on Web Theory, chapters 2 – 4
Chapter 2 (“Information and Networks”) describes the interaction of information through a networked environment to make up what we know as the now-central outgrowth of the Internet, ‘the Web’. The chapter attempts this exploration by first reviewing the concept of information, with a heavy emphasis on the impact of its digitization—including the flattening of all data formats into binary code—then applies theories of cybernetics inclusive of this digitization to understand the Web. As in the previous chapter, the authors use a theoretical approach following it up with a nod toward its limitations; in this case, they write, “there is a seductive quality in this reading of cybernetics as a system that produces restraint, control, and repression in a culture; sadly, it is too simple a critique and not entirely where social blame and responsibility should rest. Closer to reality is that cybernetics produces a tension, or dialectic of restraint and innovation,” (Burnett and Marshall, 2003, p. 28). Considering the theorists the authors briefly touch on, Habermas and Marcuse, it should come as no surprise to any reader that a dialectical approach takes center stage, (as this dialectical approach, arguably born of Marx’s work, is fundamental to the works of all of the Frankfurt School).
Burnett and Marshall (2003) go on to explore ‘information’, including how it differs from traditional concepts of information when represented on the Web; they include a distinction of information as “raw material rather than a finished product,” (p. 32), which implies a difference evident in other writings of information-versus-knowledge. Insisting on the raw data understanding of information on the Web acknowledges fundamental weaknesses to Web-accessible content—namely, its changeability (without necessary notation of change) and its lack of necessary traditional mediation and editorial review, as present in other (traditionally) published forms. The authors also suggest that the user’s participatory place in regard to the Web—as opposed, for instance, to the passive audience role in regard to television—prop up the reading of information on the Web as data, both in terms of the user making meaning and as regards the user’s understanding of the source of information, (which then leads into the implicit challenge that the Web poses to established sources of information—purveyors of truth—like CNN).
Burnett and Marshall then note two ‘levels’ of the Web, (1) its content (information), and (2) its form (network). Delving more into the substance of a ‘network’ and how it plays out in regard to the Internet—specifically the Web—allows the Burnett and Marshall (2003) to approach ideas of what the Web ‘produces’, as follows: (1) “The Web culture represents a new concentration on information and its directional flow” (p. 42); (2) “the Web culture can produce dislocations of identity and community,” (p. 43); (3) “Web culture facilitates the flow of information for the objectives of globalization,” (p. 43). Emphasizing these three effects of the Web help further a dialectical understanding of the Web and ‘Web culture’, as each aspect focuses jointly on the empowerment and connectivity of individuals while also underlining the recuperation of power possible through (a) implementation of systems of control, and (b) (debatably) the inherent power structures of capitalism, even if the shift is to ‘information capitalism.’
Chapter 3 explores the ‘loose Web’ thesis by means of reviewing the interlinking technologies that make up the Web, including the actual structure of the Internet and its constituent “information services,” (p. 47), as well as different levels of communication that become blurred through the Web, (p. 57). Burnett and Marshall (2003) at least imply a dialectical approach in terms of user interface with culture as present (and interacted) on the Web, as well as in terms of a “mass-mediated and one-to-one form of communication,” (p. 59). Again and again, the dialectic informs coming to a definition of the Web – through a series of dichotomies where neither side of each polarization is true (nor is either side untrue).
Chapter 4 explores issues of identity as it is constructed by—or in tandem with—the Web, with a multifaceted approach that gives initial equal merit to cybercultural theory and research on the social effects of the Internet (both positive and negative), ending with an exploration of ways the Web enables a user to create or adjust notions of a ‘self’. The chapter reviews the idea of ‘audience’ as opposed to the more active ‘user’ that the Internet allows (as opposed to other technologies, like television or radio), and as with previous chapters, settles into an acknowledgment that all angles of exploration of identity and the Web do not actually result in definition. Rather, they all serve to underline the significance of the Web as the virtual ‘site’ for the development of ‘identity’, especially as it interacts with or problematizes ideas of anonymity, language, narcissism, gender, and collective identity.
References
Burnett, R. and Marshall, P. D. (2003). Web theory: An introduction. London: Routledge.