Summarization of Unit 4 task 1-2

Political Power

-For some people meeting face-to-face, talking on the telephone, or sending letters to friends and family is forbidden due to the politics that living in another country sometimes has.

-CMC has afforded some dramatic opportunities to connect with others in politically charged situations.

The Internet

-CMC in repressive governments sometimes allows people to express their views much easier. Also allows them to reach a wider audience across the world.

CMC

-It is both political and politicizing this is because it can be used to confront the authority of government powers, resist dominant social, cultural and political ideologies. It also allows us to view current events from more than one perspective.

Participation and Resistance

-Some politicians set up information sites, CMC can be used to subvert and resist government authority.

-E-democracy is when governments, elected officials, media, political organizations and citizens use the internet to engage in debates about the processes and practices of governance.

Cyberactivism

-Cyberactivists use CMC by contacting a larger audience with the use of email, listservs, newsgroups, IRC and the web to communicate with their network of supporters.

-Some cyberactivists have chosen to take direct action to shut down dominant discourse and organizations.

Online Libel

-Flaming is not only aggressive but can sometimes be libelous. With the increase in online publication, it follows that there will be an increase in online libel charges. It is important to know that some CMC can land you in court with the recent legislation in the area of cyberlibel.

Cyber-Crime

-An email was sent out in the 1990’s that claimed to give the people who assisted to free a huge amount of money being held by an undemocratic regime in Africa a percentage of the money (an amount that could reach millions)

-It was a email scam and most had never dealt with email scam because of how uncommon it used to be. This scam drained many bank accounts. By 2001, the Internet Fraud Complaint Center reported that 2,600 people had filed complaints about the scam – of those, 16 reported losses totaling US$345,000.

Cyber Squatting

-This is when people buy domain names using well known brand or celebrity names in the hope of subsequently selling them to the companies or people who probably should have secured them in the first place.

-In most cases of cyber squatting with high-profile domain names were transferred back to those who had pursued them through courts.