The internet=democracy, free market and free information (if the law would allow)

The writings of Kelley, Lurie and Trippi all illustrate the wonders of the internet and of the Information Age. Trippi's account in particular notes how this is an Age of Empowerment due to the prestige and importance of internet sites and online campaigning (235). His case study of sorts, the Howard Dean campaign, actually made me want to support this bipartisan doctor. I do not really remember much about him except the like 15 second sound byte showing a very excited Dean yelling about something (i looked up the phrase:"Not only are we going to New Hampshire, Tom Harkin, we're going to South Carolina and Oklahoma and Arizona and North Dakota and New Mexico, and we're going to California and Texas and New York ... And we're going to South Dakota and Oregon and Washington and Michigan, and then we're going to Washington, D.C., to take back the White House! Yeah!!!")...the killer was the scream at the end. Anyway, just being able to look up the phrase and see the countless youtube videos of the footage, the pundit reactions, the media reactions all illustrate the importance of the public voice. I do not think that Trippi, Kelley and Luir are far too idealistic especially in comparison to Barlow. They do not think that information wants to be free but rather that the people want access to free information. Also, in comparison to Gilder, Lurie and Kelley especially though promoting the free market, are cautious of corporations: "Just like we defeated Hitler and Stalin, the argument continues implicitly, we must strike AOL and Microsoft" (Lurie, 6). it is interesting that while Gilder argues that television is totalitarian, Lurie and his colleagues fear how corporations might control more and more of the new digital media (and are doing so in some cases). The internet as we have been discussing in class, is one of the mediums we can assuredly be able to transgress the minimal interactivity of T.V.--though American Idol and others are refuting the non interactive claim. 


              Kelley writes about how the movie and music buffs will be the ones (and have been) digitizing the movies, music and other pieces of entertainment. corporations basically do not need to extend copyrights ("Making my own music" 1 and "we are the web" 6). Many of the things the above writers have talked about from social networking to blogging to the fact that people are getting news from the internet (news agencies like CNN, ABC and MSNBC all quote from twitter, facebook and mention their "i reporters" when discussing stories) are happening today. I do not think that the television will be extinct-it will just be used differently.  "For the Win," the novel I am reading for the final paper, reflects how the internet and the internet gaming industry in this case are a democratizing force. In the book, Webblies who are modeled after the unions of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries fight for fairer wages, better working conditions, and basic human rights in the gaming world, sparking strikes in actual industrial factories across the developing world. thus, at least according to Cory Doctorow, the internet for sure can be an empowering force in his fictional portrayal of internet gaming something, Lurie, Kelley and Trippi agree can happen in the real world of politics and entertainment.