His birthday is March 13, 1964.

His email is CoffeeFilter13@yahoo.com

He plays Baseball, Soccer, Basketball, Volleyball and Rugby, his outdoor activities include Sailing, Hiking, and Waterskiing, he enjoys Photography and Social Dancing, and works in the Advertising industry (at least, that’s what his profile says on singlesnet.com).

Sunday night, librany, happydoralove12, and wonder2564854 all sent him emails saying that his profile “caught their eye.”

He’s interested in adopting a Beagle from nextdaypets.com, and does his grocery shopping at Village Farm and Grocery on 2nd Avenue (via delivery.com).

The last item he added to his Shopping Cart on LordandTaylor.com was a Hart Schaffner Marx Two-Button Pinstriped Suit in a 36 Long, which costs a whopping $795.00. He will later get this suit dry cleaned through MadisonClean.com for $15.98 (with no charge for pickup or delivery because of his close-by location in the Financial District).

His last three search inquiries on YouTube were “waltz basic lesson,” “baseball home runs,” and “iPod commercials.” He recently started a Xanga blog to talk about his interest in Rugby, baseball and advertising.

His social security number is–wait… why do I know all of this? Who is Charles Filtaro? and Why am I writing about him?

This must raise certain questions… Is there an identity thief/stalker amidst us? Should I change my NYUHome password, or double-check to make sure that I still have my school ID after class? No classmates, these should not be concerns of yours. I know all of these things about Charles Filtaro because I made him up. The email address is real. The SinglesNet profile is real. The “caught my eye” emails were real. So are the interest in the Beagle, the Lord and Taylor Shopping cart, and the delivery price for the dry cleaner. For the picture, I simply typed “Businessman” into a Google Images search, and, lo and behold, I found Charles’ profile picture, after cropping it out of some sort of ad or picture from an [insert professional business here] website. (And FYI, the name was completely made up. I happened to have a Charlie Horse in my foot while looking at a box of coffee filters. Brilliant, I know.)

So, why did I go to all of this trouble to create this fictional, albeit dreamy, man? Because of, not just the blogosphere, but the Webisphere (I’m not really sure if that’s a real term, but work with me here). In today’s webisphere, anything is possible. First of all, I never have to leave my room again. I can work from home, order food, get my laundry done, learn to dance, etc.

Secondly, I can express myself and actually have my voice and opinions heard. The internet is becoming the new Public Sphere where the Average Joe gets his opinion viewed by millions of people. If he makes an extremely intelligent (or extremely stupid) argument, he may even get responses, start a dialog between people with thousands of miles between each other that have never met. The option of starting such a dialog was never possible before the advent of the internet, unless you were a politician, journalist, or someone else who was directly involved in the Public Sphere.

Thirdly, we can be more free about what we say and how we say it because of the option of anonymity. Now, I can write about whatever I want, in whatever manner I choose, through Charles Filtaro. Perhaps I would be wary of stating my position on abortion, or the War in Iraq (you know, those touchy subjects) under my own name, but if I found a way to remain anonymous, then I could rant and rave until I was blue in the face. Unless the rest of the world decides to read this blog, no one will know that Charles Filtaro is simply an invention of an NYU Sophomore trying to make a point to her New Media Research Studio class.

Creepy? Slightly.

A “safe” way to express ideas and opinions in the New Public Sphere? A resounding “Yes.”

Point taken? I sure hope so.

So, that’s the image that comes to my mind at the mention of blogs. But Anna Notaro sees much, much more.

Anna Notaro’s “The Long Revolution: the Blogosphere as an alternative Public Sphere?”

Although Notaro’s title suggests an option in the switch to Blogosphere culture, this age of continually emergent new technology and Internet suggests that we are, without question, entering a time where the blogosphere is not just an alternative but rather, the new public sphere. Notaro is quick to remind that while in our naïve excitement hopes that the internet will a perfect agent for social change and “true” democracy, we must wait to see if it will retain this potential.

How, then, do blogs, which we often think of with humor and amusement, play the key role in this idea of public discourse, professionalism, and political communication?

In The Long Revolution, Raymond William explains that new social cultures exist at the intersection of the democratic revolution, the industrial revolution, and the cultural revolution. For Williams, these obvious examples of change prove the benefit in fighting for a “human order.” That is, we must not take our current situations for granted but rather act on our convictions.
Similarly, Habermas introduces the idea of the “public sphere” and its influence on ideas in his Structural Transformations of the Public Sphere. At the base of the public sphere are the webs of social development wherein we can exchange information and opinion. With the invention of the Internet, blogs, chat rooms, list serves and the like, the public sphere has become accessible to all people. Although some people feel that Habermas’ use of the word “public” prevents his theory from having any basis in the new mediated forms of communication, Notaro contends that the fact that no one will outwardly reject his theory speaks to its ultimate validity. The difference, according to Notaro, is that the Internet has introduced many publics. In essence, people have the ability to choose their communities, their peers, and their public.

However, with this new semblance of individual power, we must question to role of traditional democracy in relation to new media environments. Many scholars claim that the blogosphere and the net promote “democratic progress,” where citizens can interact with each other as equals. Habermas cites this as an ideal society or, agora, where “the discussion among citizens issues were made topical and took shape.”

Benjamin Barber further comments on the relation of mediated communication with the democratic system. He presents three potential scenarios: The Pangloss scenario where technology merely caters to a corporate agenda, the Pandora scenario in which the government uses new technology for power and repression, and the ideal Jeffersonian scenario where governments and citizens adjust technology to promote participation and democracy. His fault however, is his use of uniquely American terminology, essentially downplaying the participation of those from other countries and rejecting Habermas’ agora.

Notaro uses Rebecca Blood’s history of web logs to highlight the core of her discussion. Blood explains that while blogs began as a forum to comment on elaborate on certain subjects or scholarly articles, they have since evolved into “personal diaries,” where any person can express his or her feelings and opinions to the Internet public. Blogs have created a new social movement, or public sphere, transforming the consumers of information into the creators of information. Because the blogosphere removes the barriers between private and public spaces, it grants anyone the opportunity to speak for him or her self and consequently, diminishes “people’s need to be spoken for by others.” In theory, this increased accessibility paves the way for a democratic society in which the citizens take a significant and active role. However, who chooses to take an active role, remains to be seen.

• Continue your journal, and go further into the web, expanding the media environment around ‘The Trap’.
• Post to our del.icio.us tag some references that expand the discussion about the trap in the context of new media.
• Required viewing: Battle of Ideas panel discussion
• Recommended reading for next week: Anna Notaro, The Lo(n)g Revolution: The Blogosphere as an Alternative Public Sphere?
• Shira & Lynn:
  • Read Anna Notero’s text
  • summarize it for us in a nicely accessible post to be published by Sunday
  • be prepared to present the article in class
  • Post to del.icio.us some links that expand the discussion either about the text or about key themes in it.
  • Enjoy.

See you all next week.

cheers,

Mushon