The Marmot’s Hole

What happens when one combines political activism with amateurs?

Well it is either a massive Mad-Cow scare or people like Robert Greenwald, who uses a DIY approach to provoking thought about candidates in America. Per Mr. Greenwald

For years I sat in conversations with people who said the only way we can be effective is we have to raise $1 billion and buy CBS, . . . Well, Google raised a couple of billion and bought YouTube, and it’s here for us, and it’s a huge, huge difference.”

The newer forms of media do have an effect upon politics and sometimes for good, but the potential for misuse is now more painfully obvious. Korea has experienced the same new media experience with an election that was greatly influenced by SMS and the internet, resulting in Roh’s election and, most recently, with the mad-cow series of protests.

As per a recent video address by Howard Rheingold, (from the OhmyNews 2008 Forum keynote address in South Korea)

One of the things that these street demonstrations is doing is that it’s voicing public opinion. In the long-run though, is that opinion based on accurate information and are the strategies that people are using, are those in the long run, going to able to influence public policy.

So let me talk to the first part of that, about accuracy of information. The problem with the Internet is the same thing as the great power of the Internet. Anyone can publish. There is a huge amount of knowledge on the Internet and a great deal of untrue knowledge. A lot of rumors spread very quickly, here in the USA during the political season, people get emails saying very untrue things about candidates and many people believe it. We don’t really have a central source, besides the traditional media, the mainstream media to go to find out accuracy. . . . A smart mob is not necessarily a wise mob.

The technology itself does not guarantee peace or democracy. It really requires a literacy. It requires an informed citizenry. Journalism plays a role in that. Journalism brings to the people news they need to know about the workings of the State and it helps bring public opinion to the policy makers to know that they cannot make policy that goes against the majority of opinions of the citizens, so, I’m hoping that many people who are involved in these very exciting expressions of democracy will understand that they are at the beginning — not at the end — of this process and they have the opportunity to lead the world in making our smart mobs smarter, rather than more mob-like.

Thus as Mr. Rheingold urges his Korean audience: “I’m urging you to think about ways to make your ’smart mobs’ smarter, rather than more mob-like.”

The really thorny issue that Mr. Rheingold skirts is how is journalistic literacy cultivated in South Korea, especially when the technology is so rapidly expanding, finding itself in the hands of those barely old enough to know what journalistic literacy is? Not that Mr. Rheingold is at fault for avoiding painting a more complete picture but rather he is correct in describing democracy as an evolving process that requires more than pressing buttons but an understanding of why and which buttons are pushed — it wants an informed citizenry and that takes time.

This “literacy” above all else should be one of the main educational goals in any democracy lest social tragedy and wars become the legacy of a mis-educated democracy. Towards this end, the Korean Government should spend more than a moment considering what passes for education in South Korea and why there has been a failure in “literacy” from the beginning of the recent public protests.

Likewise, IMHO, the government should consider the great distrust and disconnection that exists between themselves and the Korean public and seriously think about the kind of future they are helping create if this disconnection can not be fixed. Without the trust of the public, what can be done?