快猫短视频

IN PRINCIPLE at least, the structure of scientific information is clear. Singh gets a paper published. Its being cited by Li and Smith provides a measure of the paper鈥檚 significance and, leaping briskly over a philosophical quagmire, some sense of the 鈥渞eality鈥� of its contents.

The World Wide Web is essentially a vast citation machine. Back in the mists of time of the early 1980s it was the preserve of researchers. One of the most intriguing things about the web was the possibility it offered for quantitative analysis of debates and discourses. As with deep analyses of science citations, this would have been impossibly labour-intensive in the age of dead trees. Such analysis is more complicated 鈥� or more interesting, according to taste 鈥� on the web, with its lack of refereeing.

And this analysis of debate is what Richard Rogers is, at last, trying to do. He is professor of media studies at the University of Amsterdam and director of . Information Politics describes investigations and interventions into the web.

The 鈥渨eb issue index鈥�, for example, presents a ticker-style listing of current political issues. Rather deeper is the comparison between coverage by newspapers and by campaigning organisations of issues identified in Dutch political parties鈥� manifestos. Equally important is the study of 鈥渘on-issues鈥� not dealt with in conventional national politics.

On the way we get some tragic stories of misunderstanding of the medium. The UK government, for example, set up online debate forums and then attempted the impossible by forbidding participants to link to them from elsewhere on the internet and banning them for flirting. Like archived online debates and conference proceedings, Information Politics could do with editing to remove repetition, but it is written in eminently plain language and wears its philosophical roots in Bruno Latour鈥檚 actor-network concept very lightly.

Unfortunately, this book will probably be read first and most closely by those who manipulate opinion for money 鈥� from the consultancies that 鈥渕anage crises鈥� for the unpalatable to mundane advertising agencies. Nevertheless, it is a bellwether of what looks set to be an extremely interesting field of study 鈥� one in which every citizen should take an interest.