Citizenship is something which has been under development since at least the American Revolution. Recent movements toward a culture that has developed virtually instead of face-to-face had pushed for a greater understanding on what impact that has in “real” society. Being and existing in reality is blurred when the internet and communities that are present in that form are indeed undeniably in existence. Because of that fact the outcomes of the discourse from those built communities have an impact that must be acknowledged as culturally significant.
In the beginning there was citizenship formed around civil and economic rights. These were comprised out of the rights to trade, property rights and rights to a fair trial. Political rights were significantly developed during the 19th century and comprised of the rights to free association and the right to vote in democratically held elections.
Cultural citizenship deals with the aspects of life which create a sense of being and identity within an individual and groups of individuals. This sense of social being is what is described as social “being.” This symbolic aspect of society is very much related to citizenship and is culturally embedded. What is represented in all media forms is therefore an essential part of citizenship. Through combining all aspects of citizenship it would mean that every individual is embedded in a mutually constructed system of rights and responsibilities. As society progresses so the elements within a concept such as citizenship deepen and change.
The media is now so fundamental to creating and communicating ideas, representations and senses of communities both thick and thin and the institutions which themselves may be thick or thin. With the development of a variety of web based tools such as blogs which allow for anybody with access to a computer and the internet to publish the creation of a rich electronically based public space has now become a reality which can keep developing. This can provide us with both material and symbolic needs in which physical needs interact with and are a part of cultural and social needs expressed through the virtual forming a sense of community never before imagined.
Through a new method of information dispersal, one that is not only supplied but also interactive, such as the internet, communication has reached a newer level of possibility. Online communities do not solely exist within the web, those communities formed upon shared interests and ideas, easily transcend into the real. The internet then serves as a foreground, a platform for locating and contacting people to begin the conversations necessary to make action. This action happens organically and shifts in ways that may not in initially be intended, but that is indeed the beauty of creating networking sites. People find methods to use websites in way that were both unintended and surpasses even what the creators of the site envisioned.
However, the policing and restricting of the internet as free space, by corporations and copyright laws, is the digresser in the movement toward fostering community. With such potential just through mass communication alone and the instantaneous feed and feedback of information through the internet, one can surely say that the internet has become inextricably bound to the way in which 21 century human beings create community. Internet society and physical society work with one another, movements are started, forums created, meet-ups are organized and as we witnessed in this years presidential campaign, elections are won. Through the use of the internet, this particular election proved a very different race. Running strategies were curtailed to reach an audience that had never before been considered. Online advertisements, Youtube videos, blog discussions, articles from ad hock websites sprouted like dandelions, and ed-opt articles of online news papers (Huffingtonpost.com) never mattered more. We saw first hand the power the internet had upon creating community, and starting action in a time when America called for change, the internet sent out that call and the voters answered in the real world not just the virtual. The use of communication tools and participatory media has created an enactment of cultural citizenship.
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