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Manuel Castells

Democracy in the age of the

Throughout history, the practice of politics and its institutions have in great measure depended on the processes of and for the simple reason that, in all spheres of their lives, people make decisions in keeping with the stimuli and kinds of information that enter their minds from their communication environments.

The way of operating of these milieus is even more decisive role in democracy as a feeder stream from the technology inasmuch as, in principle, the citizens and organisation of the information freely decide who will govern them, process. Whether one is talking about the and how and why, on the basis of an sacro-political ceremonies of antiquity, informed judgement on what is best sermons from the pulpit, written for them and the country. This is why communication since the invention of the fourth power is sometimes spoken the printing press, radio, television or the of, referring to the power of the media Internet, the , in the broadest in their influence on public opinion. sense, constitute public space, the space In fact, this characterisation is inexact. where views are contrasted, opinions The politicians are the ones that retain are formed, behaviour is influenced political power. The financiers are the and, in the end, where the future of the ones that exercise economic power. who aspire to govern is decided The intellectual and religious ministries and, hence, the destiny of the governed. have arrogated moral and cultural Although this close relationship between power. Alongside all of this, many communication and politics is forged other dimensions of power establish in all systems of government, it has an their own elites in such a way that the

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totality of power in society is constructed is access to the public media for a time around networks of relations among that is proportional to the support the dominating elites in each of the obtained in the past elections, which parcels of power. There is no one unified tends to prioritise the inertia of the power but a network of local, past over the possibility of a different national, international and global elites future. Moreover, bearing in mind that in differentiated dimensions, which, audience interest in electoral in their alliances and conflicts arising is minimal, the media has scant from a basis of shared and divergent impact on public opinion. Subliminal interests, comprise the shifting mesh of campaigns of political promotion, asymmetrical relations that, in the last including commissioned opinion pieces instance, constitutes the framework of and tendentious journalistic reports, are the everyday life of citizens. However, more effective. Since media politicking all the processes of power formation is expensive, its generalised practice take place in one and the same space: encourages the illegal financing of almost the space of socialised communication, all the political campaigns practically which is to say, of the communication throughout the world. Regulation of that eventually reaches society as a whole. financial contributions is no solution This means that the media are not the because, once the law is approved, the holders of power but something rather fiddle appears. The alternative solution, more important: they make up the space which has just been dictated by the in which power is constituted since only Supreme Court of the United States, the personal or programmatic options namely no limits to the financing of that accede to this space come to be the political activities, obviously favours the knowledge of citizens. And the way in options that are most kindly viewed in which they enter, their intensity in doing the business world. Hence, the practice so, their format and the story they tell are of media politics skews and undermines all decisive in people’s perceptions and, at the democratic process. Again, it warps the end of the day, in their participation political debate because it wields as a and decision-making in the political priority weapon the politics of scandal process. Yet this is not a neutral space. or the production (more or less accurate) It is conditioned by the economic and of information that casts aspersions on political interests of the media companies the adversary. Negative messages are and governments, and by the mediation engraved much more intensely in the of media professionals, their options mind than positive ones. Even though and their preferences. scandal does not always work (due to the Rules of access to the mass media have fatigue effect on public opinion), when it therefore been made with the aim, in is used, directly or indirectly, by all the principle, of guaranteeing a certain political forces, it decisively contributes equality of opportunity vis-à-vis the towards discrediting the political class different options at election time. A as a whole and aggravates the crisis of comparative analysis of legislation in this legitimacy of the democratic institutions, area leads one to doubt the democratic especially political parties. Surveys, both efficacy of these rules. In the context national and international, reveal growing of the Spanish state, the essential norm mistrust among citizens, almost around 99 II

the globe, for parties, politicians and, the permanent state of being connected. to a lesser extent, the governing class. It is connectivity and not mobility In our societies, then, politics is media that is fundamentally changing the politics carried out through a space of social model of communication. communication, and it is generally biased We are at the threshold of an essential and effected by resorting to the politics transformation of the communication of scandal. The spectacle of the politics system, characterised by the development of ad hominem attack and messages of what I call mass self-communication: reduced to advertising jingles has a large “mass” because it is able to reach part to play in prompting a generalised the whole of society, even global disaffection among citizens regarding communication networks, and “self” their representatives and in undermining because the messages are produced, the foundations of support for the tasks received, selected and combined of government, which is a particularly by individuals or collectives that serious matter in a context of crisis. interrelate together as well as with Herein lies the importance of databases in the network as a whole. the transformation of the space Communication by the Internet is of communication through the free in general terms. It is monitored, development of the Internet and mobile it is true, and privacy has ceased to communication networks. In our milieu, exist on the Web. However, there is almost three quarters of the population so much information to be processed have access to the Internet, while and so many imprecise search engines propagation of the mobile phone is well that the only victims are the usual nigh universal. The rapid diffusion of suspects. For the immense majority of broadband constitutes the multimodal people, the Internet is a vast ocean of platform of communication in which communication ploughed through by we live. We don’t “watch” the Internet the return-trip sailing ships of their as we watch television. We live with the messages en route to ports that are yet to Internet and in the Internet, in all the be discovered. Questions about whether spheres of our everyday lives. The new this situation is good or bad are alien generations continue to watch television to the inquiry of the researcher, who is selectively, but via the Internet. They keep trying to analyse in order to understand newspapers (more than ever), but rather than to judge. Let us say that the different ones (and in fragments) through fundamental point is that freedom does the Internet. They have constructed their not guarantee the uses of freedom. The own spaces of relationship, information, freer a society, the more it depends on interaction and debate in the so-called the ethical quality of its members and social media –the multimodal social institutions. The Internet reflects what networks of the Internet– while accessing we are, individually and collectively. the most diverse assortment of contents Nevertheless, what we do know is through mobile technologies. Recall that the Internet is transforming the that, in mobile communication, the political process because it has already important thing is not mobility (most transformed the space of communication. calls are made from fixed places such The information-based mass-media as the home, workplace or school) but monopoly controlled by business and 100/101 101 II

governments is over because, even they do can end up on YouTube because while the infrastructure of the Internet everyone has a mobile phone with a also has its proprietors, they cannot camera and knows how to put the images prohibit access to the circulation of its on line. Lying as a way of governing has messages since the Internet is a global a very high price. Just ask Aznar about network of computers and their servers the bombing attacks in Madrid on 14 can by replaced in other countries March 2004. Things don’t look good for in case of authoritarian closure, as the Machiavellis skulking in the shadows. happened with the Iranian protests of Transparency is no longer just a desirable 2010 when communication through virtue in politics but an imperative tactic Twitter kept the revolt alive along with if the aim is to stay clear of disrepute. its relationship with the outside world. Citizens increasingly use the Internet The social media of communication and mobile phones to get information, include blogs, hundreds of millions of to discuss, to organise themselves which are continually appearing all over and, if necessary, to mobilise. Yet, in the planet –for each person a blog, if general, the powers-that-be have still not need be– and in sites like YouTube and grasped the potential of the Internet. many others that become the repository, They confine themselves to symbolic permanently updated, of the images and gestures with little practical content. sounds of all societies. Citizen All politicians have a web page, all of reaches where the professional journalists them use YouTube, all of them write do not go while, for professionals, there blogs but they tend to confuse it all is a clear interest in alliance with non- with an electronic notice board. Hence, professionals so as to defend themselves governments provide information by the against the impediments that the Internet but few take the step of giving communication industry puts in the way transparency to their management with of their independence. How is it possible user-friendly, interactive systems that to censor what has already gone on-line? enable the full participation of citizens on As for the credibility of information, the basis of restriction-free access to all it all depends on the ability of the person the databases containing information that thus informed to separate the chaff from we have the right to know about. There the grain or, in other words, it all depends are exceptions. The Brown Government on the educational and cultural quality [at the time of ], advised by Tim of citizens. Credibility no longer resides Berners-Lee (inventor of the World Wide only in the emitter of the information but Web) and Nigel Shadbolt, is creating a also in the receiver’s ability to filter. Semantic Web system to give generalised The most immediate effect of this access to government databases along explosion of horizontal networks of with elements of interactivity. Again, communication in the domain of politics awareness of the potential of the Internet is that governments and politicians have by Obama and his advisers was the to be very careful about what they do. decisive factor that enabled him to There are no secrets any more unless they become president of the most powerful lead a monastic existence. Everything country in the world, at the head of a

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citizens’ movement that organised itself the networks of communication is freed, around his charismatic candidature. This all the winds in society are emboldened is the key: self-organisation. Politicians to blow and one must navigate with and who really want to squeeze all the against them. It requires political courage, potential out of the Internet must dare leadership and, above all, democratic to engage in a new kind of politics. This conviction. What has come to an end is is a form of politics in which electors entrenchment in party apparatuses and –and not political apparatuses– take the media manipulation, taking advantage initiative; politics in which politicians of the notion that the next one is even keep learning by means of mass-based worse. This is how one comes to power consultations whereby they venture to or stays in power, but one also loses enter into debate with society, not just touch with a citizenry that is ever better with activist minorities but with the informed and self-organised and that citizenry as a whole. If politicians do will want accountability at every point not engage in Internet politics, citizens along the way until it comes to fracture will use it against the politicians. In or reform of the democratic institutions. fact, they are already doing so. It is clear Democracy in the age of the Internet there are dangers. Ask Obama. After the is not the democracy of parties. It is vacillations of his first year of mandate, the democracy of citizens, by citizens the far-right populist tea-party movement and for citizens. With or against the that opposes his reforms has been parties, it is a by-product of the ability taking shape in large part thanks to the of parties to regenerate themselves II Internet. When the floodgates of citizen participation are opened and access to

■ Bibliographical References

Castells, Manuel, Castells, Manuel, et al., Chester, Jeff, Digital Communication Power, Oxford Mobile Communication and Destiny: and University Press, 2009 Society: A Global Perspective, the Future of Democracy, (in Catalan as Comunicació MIT Press, 2006 (in Spanish The New Press, 2007 i poder, Editorial UOC, and as Comunicación móvil y Thompson, John B., in Spanish as Comunicación sociedad: una perspective Political Scandal: Power y poder, Alianza Editorial). global, Ariel, 2007). and Visibility in the Media Age, Polity Press, Cambridge 2000.

Manuel Castells is professor of and director of the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya ().