The theory of semiotic democracy states that ordinary people can re-define and create culture. We are not merely the passive receptacles of judgements, beliefs, and traditions. We can re-work these semiotics (signs) and in so doing re-work culture.

screenshot of Rayt comments at the top of www.whitehouse.gov: One thousand comments on the White House web site is like one thousand people with megaphones knocking on White House door.

In the broadcast age of radio, television, and newspapers it was not so easy to publicly present a personal interpretation of culture. We received our information and entertainment through technology controlled by corporations for the simple reason that it takes a lot of capital to set up a radio station, create a television program, or print a newspaper. As such, we had a choice as to whether or not we agreed with what we heard, read, or saw, but we had very little control over those signs. We had very little ability to mass-distribute our own recordings, images, and text that offered a different interpretation, reflected a different culture.

Now, thanks to the Internet, we do have the power to disseminate our judgements and interpreations to a mass audience. Blogs help us disseminate text. YouTube and Flickr help us disseminate video and images. Podcasts help us disseminate recordings.

And it is changing our culture. In 2004, Howard Dean was brought down by the the 24-hour television news cycle's take on the so-called "Dean Scream," but the death blow was administered by the ordinary citizens who made satiric videos and audio remixes of the scream. Television made the scream news. Semiotic democracy made it important.

Citizen generated video on YouTube also killed Virginia Senator George Allen's re-election campaign when video of him called an Indian-American "macaca" was posted on YouTube and picked up by bloggers. The people who took part in that phenomenon were also semiotic democrats creating culture. By saying that racism is a significant disqualifying factor for a candidate, they set a new standard of zero-tolerance for even slight gaffes and re-defined what it means to be a Virginian: not a good old boy like Allen but a son of immigrants like S. R. Sidarth, the subject of the slur.

Rayt is also part of the semiotic process of creating culture. Post a comment on the White House web site and you're redefining the institution of American government. Post a comment on the Pfizer web site and you're redefining one of the world's most powerful drug companies. Post a comment on the Fox News web site and you're redefining the most popular news channel in America.

Rayt brings your message front and center. One thousand comments on the White House web site is like one thousand people with megaphones knocking on White House door. One thousand comments on the Pfizer web site is like one thousand people clogging the halls of their corporate headquarters in New York. One thousand comments on Fox News is like one thousands people standing behind Bill O'Reilly as he broadcasts The O'Reilly Factor, shouting at the top of their lungs.

When you make yourself heard in cyberspace, you make yourself heard in the real world too. For how can you ignore people knocking on your front door, filling up your conference room, blocking your cameras? When we redefine elite institutions we gain power over them. When ordinary people have more power than elite institutions, that is democracy. If we can rayt the Internet, we can democratize the world.