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This chapter examines the claim made by Michael Dawson and John Bellamy-Foster that the Internet will fail to produce a perfect marketplace. Their claim lies in the political and economic history of communications, an indistry increasingly dominated by oligopoly. They believe that the information highway will be no exception to this trend, especially considering its increasing attractiveness to global capital. My argument is that within the development of portals and search engines, we can see Foster and Dawson's thesis played out. These companies show how the development of the Internet has been one of commercial interests, how they have the potential to be powerful marketing tools and how thier continuing financial saga is evidence of a trend towards oligopoly on the information highway. Keywords: Search Engines, Portals, Political Economy, Globalisation, ICT, Internet. If you would like a pdf of this paper, feel free to send me a message or e-mail me.
… Conference of the International Association of Media …
New media? The political economy of Internet search engines2004 •
INTRODUCTON The coming of the information technology by the internet was seen as a break through to the freedom and knowledge of the masses where citizens would be empowered and given one politics avenue to voice their political rights. However today the internet is in a marriage with Capitalism which really very interesting and raises the question,”Why and where did it all go wrong or start”. How did the government see the internet turning the tables to make a public good go into the hands of the private sector yet it was public funds that played a major role in its development? The blame can be put on the public who were not supportive or even so no need in securing the technology by denying private companies controlling it for profit. So in looking at the article critically will help relation the role of government in the public sphere of its citizens and from evaluating it one can say the interests if the people if they are a threat to government there is always concern and hence the need to control the internet. CRITIQUE The article raises issues about how America over the last two decades saw the growth and development of the internet age. There are many active players level like Facebook, Amazon, Google, and EBay. The internet was seen as a break through to freedom, however the full impact of its future has not become apparent although it has been a digital revolution, it has failed to deliver on much of its promises as was expected to be able to provide a competitive atmosphere for markets, accountable businesses and even open up government by ending corruption, inequality and increased happiness. What is very interesting is that with all the excitement in the beginning, the information available to everyone would break barriers to censorship and existing institutions would be open to scrutiny. The economic aspect of the capitalist society has taken over the internet subjecting it to a means of capital accumulation and what was a public sphere is gradually becoming close to monopolistic companies. Although the argument is not about what is good for the public wealth, there is a strong case that if it is left in private hands then there should be a better way of developing the internet around capital accumulation for the public good. In a capitalist environment the forces of the market would dictate free trade regardless of the negative externalities.
The United States and the world are now a good two decades into the Internet revolution, or what was once called the information age. The past generation has seen a blizzard of mind-boggling developments in communication, ranging from the World Wide Web and broadband, to ubiquitous cell phones that are quickly becoming high-powered wireless computers in their own right. Firms such as Google, Amazon, Craigslist, and Facebook have become iconic. Immersion in the digital world is now or soon to be a requirement for successful participation in society. The subject for debate is no longer whether the Internet can be regarded as a technological development in the same class as television or the telephone. Increasingly, the debate is turning to whether this is a communication revolution closer to the advent of the printing press.1
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