Re: <nettime> social media & political activism redux

[John Hopkins <jhopkins@neoscenes.net>]

On 01/Nov/14 06:34, Geert Lovink wrote:
> Thanks a lot, Allan, this is interesting. The question imho is not how social
> media relate to the inadequate responses of political parties but if they
> will generate sustainable 'new institutional forms' over time. What if the
> current social media only produce one-off events? Protests without a cause?

And it's hard to imagine that there is no overall negative effect on the 
structures of relation among the people participating -- given the corporate 
control (& gov't collusion), data monitoring, harvesting, and mining, and so on 
-- that those 'in control' of social media are actually doing an end run on the 
political parties in the sense that they are stealing the power base from those 
same parties. 'The people' are merely pawns (and the originary source of power 
in a techno-social system) in the wider struggle for power...

Allan -- what do you speculate as the power relationship between 'owners' of a 
(social media) protocol, and those using that protocol? Neutral, of no 
consequence, prfound, complex? And the relationship between those deploying the 
(social media) protocols, and those *already* in power?

John

--
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Dr. John Hopkins, BSc, MFA, PhD
grounded on a granite batholith
twitter: @neoscenes
http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/
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