A Reaction to Professor Dean's Chapter.

Professor Dean's chapter in Boler's Digital Media and Democracy brought up some interesting topics. A few concepts that I do not exactly agree with are the disconnection from media to the people, circulating data stream, and decreasing value with increasing numbers.  I am not sure if I see the disconnection from media to the individual.  I actually think that people perceive and integrate too much of what they see on the Internet.  I think that we, as a society, has trouble separating what we find on the Internet.  I also think that people use the Internet to connect with others in many shapes and forms.  

The idea of the circulating data stream is an interesting point of view.  However, I do feel that it is relevant who sends the information, who receives it, and what it is about. If you think about it, some professors do not allow you to use Wikipedia as a source in your research.  Credibility plays a major role in perceiving the information you gather online. 

Lastly, I disagree with the concept discussed on Pg. 107 that the more comments or reactions, the less impact each one has.  I think that the more views and reactions will lead to greater exposure and greater impact.  This is no different than a physical protest; if you show up with 5 people you will not catch much attention but if you show up with 500 you might make some noise.  This goes along with the philosophy of power in numbers, which I think is applicable to digital media.