New Technology and Speech

Monroe E. Price writes about free expression in the face of new technologies offering a different means of communication than existed before, and he notes that every advancement in this area creates the possibility of altering the infrastructure of discourse, reshaping the ideas of a community. Price wants to add his own view of this matter to earlier analyses by sociologists and others, and he says that in considering the impact of new technologies on freedom of speech, he would like to suggest two fundamental forms of speech patterns in society, the open and closed terrain of speech. These have different functions and require different regulations, and neither form is necessarily more central to a democratic society. A new technology is important because it will cause a significant dynamic shift in the mix of types of speech in society and a shift in the way information is transmitted and distributed among citizens.

Such a shift may be difficult for us to see when we are living in the middle of it, for we are taken more with slogans than with substance. The current slogan is the 500 channel universe promised by cable and satellite television and the personal computer, and this could provide either actual diversity or only the illusion of choice. Such vast changes in technology will have major impacts on the political realm and may decide the nature and role of government and the importance of the marketplace of ideas. Price suggests another framework for analyzing t

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cted at all of society at once. It thus will not necessarily draw us together but may drive us apart. The old reality of broadcast television meant that television programs each night would bring Americans together around common stories, themes, and ideas, while the multiple universe of cable means that there is no longer a shared identity produced by common experiences. This view is being carried over into even newer technologies where the news is whatever you want it to be and where you can request through a computer network that you be given only the information you want and not necessarily the information you need. Price discusses the difference between open and closed terrains of speech in terms of the concept of the public sphere. This is an idea used in the evaluation of speech practices and media structures. It is a central zone for discourse in which ideas are explored in public view. The public sphere was formulated to be free of restrictions not only by government but by the forces of the economy to give the points of view a certain authenticity. The key opinions of the public are forged in the public sphere, and to do this it is necessary that there be sufficient access to needed information. The concept has

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