Google Earth and the nation state

Sovereignty in the age of new media

Bibliographic Data

ID12883452
AuthorsSangeet Kumar (0000-0002-7326-5048, Denison University, corresponding author)
Year2010
Volume6
Issue2
Pages154-176
Publication date2010-08-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueGlobal Media and Communication (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1742-7665 • E-ISSN: 1742-7673
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1742766510373716
OpenAlexW2138522368
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited16

This article analyzes the nature of sovereignty in a globalizing world and the role new media entities play within it. It studies a protracted engagement between Google and nation states on the ability of the newly launched software Google Earth to zoom in on classified locations. Reading this tussle as an engagement between an older form of sovereignty and a newer one, this article argues that new media entities such as Google represent a new modality of power, increasingly making inroads into the Westphalian nation-state system. This new mode of power operates by presenting itself as ‘centerless’ thus claiming to operate in the interests of the larger global good. Given their architecture as a ‘distributed network’ they are increasingly difficult to regulate, thus making their challenge hard to counter. Interrogating their claim of having no interests of their own, this article argues that digital networks continue to reify older hierarchies within the global order even as they claim to erase those very hierarchies

Business · Law and economics · Media studies · Order (exchange · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Reading (process · Sociology · Sovereignty · State (computer science · Computer Science · Cybersecurity and Cyber Warfare Studies · Law · Media Studies and Communication · Social Media and Politics

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