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The Internet, Social Media, and Political Information

The Internet, Social Media, and Political Information. The Internet. Low cost information End of geography. “Recent” precedents: information and communications technologies. Ayatollah Khomeini’s tape cassettes Thailand’s 1992 mobile phone mob Arab Spring and social media.

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The Internet, Social Media, and Political Information

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  1. The Internet, Social Media, and Political Information

  2. The Internet • Low cost information • End of geography

  3. “Recent” precedents: information and communications technologies • Ayatollah Khomeini’s tape cassettes • Thailand’s 1992 mobile phone mob • Arab Spring and social media

  4. Southeast Asian cases • The Internet and the end of Suharto’s rule in Indonesia in 1998 • Social media to boost the political opposition in Singapore • Use of Internet, social media, community radio in Thailand

  5. Lecture plan • Impact of new technologies on politics • How these media have been used in SEAFocus on:IndonesiaSingaporeMalaysia • Impact on new movement politics in Thailand • Quality of political informationhow much should citizens knowquality of deliberations

  6. Information and politics • Accountability • Boosting the supply of information • Elite strategiesKeep them in the darkDraw the fangs of the mob

  7. Medium as message • Internet as social medium • Reinforcing trends toward privacyniche audiences • Deliberative engagements?

  8. Democracy and citizens’ knowledge • Citizens as voters • Citizens as active participants in their polities • Minimal knowledge requirements of citizens as voters

  9. Making democracy meaningful • Defining democratic competence down • Cues from leaders • Heuristic devices (ideology)

  10. Enabling citizens’ political communications • Newspapersfinding one another

  11. Ubiquity of Internet and social media in SEA

  12. Indonesia • Convivial mediumlow costease of usebroad availabilitydifficulty of monitoring, censoring • Cyber-civic spaces battling suburbs, mobility, privacy

  13. Bringing down Suharto, 1998 • Highly monitored society • Turn to the Internet • Information cascades

  14. Information campaign • Suharto as enemy • Solidarity among his opponents (ephemeral) • State in corrupt hands • Society able to organize itself independent of the state

  15. scandals • Social media bringing attention to malfeasance • Boosting turnout in demonstrations

  16. Malaysia • Considerable censorship • Utusan Malaysia and the NEP • Malaysiakini news website • Social media amplifying offline chatter

  17. 2008 elections • Barisan Nasional lost its two-thirds majorityEffective use of Internet, blogs, SMS, YouTube, listserves

  18. Bersih 2.0 • July 9 rally • Social media expanding circle of participants

  19. Singapore • More Facebook users than voters • Nicole versus Pei Ling • “a watershed for social media”?

  20. Conclusions • More information • Ephemeral coalitions?

  21. Additional readings? • Trendnovation Southeast Asia issue on “Digital Politics,” September 2010, www.trendsoutheast.org • Merlyna Lim, “Cyber-Urban Activism and the Political Change in Indonesia,” in EastBound Journal, 2006, http://www.eastbound.info/journal/2006-1 • www.malaysiakini.com

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