网络化媒体的三个神话

Three Myths of Networked Media

西方世界喜欢用媒体环境的丰富多样来证明民主制度的胜利。尤其是互联网,据说它能够让每个人发布信息,让每个人参与讨论。而我认为,这种民主实际上是一种助长资本主义的工具。我想用"传播资本主义"这一概念,来描述这种民主和资本主义的结合。想要理解传播资本主义的掌控力,就要去思考它那些充满生机的神话,思考把互联网与民主连在一起的幻想,比如"丰富性"、"参与性"和"整体性"。

The West likes to hold up its rich media environment as evloence or me success of our democracy. The internet in particular is said to let everyone get his message across, let everyone participate in discussion. I argue that this democracy is actually a vehicle for intensifying capitalism. The concept I offer for this merger of democracy and capitalism is communicative capitalism. One way to understand the hold of communicative capitalism is to consider its animating myths, the fantasies about the intemet that tie it to democracy. Three such fantasies are those of abundance, participation, and wholeness.