Information Power Shifts and the Fifth Estate

Bill Dutton

Windsor LectureUniversity of Illinois Urbana-Champaign March 14, 2016

Flint Protesters 2016

Focus of This Talk

URBIS Project 1974-79When Les Gasser was a Doctoral Student

Power Shifts

Power Shifts: Reinforcement Politics

Reconfiguring Access to:

Power Shifts & the Internet: New Conventional Wisdom

A New Organizational Form:Enabling Networked Individuals

Focused Case Studies

Oxford Internet Surveys

• 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013• Cross-sectional Surveys versus Panels• Multi-Stage Probability Sample • England, Scotland & Wales • Respondents: 14 years and older• Face-to-face Interviews, High Response Rates• Sponsorship for 2013 from the Nominet Trust,

Ofcom, UK Research Councils, dot.rural• Component of World Internet Project (WIP)

The Fifth Estate Press since the 18th Century - the ‘Fourth Estate’

Internet in the 21st - enabling a Fifth Estate

Internet enabling a critical mass of individuals to source information, and network in ways that support distributed social accountability in business, industry, government, politics & media.

The Fourth Estate

“[Edmund] Burke said there were Three Estates in Parliament; but, in the Reporters’ Gallery yonder, there sat a Fourth Estate more prominent far than they all. It is not a figure of speech, or witty saying; it is a literal fact – very momentous to us in these times.”

Thomas Carlyle (1831), Heroes and Hero-Worship, at www.gutenberg.org.etext/1091

Fifth Estate defined by being networked (beyond the home), producing content (writing blogs, posting text and photos), sourcing (following search), collaborating (following cues), trusting (content, providers), centrality (viewing net as essential for information).

Networked Institutions v Individuals

Networked Institutions, such as in e-Health

Networked Individuals:

going to the Internet for health and medical information

networking patients, e.g., Patients Like Me

networking physicians, e.g., Sermo

Fifth Estate not a Substitute for Institutions

- Martha Payne, 9 yr old girl in Scotland, writes a blog for school project: ‘NeverSeconds’

- Produced content: photos & reviews school lunch in 2012

- Posted on her blog: neverseconds.blogspot.com/

- Censored by her institution (her primary school’s council)

- Over 10 million page views

- Fostered debate over the quality of school lunches nationwide and worldwide

Flint, Michigan, Water Crisis, 2014-2016• Emergency manager• Switched water source to

Flint River• Water not properly treated• Public complaints online &

in protest dismissed for unknown number of months

• Whistle blowers validate high lead readings

• Why such delay and dismissal of concerns by gov’t & the press?

Flint Water Crisis: 4th and 5th Estate?

Lee Anne Walters

Pollution Monitoring Mobile Apps

Networked IndividualsFinancial Times 5 March 2013Shandong Province, ChinaOnline exposure of ground water contaminationSmartphone apps documenting smog and air pollutionChina’s new anti-pollution measures

Tianjin, China, ExplosionVideos of individuals circulated on social media immediately after huge chemical explosions at warehouse in Tianjin, China (13 Aug 2015)

By 17 Aug, 50 Websites shut down by Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) for spreading rumors

Nanjing, China, Gas Explosion (28 Jul 2010)Explosion not covered by local papers, but covered by bloggers, including video of gov’t official interrupting a live report, saying “Who gave you permission …?” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLdaO-XDOdM

Accountability: Distributing, Leaking

In the movie, Daniel Domscheit-Berg’ with an editor of The Guardian: ‘The New Information Revolution’ – with WikiLeaks ‘charting a course’.

Sermo: a Collaborative Network Organisation, with over 200,000 physicians in 2014

Saving Sweet Briar College

Online/Offline Movements

Ratings with their Drawbacks

Reporting on China’s Stock Market

Social media (WeChat and Weibo) rather than state news media have become major sources of information for Chinese given blocking of Western media reports*http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/29/world/asia/consumer-anxiety-in-china-undermines-governments-economic-plans.html?_r=0

The Fifth Estate as Focus and Perspective on Policy

Policy Issues for the Fifth Estate:

Following the Fifth Estate

Research Foundations• Oxford Internet Surveys: 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013 and

World Internet Project (WIP)• The Internet Values Project: OII in collaboration with INSEAD,

Cornell, comScore, WEF, ictQATAR• The Performance of Distributed Problem-Solving Networks (DPSN)

Project (2007-8)• The Oxford e-Social Science Project (OeSS), Economic and Social

Research Council (2005-12)• User-Driven Collaboration, Technical University of Denmark (DTU)

just completed in 2014• The Fifth Estate Project, supported by the Quello Center, OII,

Oxford Internet Surveys (2003-13), and June Klein, Electronic Boardroom™