New Media and Society

Do new web and mobile technologies influence political agendas and policies?

In a way, we can claim that web and mobile technologies provide people a chance to publish and distribute content, self organize into communities based on common interests or ideas and participate in collective action. New technologies even enable individuals to be a part of deliberative processes which is one step further from rigid representative democracy in which we live in. New web based Medias are opening spheres where people can create new types of media outlets, build new types of civil society organisations, monitor or protest against political institutions. But in reality, is it really so?
Yes we can claim that new types of uncontrolled or less controlled, Medias are fundamentally changing political power structures, but still, there is a certain doubt about still existing censorship, surveillance and on-going propaganda from political elites. Good examples are countries like China where www is monitored and censored. Of course in western countries, development and uprise of new societies occurring and functioning on-line can not be doubted, but do they really posses political power needed for changing and re-shaping policies?

According to dystopian theory, which I find as the one to be considered, new www and mobile Medias are actually enabling traditional institutions to further consolidate their powers. So even though there are several new communities and even institutions emerging on-line, who are opposing or at least monitoring, traditional political institutions, we have to keep in mind that these institutions and people in charge of them have ability to easily excess into new communities, see and analyse their ideas and therefore effectively protect old institutions. So, can new www based communities exceed that and seriously threaten old institutions?