Counterhegemonic Discourses and the Internet

Abstract

. Contrary to much of the hype that posits cyberspace as the uncontested domain of rugged individualists, computer networks and traffic exhibit deeply social and political roots. The Internet is neither inherently oppressive nor automatically emancipatory; it is a terrain of contested philosophies and politics. After a brief review of the politics of electronic knowledge, we discuss the ways in which the Internet can be harnessed for counterhegemonic (antiestablishment) political ends. We focus on progressive uses, including the confrontation of nomadic power and rhizomic power structures, in which the local becomes the global. We also offer an encapsulation of right‐wing uses. Throughout, we see cyberactivism as a necessary, but not sufficient, complement to real‐world struggles on behalf of the disempowered.

Knowledge as Power on the Internet

“…The Internet has been seen as a potentially emancipatory force that allows people to circumvent traditional barriers to accessing and producing knowledge in ways that challenge authority [35], decentralize decision making [9], and facilitate self organizing communities [31]. More recently, however, many researchers have become skeptical that with knowledge comes emancipation.…”

Satellite imagery and the spectacle of secret spaces

“…This democratisation of access can impact on powerful institutions that prefer to work hidden from public view. The emancipatory potential of the Internet as a site for globalising local resistance has, however, been a source of significant debate over the last decade (e.g., Warf and Grimes, 1997;Pickerill, 2006). The military and state securityintelligence apparatus, in particular, continuously struggle to deflect scrutiny and even more so since 9/11.…”

Virtual Speakers, Virtual Audiences: Agency, Audience and Constraint in an Online Chat Community

“…For example, some users, upon getting ejected from the chat room, will return and proclaim how they were expelled to the rest of the chat room, using this expulsion as a social marker that brands them as defiant of the existing rules. As much of the academic and public discourse over the Internet has focused on the medium as a sphere of ''rugged individualism'' 26 , it is not surprising that defiance against imposed structures becomes a core value in an online discursive community. Rebellion against the internet watchdog may be one piece of evidence of the counter-hegemonic ethos of the chat culture.…”