Internet Democracy: Why it doesn’t work
A CYNICAL VIEW–The Internet is a very powerful enabler of communication and social interaction between existing and new groups of individuals. It affords niche specialities and interest groups the opportunity to interact and collaborate toward their common goals.
The “Web 2.0″ effect is all about users taking control and participating on the web, rather than just being passive readers. This is a truly empowering aspect of the Internet and should not be dismissed. However this is sometimes mistaken for democracy.
The opinion of Internet users isn’t democratic, for the users of the Internet, and more specifically any specific site, is self-selecting. On a simple level, there are accessibility issues both for those who can’t afford it, can’t have the same access to high speed services and always-on browsing, or for example those who can’t access parts of it because of a disability. Also, some people are too busy to take part in extensive web discussions and debates and as such some key stakeholders are excluded from many web interactions.
The motives of users on the internet is hard to determine. Although this isn’t exclusively an online problem, the network of trust is still developing online and it’s therefore difficult to know which reviews, opinions or ratings are more ‘useful’ than others.
Some have argued that the introduction of citizen journalism is lowering standard of reporting and thus making accurate news reporting with professional standard harder. Just because many people believe an article is good, doesn’t make it an accurate reflection of the facts. It may be possible to get a high rating for an article simply because it appeals to the populist expectations of the participating audience.
I am not in any way suggesting that the web 2.0 revolution is a backward step. It is a positive next evolution in the future of the Internet. Over time, it will improve the quality of participation and overcome many of these issues and it will be the next era of the Internet as active participation is no longer reserved to the technical elite.