{"title":"Public goods and private interests: setting the table for the commercial internet in the 1990s","authors":"Meghan Grosse","doi":"10.1080/15295036.2021.1968453","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Today, U.S.-based corporations control much of the internet worldwide, but this was not always the case. During the administration of U.S. President Clinton (1993-2001), the U.S. Department of Commerce made deliberate efforts to support the development of a commercial internet. On the national and international stages, the U.S. Department of Commerce asserted its role as the manager of corporate interests, promoting internet governance structures that supported commerce while dampening efforts that might run counter to the goal of establishing a friendly environment for for-profit operators. Archival material tracing the administration's internet governance policy reveals consistent efforts to maximize the potential value of global electronic commerce and to minimize interference by other governmental and intergovernmental bodies. The Clinton administration's decisions related to management of internet structures were often consistent with previous patterns in laissez-faire approaches to media regulation that were themselves consistent with strategies for securing network control. While these patterns aligned with the neoliberal ideology of the time and with broader media history, the explicit attention that the Clinton administration paid to securing a role for private interests proved decisive in constituting the internet as a potential engine for commerce and as a means by which to effect network control.","PeriodicalId":47123,"journal":{"name":"Critical Studies in Media Communication","volume":"21 1","pages":"408 - 422"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5000,"publicationDate":"2021-08-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Critical Studies in Media Communication","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15295036.2021.1968453","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"COMMUNICATION","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
ABSTRACT Today, U.S.-based corporations control much of the internet worldwide, but this was not always the case. During the administration of U.S. President Clinton (1993-2001), the U.S. Department of Commerce made deliberate efforts to support the development of a commercial internet. On the national and international stages, the U.S. Department of Commerce asserted its role as the manager of corporate interests, promoting internet governance structures that supported commerce while dampening efforts that might run counter to the goal of establishing a friendly environment for for-profit operators. Archival material tracing the administration's internet governance policy reveals consistent efforts to maximize the potential value of global electronic commerce and to minimize interference by other governmental and intergovernmental bodies. The Clinton administration's decisions related to management of internet structures were often consistent with previous patterns in laissez-faire approaches to media regulation that were themselves consistent with strategies for securing network control. While these patterns aligned with the neoliberal ideology of the time and with broader media history, the explicit attention that the Clinton administration paid to securing a role for private interests proved decisive in constituting the internet as a potential engine for commerce and as a means by which to effect network control.
期刊介绍:
Critical Studies in Media Communication (CSMC) is a peer-reviewed publication of the National Communication Association. CSMC publishes original scholarship in mediated and mass communication from a cultural studies and/or critical perspective. It particularly welcomes submissions that enrich debates among various critical traditions, methodological and analytical approaches, and theoretical standpoints. CSMC takes an inclusive view of media and welcomes scholarship on topics such as • media audiences • representations • institutions • digital technologies • social media • gaming • professional practices and ethics • production studies • media history • political economy. CSMC publishes scholarship about media audiences, representations, institutions, technologies, and professional practices. It includes work in history, political economy, critical philosophy, race and feminist theorizing, rhetorical and media criticism, and literary theory. It takes an inclusive view of media, including newspapers, magazines and other forms of print, cable, radio, television, film, and new media technologies such as the Internet.