Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

The relationship between communications and state power has long been complex and, at times, contradictory. On the one hand, states frequently invest in infrastructure and empower regulatory institutions in an effort to facilitate communication. Through improved communication systems, states attempt to intensify their presence within national territory, foster economic development, increase feelings of citizenship, and project their influence beyond territorial borders. On the other hand, communication systems thrive through the idealization (and, ideally, the regulatory construction) of a space without borders, wherein ideas and information can freely flow. Even as states utilize communication systems to secure their borders and enrich their territory, these very systems suggest new means for making connections across borders and within state territories, where individuals might bypass, or even actively work to subvert, state authority. In this essay, we discuss how this tension prevails in the arena of electronic communications. Following two brief sections in which we define electronic communications and outline the debate surrounding the relationship between state power and electronic communications, we turn to a discussion of the institutions that have emerged to govern specific electronic communication networks. These institutions range from those that are dedicated to reproducing ... log in or subscribe to read full text