rational-critical debate not dead yet

Read an article today by Matthew D. Barton - "The future of rational-critical debate in online public spheres" which discussed the role of blogs, wikis and online discussion boards in enabling rational critical debate and their use as valuable tools for the creation and maintenance of a critical public sphere. Barton maintains that the Internet is losing its democraticizing features and is becoming more like newspapers and tv, "controlled from above by powerful multinational corporations who demand passivity from an audience of total consumers". Although early web pages were relatively simple in their design, modern web pages are becoming ever more complex, utilizing not only graphics and sounds but also more programming code. The Internet's "means of production" i.e. the ability to create and manage web sites is becoming ever more separated from the average user as powerful corporations find more ways to distinguish their web sites with expensive, high-end proprietary technology like Macromedia Flash.

Barton expresses hope in the increased use of three highly relevant online writing environments: blogs, discussion boards and wikis. These tools "offer a way for people to easily and cheaply publish their writings online and to enable rational-critical debate" - he sees these low-tech solutions as necessary for the formation of capable participants in a rational-critical debate.

Barton draws parallels between blogs and diaries and letters of the old bourgeois public sphere and between online bulletin boards and "eighteenth century salons, table societies and coffee shops that first saw the applicaiton of rational-critical debate to political and economical issues".

Barton, M. D. (2005). "The future of rational-critical debate in online public spheres." Computers and Composition 22(2): 177-190.