Can the Internet transform the region?

Can the Internet challenge voter apathy? Does access to the World Wide Web improve local government accountability? These and many other intriguing issues will be explored in a free lecture at the University of Teesside on Wednesday 6 December, starting at 6.30pm in the Europa Building, Woodlands Road, Middlesbrough. Entitled ‘Wired Up, Tuned in, but Turned Off: Can Teesside Govern Itself?’, the lecture will be delivered by Brian Loader, Reader in Community Informatics and Co-Director of the University’s Community Informatics Research & Applications Unit (CIRA).

CIRA has been at the forefront in spreading the information revolution across the North-East. They have worked to establish Internet access for several local communities, including Trimdon, Hemlington, and Saltburn. Brian said: “The arrival of the Internet, with its capacity to provide communications across the world for anyone and at anytime, was seen as a great new opportunity for providing unregulated free speech and a genuine shift in power from politicians and business interests to ‘the people’.

“I will suggest that greater connectivity and access to the Internet does not necessarily lead to citizen empowerment and improved democracy. Instead, to be ‘electronically included’ is to be constrained by the rules, procedures and restrictions governing computer-mediated-communications. Despite being increasingly wired up through cable TV there seems little evidence to suggest that the people of Teesside will use the new media to govern themselves.”

Refreshments are available from 6pm. For more information please contact Mark White on 01642 342012.

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