Will the Real WSIS Please Stand Up
The Historic Encounter of the ‘Information Society’ and the ‘Communication Society’
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9848771 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Se·n Ó Siochrú (14 Eaton Brae, Shankill, C. Dublin, Ireland., corresponding author) |
| Year | 2004 |
| Volume | 66 |
| Issue | 3-4 |
| Pages | 203-224 |
| Publication date | 2004-06-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Gazette (Leiden Netherlands (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0016-5492 • E-ISSN: 1460-3594 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0016549204043606 |
| OpenAlex | W1979349844 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 18 |
Understanding the encounter at the WSIS requires an enquiry spanning over 30 years, covering two main strands that converged in Geneva December 2003. One, the ‘information society’ debate, takes in the role of information, the internet and the ‘digital divide’ and can be traced to the 1970s. The other, the ‘communication debate’, encompasses broader issues of knowledge ownership and use, media diversity and communication. Its defining moment came in the early 1980s with the MacBride Report of UNESCO. Although each has its (uniquely compromised) history, only one, the latter, is likely to have a future. At the WSIS, these intersected in both official and unofficial fora. The impact was felt within the intergovernmental process, but more profoundly within the spaces of civil society. Burdened with ideologically inspired promises it could never fulfil, comprised by a worn out neoliberal agenda, the outcome of the ‘information society’ debate in the plenary halls was always going to be limited. The ‘communication society’ debate, on the other hand, marked the completion of a shift from governments to civil society as the driving force, and a potentially deeper and more democratic articulation of the issues. It culminated with the publication of the Civil Society Declaration. The further development of this agenda must look outside the WSIS road to Tunis, and develop a stronger presence at civil society venues such as the World Social Forum, and at global governance meetings and events
Civil society · Constitution · Declaration · Democracy · Information society · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Sociology · Global Financial Regulation and Crises · Human Rights and Development · International Development and Aid · Law · Public Administration
Janus-faced NGO Participation in Global Governance
Decolonial Intersectionality as a Framework of Social Justice Research in International Communication
Continuidades de la agenda neoliberal en la agenda de desarrollo sostenible de la sociedad de la información
Diversity Matters, Even at a Distance
The WSIS as a Political Space in Global Media Governance
International information flow and its impact on developing societies
Contribuciones de la Teoría Social Latinoamericana a la agenda de la comunicación y la cultura en la Unesco (1970 – 2015)
The Internet as a global good
Human rights, technology and social change
Debating communication imbalances from the MacBride Report to the World Summit on the Information Society
What is bottom-up about global internet governance
At the margins of Internet governance
Contentious terrain in EU information society policies
Priorities in global media policy transfer
Neoliberal Visions and Revisions in Global Communications Policy From NWICO to WSIS
A Concept of Autonomy for Critical Communication Studies
Unesco, ICT corporations and the passion of ICT for development
Beautiful balloon
| Citations per year | 0.82 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2004 - 2026 (23) |
| Highly cited | No |