Contradictions of the Internet and the problem of articulating the public interest

Author: Paško Bilić

Details: CULPOL Commentary 2, IRMO, Zagreb, September 2017.

Language: Croatian (abstract in English)

Attachment: AO2_Bilic Pasko_Proturjecnosti interneta i problem artikulacije javnog interesa_

ABSTRACT

In Contradictions of the Internet and the problem of articulating the public interest the author emphasizes three main obstacles for democratic rationalization of contemporary communication technologies: (1) contradictions between free Internet services and their economic and political power over global information flows; (2) manipulation of public information and stifling of market competition under the myth of technological neutrality; (3) quantification of publicly available information and public information quality drop within the national context. The author argues that these contradictions limit the frames of action and democratic envisioning of the digital communication space. Democratic principles such as universal access and technological neutrality lose their democratic potential in the current socio-historical moment. Socially defined public interest can only be attained by resolving these contradictions.