own political opinions to the public.  This function was not possible through the electric telegraph, as only important government persons were involved in this particular communication process. Also, the capabilities of politicians to extend their campaigns has only been made possible through the internet, and not through telegraphs. Therefore, through viewing several sources, one might suggest that the political impacts of publishing technologies increase overtime, for the invention of the internet has advanced the functions of governments around the world.



References:
·         Unknown. (2010). The Electric Telegraph. Available: http://www.wisteme.com/question.view?targetAction=viewQuestionTab&id=9502. Last accessed 7th June 2011.
·         Unknown. (2010). Who Invented the Telegraph?. Available: http://www.whoinventedit.net/who-invented-the-telegraph.html. Last accessed 7th June 2011.
·         Solymar. L. (2000). The effect of the telegraph on law and order, war, diplomacy, and power politics. Available: The effect of the telegraph on law and order, war, diplomacy, and power politics. Last accessed 5th June 2011.
·         David Paull Nickles (2003). Under the Wire. USA: Harvard University Press. 4.
·         Shaw. J. (2009). State Department Historian Urges Diplomats to Embrace Technology Carefully. Available: http://www
·         Unknown. (2004). The Internet's Impact on Mainstream Politics. Available: http://depts.washington.edu/ccce/digitalMedia/politicalimpact.html. Last accessed 6th June 2011.
·         Thai democrats article- K.Raksaseri. (2011). Politicians turn to social media for election campaigning. Available: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2011/02/18/national/Politicians-turn-to-social-media-for-election-camp-30148987.html. Last accessed 6th June 2011.
·         K.Kitchener and M.J.Kushin. (2009). First Monday. Getting political on social networking sites: Exploring online political discourse on Facebook. 14 (11), 14-15.
·         Charlier booker C.Brooker. (2010). How to Report the News. Available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtGSXMuWMR4. Last accessed 7th June 2011.
·         Unknown. (2011). Peace, justice, and security in cyberspace. Available: http://www.cybercrimelaw.net/Cybercrimelaw.html. Last accessed 7th June 2011
·         S.Alberts. (2010). WikiLeaks will have a 'chilling' effect on U.S. diplomacy: former ambassador. Available: http://www.canada.com/news/canada-in-afghanistan/WikiLeaks+will+have+chilling+effect+diplomacy+former+ambassador/3918814/story.html. Last accessed 6th June 2011.
By Caitlin Morris





































[1] Unknown. (2010). The Electric Telegraph. Available: http://www.wisteme.com/question.view?targetAction=viewQuestionTab&id=9502. Last accessed 7th June 2011.
[2] Unknown. (2010). Who Invented the Telegraph?. Available: http://www.whoinventedit.net/who-invented-the-telegraph.html. Last accessed 7th June 2011.
[3] Unknown. (2010). Who Invented the Telegraph?. Available: http://www.whoinventedit.net/who-invented-the-telegraph.html. Last accessed 7th June 2011.
[4] Unknown. (2010). The Electric Telegraph. Available: http://www.wisteme.com/question.view?targetAction=viewQuestionTab&id=9502. Last accessed 7th June 2011.
[5] Solymar. L. (2000). The effect of the telegraph on law and order, war, diplomacy, and power politics. Available: The effect of the telegraph on law and order, war, diplomacy, and power politics. Last accessed 5th June 2011.
[6] The Electric Telegraph. Available: http://www.wisteme.com/question.view?targetAction=viewQuestionTab&id=9502. Last accessed 7th June 2011.
[7] The Electric Telegraph. Available: http://www.wisteme.com/question.view?targetAction=viewQuestionTab&id=9502. Last accessed 7th June 2011.
[8] David Paull Nickles (2003). Under the Wire. USA: Harvard University Press. 4.
[9] Shaw. J. (2009). State Department Historian Urges Diplomats to Embrace Technology Carefully. Available: http://www.washingtondiplomat.com/04-11/a1_11_04.html. Last accessed 6th June 2011.
[10] Unknown. The Electric Telegraph. Available: http://www.wisteme.com/question.view?targetAction=viewQuestionTab&id=9502. Last accessed 7th June 2011.
[11] Unknown. The Electric Telegraph. Available: http://www.wisteme.com/question.view?targetAction=viewQuestionTab&id=9502. Last accessed 7th June 2011.
[12] Unknown. (2008). Internet, Impact on Politics. Available: http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G2-3045301169.html. Last accessed 4th June 2011.
[13] Unknown. (2004). The Internet's Impact on Mainstream Politics. Available: http://depts.washington.edu/ccce/digitalMedia/politicalimpact.html. Last accessed 6th June 2011.
[14] Thai democrats article- K.Raksaseri. (2011). Politicians turn to social media for election campaigning. Available: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2011/02/18/national/Politicians-turn-to-social-media-for-election-camp-30148987.html. Last accessed 6th June 2011.
[15] K.Kitchener and M.J.Kushin. (2009). First Monday. Getting political on social networking sites: Exploring online political discourse on Facebook. 14 (11), 14-15.
[16] Charlier booker C.Brooker. (2010). How to Report the News. Available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtGSXMuWMR4. Last accessed 7th June 2011.
[17] Unknown. (2011). Peace, justice, and security in cyberspace. Available: http://www.cybercrimelaw.net/Cybercrimelaw.html. Last accessed 7th June 2011.
[18] S.Alberts. (2010). WikiLeaks will have a 'chilling' effect on U.S. diplomacy: former ambassador. Available: http://www.canada.com/news/canada-in-afghanistan/WikiLeaks+will+have+chilling+effect+diplomacy+former+ambassador/3918814/story.html. Last accessed 6th June 2011.

Friday 13 May 2011

Week 10: Who is using Facebook around the World?

The phenomenon is one difficult to comprehend, for its ever-increasing popularity is something never before seen in the world of social media. The trend of Facebook can be further understood through viewing data of it's use around the world.


It is for this reason that my visualization group have chosen to present data on this topic to the class. Facebook is a relevant topic in our course, as social medium is a highly popular form of media in contemporary society. We researched many statistics on the use of Facebook within several countries, and broke this down to two main sites which are recent and reliable sources. These were:


http://www.geohive.com/earth/population1.aspx







Our visualization (that is, making our 'invisible' data into something visible') consists of different sized and coloured circles which form a particular order. These circles represent several things. Firstly, each circle is given a different colour. This is to give each country its own identity, and allows one to follow the order easily with their eyes. Next, the circles range in size. This size represents the overall population of the country. For example, the United States circle is much larger than the others, as there are over 300 million residents living here. Finally, the order of the of the circles ranks the countries in order of which has the highest percentage of Facebook users in regards to their population size. For instance, Canada is positioned first, as 53.5% of their country uses Facebook; a percentage higher than any other country in the world.


Our visualization represents the top 20 countries of Facebook users around the world. This particular visualization is effective because of the fact that it contains several types of data within the one image, and therefore clearly and effectively answers the question of who uses Facebook around the world. A way of making this visualization more effective would be to perhaps include more than the top 20 countries, to give viewers a ranger set of data. 


References:


Unknown. (2011). Facebook statistics by country. Available: http://www.socialbakers.com/facebook-statistics/?interval=last-week#chart-intervals. Last accessed 13th May 2011.


Unknown. (2011). Current world population (ranked). Available: http://www.geohive.com/earth/population1.aspx. Last accessed 13th May 2011.
  

Wednesday 4 May 2011

Week 9: The Visual, the Body and the Social Body

This form of visualization is used to explain and debate certain scientific findings. Scientists are frequently seen to be using modes of visualization in order to communicate their research and findings to the public, or to try and get a point across. This can be done through graphs, diagrams, physical sculptures or even just pictures. One of the readings which can be found here http://www.metro.co.uk/news/147937-struggling-polar-bears-put-on-endangered-list is an article about how the US government has recently put polar bears on the endangered species list, as a result of global warming, and how environmentalists are angry that no action is being taken to "tackle climate change".


The image and form of visualization in this article is the picture positioned below the title. This photo depicts a polar bear struggling to stay a hold an ice berg, which is has been melted severely and is now surrounded by water.

 It is explained in the caption that images of these polar bears are commonly being used on posters to represent climate change. This image relates to the process and event of climate change in the way that it shows the immediate effect that this issue is having on animals in the environment, and the suffering which is occurring as a result.

The effect of this being published is that it allows for people to view the issue with their own eyes rather than just hear/read about it, which enables them to form a personal connection with the issue. The visualization can also result in individuals feeling quite sorry for the endangered species. This particular visualization therefore functions to accompany the article and affect the public and will hopefully assist in more support towards overcoming this issue. Therefore, I find this to be quite an effective form of visualization. When first viewing it myself, I definitely held sympathy for these animals and wanted to read more about the scientific findings how I can possibly help.

References:
Unknown. (2011). Struggling polar bears put on endangered list.Available: http://www.metro.co.uk/news/147937-struggling-polar-bears-put-on-endangered-list. Last accessed 5/5/2011

Thursday 21 April 2011

Week 8: Visualization

This week we learnt about the concept of visualization. This is a process whereby an invisible practice is made visible through visual creations. A simple example of this would be taking a set of data, such as the current fertility rate among Australians; and making this into a visual graph to represent the data.

This concept can be rather hard to comprehend at times, as it is difficult to know what types of data can be effectively communicated through visualizations. Can anything invisible be represented through graphs or other visual forms? Or are the choices quite limited?

One reading from this week which I found helpful was the website about 'information aesthetics' which can be found here http://infosthetics.com/. This gave me an idea of the types of 'invisible' concepts which can be converted into something visual, such as into any type of graph. Examples of data include depictions of the London underground, the history of poverty, or the impact of nuclear radiation. This gave me a clearer idea of the way in which almost anything can be transformed into data, as long as a suitable type of graph is used to represent it.

Limits of the visualization project may be that much more complicated data may be too difficult to represent through something as simple as a graph. An example of this might be  the way in which Facebook has overtaken Myspace. This data may need to represent the amount of users for each site, the decrease in popularity of Myspace over a number of years, the present purpose of Myspace etc; and this may be difficult to represent through a graph as it includes several pieces of data within the one idea.

Our visualization group of assessments will give us a better idea of how successful these graphs can be in representing data. We will have to wait and see...

References:
Unknown. (2010). information aesthetics. Available: http://infosthetics.com/?limit=20&offset=20. Last accessed 21 April 2010

Friday 15 April 2011

Week 7: Wikileaks

This week my team was given the task of debating the argument that Wikileaks is acting responsibly through their work. I had do to much background research on the topic, as I didn't now much about Wikileaks at all. When issues surrounding Wikileaks came onto the news I tended to ignore them, because I  did not see what all the fuss was all about.

After some research, I realised the large impact which Wikileaks was having on society. I now think that the question of whether they are acting responsibly or not is way too hard to conclude, as their are both positive and negative aspects about what they are doing.

Wikileaks is all about freedom, speech, and equality; which reflects the values among many societies. They strive to achieve this by informing citizens about news which Governments intend to wrongly hide from them. Wikileaks holds the power of exposure on governments, corporations and individuals. This forces these players to abide by established rules, follow guidelines, and act in a proper manner.

So, ultimately, Wikileaks enforces responsible governing and decision making, reflecting the responsible nature of the site itself. Bradley Manning, a US soldier who was arrested for leaking information to Wikileaks correctly stated that "without information you cannot make informed decisions as a public".

Though in saying this, I think that it all comes down to trust. The fact of is, if the work of Governments and corporations can not be kept secret and therefore kept safe, then how do citizens of the Government expect to be kept safe? In an article written by public relations worker Paul Seaman, he states that "at the end of the day, society has more right to keep its secrets secret, than does Wikileaks have a right to wreak havoc, and keep its sources hidden while doing so".

So, the question still stands... is Wikileaks acting responsibly?

References

Sunday 10 April 2011

Week 6: Attention

In my view, attention relates to interacting an engaging with almost anything; Whether it be a person, a book, a television show, and so on. One thing that holds a huge amount of attention is the internet. One of the readings for this week was an article by Michael H.Goldhaber, titled "Attention Shoppers!" This explores what Michael explains as the "flowing" of attention through cyberspace.

This article explains the concept of information technology, where people use their 'scarce' resources and trade among each other. Michael believes that this definition can no longer state, as a result of the internet. This is because the internet has endless information within it, which can no longer be described as scarce. This overload of information has resulted in the economy of attention becoming "the natural economy of cyberspace", as stated by Michael.

An interesting point Michael makes is that "attention has its own behavior, its own dynamics, its own consequences". This is due to the fact that it has created its own economy, separate from the others among society. Attention is something which can only be created in the mind, rather than through mediums such as "electronic devices". 

This economy of attention is important because it achieves many purposes among humans. Something as simple as reading a map to find your way to a place is an example of attention, which achieves an aim. It can help us in our daily lives. Attention can also refer to the kind which is aimed towards oneself, such as an individual who is praised with attention after achieving something impressive, like winning an award.

This article made me aware of the vast concept of attention, and how it it can is a huge part of our lives, even if we don't always realise that we are applying attention. This so called economy on the internet is one which dominates many others, such as the food economy, for the amount of information brought to our attention is never scarce.

Thanks for reading!

Sources: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/5.12/es_attention.html

Monday 28 March 2011

Week 5: Archives

This week, I have considered three main questions;
What are archives?
How are they important in society?
What effects do archives have both socially and individually?

One of my favourite ways of finding something out quickly and effectively is through dictionary.com. Here I was given the definition of archive to be "any extensive record or collection of data". Pretty straight forward. A simple example of an archive which I found to be quite clever, is seen in this week's lecture. The lecturer describes a sea sponge as being an archive, in the way that it absorbs information, and releases content/expression when you squeeze it.

I soon realised, however, that archives can also be quite a complicated matter. For starters, they often hold authority in the way that they can lay the basis for rules. An instance of this is government institutional records, which hold importance in maintaining society. They are therefore important to society in the way that they create order and stability among the community. They also hold laws which can be recorded, preserved or destroyed.

Archives can exist in many different forms, for anything that holds some form of memory can be considered an archive. This includes books, websites, phones, legal documents and so on. All of these mediums can hold and distribute information or memory. It is for this reason that archives are also seen as “the basis for individual memory” (stated in this week’s lecture). To me this means that the mediums with which we as individuals store information, allows us to hold memory which we can distribute or regain at anytime. I’m not sure how precise my evaluation of this concept is, as I am still trying to understand it... but those are my thoughts for now.





Source: http://www.lindseykennedy.com/archives.asp



Source:


http://www.mclibrary.duke.edu/training/mobiledevices/apple