CSE 303 Homework Social Implications
Due: Thursday, 3/13/08, 11:59PM
Turnin: Integrated

FAQ

HWSI Q&A Wiki Page

The Topic

For this assignment, let's accept that traditional media are effectively in the business of manufacturing consent. (Note that this is "bounding the debate," in Chomsky's terminology, and so you might justifiably start by explaining why you reject the hypothesis.) Complete what follows even so.) Now address these questions:

1. In the early days of the web, it was widely believed that it would be a democratizing agent - everyone would be able to express their thoughts, with everyone else as their potential audience - and that the result would be an unprecedented increase in the diversity of ideas of an opinions. Has this happened?

2. More recent technology promises to overshadow at least the early vision the web, if it hasn't already. Cell phones allow nearly constant access to other people and online resources; texting is plausibly more common than conversation or email; social networks provide disembodied intimacy. On the one hand, it would seem inarguable that these forms of interactions, which are presumed to be unmediated by central authorities, should result in an increased diversity of thought. Chomsky himself recommends small scale interactions as a way of moving beyond what the central authorities want us to believe. On the other hand, (a) the central authorities (e.g., marketers) are not standing by idle while these technologies develop, and (b) the techologies provide new avenues for coercion (e.g., cyber-bullying). What might one reasonably anticipate the effects of these technologies will be on the diversity of ideas and opinions? (At the least, are they likely to increase, decrease, or have no fundamental effect on the diversity of ideas?)

Your response should be thought of as an attempt to convince others that you are right. You're not writing to hear yourself type, so you should support your opinions in a way that might persuade reasonable people to at least take them seriously.

How To Do It

Write a paragraph or five on this topic, entering it on this page. Once you have entered your submission, it will be viewable by anyone else who has entered a submission. The posts will be displayed anonymously (the authors will not be identified). Your submission will not be anonymous to the course staff, however.

Grading

Grading is binary. If what you wrote fails to indicate that you didn't take this topic seriously, you'll get the grade corresponding to 1; otherwise, you'll get the grade corresponding to 0.