internet as a hope or a hoax for emerging democracies revisiting the concept of citizenship in the digital age

Available online at www.sciencedirect.com ScienceDirect Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 236 (2016) – International Conference on Communication in Multicultural Society, CMSC 2015, 6-8 December 2015, Moscow, Russian Federation Internet as a hope or a hoax for emerging democracies: revisiting the concept of citizenship in the digital age Rauf Arif* The Department of Communication, 3900 University Blvd., The University of Texas at Tyler, TX, USA, 75799 Abstract This paper revisits the existing literature on the concept of citizenship in digital age It provides a detailed discussion on the proponents and opponents of technological determinism The paper should be read as an effort to reinitiate an important debate in the scholarship, which has been largely undermined while studying the Internet phenomenon in the information age Thus, instead of offering a solution-oriented conclusion, the paper sets the stage to invite mass media and communication scholars’ attention back to revisit the important ideological concepts, so as to evolve and improve our existing theories on communication and change in the society © 2016 2016The TheAuthors Authors.Published Published Elsevier © byby Elsevier Ltd.Ltd This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license Peer-review under responsibility of the National Research Nuclear University MEPhI (Moscow Engineering Physics Institute) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) Peer-review under responsibility of the National Research Nuclear University MEPhI (Moscow Engineering Physics Institute) Keywords: Citizen; netizen; Internet; public sphere; digital age Introduction With the advent of the Internet and the rise of social media, communication scholars who fall in the category of technological determinism have started predicting the Internet’s ability to enhance citizenship and promote democracy both in western and non-western settings This argument gained more momentum and strength by the political uprisings of Tunisia and Egypt during late 2010 and early 2011, commonly referred to as the Jasmine Revolution (Tunisia), and the Arab Spring, Egypt (Arif, 2014; Cook, 2012) Thus it becomes imperative in the scholarship to further critically analyze following questions: whether it is the technology or human beings who bring * Corresponding author Tel.: 001-319-855-3209; fax: 001-903-566-7287 E-mail address: raufarif@yahoo.com 1877-0428 © 2016 The Authors Published by Elsevier Ltd This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) Peer-review under responsibility of the National Research Nuclear University MEPhI (Moscow Engineering Physics Institute) doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2016.12.002 Rauf Arif / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 236 (2016) – about change in society What constitute citizens? Who is more useful for democracy: “netizen” or citizen? Which one is more real: online community or offline community? While reviewing literature on the issue, the researcher came across the inconsistency in concluding whether the Internet was the only factor that led to the enhanced citizenship in a relatively closed societies like Pakistan, Tunisia, and Egypt, or it were some other circumstances that contributed to the democratization of these countries in recent years, particularly between 2007 to 2011 when the citizens of the three countries started enjoying their virtual freedom because of the introduction of the Internet and social media However, the paper came up with some evidence of citizens’ participation in the online political discourse on some social media platforms such YouTube, but this kind of discourse was very limited and was not quality-oriented While analyzing the use of social media during the political unrests of Pakistan, Egypt, and Tunisia (Ghannam, 2011), it was observed that online political discourse did occur no matter how limited impact it might have on the overall political deliberation of these countries Thus the idea of citizenship in the context of digital/new media remains a mystery As stated earlier, this paper is not meant to draw a conclusion whether the Internet is an inevitable tool in promoting citizenship for democratic purposes, but it should be taken as an avenue to expand communication and media-related research questions beyond data-driven research, so as to ignite the intellectual debate in the field Talking about citizenship as the selected theme for this paper, it is important to discuss other themes such as technological determinism, change, and empowerment, which are necessary tools to understand the role of technology in society Thus, this paper utilizes “citizenship” as an umbrella theme and discusses empowerment and change in the context of the selected theme In order to recall the discussion on the digital media and democracy, the researcher revisited the works of (Hafez, 2007; Harb, 2011; Lin and Atkin, 2008; Negroponte, 1995) Most of these reviewed studies represent a clear-cut divide among communication scholars while discussing the digital media’s role in shaping or reshaping our everyday lives The proponents of the Internet were celebratory of the social media as an agent of change, democracy, citizenship, and empowerment (Negroponte, 1995; Papacharissi, 2010) The opponents, however, argued that historically it were always the human beings who brought about change, promoted citizenship and worked toward the empowerment of average citizens (Carey, 2009; Hafez, 2007; Thussu, 2000) They argued that technology (new media of a particular time) was always used just as a tool to achieve those objectives The opponents of technological determinism not see any difference between the Gutenberg’s printing press (15th Century) and the Internet of 21st century (Carey, 2009) To them, both of these mediums were celebrated the same way by the technological determinists Others compared the Internet with the history of radio when people thought that this medium will change the entire face of democracy and will create new political and public spheres based on its wide reach to the audiences Furthermore, the proponent scholars believe that the Internet will change the meanings of political engagement, public spheres and civic engagement because of its unique ability to bring people from all over the world together (Habermas, 1989; Negroponte, 1995; Papacharissi, 2010) However, the opponent scholars look at the Internet as a medium of political disengagement, which may prove fatal to the existing democratic values of society (Fandy, 2000; Sparks, 2005) Before we discuss the Internet’s role to enhance citizenship for democratic purpose in today’s world, it is imperative to understand the core concept of citizenship first The concept of citizenship The concept is defined as the “status of a citizen with its attendant duties, rights, and privileges” (Freedictionary.com, 2010) in a democratic system The concept arose in ancient Greece, where citizenship was granted only to property owners The Romans initially used it as a privilege to be conferred upon or withheld from conquered peoples, but it was granted to all the empire's free inhabitants in AD 212 The concept disappeared in Europe during the feudal era but was revived in the Renaissance (Freedictionary.com, 2010) Citizenship is imbedded in the idea of public participation in democratic and state affairs “The term ‘public’ connotes ideas of citizenship, commonality, and things not private, but accessible and observable by all” (Papacharissi, 2002, p 10) Thinking in these terms, we can say that citizenship creates communities (based on common interests) and the communities form public sphere (Dewey, 1954) Thus, citizenship becomes an integral tool for a sustainable democratic society In the age of the Internet, social media contributes to create online public Rauf Arif / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 236 (2016) – sphere, which empowers people to exchange ideas and form alliances for a political change In other words, the Internet seems to fulfil all the conditions necessary to be an active and engaged citizen in a democratic society It is accessible and observable by all, and can promote commonality by bringing people on one platform who share similar ideologies Also, the Internet encourages a diversity of opinions as anyone can engage oneself on an online political forum and express his or her opinions freely Internet citizenship For this paper, the term Internet-citizenship should be examined as an extension of the German philosopher Habermas (1989) idea of public sphere, which refers to the individuals’ ability to freely participate in a public discourse to discuss social issues and influence political discourse and political actions in a society Thus, the Internet citizenship refers to the idea of human interactions both at private and public levels while utilizing the Internet (Negroponte, 1995; Papacharissi, 2002) A majority of media scholars, who study the Internet and social media, believe that the Internet and its surrounding technologies hold the promise of reviving the public sphere (Papacharissi, 2002), thus creating a whole new era of Internet citizenship that involves not only basic human interactions at interpersonal levels, but also the emerging roles of online communities in democratization of relatively closed societies, such as the Middle East (Arif, 2014) The political uprisings of Tunisia and Egypt during late 2010 and early 2011 are also seen as examples of social movements that resulted because of online political activism of the citizens of these countries 3.1 Proponents The proponents of the Internet-based citizenship believe that Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) “do not necessarily produce new citizens but that they provide for new and important citizenship practices” (Hermes, 2006, p 295) Discussing the traditional role of journalists in creating and promoting citizenship in society by keeping the public informed about important state affairs, Hermes (2006) says that the idea of objectivity in today’s journalism is vanishing whereas the idea of dialogical journalism is getting popular because of the digital media Thus citizens are not only engaging themselves in dialogical process but are also involved in civic journalism to promote democracy in the society Other scholars believe that citizenship can be enhanced by the online participation as it allows people to share similar political ideologies (Kaye and Johnson, 2002) Some media scholars have also suggested a hybrid model of political discourse by the combined use of the Internet and mass media, which can be very effective in the political empowerment of citizens (Baym, 2007; Scheufele and Nisbet, 2002; Singer, 2009) According to Innis (1950) new media are designed to undercut existing centers of power and to facilitate the creation of new patterns of association and the articulation of new forms of knowledge (Carey, 2009; Innis and Watson, 2008) Thinking in terms of Innis definition of new media, the Internet seems to challenge the existing centers of power, promoting new alliances and is involved in the creation of new forms of knowledge We read and hear every day that the Internet has started challenging the traditional practices of journalism, and empowering audiences who are also actively engaged in the creation and dissemination of news and information In the recent past, the example of revelations made by an online platform WikiLeaks can be seen in the same context The secret documents released on the website have ignited the debate on freedom of information and professional journalistic ethics Can we say that the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, is a journalist just because he had the information and a medium (Internet) to release that information? Do these kinds of practices really contribute toward citizenship or democracy? Or we need to get back to Dewey’s idea of “fully formed public opinion, accomplished by effective communication among citizens, experts, and politicians, with the latter being accountable for the policies they adopt” (Dewey, 1954, p 35) Rauf Arif / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 236 (2016) – 3.2 Opponents The critics of technological determinism believe that the concept of citizenship existed well before the age of mass media and the Internet Thus the invention of new forms of media does not mean that new kinds of citizenships are emerging, but the technology has the ability to replace the existing practices of citizenship by providing new means of political engagement in the society According to Habermas (1989), a meaningful discourse is necessary for public sphere However, some scholars believe that the Internet may not be a useful tool to generate a meaningful political discourse as it has a “potential to damage deliberative ideals by facilitating selective exposure to like-minded political views” (Sunstein, 2001; Wojcieszak and Mutz, 2009, p 40) Finally, one cannot ignore the work of Papacharissi (2002) who analyzed the Internet as a public sphere and concluded that political deliberation does take place online, but we need to understand the impact of such political deliberation on the society She adds, “Understanding and documenting the consequences of political uses of the internet can help us determine whether this relatively new medium will manage to transcend from public space to a public, virtual sphere” (p 24) Conclusion In this short paper, the analysis of some of the influential scholarly work on the idea of Internet citizenship helps us understand that the era of digital communication is still unfolding So far, we have just observed couple of smallscale online social movements in some of the non-Western settings (take for example, Tunisian and Egypt’s political uprisings of 2010/11) In fact, the emergence of the Internet has been celebrated as a global communication platform, which means the potential and the scope of the Internet citizenship is much greater than what our communication scholars have predicted so far Thus, this study agrees with Papacharissi (2002) who believes that “greater participation in political discussion is not the sole determinant of democracy The content, diversity, and impact of political discussion need to be considered carefully before we conclude whether online discourse enhances democracy” (p 18) In short, this paper points out to the need for more research and more scholarly debate on the idea of the Internet citizenship so as to better understand the phenomenon, rather than drawing hasty conclusions on what has yet to come in the era of digital communication References Arif, R (2014) Social movements, YouTube and political activism in authoritarian countries: a comparative analysis of political change in Pakistan, Tunisia & Egypt PhD Dissertation University of Iowa Baym, G (2007) Crafting new communicative models in the televisual sphere: political interviews on The Daily Show The Communication Review, 10 (2), 93–115 Carey, J W (2009) Communication as culture: essays on media and society (Revised ed.) 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Journal of Communication, 59, 40–56  ... actively engaged in the creation and dissemination of news and information In the recent past, the example of revelations made by an online platform WikiLeaks can be seen in the same context The secret... in the creation of new forms of knowledge We read and hear every day that the Internet has started challenging the traditional practices of journalism, and empowering audiences who are also actively... 11.12.2015) Ghannam, J (2011) Social media in the Arab world: leading up to the uprisings of 2011 Washington DC A report to the Center for International Media Assistance URL: http://www.cima.ned.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/CIMA-Arab_Social_Media-Report-10-25-11.pdf