Cr8 ur own ideas, Martin says…

In 1998, just before the end of his presidency of Whistleblowers Australia, Brian Martin’s Information Liberation: Challenging the corruptions of information was published by Freedom Press. Having read it now, some 12 years later, Martin challenged me to rethink  the current dynamics of power in terms of modern technology and the ever-shifting social networks in which we swim. Through a robust display of opinions and within a heap of founded research on intellectual property, antisurveillance, free speech, defamation lawsuits and corporate politics, Martin makes me a (re?)believer in being able to make a change in and challenge mass media, authority, security, our culture and the world, as an individual. After plowing through the myriad of information presented in this book and wondering to what end or point Martin was trying to get, I found my answer. While listing ways in which we can each liberate the information around us, one of which is nearly abolishing mass media and taking the reins ourselves to provide an alternative, Martin says, “One powerful way to move towards an alternative is to begin behaving as if it already exists” (p. 173).

Everyone has a learning curve, brief or otherwise, with new technology, new power, new situations and the like, but once it’s over doesn’t it feel like it’s always been there? The immediate adoption of new media outlets by the masses is everyone behaving as if it already exised. As if it had always been there.

I’m sure Mr. Martin would be pleased to know that a great majority of people I know don’t own TV’s. Or, if they do, they do not use them for blindly absorbing commercially sponsored, mass media mogul headlines. Right around the time Brian Martin’s publication was being released the blog boom was happening, right? I wonder how that, coupled with the deterioration of television in younger generations, fits into Martin’s idea of participatory media and the abolition of mass media.

While reading I looked up a couple things that I thought I’d share. This very unhelpful flowchart answered none of my questions about public domain. And I recalled reading this article which perked my ears in regard to my own privacy. Oh! And, also, while I was reading I received a tweet from a friend directing my attention here.

-erin