The Internet promises to achieve what no charter of rights can: putting printing presses in the hands of many. In a world dominated by powerful unitary, publishing conglomerates, it offers a potent antidote to the corruption such power inevitably brings: a new mode of communication by many to many. Greater government power to censor such a medium is the last thing any democrat should endorse.
Predictor: Donham, Parker Barss
Prediction, in context:In a 1994 paper presented at the Symposium on Free Speech and Privacy in the Information Age, Parker Barss Donham, a staff writer for the Canadian edition of Reader’s Digest magazine, writes: ”Catherine MacKinnon … points out, rightly, that illiteracy and poverty are major barriers to free speech, barriers impervious to any First Amendment or Charter of Rights and Freedoms. If Netters are fiercely protective of their freedoms to communicate, it may be because they perceive exactly this. The Internet promises to achieve what no charter of rights can: putting printing presses in the hands of many. In a world dominated by powerful unitary, publishing conglomerates, it offers a potent antidote to the corruption such power inevitably brings: a new mode of communication by many to many. Greater government power to censor such a medium is the last thing any democrat should endorse.”
Date of prediction: November 24, 1994
Topic of prediction: Controversial Issues
Subtopic: Censorship/Free Speech
Name of publication: The Symposium on Free Speech and Privacy in the Information Age
Title, headline, chapter name: An Unshackled Internet: If Joe Howe Were Designing Cyberspace
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
gopher://insight.mcmaster.ca/00/org/efc/doc/sfsp/donham.txt
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Dorne, Jay