Telecommunications policy research has grown vigorously over the past few years as evidenced by the contributors in this volume. In addition to the sheer amount of research, policy studies have grown in diversity reflecting an industry that now affects almost every area of social life. Thus, these chapters confront issues such as economic development, competition, unemployment, educational reform, the role of government, international conflict and cooperation, and many others. The volume is organized according to four issue areas: the economics of telecommunications policy, the impact of policy research on policy decisions, the social impact of accelerating growth in telecommunications, and the international consequences of telecommunications policy.

Dallas W. Smythe has made important contributions to the study of the political economy of communications, as well as to the critical study of communication and information. His work has probed the neglected corners of the academic study of communication research, challenging and inspiring students and researchers for nearly 50 years. Celebrating Dallas Smythe, this volume includes 19 articles that draw on his work and furthur challenge existing communications structures and policies. The contributions examine case studies of the political economy of communication and information from various perspectives as well as exploring international communications issues and media/audience analysis.

This volume takes a critical look at the specific forecasts and broader perspecives that shape popular understanding of a communications revolution. The book concentrates on the area of videotex, an outgrowth of cable television that makes use of computers, television, and telephone technology to produce a powerful information/communication system. Videotex draws on the major developments in microelectronics for information processing and communication used by many businesses and governments throughout the world. The potential of videotext for mass market penetration makes it an excellent means to explore the social relations of communication and information.

In the wake of revelations about National Security Agency activities many of which occur in the cloud this book offers both enlightenment and a critical view. Cloud computing and big data are arguably the most significant forces in information technology today. In clear prose, To the Cloud explores where the cloud originated, what it means, and how important it is for business, government, and citizens. It describes the intense competition among cloud companies like Amazon and Google, the spread of the cloud to government agencies like the controversial NSA, and the astounding growth of entire cloud cities in China. From advertising to trade shows, the cloud and big data are furiously marketed to the world, even as dark clouds loom over environmental, privacy, and employment issues that arise from the cloud. Is the cloud the long-promised information utility that will solve many of the world s economic and social problems? Or is it just marketing hype? To the Cloud provides the first thorough analysis of the potential and the problems of a technology that may very well disrupt the world.

The Laboring of Communication examines the transformation of work and of worker organizations in today's Information Society. The book focuses on how traditional trade unions and new worker associations growing out of social movements are coming together to address the crisis of organized labor. It concentrates on the creative responses of the technical and cultural workers in the mass media, telecommunications, and information technology industries. Concentrating on political economy, labor process, and feminist theory, it proceeds to offer several ways of thinking about communication workers and the nature of the society in which they work. Drawing on interviews and the documentary record, the book offers case studies of successful and unsuccessful efforts among both traditional and alternative worker organizations in the United States and Canada. It concludes by addressing the thorny issue of outsourcing, describing how global labor federations and nascent worker organizations in the developing world are coming together to develop creative solutions.

Becoming Digital examines the transition from the online world we have known to the Next Internet, which is emerging from the convergence of Cloud Computing, Big Data Analytics, and the Internet of Things. The Cloud stores and processes information in data centers; Big Data Analytics provide the tools to analyse and use it; and the Internet of Things connects sensor-equipped devices everywhere to communication networks that span the globe. These technologies make possible a post-Internet society filled with homes that think, machines that make decisions, drones that deliver packages or bombs, and robots that work for us, play with us, and take our jobs. The Next Internet promises a world where computers are everywhere, even inside our bodies, "coming alive" to make possible the unification of people and machines in what some call the Singularity. This timely book explores this potential as both a reality on the horizon and a myth that inspires a new religion of technology. It takes up the coming threats to a democratic, decentralized, and universal Internet and the potential to deepen the problems of commercial saturation, concentrated economic power, cyber-warfare, the erosion of privacy, and environmental degradation. On the other hand, it also shows how the Next Internet can help expand democracy, empowering people worldwide, providing for more of life's necessities, and advancing social equality. But none of this will happen without concerted political and policy action. Becoming Digital points the way forward.

Cloud computing and big data are arguably the most significant forces in information technology today. In the wake of revelations about National Security Agency (NSA) activities, many of which occur "in the cloud", this book offers both enlightenment and a critical view. Vincent Mosco explores where the cloud originated, what it means, and how important it is for business, government and citizens. He describes the intense competition among cloud companies like Amazon and Google, the spread of the cloud to government agencies like the controversial NSA, and the astounding growth of entire cloud cities in China. Is the cloud the long-promised information utility that will solve many of the world's economic and social problems? Or is it just marketing hype? To the Cloud provides the first thorough analysis of the potential and the problems of a technology that may very well disrupt the world.

What makes a city smart? The Smart City in a Digital World takes on this question by describing, challenging, and offering democratic alternatives to the view that the answer begins and ends with technology. In the wake of the 2008 global financial meltdown, corporations converged on cities around the world to sell technology, harvest valuable data, and deepen the private governance of urban life. They partnered with governments to promise what on the surface look like unalloyed benefits to city dwellers: safer streets, cleaner air, more efficient transportation, instant communication for all, and algorithms that take governance out of the hands of flawed human beings. Another story lies beneath that surface. Technology-driven smart cities deepen surveillance, shift urban governance to private companies, shrink democracy, create a hacker's paradise, and hasten the coming of catastrophic climate change. The Smart City insists that people make cities smart, that human governance still matters, and that genuinely intelligent cities start with a vibrant democracy, a commitment to public space, and to citizen control over technology. To make this happen, we need to understand the technologies, the organizations, and the mythologies that power the global smart cities movement, as well as the growing resistance to the technology-driven city. Drawing on case studies from around the world that document the redevelopment of old cities and the creation of entirely new ones, The Smart City provides an essential guide to the future of urban life in a digital world.

This book is a key resource on the foundations of Marxist Internet and Digital Media Studies. It presents 16 contributions that show how Marx's analyses of capitalism, the commodity, class, labour, work, exploitation, surplus-value, dialectics, crises, ideology, class struggles, and communism help us to understand the Internet and social media in 21st century digital capitalism.

This book is a key resource on the foundations of Marxist Media, Cultural and Communication Studies. It presents 18 contributions that show how Marx's analyses of capitalism, the commodity, class, labour, work, exploitation, surplus-value, dialectics, crises, ideology, class struggles, and communism help us to understand media, cultural and communications in 21st century informational capitalism.

Winner of the 2005 Gary A. Olson Book Award presented by the Association of Teachers of Advanced Composition and JAC: Journal of Advanced Composition The digital era promises, as did many other technological developments before it, the transformation of society: with the computer, we can transcend time, space, and politics-as-usual. In "The Digital Sublime," Vincent Mosco goes beyond the usual stories of technological breakthrough and economic meltdown to explore the myths constructed around the new digital technology and why we feel compelled to believe in them. He tells us that what kept enthusiastic investors in the dotcom era bidding up stocks even after the crash had begun was not willful ignorance of the laws of economics but belief in the myth that cyberspace was opening up a new world. Myths are not just falsehoods that can be disproved, Mosco points out, but stories that lift us out of the banality of everyday life into the possibility of the sublime. He argues that if we take what we know about cyberspace and situate it within what we know about culture--specifically the central post-Cold War myths of the end of history, geography, and politics--we will add to our knowledge about the digital world; we need to see it "with both eyes"--that is, to understand it both culturally and materially. After examining the myths of cyberspace and going back in history to look at the similar mythic pronouncements prompted by past technological advances--the telephone, the radio, and television, among others--Mosco takes us to Ground Zero. In the final chapter he considers the twin towers of the World Trade Center--our icons of communication, information, and trade--and their part in thepolitics, economics, and myths of cyberspace.

Dallas W. Smythe has made important contributions to the study of the political economy of communications, as well as to the critical study of communication and information. His work has probed the neglected corners of the academic study of communication research, challenging and inspiring students and researchers for nearly 50 years. Celebrating Dallas Smythe, this volume includes 19 articles that draw on his work and furthur challenge existing communications structures and policies. The contributions examine case studies of the political economy of communication and information from various perspectives as well as exploring international communications issues and media/audience analysis.

The ""information society"" is real. Information - as a marketable commodity - is quickly taking up the powerful role once held by heavy industry and manufactured products. How this revolution is affecting society, and how both society and government are responding to it, is the subject of this book. Every dimension of social life, whether in the home or the workplace, is affected by information and the technologies that shape it into a marketable commodity. Along with the positive aspects of these broad changes, there are inevitable problems: the growing gap between the information rich and poor, the need for widespread access to communication and information technology, the threat to privacy, and the potential of the technology to create global instabilities. The editors have enlisted specialists and scholars in business, communication studies, computing and information science, economics, law, library science, political science, and sociology to examine these changes and problems by looking at information specifically as a commodity. The book begins with chapters on ways of seeing and thinking about information in the light of developments in computer communication technology. The ability of the technology to measure and monitor information transactions and to package and repackage information products leads to fresh views on the nature of industrial society, perhaps leading to the development of what Robins and Webster refer to as ""cybernetic capitalism"". These theoretical chapters are followed by studies that identify and examine specific problems in the political economy of information. These include how business is making information a marketable commodity, how government is responding to this development, the implications for access to information, privacy, social class divisions, and specific impacts on the home and workplace. The concluding chapters consider the global significance of transforming information into a marketable product with specific studies on Europe, Asia, and the efforts of Third World nations to overcome disparities in the information society.

The Laboring of Communication examines the transformation of work and of worker organizations in today's Information Society. The book focuses on how traditional trade unions and new worker associations growing out of social movements are coming together to address the crisis of organized labor. It concentrates on the creative responses of the technical and cultural workers in the mass media, telecommunications, and information technology industries. Concentrating on political economy, labor process, and feminist theory, it proceeds to offer several ways of thinking about communication workers and the nature of the society in which they work. Drawing on interviews and the documentary record, the book offers case studies of successful and unsuccessful efforts among both traditional and alternative worker organizations in the United States and Canada. It concludes by addressing the thorny issue of outsourcing, describing how global labor federations and nascent worker organizations in the developing world are coming together to develop creative solutions.

"A masterpiece... the one single indispensable book that all media students and scholars need to read to understand this vital and growing area of research." - Robert W. McChesney, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign "A contemporary classic of media studies. Vincent Mosco, among the leading media scholars of our or any time, brings his searing insights and crystal prose to bear on the latest issues and debates of the field... An indispensable resource for researchers, activists, and students everywhere." - Toby Miller, University of California, Riverside Since publication of its first edition, The Political Economy of Communication has established itself as a true classic and one of the most important contributions to the field. This second edition has been thoroughly restructured, updated and expanded to make it an indispensable text for students and scholars alike. Putting the student at the centre of its updates, this book: Maps the definitions and foundations of political economy Adds 3 new chapters to explore current trends, from feminism and labour to new media, forms of resistance, media reform and democracy Illustrates throughout how power operates across the 21st century media landscape Explores key issues in how media power intersects with globalization, social class, race, gender and surveillance Shows media students why it is essential to understand political economy and its application to media and communication. Combining penetrating theoretical analysis with passionate commitment, Vincent Mosco once again gives readers an indispensable introduction to the field.

More than 130 years after Karl Marx's death and 150 years after the publication of his opus magnum Capital: Critique of Political Economy, capitalism keeps being haunted by period crises. The most recent capitalist crisis has brought back attention to Marx's works. This volume presents 16 contributions that show how Marx's analyses of capitalism, the commodity, class, labour, work, exploitation, surplus-value, dialectics, crises, ideology, class struggles, and communism, help us to understand the Internet and social media in 21st century digital capitalism.