Public Information: Up for Debate or Up for Sale? Writing via the Internet

Abstract

In the developed world’s age of ‘communicative abundance’ (Keane 1997, 2002), where technologies are increasingly sophisticated and their spatial and temporal reach through multiple channels extensive, the opportunity to communicate with others is certainly made easier.¹ What communicative abundance can enable, as a result, is for diverse, sometimes harmonising, but also frequently discordant texts and voices to be represented and to engage in discussion. These texts collectively challenge the idea of a singular or universal text of truth, reason and propriety. As a result, argues John Keane, communicative abundance has the potential to enhance the democratic project, given that it encourages us to acknowledge the world’s complexity, to accept diversity, and to develop the capacity to make informed public judgements (Keane 1997, p. 7).