This book addresses the growing gap between policy makers and (organised) citizens, and attempts by international organisations to implement a multi-stakeholder approach largely facilitated by the internet.

This book brings together and reviews different disciplinary approaches to digital information and communication systems across the social sciences. It synthesises the developments of the Internet Age, and the micro and macro consequences of these developments.

The Handbook of Global Media and Communication Policy offers insights into the boundaries of this field of study, assesses why it is important, who is affected, and with what political, economic, social and cultural consequences. Provides the most up to date and comprehensive collection of essays from top scholars in the field Includes contributions from western and eastern Europe, North and Central America, Africa and Asia Offers new conceptual frameworks and new methodologies for mapping the contours of emergent global media and communication policy Draws on theory and empirical research to offer multiple perspectives on the local, national, regional and global forums in which policy debate occurs

This book throws new light on the way in which the Internet impacts on democracy. Based on Jürgen Habermas’ discourse-theoretical reconstruction of democracy, it examines one of the world’s largest, most diverse but also most unequal democracies, Brazil, in terms of the broad social and legal effects the internet has had. Focusing on the Brazilian constitutional evolution, the book examines how the Internet might impact on the legitimacy of a democratic order and if, and how, it might yield opportunities for democratic empowerment. The book also assesses the ways in which law, as an institution and a system, reacts to the changes and challenges brought about by the Internet: the ways in which law may retain its strength as an integrative force, avoiding a ‘virtual’ legitimacy crisis.

This book explores the limits of NGO influence and the conditions that constrain NGOs when they participate in international negotiations Through an empirically rich study of the UN World Summits on the Information Society (WSIS) this book conceptualizes structural power mechanisms that shape global ICT governance and analyses the impact of NGOs on communication rights, intellectual property rights, financing, and Internet governance. The institutional framework of UN negotiations makes it easy for states to exclude NGOs from crucial meetings and to neglect their most relevant demands, in part explaining why NGOs had only limited influence on the policy outcomes of the WSIS in Geneva 2003 and Tunis 2005, although high numbers of NGOs participated. Using a critical perspective, Dany demonstrates that despite the far-reaching participation rights for civil society actors, structural power mechanisms continued to limit the influence of participating NGOs and this contradicts the widely held assumption that extensive NGO participation necessarily increases NGO influence on the policy outcomes. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of international relations, global governance, the United Nations, and global information and communication politics.

Between the 1880s and the 1940s, the region known as British West Africa became a dynamic zone of literary creativity and textual experimentation. African-owned newspapers offered local writers numerous opportunities to contribute material for publication, and editors repeatedly defined the press as a vehicle to host public debates rather than simply as an organ to disseminate news or editorial ideology. Literate locals responded with great zeal, and in increasing numbers as the twentieth century progressed, they sent in letters, articles, fiction, and poetry for publication in English- and African-language newspapers. The Power to Name offers a rich cultural history of this phenomenon, examining the wide array of anonymous and pseudonymous writing practices to be found in African-owned newspapers between the 1880s and the 1940s, and the rise of celebrity journalism in the period of anticolonial nationalism. Stephanie Newell has produced an account of colonial West Africa that skillfully shows the ways in which colonized subjects used pseudonyms and anonymity to alter and play with colonial power and constructions of African identity.

The International Encyclopedia of Digital Communication and Society offers critical assessments of theoretical and applied research on digitally-mediated communication, a central area of study in the 21st century. Unique for its emphasis on digital media and communication and for its use of business and management perspectives, in addition to cultural, developmental, political and sociological perspectives Entries are written by scholars and some practitioners from around the world, with exceptional depth and international scope of coverage in five themes: Social Media, Commercial Applications, Online Gaming, Law and Policy, and Information and Communicative Technology for Development Features leading research in the fields of Media and Communication Studies, Internet Studies, Journalism Studies, Law and Policy Studies, Science, Technology and Innovation Studies, and many more Organized in an accessible A-Z format with over 150 entries on key topics ranging from 2,000 to 10,000 words Part of The Wiley Blackwell-ICA International Encyclopedias of Communication series, published in conjunction with the International Communication Association. Online version available at www.wileyicaencyclopedia.com

Mikkel Flyverbom s The Power of Networks is a timely and important contribution to the emerging interdisciplinary study of cyberspace politics. In an exceptionally well-written and researched book, Flyberbom employs a form of ethnographic method to uncover the grounded practices that inform the many hybrid forums and entangled authorities of Internet governance. The book will be of interest to those who want a deeper understanding of the complexity and nuance of the many social forces shaping global cyberspace today. Ronald J. Deibert, University of Toronto, Canada Flyverbom presents an original ethnography of the political ordering processes of the digital revolution. He lays bare the relational practices within hybrid global forums in which multiple actors are mobilized to participate, contest, and dialogue. The book makes an important contribution to emergent global politics governing technologies, networks, meanings, and people within the United Nations system. J.P. Singh, Georgetown University, US With an ever-growing number of users, the Internet is central to the processes of globalization, cultural formations, social encounters and economic development. These aside, it is also fast becoming an important political domain. Struggles over disclosure, access and regulation are only the most visible signs that the Internet is quickly becoming a site of fierce political conflict involving states, technical groups, business and civil society. As the debate over the global politics of the Internet intensifies, this book will be a valuable guide for anyone seeking to understand the emergence, organization and shape of this new issue. In this vivid study, Mikkel Flyverbom captures how questions about the digital divide and the information revolution, dialogues with stakeholders, and networked forms of organization have become key features of the global politics of the Internet. Tracing the making and stabilization of this transnational issue in and around the United Nations over almost a decade, this book demonstrates how multi-stakeholder networks make new political domains accessible and unsettle established ways of organizing transnational governance. The Power of Networks offers a rich account of the practices and effects of organizing global politics and governance through dialogues and collaborations between governments, business and societies the world over. Offering a novel analytical vocabulary for the study of ordering, governance and organization, this innovative ethnographic study of hybrid organizations and entangled forms of power in global politics shows how insights from actor-network theory and the Foucauldian governmentality literature can reinvigorate studies of transnational governance and organizational processes.

With the spread of information and communication technologies (ICTs) comes the potential both for new social and economic equalities and new forms of inequalities. Information, Power, and Politics: Technological and Institutional Mediations demonstrates that ICTs can act as an impetus for democratizing information and knowledge, while at the same time new institutional frameworks can limit one's use of and access to strategic information and knowledge. The volume's contributors address ways to strengthen and affirm the socially marginalized as well as suggest how best to incorporate (semi)peripheral countries and regions into the international system. Information, Power, and Politics offers a refreshing and timely perspective on the ever-evolving relationship between information, knowledge, and communication.

The International Encyclopedia of Media Effects presents a comprehensive collection of the most up-to-date research on the uses and impacts of media throughout the world. Provides the definitive resource on the most recent findings of media effects research Covers all aspects of the uses and impact of media, utilizing empirical, psychological, and critical research approaches to the field Features over 200 entries contributed by leading international scholars in their associated fields Offers invaluable insights to for students, scholars and professionals studying and working in related fields, and will stimulate new scholarship in emerging fields such as the Internet, Social Media and Mobile Communication Part of The Wiley Blackwell-ICA International Encyclopedias of Communication series, published in conjunction with the International Communication Association. Online version available at Wiley Online Library.