THE ACTIVIST CITIZEN IN THE CONTEXT OF THE (GLOBAL) INFORMATION ECONOMY

The article brings the idea of the activist citizen to the forefront, and confronts theories which conceptualise new information and communication technology as a lever for democratisation of the electronic public sphere with theories that accentuate the varying ability of the mass media and personal media to generate political influence. Differences are highlighted on the three layers of the social communication system that consists of infrastructure, distribution services, and content and communication services. The thesis is that those authors who see the development of technology as a relief from the hierarchically-driven production of information do not take the contradictory relationships between the interests of corporate owners and user-consumers into consideration. The author claims that amateur production is thematically fragmented and is taking over part of the labour and equipment costs. Such a form of production is frequently encouraged by political and economic elites without the danger of it being able to generate a considerable amount of political influence.