Exploring the Potential for More Strategic Civil Society Use of Mobile Phones

Abstract

As Annabelle Sreberny reminds us, “Summits may be all about words, but the words have consequences” (2004, 201). In this chapter, I analyze the language used in the production of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). To assess the potential consequences of this language, I look at the WSIS from the historical perspective of the proposal for a new world information and communication order (NWICO) in the 1970s. Which concepts from NWICO reappear in WSIS? How have some been transformed? What new concepts have emerged? My analysis demonstrates how the present need to redefine basic norms and institutions for the sectors of information technology, communication, and knowledge parallels the need that was perceived already in the late seventies. At the same time, it shows how the emerging discourse regarding multistake-holder approaches to governance is an evolution in conceptualizing the democratization of international relations.

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