The BBS is a first, faltering step toward the jammer’s dream of a truly democratic mass medium. Although virtual communities fall short of utopia – women and people of color are grossly underrepresented, and those who cannot afford the price of admission or who are alienated from technology because of their cultural status are denied access – they nonetheless represent a profound improvement on the homogenous, hegemonic medium of television … This medium gives us the possibility (illusory as it may be) that we can build a world unmediated by authorities and experts. The roles of reader, writer, and critic are so quickly interchangeable that they become increasingly irrelevant in a community of co-creation.
Predictor: Dery, Mark
Prediction, in context:In a 1993 article carried by the Essential Media network site, Mark Dery, an American media commentator, writes: ”Jammers are heartened by the electronic frontier’s promise of a new media paradigm – interactive rather than passive, nomadic and atomized rather than resident and centralized, egalitarian rather than elitist. To date, this paradigm has assumed two forms: the virtual community and the desktop-published or online ‘zine … Virtual communities are comprised of computer users connected by modem to the bulletin board systems (BBSs) springing up all over the Internet, the worldwide meta-network that connects international computer networks. Funded not by advertisers but by paid subscribers, the BBS is a first, faltering step toward the jammer’s dream of a truly democratic mass medium. Although virtual communities fall short of utopia – women and people of color are grossly underrepresented, and those who cannot afford the price of admission or who are alienated from technology because of their cultural status are denied access – they nonetheless represent a profound improvement on the homogenous, hegemonic medium of television … This medium gives us the possibility (illusory as it may be) that we can build a world unmediated by authorities and experts. The roles of reader, writer, and critic are so quickly interchangeable that they become increasingly irrelevant in a community of co-creation.”
Biography:Mark Dery was the author of “Flame Wars: The Discourse of Cyberculture” (Duke University Press, 1995). His writings on fringe culture, technology, mass media, and the arts appeared in the New York Times, Rolling Stone, Wired, 21.C, Mondo 2000, Elle, Interview, New York and The Village Voice. (Author/Editor/Journalist.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1993
Topic of prediction: Community/Culture
Subtopic: MOOs/MUDs/B-Boards/Newsgroups
Name of publication: Essential Media Features
Title, headline, chapter name: Culture Jamming: Hacking, Slashing and Sniping in the Empire of Signs
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.essentialmedia.com/Shop/Dery.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney