Randal Marlin
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enormous pressure on the Pentagon to back off from their PR spinning.9
The field is wide open for independent journalists to set up their own Web pages.
Indeed, Boyce Richardson, a retired journalist and filmmaker, has done just that;
“Boyce’s Paper”10 provides regular insightful commentaries on the media, books, poli-
tics, sports, and whatever else captures his attention. What is special about this pub-
lication, updated every few days, is that it gives an unapologetic socialist viewpoint
unobtainable, at least on any regular basis, in any Canadian mainstream publication
that I know. However, without an advertising budget, how many know of its exis-
tence? Long ago, Albert Camus dreamed of a critical journalism that would outline
the biases of writers, owners, news sources, and so on and that would give the reader
the benefit of the journalist’s experienced judgment as to the likelihood of their verac-
ity. This form of meta-journalism would draw attention to contradictory accounts
rather than suppressing them, thus putting the reader on guard against credulity. He
was optimistic about the technical possibility of such journalism, without going into
further detail.11 Today, various websites, such as FAIR,12 can be found that approximate
the function Camus described. All that is lacking, for many people, is awareness of
where such sites are to be found. Can we expect a new era of democratic involvement?
Or is this new technology likely to follow in the footsteps of the telephone, radio, and
television, all touted in similar ways but fal ing far short of the promises made by some
on their behalf?
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That we are in a new era of communications is undeniable. However, it is impossible to predict with confidence how the new technology will be developed. What
seems limitless at first runs up against the fact of human boredom. Already news
accounts have reported that, after a spurt of across-the-field experimentation, people
tend to settle on a few websites that they visit with regularity, until they step out of
the virtual world into the real one with its full human interaction. The Web is full of
outdated, because not maintained, sites. After the initial discovery of cyberspace’s
potential, some more sober assessment is in order. Jacques El ul, long before the arrival
of the Web, made some comments on information technology that seem likely also to
apply with poignancy to the Internet:
The technical possibilities of a wide variety of benefits [of a computerized society] are
there, but it is illusory to suppose that the benefits will necessarily come about. The
computer and other information devices enter an existing social order. .. Inevitably,
information systems will become concentrated and centralized.... The ordinary citi-
zen will be given access to information, but how will he know where to look for what
he wants, which data bank to tap? Social privilege will flow even more than now to
the big administrators, intellectuals, and pressure groups or unions, whoever has the
resources to get pertinent information. . Secrecy will also be favored, inasmuch as
there will eventually develop two levels of information. The first will be what goes
into the data banks. The second, and more important, will be the information not
provided by the banks but known to those who fed the data into the computer, who
decided what to put in and what to leave out. This will be one of the gravest threats
to our future freedom.13
This prediction, made in 1980, about the difficulty of getting new technology
to support grassroots democracy against established commercial interests, seems to
be verified by contemporary developments. According to Donald Gutstein, a com-
munications professor at Simon Fraser University, the development of the Internet
is repeating what happened with previous communications technologies. As long as
the technology is in its infancy, it is promoted as a public good, and public money
is demanded and obtained for its development. Then, when the big cost hurdles are
overcome, pressure is put on the government to allow private corporations to use the
new technologies for commercial purposes. CA*net, the Internet in Canada in the
early 1990s, was funded through universities and the National Research Council.
An industry-dominated organization was formed—the Canadian Network for the
Advancement of Research, Industry, and Education (CANARIE)—and financed
by the Mulroney and Chrétien governments to “upgrade CA*net and turn it over
to the private sector—Bell Canada as it turned out.” However, some of the compa-
nies involved in this organization, Bell included, stood to benefit from the demise of
CA*net, since they planned to set up private Internet access companies. “CANARIE
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made no provision in its programs for public information access. Nonprofit and community projects were specifically excluded from support unless they had private sector
partners.”14
Currently the Internet has plenty of space for independent voices. These appear
either on commercial websites or on sites hosted by nonprofit organizations such as
National Capital Freenet in Canada’s capital.15 Freenet has provided e-mail and specific
interest discussion groups since the early 1990s and now hosts a large number of sites.
It survives on donations and a low monthly fee for high speed Internet access, leasing
Bell Canada’s lines. What is worrying, however, is the idea that BCE (Bell Canada
Enterprises) or other Internet-involved conglomerates might use their enormous tech-
nical, financial, and political capital to undermine the potential of the Web to become
an effective counterculture voice. Although BCE has divested itself of the Globe and
Mail, it is still Canada’s largest vertically integrated broadcaster, including the CTV
and CTV Two networks, and the largest telecommunications provider in Canada.
It is the largest provider of Internet access and the second largest wireless services
provider.16 Will it also end up dominating the Internet? One way this could happen
is through the “synergy” of the different media outlets it controls. One media outlet
discusses what is going on in a sister publication, carefully directing the reader to a
relevant paper, program, or website. These in turn repay the favour by citing material
from the first.
Something comparable happened in the newspaper-television synergy that devel-
oped in 2001 less than a month after the CRTC declined to impose segregation of
business from editorial interests in the cases of both BCE and CanWest Global. For
example, the Ottawa Citizen carried a banner headline “Global Newscast Aims to Be
Different” over a full page of copy highlighting the new newscast season of CanWest
Global Communications. There was not even the pretence of impartiality between
Global Television and its competitor CTV.17 The CRTC’s October 18, 2012 decision
involved rejecting a bid by BCE to take over Astral Media Inc., which operates 24 spe-
cialty and pay-television channels inclu
ding HBO Canada and The Movie Network.
The bid was opposed by, among others, OpenMedia.ca, Professor Dwayne Winseck
of Carleton University, and BCE rival Quebecor Media, which engaged in extensive
advertising on its Sun Media newspaper chain to enlist public support for its opposi-
tion to the takeover. At the time of writing, BCE had re-submitted its proposals for
new CRTC hearings in Montreal in May 2013. An analysis of the issues was prepared
by Winseck on behalf of the Public Interest Advocacy Centre and four other groups
and filed April 5, 2013.18
Those with money can arrange to have their own websites posted higher in the
lists delivered by the different search engines. Furthermore, one of the central features
of the Web are links, which can be arranged in such a way as to direct the surfer onto
the pages that the company or organization desires rather than those the surfer wants.
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that when I clicked to go back to what I thought would be the Citizen’s home page, I was linked to CanWest Global’s page instead. The use of pop-ups is another way of
constraining the user. Pioneered mainly by the porn industry, it provides an endless
linking of one site to another; each time a site is closed, another similar one pops open
in its place, providing a high level of meaningless “hits” for the trade. The only way to
break the chain in some cases is to shut down the computer.
UnCERTAInTIES AnD nEgATIVE FEATURES
Currently, the Internet is treated in the media as a big question mark. I have been
speaking of the World Wide Web, but in fact we need to bear in mind that there are
many different things referred to by the word “Internet.” First is electronic mail—e-
mail—by which written messages are conveyed through computer hookups to any
part of the globe, virtually instantaneously. Users number now in the billions and
growth continues. Second are listservs, or simply lists, which used to be called bulletin
boards. These are places where ideas are floated, questions asked, debates pursued, etc.
They can be moderated, meaning that someone reads them to ensure that a contribu-
tion is on topic, or unmoderated. To some extent, the success of these will depend on
the willingness of discussants to show restraint and tolerance as well as patience. New
lists are started all the time, and some disappear as people become tired of “flame
wars” (insulting exchanges) and the like. It is a democratic form of communication,
since everyone gets to contribute in those sites that are unmoderated, but it also shows
the limitations of unfiltered democracy. Those with the largest egos can dominate the
space with endless arguments directed against some equal and opposite obtuse and
unyielding mind.
Second is the creation of specialty forums. Organizations have a need for com-
munications from the top, and some members may not want to read through messages
from other members riding hobby horses. For that reason, pressures are sometimes
placed on moderators to hive off discussions to special forums for each topic, so that
important news will get through to people who otherwise might choose to delete
messages unopened. These mainly one-way circular mailing lists can be a powerful
mobilizing force.
Third are the websites already mentioned, which operate like a shop window with
posted messages. A growing number of writers and thinkers have their own websites
where they post their ideas in “blogs,” as they have come to be known. These are espe-
cially useful to those whose ideas are outside the mainstream to the point where pub-
lication in a mass circulation media would be rare.
Fourth are the search engines, which provide ready access to a huge range of
information. The most prominent of these is Google, and its effect on modern life
has been transformative. Sometimes a searcher is in the position of Ali Baba in the
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Arabian Nights tale. A wealth of information is accessible, if one can only remember the recondite terms of the subject one wants to investigate. Among the issues relating
to search engines is the nature of the algorithms used to order the search results, an
ordering called “PageRank.” When thousands or millions of search results come up, an
individual will not have time to look at them al , so it is important which ones make
it to the top of the list. Google does not announce its algorithms, though it says it has
over 200 “signals” or indicators that contribute to prioritization. These are supposed
to be based on factors that in some objective way designate what is most worthy of a
searcher’s attention. But because people can pay to have a higher place in the listings,
the goal of objectivity is diminished.19 There is an old lesson to be learned from the
experience of Robert Moses as mayor of New York, related to the social implications
of architecture. In his case, it was the design of Long Island parkways with low over-
passes that meant buses carrying African Americans and poor people were effectively
excluded from certain parks and beaches. Some have implied that deliberate racism
was involved, but whether or not this is so, the lesson is that architecture of roads
can have social implications.20 The same is likely true of the choice of algorithms that
govern the information accessed through search engines.
Fifth are the social media made possible by the Internet: Facebook, Twitter,
LinkedIn, etc. Each of these has its own special features that take it beyond e-mail.
For example, Facebook provides room for people to post numerous photographs and
to “chat” to more than one friend at a time. What is called a “social graph” involves
algorithms that determine what to show on your homepage when you log in and what
to suggest to you in terms of things you might like to explore or people you might like
to know. Twitter is the most open of platforms, but also the least intimate, unless users
specifically set themselves “private.” Messages are limited to 140 characters, making
them more likely to be read by people in a hurry. The size of one’s network affects
search capabilities. One can contact more people, but the less you know people in the
network the less you can use other features such as asking for introductions to other
people.21
Sixth are the developments allowing voice to be carried over the Internet, that is,
VoIP, or Voice over Internet Protocol. The advantage is the equivalent of telephone
connectivity, but it is free and is connected virtually everywhere on the globe. Skype
has the additional feature that one can see the person to whom one is talking in his
or her immediate surroundings. The disadvantage is that when there is heavy traffic
on the Internet, the connectivity may be in jeopardy and the communications may be
less reliable in terms of audibility and steadiness than the old land-line connections.
Further Internet developments are produced on a regular basis as new applica-
tions give added serviceability to
“smart phones,” hand-held devices that function as
computers and telephones with text-messaging, search engine capability, etc. Google
maps help people find their way. Software designed to “crawl the Web,” seeking infor-
mation about Internet users, can be helpful in building profiles on those users for
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marketing, political, or forensic purposes. As people reveal more of themselves to
“friends” on Facebook, they may also be stripping themselves of their privacy. Former
“friends” may become disaffected, and law enforcers find it easy in times of emergency
to get approval for Internet searches without requiring a warrant, democracy or no
democracy. As others have pointed out, our Internet activities leave electronic traces
that get recorded. This can be a threat to privacy and freedom, but it also has a positive
side, as I recently found Amazon notifying me of a new book that did indeed interest
me, one that would otherwise likely have escaped my attention.
A major obstacle to the maximization of the potential for information access
through the Web is cost. Who will pay? People buy computers to access the Web,
but they are not rushing to buy from many of the businesses set up there. In 2001,
the money did not come in fast enough to meet expectations, and a huge loss of
confidence in the high-tech industry resulted. Nortel, the electronics giant, saw its
stock drop from $122.75 to less than $9 in a year. (It later folded.) Some businesses
have done well. Secondhand booksellers have profited from this service, which links
buyers with books so much more efficiently than before. Judging from the prolifera-
tion of pornography sites, that particular business appears to profit as well. One theory
is that the Internet will challenge the huge corporate structure by allowing smal -scale
entrepreneurs to interact with clients and with each other, avoiding major overhead
costs and intermediaries. But there is still the problem of how to inform the public
about one’s website and how to keep them checking in. Recent studies of British shop-
ping habits indicate that online shopping has started to overtake spending in physical