Monday, June 14, 2010
Bypassing the Gatekeepers
Over the last decade, millions of Americans have found ways to inform themselves unmediated by institutions or markets. Indeed, online communication through ad hoc networks has led to the formation of such things as media co-ops, indigenous news digests, and weblogs offering independent analysis and expose.
As hundreds of millions worldwide are now able to share information, despite institutional censorship and market retaliation, controlling what we know and think has become an impossible task for bureaucracies and enterprises designed for that purpose.
As more and more wean themselves from the soothing bromides of broadcast TV, and seek to learn what is really going on, society, politics, and global consciousness are bound to evolve in ways the previous gatekeepers of information cannot imagine. But then, imagination is not something usually found within the confines of market madness and military intelligence milieus.
As hundreds of millions worldwide are now able to share information, despite institutional censorship and market retaliation, controlling what we know and think has become an impossible task for bureaucracies and enterprises designed for that purpose.
As more and more wean themselves from the soothing bromides of broadcast TV, and seek to learn what is really going on, society, politics, and global consciousness are bound to evolve in ways the previous gatekeepers of information cannot imagine. But then, imagination is not something usually found within the confines of market madness and military intelligence milieus.
