The Future of Internet Policy
All of the short essays in this volume look past the rhetoric of technological determinism and reliance on the natural logic of the market to consider the power of law and policy to steer new media in one direction or another. Many of the essays look backward through history or outward across national borders. They all look forward to how todays policies will shape the future of the internet and society.
A particular focus of interest for some of the contributors is on the revelations that followed Edward Snowdens mass disclosure of classified documents in 2013, which revealed the U.S. National Security Agencys systematic and longstanding program of monitoring global communications. Some chapters consider different countries varying approaches to regulating the proliferation of online communication, while others assess the current state of digital technology. They all call for policy interventions to solve market failures.
Portions of this book were originally published as a special issue of Critical Studies in Media Communication, a journal of the National Communication Association.
Peter Decherney is Professor of English and Cinema Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA, and the author of Hollywoods Copyright Wars (2012).
Victor Pickard is Assistant Professor of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA, and the author of Americas Battle for Media Democracy (2014).
NCA Studies in Communication
The National Communication Association (NCA) advances Communication as the discipline that studies all forms, modes, media, and consequences of communication through humanistic, social scientific, and aesthetic inquiry.
NCA serves the scholars, teachers, and practitioners who are its members by enabling and supporting their professional interests in research and teaching. Dedicated to fostering and promoting free and ethical communication, NCA promotes the widespread appreciation of the importance of communication in public and private life, the application of competent communication to improve the quality of human life and relationships, and the use of knowledge about communication to solve human problems.
NCA publishes 11 academic journals that provide the latest research in the discipline and showcase diverse perspectives on a range of scholarly topics. These journals are:
Communication and Critical/Cultural StudiesCommunication Education Communication Monographs Communication Teacher Critical Studies in Media Communication First Amendment Studies Journal of International and Intercultural Communication Journal of Applied Communication Research Quarterly Journal of Speech Review of Communication Text and Performance Quarterly The NCA Studies in Communication book series contains special issues from these journals, edited by leading scholars. The main aim of publishing these special issues as a series of books is to allow a wider audience of scholars from across multiple disciplines to engage with the work of the National Communication Association.
Available book titles in the series:
Cultural Studies of Rights
Critical Articulations
Edited by John Nguyet Erni
The Future of Internet Policy
Edited by Peter Decherney and Victor Pickard
Race(ing) Intercultural Communication
Edited by Dreama Moon and Michelle Holling
The Future of Internet Policy
Edited by
Peter Decherney and Victor Pickard
First published 2016
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2016 National Communication Associaton
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ISBN 13: 978-1-138-85561 -8
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The publisher accepts responsibility for any inconsistencies that may have arisen during the conversion of this book from journal articles to book chapters, namely the possible inclusion of journal terminology.
Disclaimer
Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders for their permission to reprint material in this book. The publishers would be grateful to hear from any copyright holder who is not here acknowledged and will undertake to rectify any errors or omissions in future editions of this book.
Contents
Peter Decherney & Victor Pickard
Victor Pickard
Josh Shepperd
Robert W. McChesney
Chris Marsden
Guobin Yang
Sharon Strover
Sascha D. Meinrath & Sean Vitka
Inger L. Stole
Becky Lentz
Greg Lastowka
Peter Decherney
Victor Pickard
Kevin Werbach
Amit Schejter & Noam Tirosh
The following chapters were originally published in Critical Studies in Media Communication, volume 31, issue 2 (June 2014). When citing this material, please use the original page numbering for each article, as follows:
Introduction
Introduction: Internet Policy Crises
Peter Decherney & Victor Pickard
Critical Studies in Media Communication, volume 31, issue 2 (June 2014) pp. 8991
Be Realistic, Demand the Impossible: Three Radically Democratic Internet Policies Robert W. McChesney
Critical Studies in Media Communication, volume 31, issue 2 (June 2014) pp. 9299
Hyper-power and Private Monopoly: The Unholy Marriage of (Neo)corporatism and the Imperial Surveillance State
Chris Marsden
Critical Studies in Media Communication, volume 31, issue 2 (June 2014) pp. 100108
