The Revolution will not be Downloaded: Dissent in the Digital Age

Citation

MacRitchie, J. (2009), "The Revolution will not be Downloaded: Dissent in the Digital Age", The Electronic Library, Vol. 27 No. 2, pp. 352-353. https://doi.org/10.1108/02640470910947719

As the web grows ever more complex, spawning applications such as Facebook, Flickr, interactive games and dating sites, those without access are becoming more and more excluded from its goodies. It is readily assumed by government agencies that everyone has access now. But there is no equality of access, and this book looks at those who are excluded, and at what they are missing. It is unusual to find writing so engaged with those marginalized from the web, so this aspect of Brabazon's book is refreshing.

The essays in the book, often with an Australian flavour, originate from contributors to Brabazon's Popular Culture Collective, and are grouped in four parts. The first part looks at those who are disadvantaged; the second part focuses on music on the web; the third part looks at aspects of the online experience such as dating sites, eBay, travel blogs, suicide sites; and the final part examines the shortcomings of the web – unreliable information, censorship of citizen resistance sites, and cyber‐terrorism.

Potentially the most useful section, the first part, is regrettably the most unsatisfactory. Kathryn Locke says that online access is all very well but what really matters is having citizens who can make a difference regardless of what means they use; and Sonia Bellhouse reminds us that those “offscreen” are disadvantaged. The letdown is Brabazon's overlong article, which is short on data, and which looks at the “analogue isolation” of older people. One way to open up the discussion is to write in a way people can understand.

The essays in part two are more readable: Mike Kent notes that as the recorded music industry convulses, there are more opportunities than ever before for musicians to share with a global audience; Carley Smith looks at peer‐to‐peer sharing of music, and Felicity Cull suggests that the survivors in the industry will be those who take an alternative path.

Of the essays in part three, Joel Matthews' look at the Japanese internet suicide subculture is the most intriguing, and suggests that netto‐shinjuu results from the state's failure to create a stable community. However, the case‐studies in this section do not add much to the overall thesis of inequality, and it is left to the final three short pieces, by Valentin Fyrst, Garan Lewis and Christina Lee to add some perspective, particularly Lewis' article on the Internet's role in promoting alternative viewpoints in the democratic discussion, which was the only article in the book I wished had been longer.