Abstract
| In October 2007, there was an individual, a citizen of his society, who did not agree with the current political policies of his democratic government. Pursuant to the right of political participation under a democratic regime, there were a few courses of actions available to him. For example, he could print numerous posters saying that he did not agree with the current policies and tag them to every tree, building and telephone pole in his country. He would then have to hope and pray that people would read the posters and decide not to vote for the same government in the next election. However, this would be rather time, money and tree consuming, and there would be no guarantee that the posters would not be blown away are removed by the opposition before the information could be conveyed to the intended audience. Instead, the citizen elected to take a song from a famous artist and rewrote the lyrics in a satirical manner. He wrote about the government's support of the Vietnam War, tree logging and ignorance of global warming issues. He placed images and videos to accompany the lyrics and then he uploaded the finished product on the popular website YouTube. |
The video spread like wildfire. Within a few days of the video’s online debut, the citizen received a phone call from a newspaper requesting him to grant an interview to discuss the video. Then, he was interviewed by a national radio station later that week. After that, a part of the video footage was shown on national television. The elections came and the people voted. And the incumbent government lost its seat of power.
Technology develops at a very high pace. Nowadays, most people have a video-recorder on his or her mobile phone and can publish videos on websites such as YouTube with a single click of the mouse button. There is an immediate and large audience. In the last decade, the internet reached to an excess of 1.3 billion users. How powerful is this new development of online mass communication? What are the consequences of the network society for governments? Is it now possible to create a low budget backyard video and can it be powerful enough that an individual can change a government by utilising such technology? This article seeks to find an answer to these questions. |
Abstract
In October 2007, there was an individual, a citizen of his society, who did not
agree with the current political policies of his democratic government. Pursuant
to the right of political participation under a democratic regime, there were a few
courses of actions available to him. For example, he could print numerous
posters saying that he did not agree with the current policies and tag them to
every tree, building and telephone pole in his country. He would then have to
hope and pray that people would read the posters and decide not to vote for the
same government in the next election. However, this would be rather time,
money and tree consuming, and there would be no guarantee that the posters
would not be blown away are removed by the opposition before the information
could be conveyed to the intended audience.
Instead, the citizen elected to take a song from a famous artist and rewrote the
lyrics in a satirical manner. He wrote about the government's support of the
Vietnam War, tree logging and ignorance of global warming issues. He placed
images and videos to accompany the lyrics and then he uploaded the finished
product on the popular website YouTube.
The video spread like wildfire. Within a few days of the video’s online debut, the
citizen received a phone call from a newspaper requesting him to grant an
interview to discuss the video. Then, he was interviewed by a national radio
station later that week. After that, a part of the video footage was shown on
national television. The elections came and the people voted. And the
incumbent government lost its seat of power.
Technology develops at a very high pace. Nowadays, most people have a
video-recorder on his or her mobile phone and can publish videos on websites
such as YouTube with a single click of the mouse button. There is an immediate
and large audience. In the last decade, the internet reached to an excess of 1
3
billion users 1 . How powerful is this new development of online mass
communication? What are the consequences of the network society for
governments? Is it now possible to create a low budget backyard video and can
it be powerful enough that an individual can change a government by utilising
such technology? This article seeks to find an answer to these questions.http://portfolio.rubenrekker.nl/portfolio/index.php?p=news&r=all&b=1
