Sinikka Sassi 26.5.2005
Department of communication
University of Helsinki
Research profile
Web-based communication and local agency
As a distinct branch web-based communication was launched at the department
of communication in 2002 by the donation of a professorship by the city of Vantaa. In the founding negotiations it was pointed out
that along the areas of mass communication and organization communication a new
field of communication was born. The internet and related technologies have
brought about new forms of communication that are both unique and closely
linked with the established areas.
The location of the professorship in the faculty of social and political
sciences broadly outlines the contours of the subject. Within the extensive
area of web-based communication the research interests of the professorship
focus especially on the intersection of the internet, democracy and civil
society. Important dimensions and concepts include public sphere, locality,
cultural diversity, and social inequality. The research on web-based
communication aims at increasing understanding of long-term societal and
cultural trends evolving around the use of internet and related technologies.
In the department the substance of web-based communication has lately
been defined as three fields of interests. First, the internet is conceived of
as a communicative space with digital connections creating a variety of
expressive and interest communities. Second, as a communication medium
the internet is seen to bring alongside mass communication a mode of
multilateral communication with varying combinations of senders and receivers.
Third, as an information tool the internet is understood as enabling new
ways of producing, disseminating, utilizing and conserving information. The
research of web-based communication is closely linked to other main research
areas of the department.
The external funding of the professorship entails a sensibility towards
a larger community and responsibility for social aims and usability of results.
Within the professorship a special project was founded to support the cultural
and educational initiatives of the city of Vantaa.
The project is called the Applied Linux Institute referring to the emphasis on
free/open software and the development of net-based social innovations. Along
with the free software movement voluntary and open collaboration is becoming a
more salient element of the internet world. New forms include, among others,
innovations such as open publishing and collaborative writing by which
multifaceted and reliable information can be produced. The established media
has thus got a competitor of peer-to-peer communication and open publishing
which challenge the earlier expert systems. The material of a university course
‘Open systems and society’ and the workings of the Applied Linux Institute form
an empirical basis for the study of dispersed networked organisation of a
global scale. Free and open software and related social activities can
contribute to a democratic and sustainable society. The Applied Linux Institute
will produce a publication on free software practices in a broader societal
perspective.
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=7110
The research program of web-based communication and local agency is
realized through diverse subprojects. The material of all these projects will
be utilized in a comparative study on rural and urban networking and civic empowerment.
The results are published either in Finnish or English depending on the special
context of the research. The theoretical considerations will be published in
internationally recognized scholarly publications.
1 Civic empowerment and
web-based argumentation
The strategy program of the present government includes a subprogram of
online citizen participation by which the citizen involvement and influence
should be enhanced. An experiment with argumentation, group work, and content
management software is accepted as part of the subprogram. The experiment aims
at testing a digital device for net-based deliberations and skills of
argumentation. The study is concerned with developing democratic practices.
In the
autumn 2005 the Applied Linux Institute will start in Vantaa
a small-scale experiment based on a decentralized model of content production.
The idea is to create a platform for which the citizens themselves are mainly
responsible. The model will exploit geographical locations which can be
activated by the users for whichever representation they wish. The users have
to comply with some practical rules and only a minimal moderating is needed.
The virtual map would gradually be filled with dots marked by civic activists,
small entrepreneurs, sports clubs, private persons, city offices and occasional
groups, among others. Conversation and argumentation would spread out between
different sites and, thus, be probably easier to follow. The application is
somewhat similar to ‘social bookmarking’ (e.g.
http://del.icio.us), an innovation existing wholly on collective interests and
actions. If successful, the experiment will produce a lively and diversified
representation of the local civil society.
2 Life on and through the Net -
cultural diversity or social inequality?
(Project number 76, ended)
A study of the aspects of local information society was accepted as part
of the research program of the City of Helsinki Urban Facts in 2002. The study
was granted a small scholarship. Based on the information society experiments
and related studies particular and universal aspects of local online networks
were delineated.
http://www.hel.fi/tietokeskus/
Two articles were produced:
Sinikka Sassi (2003) Verkko yhteisöllisyyden vahvistajana - onko
paikalla väliä? (The Net as a means of community - does place matter?) In Pia Bäcklund (ed.)
Tietoyhteiskunnan osallistuva kansalainen. Tapaus Nettimaunula.
(An active citizen of the information society. The Case of
Maunula) Helsinki: Helsingin kaupungin tietokeskus. Tutkimuksia 2003/5, s.
33-49.
Seppo Koskela (2004)
Armaan paikan sijoittamisesta (On locating a beloved place)
3 Kotkajärvi - and a
sparsely populated rural area
Research material on local and universal (or transferable) aspects of
information society development has been gathered in a European Union regional
project between 2002 -2004. The project focused on the development of a village
community in a southern lake district of Finland and the environmental
protection of the local lake. The project produced information on the state of
the lake and the impact of the local forestry and farming on it, and laid out a
model of net- and mobile-based environmental observation.
A few
decades ago the area of Kotkajärvi consisted of some
small but vivid villages and a larger agricultural and forestry area. From a
lively countryside with a few schools, grocery shops, post offices and many
families the villages have diminished into a handful of households of
year-round living. In summertime the number of inhabitants multiplies when
summer house residents arrive. About one hundred and fifty households have
their summer cottages on the lakeside. The permanent residents earn their
living by diversified ways; while some do project work in varying locations,
others may work at home. The need for good internet connections is real but the
supply does not very well match with the demand. Neither local government nor
big operators are interested in the economically marginal backwoods. Yet the
users are those who would really benefit of the new information and
communication technologies. The present telecommunications services are
inadequate and expensive no matter how vital for everyday work. Contrary to the
trend of urbanization, there are young people who wish to move to, or stay in,
the countryside provided that they find sufficient means of living. Doing
cooperation and sharing information through the Net is among the most basic
means.
As
part of the EU project an association was founded in order to create local
cooperation and to organize systematic environmental observation. The last
decade has seen a very rapid growth of water plants and a change in the balance
of nutrient content. The mobile and net-based observation means should function
as a simple mechanism for an accumulating database.
4 The realms of
possibility – two African communities
To get an understanding
of the differences and similarities of local conditions two African communities
are analyzed and compared with two Finnish ones. Thus, a technologically
developed environment and a basically agricultural environment can be
juxtaposed and studied from the perspective of network connections and
structures. The African communities, one rural and the other urban, are located
in the Gambia.
To make sense of the
conditions in a given locality three concepts of connection are applied. By the
term connectivity the basic technological infrastructure and different
ways of building it can be analyzed. In rural Africa this is an issue of
careful consideration and invites new social and technological innovations. The
term being connected refers to those who actually make use of the
connections. In a remote village there is maybe only one computer and internet
connection but it can benefit all the community. Sense of connectedness
is the third term and it refers to the experience of inclusion and recognition.
Findings of local communities in the North and in the South as well show that
people would like to be part of a shared world. With these concepts today’s
technological structures and experiences related to them can be analyzed. It is
obvious that the communities differ greatly from each other. Thus the local
needs and possible solutions concerning information and communication
technologies and poverty reduction are not necessarily the same. In the study
ethnographic and participative methods will be employed.
Two related articles are published:
Cultural differentiation or social segregation? Four approaches to
the digital divide. New Media & Society, 7(3), 2005 (forthcoming).
Skapar nätet olikvärdighet? Nordicom
Information 1/2005, p. 17-27 .
5 European public spheres
Finnish Academy is funding a larger research project ‘European public spheres:
uniting and dividing’ for the years 2005-2007. Project leader is PhD Hannu Nieminen. As part of it a
study on net-based forums and conversations will be conducted in collaboration
with a doctoral student Juha Sjöblom.
The present study will cover the actualization of cultural and political
citizenship in a digital environment and is called ‘The role of the internet
and virtual communities in the development of European public spheres’.
Main publications in English
Sassi, Sinikka (2000) The
Controversies of the Internet and The Revitalization of Local Political Life.
In Kenneth L. Hacker & Jan van Dijk (eds.)
Digital Democracy. Issues of Theory and Practice.
London: Sage, 90-104.
Sassi, Sinikka (2001) Public Opinion as Local
Opinion. In Slavko Splichal
(eds.) Public Opinion and Democracy: Vox Populi - Vox Dei? Hampton Press
Communication Series, 2000 Cresskill, New Jersey: Hampton Press, 103-124.
Sinikka Sassi (2001) The
transformation of the public sphere? In