PERFORMATIVE MEDIA POLICY: SECTION 230’S EVOLUTION FROM FOOTNOTE TO LOYALTY OATH

This study examines the legislative evolution of Section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934, a widely discussed and frequently misunderstood dimension of American telecommunications policy that provides a “safe harbor” provisionally shielding internet companies from liability for law-breaking content published by third parties who use their platforms and networks. Though this provision originated in the mid-1990s as an effort to minimize the legal and economic risks facing fledgling internet startups, we argue that efforts to reform it during the Trump era reflected an unprecedented transformation of an arcane policy point into a highly public subject for “messaging bills” intended principally to signal political loyalty to the president.

FANTASI ATAU REALITI: TRANSFORMASI RTM KE ARAH PENYIARAN RADIO DIGITAL

Objektif kajian ini adalah untuk meneliti perkembangan transformasi industri radio di Radio Televisyen Malaysia. Kajian yang menggunakan kaedah kualitatif menerusi analisis terhadap dokumen kajian; (1) Pembangunan dan Perkembangan Penyiaran Radio Digital di Malaysia: Satu Kajian Kes di Radio Televisyen Malaysia; dan (2) Analisis Implikasi Perkembangan Industri Radio dari Era Penyiaran Konvensional ke Era Penyiaran Digital: 1996-2016.Transformasi penyiaran radio konvensional global tidak terhasil secara sendiri. Ia terhasil daripada fenomena digitalisasi dan dibentuk oleh senario industri media. Senario industri media mempunyai hubungan yang signifikan dengan ekonomi dan politik sesebuah negara. Setiap perubahan yang berlaku terhadap penyiaran radio dibuat adalah berasaskan kepada dasar dan perancangan sesebuah negara. Perancangan pendigitalan industri radio di Malaysia telah dimulakan seawal tahun 1997 oleh Radio Televisyen Malaysia. Langkah tersebut diambil selaras dengan Dasar Telekomunikasi Negara dan Dasar Pembangunan Nasional. Bagaimanapun, terdapat jurang pendigitalan yang ketara antara badan penyiaran nasional dan swasta. Hasil analisis mendapati bahawa badan penyiaran nasional itu mempunyai visi dan misi yang jelas mengenai pendigitalan radio, namun pelaksanaan kepada perancangan tersebut berhadapan dengan pelbagai kekangan dan cabaran. Ia menjadikan usaha pendigitalan radio free-to-air di Malaysia sebagai sesuatu yang tidak pasti. The objective of this study is to examine the development of radio industry transformation in Radio Televisyen Malaysia. This study uses qualitative methods by analysing research documents; (1) Development of Digital Radio Broadcasting in Malaysia: A Case Study in Radio Television Malaysia; and (2) Implications analysis of Radio Industry Development from the Conventional Era to Digital Era: 1996-2016. The transformation in global conventional radio broadcasting did not happen on its own. It resulted from the digitalisation phenomenon and shaped by the scenario in the media industry. The scenario in the media industry has a significant relationship with the economy and politics of a country. Every change that occurs in radio broadcasting is made based on the policies and plans of a country. In Malaysia, Radio Televisyen Malaysia has started their plan for digitalisation in radio as early as 1997. The action is taken in line with the National Telecommunications Policy and the National Development Policy. However, there is a significant digitalisation gap between national and private broadcasting bodies. The result shows that the national broadcasting body has a clear vision and mission on radio digitalisation; however, its implementation faces various constraints and challenges. It makes the digitalisation of free-to-air radio in Malaysia uncertain.

Impacts of Public Telecommunications Policy on Industrial Geography and Welfare

We include a clear distinction between transport and telecommunication infrastructures. We assume that public expenditure enables Information Technology Enabled Services to be traded abroad without the use of traditional transport modes. We show that the increase in the knowledge spillovers mainly related to mobile human capital and trade of services can develop industrialization in developing country, leading to less spatial inequalities. This latter must invest more in telecommunication than in transportation infrastructures to attract both industrial and knowledge activities. The welfare level will be improved for skilled workers in both countries when public policy decreases the cost of trading knowledge.

Canada's Telecommunications Policy Environment

This paper provides an overview of the telecommunications policy environment in Canada. Like Milner's (2009) article on New Zealand, this paper offers insights on international approaches to telecommunications policy. Canada's telecommunications history reveals a mix of private and public sector investment in regionally-based service providers. Canada did not have a single, publicly owned telecommunications carrier as was the case in Australia. Liberalisation of the telecommunications marketplace encouraged the development of competing infrastructures, with cable companies (traditionally focused on broadcasting distribution) and telephone companies now both providing wireline and wireless, voice, Internet and television services. Competition for wireline services remains regionally based, while wireless providers compete nationally. Although competition is intense, the broadband and wireless markets are highly concentrated. Competition in these markets has not resulted in extensive consumer choice, low prices or innovative services. Most Canadian consumers have access to broadband connectivity, but uptake rates now lag other OECD countries, for services that are slower and more expensive than those available in many other locations. Mobile phone penetration in Canada is on par with that of developing nations. The paper explores the characteristics of Canada's telecommunication markets, discusses the policy environment and notes that government has not offered a vision of a digital future for Canada.

Closing Canada's digital divide: a review of policies in Canada and abroad

This paper explores Canada’s telecommunications policy landscape, with an aim of evaluating its effect on Canada’s digital divide. It looks into decisions made by the CRTC and ISED (and its predecessors), which have influenced the development of broadband infrastructure in Canada. This paper also evaluates the efficacy of digital literacy training programs, aimed at allowing Canadians to leverage connectivity. Finally, it concludes with a discussion about how the Innovation Agenda can be used as a mechanism to narrow Canada’s digital divide.

Closing Canada's digital divide: a review of policies in Canada and abroad

This paper explores Canada’s telecommunications policy landscape, with an aim of evaluating its effect on Canada’s digital divide. It looks into decisions made by the CRTC and ISED (and its predecessors), which have influenced the development of broadband infrastructure in Canada. This paper also evaluates the efficacy of digital literacy training programs, aimed at allowing Canadians to leverage connectivity. Finally, it concludes with a discussion about how the Innovation Agenda can be used as a mechanism to narrow Canada’s digital divide.

Not over my backyard: the regulatory conflict between 5G rollout and environmental and historic preservation

Purpose This paper aims to analyze the environmental and historic preservation precedents that have been adopted and acknowledged by telecommunications firms when expanding their physical infrastructures. Design/methodology/approach This paper will conduct a policy analysis of contradictory regulatory goals that are expected to arise during the near-future rollout of 5G in the USA. This will be done via traditional legal research combined with a critical policy focus. Particular attention will be given to the public interest remedies that have been established for companies that have used private or public property. Findings Due to the spatial requirements of 5G network infrastructure, telecommunications policy (in which network development is paramount) is expected to conflict with land use-oriented regulations (environmental and historic preservation) in places where new 5G infrastructure must be approved and built. Social implications Ultimately, the paper will argue that conflicts will arise in local areas where the 5G rollout is expected to impact environmentally pristine areas or historic buildings. Originality/value Research in the environmental effects of 5G technology in general is becoming common, but conflicts between network construction and particular environmental or historic preservation regulations has not been the topic of organized research thus far.

Crossed wires and crooked calls: Imagining the telephone in South Indian comedy films of the 1990s

In this article, I argue for the necessity of studying the portrayal of technological infrastructures in popular cinema. Cinema provided a venue within which the potentialities of technological infrastructures could be codified, challenged and (irregularly) absorbed into everyday practice—a process that was especially fraught in postcolonial societies like India. I combine an analysis of the changes in Indian telecommunications policy in the 1990s with close readings of the telephone’s portrayal in two South Indian comedy films, Hello Pakkiram (1990) and Money (1993). These films imagined the telephone as a technology which undergirded a “middle-class” ethos which valued financial security above explicit moral commitment, in contrast to the explicit heroism of the “mass films” that shaped an earlier era of South Indian cinema. I conclude by reaffirming the necessity of thinking through mediations of technological infrastructures to gain more nuanced critical purchase on their place in our everyday lives.