ABSTRACT
Cyberculture1 is complex and ambiguous. In many ways, the internet offers Utopian possibilities. Its architecture is highly decentralised. It is multipurpose. It is ‘interactive’. It offers near real time communication and is available at relatively low cost. It facilitates the sharing of all types of information. It promises a virtual community in which differences of age, gender, ability and race are irrelevant.1a Yet the internet also serves in many ways to reinforce, rather than overcome, existing social power relations. Like other media, it can operate to exclude and silence.2 Rather than creating community, it can foster a growing isolation and alienation of individuals.3 In many areas, capital has hijacked the democratic ideals of the internet, directing the internet’s power to the reinforcement and expansion of markets.4 Today one of the notable characteristics of the internet is its global consumer culture5 and increasing homogenisation.6
