UGEC 2690 Lecture 5 - Politics and the internet - The 5th estate PDF

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UGEC 2690 Spring, 2018 Class 5 Politics and the internet - The 5th estate Required reading: ��What to do when the truth is found to be lies - There are numerous ways that we can combat the post-fact threat in 2017〉by Timothy Garton Ash, Financial Times, Dec 24/25, 2016. -----------------------------...

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UGEC 2690 Spring, 2018 Class 5 Politics and the internet - The 5th estate

Required reading: 𡿨What to do when the truth is found to be lies - There are numerous ways that we can combat the post-fact threat in 2017〉by Timothy Garton Ash, Financial Times, Dec 24/25, 2016. -------------------------------

Since Barack Obama's successful YouTube election campaign back in 2008 and Donald Trump's recently known habits of tweeting and googling, the Internet can now indeed be called the 5th estate of any modern society. It has the functions of TV, radio and newspapers all rolled into one. And it's mobile, and participatory.

In HK, we are also currently witnessing the popularity/notoriety rise online, in particular on Facebook, of any key government official or politician involved in unfavourable circumstances. The 2014 Umbrella Movement too is also known to have been much aided by cyber connections.

The Internet without borders has helped activate massive, sometimes trans-national campaigns often on individual, or at least small group basis.

Communications theorists call this a trend of "personalisation of politics" in the social media. They say social fragmentation and the decline of group loyalty have rendered mobilisation of individuals around personal values and choices on social causes such as environmental protection, fair trade, gay rights, fair trade etc.

Online media specialists say as a result we see sectarian, polarised politics rather than diversity of expressions. More people seem to be "challenge-averse". Such political polarisation is said to be particularly obvious on Twitter.

Limitations of online political devices: 1. CREDIBILITY issues 1

A. Cyber information can contain many untruths and lies. "Postfaktisch", or "post-truth" politics, was Germany's word of the year in 2017. The trend essentially depicts that objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appealing to emotion and personal belief. A saying goes: "In this era of post-truth politics, it's easy to cherry-pick data and come to whatever conclusion you desire."

B. Initially citizen journalism was not being taken seriously. This was because while traditional newsrooms practice checking, vetting facts and information, online news would seem to appear much more lax in its operations. Although official news websites of conventional news labels are now all over the place, chances of typo's and hacking and falling foul of a sense of urgency and competition remain high.

C. Are online poll results to be trusted? Public opinion polls need to mind i/ margins of error, ii/pollster’s political tilt, iii/ “loaded” questions & iv/ sample representativeness. On top of the above, when it comes to the cyber world, anonymity, repeated use of identity and system failure would always pose big risks.

2. DEBATING issues A. "Trolling". "Trolls", or unpaid 五毛 (hired thugs online) are people who deliberately make provocative, or simply wrong remarks, as well as hate speeches to prompt arguments and/or upset others. As a result, most political debates online are marked by emotional rather than rational comments.

B. "Meme farms"/惡搞/spoofing can become viral and proved a hype, to the point of generating mental lethargy and even political apathy. Many netizens would feel sidelined and become mere onlookers (食花生) ----------

* THE HK SCENE: The internet has become the top political medium in HK. Previously, the SAR government had apparently tried to curb online freedom by making “spoofing” a criminal offence under amended copyright laws. The authorities had subsequently acceded to exempting contents of “satire 諷刺, caricature 滑稽, parody 戲仿 and pastiche 模仿", as well as current affairs comments. The issue, called the Copyright Amendment Bill 版權

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條例修訂草案 and nicknamed cyber article 23 網絡 23 條, proved a huge controversy and is now being indefinitely shelved.

The HK government now fervently promotes a smart city and rapid development of the IT industry, prompting worries that the authorities are seeking to regain its “Big Brother” status in the space of virtual reality.

*THE CHINA SCENE: China now talks about "Internet sovereignty", meaning the cyber world comes with borders. In recent years major Internet operators including Yahoo, Microsoft and even Facebook have all kowtowed to Chinese pressure and censorship. It's a matter of survival on their part in the vast China market. Beijing has been putting on hold indefinitely its plan to have the “green dam” (綠 壩) filter software compulsorily installed in the whole of the country, with the plan’s announced aim of protecting children from “harmful” Internet contents. The indefinite postponement is mostly seen as a decision made out of fear of bad international business image.

*THE INTERNATIONAL SCENE: The Snowden story has shocked many, bringing about outcries for privacy against state surveillance. Internationally, there’s been the suggestion that an “Interpol for the internet” be set up to counter possible terrorist attacks that could be staged online -by hacking banking accounts and energy security systems -- thus causing chaos to the entire modern world. But this, for obvious reasons, is easier said than done.

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