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Global Culture, Local Cultures, and the Internet 323

of Thai people connected to the Internet are currently very limited, and the
fees for a connection is far from affordable, members of the Thai Internet
community consist solely of the middle class. For them the Internet has be-
come an important tool by which they create and maintain a community.
One aspect of this community is that the members agree that old style poli-
tics needs to change, and that Thailand needs to open herself up more and
become more an open, liberalized society.
7. Conrad, post to soc.culture.thai, message ID:
<3pH6RKAMWmG0Ew8t@ceebees.demon.co.uk>, September 13, 1997.
8. The relation between Internet and democracy appears to be
parochial. It depends on the situations where a particular communication/
community takes place. For Thailand, the fight is for more open, more trans-
parent and efficient government. For the US, the situation might be as de-
scribed in Mark Poster in “Cyberdemocracy: Internet and the Public
Sphere” (1997, 201–217). That is, Poster calls for a kind of ‘postmodern’ or
more participatory democracy, which is less encumbered by the traditional
forms of American government. This seems to show that the Internet is
more a tool for those who need it than a homogenizing force, making every
culture the same.
9. Soc.culture.thai general FAQ, available online at <ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/
pub/usenet/soc.culture.thai>.

References

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Pattanaakaan Prachaathippatai (“Mobile Phone Mob: The Middle
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Carey, J. W. 1989. Communication as Culture: Essays on Media and Society.
Boston: Unwin Hyman.
Davidson, D. 1984. Inquiries into Truth and Interpretation. Oxford:
Clarendon.
Harsono, A. 1997. “Indonesia: From Mainstream to Alternative Media.”
First Monday: A Peer-Review Journal on the Internet, available at
<http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue3/harsono/>.
Malaivongs, Kanchit. 1997. “Internet Services in Thailand,” available at
<http://203.148.255.222/cpi/it4.htm>.
Phuu Jad Kaan Raai Wan (Manager’s Daily). 1997. 6 October, 30.
Poster, M. 1997. “Cyberdemocracy: Internet and the Public Sphere.” In In-
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