Politics and the Digital World.

Digital Politics and Power- The Dream Of Democracy. Seeing this as I walked into the lecture confused me somewhat, to me it was hard to link the idea of computing and digital culture to politics and power. And so, the lecture itself was enlightening and taught me a lot.
The lecture was all about looking at how digital media has affected democracy, and when I thought about it, it was clear to see just how much the media affects politics in todays society.
Gradually as the years have past media and digital culture have started to become a bigger part of democracy and politics. Nowadays it seem politicians rely on the media, newspapers, magazines in order to get them the publicity they need.
We looked at a presentation that showed us just how much democracy and the digital world can be linked together with positive outcomes. It was clear that when the Printing Press was created this would cause a shift in communications, people now referred to newspapers and books and this was able to spread the word quicker which would, in turn, affect democracy and the political world. "Over time print media evolved that were specifically addressed to dealing with the news and current affairs of the day." Quote taken from presentation. It seemed that the printing press meant people relied on newspapers to give them all their crucial information.
And so the link between democracy and politics and the digital world isn't as far separated as I first might have thought. The age of print as it was described in our lecture was a 'knowledge bomb.' And therefore digital media was originally greeted with great enthusiasm because of its ability to tell an spread news. Elizabeth Eisenstein wrote 'The Printing Press as an agent of change' in 1979. I looked into this further as it shows you just how crucial the printing press was in creating change and creating this 'bomb of knowledge. http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/286525.The_Printing_Press_as_an_Agent_of_Change

Clearly there is a link now between the digital world and politics. But is the idea of democracy simply a dream? Journalism has evolved throughout the years, and here we are today in a world where journalism is being highly scrutinised because of its lack of morals, with people questioning whether the media can be trusted. But maybe that's a topic for another blog?