Date: Friday, October 22, 1999, 1:11:55 PM
Subject: Labor and multimedia
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Looks like there isn’t goin to be a special portfolio named “Minister for
Multimedia”. But this probably isn’t a bad thing as Stockdale
was a bit of a token relic anyway. Multimedia will be part of John Brumby’s
industry portfolio. Getting rid of this “Minister for Multimedia” name will
probably give the ‘industry’ a little more respect in the broader community
anyway as it will appear to be less ‘Jeffed”.
Part of the political analysis on why Jeff lost concentrated on his web
site. Perhaps people are beginning to become weary of those who use the
old-fashioned Twentieth Century modernist rhetoric of techno-agency to flog
their ideas. ie. Jeff was a political conservative,
an ideology that has traditionally been concerned with preserving the
status quo. (Place conservative ideas on the Internet and all of a sudden
they become contextualised in the modernist rhetoric as “technology as
progress”).
Jeff’s defeat proved that there is no inevitable agency or
techno-determinism inherent the Internet or any other technology. The net
is imbedded within the social and political context in which we all live.
Jeff’s defeat is proof of this.
Jeff’s defeat proved that there is no inevitable agency or
techno-determinism inherent the Internet or any other technology. The net
is imbedded within the social and political context in which we all live.
Jeff’s defeat is proof of this.