In the article of Castells, there are a lot of thinks which I already knew but I didn’t realize it the way he presents it, for example that the “ongoing transformation of communication technology in the digital age extends the reach of communication media to all domains of social life” (Castells, 2007). I did know this, I experience it every day, but it is impressing to become aware how much we are influenced by media. For example we can get the latest news the whole day, even in the night. In the past, without internet, this was not possible.
In the following I will only comment on what I especially agree or disagree with.
Castells states that “ if a majority of people think in ways that are contradictory to the values and norms institutionalized in the state and enshrined in the law and regulations, ultimately the system will change”( Castells, 2007). This is a very interesting and a very true thought. We can see this in Libya. (Nearly) the whole country fights for a new governance and they seem to be successful.
Further Castells said that the media are not the holder of power (Castells, 2007). I don’t agree with that, I think the media is the most powerful “institution”. On October, 30, 1938 a radio station in America announced the arrival of Martians. They broadcasts that the Earth was attacked. Because of this many people panicked and flew from their homes. This was not real the radio station just let their listeners hear a portion of Orson Wells “War of the Worlds” (Rosenberg). I know, this is long ago but I think this can still happen. Through internet a lot of people can be reached. When you want to publish something you just write it on facebook. For example when 16 years old Thessa wanted to celebrate her birthday she accidentally made her birthday invitation public, on facebook. 15.000 people announced that they will come to her birthday ( in fact 1500 acutally came) (Miklis, 2001).
When Castells wrote about politics, he said that scandal politics, like inappropriate behavior can be seen as good entertainment, “while not drawing political implications from it” (Castells, 2007). This may be true for America, but it is not for Germany. For example CDU politician Christian von Boetticher had to abdicate his chair in the Landtag in Germany because of his affair with a 16 year old girl (dpa, 2011). Or when CDU politician Theodor zu Gutenberg was proved to had done plagiarism he had to abdicate too (ler/dpa/dapd, 2011).
Castells describes the “mass self-communication” as being the new form of socialized communication (Castells, 2007). I got the feeling that he says that we are more socialized with the internet. I don’t know whether you can it describe as more or less socialized. When you describe “socialized” as communicating with others as much as possible and often as possible as we can say that we became more socialized. On the other hand, for me, “socialized” means interacting people personally. Do you think you are socialized when you only communicate through a mobile phone or internet? I don’t.
In the end, Castells concludes that “our societies continue to perform socially and politically by shifting the process of formation of the public mind from political institutions to the realm of communication, largely organized around the mass media” (Castells, 2007) . I agree to some extent, because I do think that the mass media becomes more important but there are already some limitations. In the past you could see nearly every music video on youtube. Now this is not possible anymore. There are many songs which are not allowed to play in some countries. For example in Germany, the GEMA controls which music is allowed to be heard and which is not.
Literature:
Castells, M. (2007). Communication, Power and Counter- power in the Network Society. International Journal of Communication , S. 238-266.
dpa. (15. august 2011). Spiegel Online. Access 18. september 2011 von Boetticher-Rücktritt stürzt Nord-CDU in die Krise: http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/0,1518,780205,00.html
ler/dpa/dapd. (1. march 2011). Spiegel Online. Access 18. september 2011 von Guttenberg stürzt über Plagiatsaffäre: http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/0,1518,748349,00.html
Miklis, K. (4. June 2001). Stern.de. Access 18. september 2011 von Im Vorgarten von Thessa: http://www.stern.de/digital/online/facebook-fans-stuermen-geburtstagsparty-im-vorgarten-von-thessa-1692209.html
Rosenberg, J. . About.com. Access 2011 von War of the Worlds Radio Broadcast Causes Panic: http://history1900s.about.com/od/1930s/a/warofworlds.htm
You mentioned in the first section of this post that there are some things that you hear in the lecture and you think it is obvious, that you know it and it made me think..also the last lecture made me think about these things that we take as a logical and as if everybody knows these things anyway. But I think we kind of do know it in the back of our heads, but sometimes we don't acknowledge it as maybe we should. For exaple, we know that we're surrounded by media, but maybe we understand it only when we're in the middle of it, otherwise we "just know it" but don't acknowldege it.
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