[governance] How can we effectively discuss current issues? (SOPA, webinars, questions)

[Paul Lehto]

Aldo reminds us of important, if not controlling at times, aspects of
communications, and how media or mediated structures fundamentally affect
the nature and quality of discourse that results from those structures. An
email is different than a letter in numerous respects (while similar in
more respects), and those who are concerned with the quality of discourse
and communication do well to keep these differences in mind.  This all
seemed to more or less start with the work of the Canadian media theorist
Marshall McLuhan ("the medium is the message") and learning in this area of
media studies has continued to expand since McLuhan's seminal work around
the 1960s or so.

There is a quite proper concern with anti-censorship, i.e. NOT having the
government-as-master.  But particularly here in the USA, and I suspect
elsewhere as well, there's a palpable over-reaction via cases like Citizens
United, holding that the government has no power to structure, much less
restrict, corporate speech on campaigns.  This prevents the government from
exercising what I would call SERVANT-leadership (as opposed to "master"
leadership).  Servant leadership would "impose" quite neutral structuring
devices, such as perhaps the Chinese university example, or a western
"dialoging" structure, in which the collaboration is designed to ensure
that all the voices can be heard so that a wise decision is more likely to
result from all hearing all the voices, concerns and perspectives.

Thus, based on the overriding (when in conflict) need of the listeners to
be properly informed, just as with presentations to governmental bodies,
time might be somewhat limited for each speaker so that they do not impinge
on the rights of other speakers to be heard.  In the USA via Citizens
United's case, that ability to impose a neutral, structuring "servant"-type
style to the discussion or debate has been eliminated out of the fear of
government-as-master and unlimited corporate speech has been
constitutionally protected.  But this means that a corporation or rich
person with enough money can completely dominate the discussion on
television by buying up all or most of the available television advertising
time, leaving no room for other speakers. The inability of the government
to impose any limits on corporations emanates from a fear of government as
master, but in throwing out the government as master bathwater, they have
also thrown out the government-as-servant baby, and chaos reigns.

The real trick is how to ensure that those in a position of leadership and
thus able to structure discussions or debates do not abuse their
servant-authority and reach into the area of being "masters" instead of
servants.  I agree with Aldo that in numerous cases, imposition of limits
to the length of comments to ones equivalent to tweets is overly
restrictive and systematically strips out nuance.

This is an interesting area and what is to be valued are real servants of
public dialog who specialize in teasing out the wisdom of the group via
appropriately structured dialog processes.  This can happen online at
times, but ultimately there are some things that are much better done in
person.  (Obviously that can not always be achieved due to expense and
distance)

Paul Lehto, J.D.

paul

On Fri, Jan 27, 2012 at 8:30 AM, Ginger Paque <gpaque at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi there,
>
> Aldo, Diplo's resident contrarian, criticises Diplo's webinars and modern
> communication, asking 'Is the medium the twitter?' at
> http://deepdip.wordpress.com/2012/01/27/the-medium-is-the-twitter/ He
> argues that the way in which the Chinese 'Party universities', among
> others, discuss issues, is conceptually and practically more effective (and
> congenial) than modern webinar/Twitter-technique communication. Personally,
> I disagree, because when an online communication gets 'too interactive', we
> have chaos, and I think that short, pithy comments or questions are
> preferable in a webinar. Bandwidth limitations must be taken into
> consideration as well. This is one advantage to an email list like the IGC:
> it allows for full multi-party discussion.
>
>  Please let us know your views about this dilemma as we both try to
> improve our communication, and explore the topic as a concept for improved
> e-participation. You can also join us for the next webinar and see the
> potentials and limitations of this medium, as we discuss SOPA, PIPA and the
> recent online blackout activities:
> http://www.diplomacy.edu/calendar/copyright-infringement-sopapipa-megaupload
>
> Personally, I am wondering if the push to stop SOPA has strengthened ACTA.
>
> Best, Ginger
>
>
> Ginger (Virginia) Paque
> Diplo Foundation
> www.diplomacy.edu/ig
> VirginiaP at diplomacy.edu
>
> *Join the Diplo community IG discussions: www.diplointernetgovernance.org*
>
>
>
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-- 
Paul R Lehto, J.D.
P.O. Box 1
Ishpeming, MI  49849
lehto.paul at gmail.com
906-204-4026 (cell)
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