The importance of mass self-communication.

This time, Manuel Castells (2007) attempts to describe and analyze the interplay between communication and power relationships in the technological context that characterizes the network society. I have to say the thing that caught my attention the most in this article is how power relations were transformed in network society and especially what vital role did mass self-communication play in it.

The author states that “the communication system of the industrial society was centered around the mass media, characterized by the mass distribution of a one-way message from one to many” (Castells 2007). It is indeed true that it was mass media that used to be in the center of communication system, where one TV station was responsible for carrying various messages to the whole society and was therefore considerably responsible for shaping people’s minds.

However, it seems like things have changed significantly when internet came into existence. Appropriating the new forms of communication, people have built their own system of mass communication, via SMS, blogs, vlogs, podcasts, wikis, and the like. (De Rosnay & Failly, 2006; Gillmor, 2004; Drezner & Farrell, 2004; and Cerezo, 2006 in Castells 2007). The aforementioned forms of communication, plus things like various social media, Youtube, file sharing websites etc. all have essentially led to “the rise of a new form of socialized communication: mass self-communication” which “is self-generated in content, self-directed in emission, and self-selected in reception by many that communicate with many” (Castells 2007).

Simply put, this new communication form puts a lot of power into individual’s hands, as if inspired by the famous ‘Power to the People’ slogan. The beauty of internet is that everyone can create new internet content – just like me and my fellow students creating numerous blog entries. Respectively, everyone can record a movie and upload it e.g. on Youtube and in effect send a message to many recipients, which before, used to be done mostly by mass media. This changes the power relations in contemporary society and I will dare to say it looks like mass self-communication takes over significant amount of mass media’s power, as it is no longer in the center of contemporary communication system. Now it is not only mass media that can shape and influence people’s minds – it is pretty much everyone. A good example would be how social media are commonly used by people to communicate their ideas by starting different groups, which can occasionally lead even to launching riots or revolutions. This could be observed e.g. through the events of the 2011 London Riots, where the rioters used Facebook and Twitter to set up meeting points and new attack targets.

I always used to think it was mostly mass media who shape and influence our minds, underestimating, or perhaps not even realizing the power that lies within internet and individuals. Don’t get me wrong – I still think mass media plays an important role in the communication process in contemporary society, it would be foolish to think otherwise. I am just saying it’s good to finally grasp the importance of mass self-communication in the network society that we all live in.

References:

Castells, M. (2007) Communication, Power and Counter-power in the Network Society. International Journal of Communication 1 (2007), pp. 238-266.