The Future of the Internet and The Fifth Estate: The Internet’s Gift to Democracy

William H. Dutton

Oxford Internet InstituteUniversity of Oxford

Prepared for the General Online Research Conference (GOR), Mannheim, Germany, 6 March 2013.

Reconfiguring Access: Information, People, Services, Technology

Irrelevant, Ineffectual, Clicktvisim

Inherently Democratic, Autocratic

Social Shaped: Reinforcement Politics

Enhancing the Communicative Power of Networked Individuals – Conceptions of Digital Democracy

Politics and the Internet

Politics and the Internet: Institutional Perspectives

A New Organizational Form:Enabling Networked Individuals

Networked Individuals• Financial Times 5 March 2013• Shandong Province, China• Online exposure of ground water

contamination• Smartphone apps documenting smog and

air pollution• China rolling out new anti-pollution

measures

• Oxford Internet Surveys of Britain: 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011 and World Internet Project (WIP)

• The Global Values Project: OII in collaboration with INSEAD, comScore, WEF, and ictQATAR

• The Performance of Distributed Problem-Solving Networks (DPSN) Project (2007-8)

• The Oxford e-Social Science Project (OeSS), Economic and Social Research Council (2005-12)

• The Fifth Estate Project, supported by the OII, Oxford Internet Surveys (2003-2012), and June Klein, Electronic Boardroom™

Research Foundations

• 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013 (in the field)• Cross-sectional Surveys versus Panels• Multi-Stage Probability Sample • England, Scotland & Wales

• Respondents: 14 years and older

• Face-to-face Interviews, High Response Rates

• Sponsorship for 2011 from the Nominet Trust, British Library, Ofcom, O2, and ITV.com

• Component of World Internet Project (WIP)

Oxford Internet Surveys

10

11

Empowering Networked Individuals

Enabling Networked Individuals

Martha Payne, 9 yr old girl writes blog for school project in Scotland: ‘NeverSeconds’

- Produced content: photos & reviews school lunch in 2012

- Distributed on her blog: neverseconds.blogspot.com/

- Censored by her institution (her primary school’s council)

-8,859,514 pages views

-Fostered debate over the quality of school lunches nationwide and worldwide

Press since the 18th Century - the ‘Fourth Estate’

Internet in the 21st - enabling a Fifth Estate

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The Fifth Estate

Enabling a critical mass of individuals to source their own information, and network with other individuals in ways that support distributed social accountability in business and industry, government, politics, and the media.

“[Edmund] Burke said there were Three Estates in Parliament; but, in the Reporters’ Gallery yonder, there sat a Fourth Estate more prominent far than they all. It is not a figure of speech, or witty saying; it is a literal fact – very momentous to us in these times.”

Thomas Carlyle (1831), Heroes and Hero-Worship, at www.gutenberg.org.etext/1091

The Fourth Estate

Feudal Estates into the 21st Century

Estates Feudal Modern

Clergy Public Intellectuals

Nobility Business, Industry and Economic Elites, including Internet Industrial Elites

Commons Government and Politicians

‘4th Estate’ Press Journalists and the Mass Media

Mob Civil Society, Networked Individuals, Mobs

Montesquieu’s Tripartite System into the 21st (US Separation of Powers)

Estates Tripartite Modern US Parallel

Courts Judiciary

Monarch Executive

Parliament Legislative

‘4th Estate’ Press Journalists and the Mass Media

Mob Civil Society, Networked Individuals, Mobs

Networked Institutions, such as in e-Health

Networked Individuals:

going to the Internet for health and medical information

networking patients, e.g., UK Children With Diabetes Advocacy Group (500 Families)

networking physicians, e.g., Sermo

Networked Institutions v Networked Individuals

Sermo: a Collaborative Network Organisation

Arenas: Networked Institutions Networked Individuals

News Online journalism, BBC Online, Live Micro-Blogging

Netizens, Citizen Journalists, Bloggers, Whistleblowers, Leaks, Churnalism.org, Hacking Blacklash

Democracy E-Democracy, E-Consultation, e-Voting

Obama campaign, Aung San Suu Kyi, Arab Springs, Anti-Bribery Websites

Education Online Learning, Multimedia Classrooms

Backchannels, Informal Learning, Rate My Teacher

Health and Medical NHS Direct, e-mailing safety alerts

Going to the Internet for health information, Sermo

The Fifth Estate?

England Riots & Cleanup

Centrality of the Internet, Trust in Government and Attitudes toward Internet Regulation over Time

OxIS 2003: N=2,029; OxIS 2005: N=2,185; OxIS 2007 N=2,350. OxIS 2009: N=2,013

The Politics of the Fifth Estate

The Future of the Internet and The Fifth Estate: The Internet’s Gift to Democracy

William H. Dutton

Oxford Internet InstituteUniversity of Oxford

Prepared for the General Online Research Conference (GOR), Mannheim, Germany, 6 March 2013.