Information Politics On The Web

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Does the information on the Web offer many alternative accounts of reality, or does it subtly align with an official version? In <em>Information Politics on the Web, Richard Rogers identifies the cultures, techniques, and devices that rank and recommend information on the Web, analyzing not only the political content of Web sites but the politics built into the Web's infrastructure. Addressing the larger question of what the Web is for, Rogers argues that the Web is still the best arena for unsettling the official and challenging the familiar.Rogers describes the politics at work on the Web as either back-end—the politics of search engine technology—or front-end&mash;the diversity, inclusivity, and relative prominence of sites publicly accessible on the Web. To analyze this, he developed four "political instruments," or software tools that gather information about the Web by capturing dynamic linking practices, attention cycles for issues, and changing political party commitments. On the basis of his findings on how information politics works, Rogers argues that the Web should be, and can be, a "collision space" for official and unofficial accounts of reality. (One chapter, "The Viagra Files" offers an entertaining analysis of official and unofficial claims for the health benefits of Viagra.) The distinctiveness of the Web as a medium lies partly in the peculiar practices that grant different statuses to information sources. The tools developed by Rogers capture these practices and contribute to the development of a new information politics that takes into account and draws from the competition between the official, the non-governmental, and the underground.

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Information Politics on the Web Richard Rogers Information Politics on the Web Information Politics on the Web Richard Rogers The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England © 2004 Richard Rogers All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher. MIT Press books may be purchased at special quantity discounts for business or sales promotional use. For information, please email [email protected] or write to Special Sales Department, The MIT Press, 5 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142. This book was set in Sabon by SNP Best-set Typesetter Ltd., Hong Kong. Printed and bound in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Rogers, Richard, 1965– Information politics on the Web / Richard Rogers. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-262-18242-4 (alk. paper) 1. Information technology—Social aspects. 2. Information technology— Political aspects. 3. Web search engines—Political aspects. 4. Web portals— Political aspects. 5. Civil society. 6. Knowledge, Sociology of. I. Title. HM851.R65 2005 303.48¢33—dc22 2004050458 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Contents Preface vii 1. Introduction: Behind the Practice of Information Politics Back-end Information Politics 3 Front-end Information Politics 9 Towards Web Epistemologies and Ontologies 14 Information Instruments Doing Politics 19 Political Instruments for the Web 22 The Lay Decision Support System 22 The Issue Barometer 25 The Web Issue Index of Civil Society 27 The Election Issue Tracker 28 Towards a Politico-epistemological Practice with the Web 1 30 2. The Viagra Files: The Web as Collision Space between Official and Unofficial Accounts of Reality 35 Introduction 35 Knowledge Itineraries and the Web 35 Exposing Viagra for Wh
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