The Authority of Discourse in Cyberspace: A Reading of the Logic of Virtual Power

In an attempt to understand the mechanisms through which cyberspace operates, this paper deconstructs the intrinsic relationship between cyberspace and the discourse which rules over it. The modes of cyberspace take two forms: the way in which medium and message are combined, and the mechanism in which meaning is created in cyberspace. This study specifically concerns itself with two results of these two forms: the dissolution of authority into an invisible authority, and the disintegration of social spaces in favor for the expansion of the technological realm. Questions addressed in this study include: how does discourse in cyberspace create its mode of authority, and what are the mechanisms for its operation? What limits are there for the essence of authority in cyberspace? In response, the study attempts to analyze the mechanisms that govern techno-social praxis and action, and the implications for these on the trajectories of cyberspace, in terms of the construction of meaning and self-identity and their relation to the practice of authority, be it through the deployment of violence or through the symbolic violence of receiving voluntary submission. 

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In an attempt to understand the mechanisms through which cyberspace operates, this paper deconstructs the intrinsic relationship between cyberspace and the discourse which rules over it. The modes of cyberspace take two forms: the way in which medium and message are combined, and the mechanism in which meaning is created in cyberspace. This study specifically concerns itself with two results of these two forms: the dissolution of authority into an invisible authority, and the disintegration of social spaces in favor for the expansion of the technological realm. Questions addressed in this study include: how does discourse in cyberspace create its mode of authority, and what are the mechanisms for its operation? What limits are there for the essence of authority in cyberspace? In response, the study attempts to analyze the mechanisms that govern techno-social praxis and action, and the implications for these on the trajectories of cyberspace, in terms of the construction of meaning and self-identity and their relation to the practice of authority, be it through the deployment of violence or through the symbolic violence of receiving voluntary submission. 

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