global voices, one world

Quote from Reese et al., “Mapping the blogosphere”, Journalism 8(3), 2007, page 259.

The impact of the blogosphere lies in the aggregate, in its location within a larger structure. Ultimately, this structure has great potential in meeting the normative expectations we have of the public sphere: access that does not depend on economic resources, autonomy from both state and market forces, and ability of participants to communicate across professional, political, and geographic boundaries on the basis of reason.

Most research seeks to refute this claim, pointing to the many issues we are still facing before we can declare that the internet is even remotely living up to the expectations above. Just to mention a few, we have Sunstein pointing to the dangers of the internet as fostering information silos and echo chambers, Wu & Goldsmith pointing to the impinging influence of the state, Lessig warning us how market forces are changing the underlying architecture of the internet, and the most recent warning by Zittrain who argues how concern for security and a preference for convenience is diminishing the generative and innovative potential of the internet.

But where is the research that examines and turns our attention to the bright spots on the internet? Those spots where people are gathering and are living up to Habermasian ideals of the public sphere? Where are the successors to Rheingold’s classic work on The Virtual Community? Who will follow Benkler‘s example?

As a budding scholar, it sometimes seem to me that it is not naiveté, but rather courage that is required to write optimistically about anything, but about the internet in particular. Who has the courage to point us to a brighter future?