The internet and culture

“Today's internet, quite literally, turns the mass media age on its head. Anyone with internet access can publish anything online, which results in the mob chaos of YouTube, the blogosphere and Wikipedia. As the traditional media gatekeepers lose their power, the very idea of cultural authority is undermined, meaning that everybody (ie: nobody) can legitimately determine aesthetic standards or truths.

The economic consequences of this anarchy are particularly corrosive. The digital revolution fatally undermines the value of the copy, thereby resulting in a cultural economy increasingly dependent either on advertising or a confusing and often deceitful confusion of independent and commercial content.

The end result is disastrous for both the creator and consumer of culture. The internet is producing the cult of the amateur, a dumbing-down of culture, in which innocence is replacing expertise as the determinant of value. Worse still, as the copy loses its economic exchange value, the only way artists will be able to make a living will be through the live performance of their work. So the end result of the so-called "democratised" culture will actually be a shrinkage in both the size of the cultural economy and in the number of professional artists. That means fewer professionally-produced books, movies and recorded music. Only the rich will be able to afford to physically access the artist in an economy where value will be increasingly determined by physical presence. Instead of more cultural democracy, therefore, the internet will create more cultural inequality and privilege.” Andrew Keen, “Is Today's Internet Killing our Culture?”