The government use of CMC has truly evolved from the 90’s. Technology has played a major factor with the government. People as well as politicians have both benefitted tremendously. Over the course of the past 20 years the technology has become more advanced than ever. We can see that the government takes full advantage of CMC by using the Internet. The Internet is a key component for the government because it allows them to reach out to a mass audience. The Internet is a space that has real communication in a virtual world. Barnes (2003) talks about the notion that the Internet space creates a global sense of communication that resembles traditional communication, thus we become more dependent and involved with each other. Campaigners can target all age groups with the Internet by posting their information for certain websites. They can pick and choose where to place their information. This benefits the government because it enables them to focus on key issues that pertain to certain racial groups, men/women and age groups. This strategy works in reverse as well for the online users.
When users visit their favorite websites like YouTube or Facebook they are exposed to the information that the government has provided for them. People can receive valuable information on policies. Not only can they learn about various topics, they can provide their own homepages to support or disagree as well. Thurlow, Lengel and Tomic (2004) state “CMC is both political and politicizing, because it may be used to confront the authority of governing powers, and to resist dominant social, cultural and political ideologies” (p. 199).
We need to realize that the Internet is so important because it has become a part of our everyday lives. The future rests on the government and CMC. How will the President-elect Barack Obama maintain communication with the American people? The country has hit a rough patch and needs to be briefed on all upcoming bills passed as well as stimulus packages. Also, where will CMC lead us in the future? As of right now we rely on information from communication technology. How can we improve it so that the government can improve the lives of the American people?
References
Barnes, S. B. (2003). Computer-mediated communication: Human-to-human communication across the internet. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.
Thurlow, C., Lengel, L. & Tomic, A. (2004). Computer-mediated communication: Social interaction and the internet. Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications.
You tube. Retrieved November 25, 2008, Web site: http://www.youtube.com
Facebook. Retrieved Nobember 25, 2008, Web site: http://www.youtube.com
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5 comments:
Melanie,
You wrote very applicable examples as to how the government uses CMC to focus on key issues, then target that information to certain racial groups. Such popular sites as Facebook or MySpace reach millions of people and the government uses these sites to inform. Thurlow, Lengel and Tomic (2004) argue that online communication can help increase political awareness, tolerance, and other peaceful communication between people. Do you think that the government will use the easy access to persuade people to become more involved in politics or just when their is an upcoming election?
defiantly agree with you when you say the government is taking full advantage of the Internet. They are using every aspect of the internet to pry into our personal lives. According to The Wall Street Journal ( as cited in Stark-Meyerring, Burk & Gurak, 2004) privacy violations rank among the top concern of Americans” (p. 14). We really don’t have the luxury of privacy like we used to and the Internet just opened up a whole new culture of snoopers. I did not know that the government provided policies on sites such as my space. Have you visited these sites and if so do you think the content offered is valuable for the average citizen?
The government is using the internet in such a variety of ways some that we are aware and some in which we are not aware. This last presidential administration was able to push policies and get approvals for spying all in the name of fighting terrorists. Companies have the ability to use similar monitoring systems on employees. Legislation according to Nor, McCubbins, and Nord (2006) does little to protect employees in the employment context.
The governement is using the internet in every way that they can to gather information about individuals, which is something that was discussed in depth in our blog and I am glad people picked up on this, as it is very prevelent in our soceity. Lori, I feel that it was somewhat proven in the most recent presidential election that the government could implement the internet to persuede mass amounts of people. Nagourney (2008) discusses that the internet was used to track public opinions on issues. I think that the government could most likely use this information to tailor their messages for certain sites that have high traffic of vistors that are pro or anti issues and help influence or support their opinions. This election proved that the internet will influence future elections, much the the money that the Obama campaigh used came from the internet (Nagourney, 2008). The internet will only become more influential in future elections as we have seen it become more influential within our lives.
References
Nargourney, A. (2008 Nov, 4). The 08 campaign: A sea of change for politics as we know it. New York Times. Retrieved http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/04/us/politics/04memo.html?_r=1&emc=eta1
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