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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 • 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
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
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
Information and politics • Accountability • Boosting the supply of information • Elite strategiesKeep them in the darkDraw the fangs of the mob
Medium as message • Internet as social medium • Reinforcing trends toward privacyniche audiences • Deliberative engagements?
Democracy and citizens’ knowledge • Citizens as voters • Citizens as active participants in their polities • Minimal knowledge requirements of citizens as voters
Making democracy meaningful • Defining democratic competence down • Cues from leaders • Heuristic devices (ideology)
Enabling citizens’ political communications • Newspapersfinding one another
Indonesia • Convivial mediumlow costease of usebroad availabilitydifficulty of monitoring, censoring • Cyber-civic spaces battling suburbs, mobility, privacy
Bringing down Suharto, 1998 • Highly monitored society • Turn to the Internet • Information cascades
Information campaign • Suharto as enemy • Solidarity among his opponents (ephemeral) • State in corrupt hands • Society able to organize itself independent of the state
scandals • Social media bringing attention to malfeasance • Boosting turnout in demonstrations
Malaysia • Considerable censorship • Utusan Malaysia and the NEP • Malaysiakini news website • Social media amplifying offline chatter
2008 elections • Barisan Nasional lost its two-thirds majorityEffective use of Internet, blogs, SMS, YouTube, listserves
Bersih 2.0 • July 9 rally • Social media expanding circle of participants
Singapore • More Facebook users than voters • Nicole versus Pei Ling • “a watershed for social media”?
Conclusions • More information • Ephemeral coalitions?
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