Internet... the final frontier: an ethnographic account: exploring the cultural space of the Net from the inside

The research project The Internet as a space for interaction, which completed its mission in Autumn 1998, studied the constitutive features of network culture and network organisation. Special emphasis was given to the dynamic interplay of technical and social conventions regarding both the Net’s organisation as well as its change. The ethnographic perspective chosen studied the Internet from the inside. Research concentrated upon three fields of study: the hegemonial operating technology of net nodes (UNIX) the network’s basic transmission technology (the Internet Protocol IP) and a popular communication service (Usenet). The project’s final report includes the results of the three branches explored. Drawing upon the development in the three fields it is shown that changes that come about on the Net are neither anarchic nor arbitrary. Instead, the decentrally organised Internet is based upon technically and organisationally distributed forms of coordination within which individual preferences collectively attain the power of developing into definitive standards. --

\u3ci\u3eThe Conference Proceedings of the 1999 Air Transport Research Group (ATRG) of the WCTR Society, Volume 3\u3c/i\u3e

UNOAI Report 99-7https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/facultybooks/1149/thumbnail.jp

References and Bibliography: Report #21 in the Series: The Annualized Social Cost of Motor-Vehicle Use in the United States, Based on 1990-1991 Data. Rev. 2

There are 21 reports in this series. This final report comprises references and bibliographic material for all reports except those in Report #11, “The Cost of the Health Effects of Air Pollution from Motor Vehicles.

Distant Electric Vision: Cultural Representations Of Television From “Edison’s Telephonoscope” To The Electronic Screen

Do inventions that exist only on paper have less credibility than functional technologies? How has the meaning and significance of audiovisual media and technology changed over time? This dissertation examines historiography and methodology for media history, arguing for an interdisciplinary approach. It addresses methodological issues in media history—media in transition, media archaeology, and film history—through an examination of television’s speculative era. It tackles moving-image history through an historical investigation of Victorian and Machine age “television”. Because the concept and terminology of “television” changed dramatically during this period, I use the phrases “distant electric vision” and “seeing by electricity,” to define the concept of electric and electronic moving-image technology. By identifying manifestations of “television” before functional models existed, this dissertation examines the ways in which a modern concept of moving-image technology came into existence. Engineers and inventors, as well as audiences and journalists contributed to the construction of “television.” Newspaper announcements, editorial columns, letters to the editor, rumors and satires circulated. Victorian-era readers, writers and inventors pictured “seeing by electricity” to do for the eye what the telephone had done for the ear, bringing people closer together though separated by great distances. In contrast, early twentieth-century Machine-age engineers placed more emphasis on systems, communication, design, and picture quality. Developments in the 1920s with complex systems and electronics made “distant electric vision” a reality. This dissertation identifies several shifts that took place during television’s speculative era from the Victorian “annihilation of space” to Machine-Age systems engineering. Journalists, readers, and engineers all play a part in the rhetoric of innovation. From the Victorian era to the Machine age, the educational function of popular science and the role of audiences in constructing meaning and value for new technologies remain relatively consistent. I offer several case studies, including Thomas Edison’s inventions, illuminating engineering, and Bell Labs experiments with television. This dissertation argues that modern television design relies on the ability of the technology to make an unnatural experience seem as effortless as possible. Ultimately, it advocates for an expanded definition of media and technology, along with an historical emphasis on context

Sino-Tibetan Relations 1990-2000:the Internationalisation of the Tibetan Issue

Das Jahrzehnt zwischen 1900 und 2000, welches das Objekt dieser Dissertation ist, war reich an Ereignissen in den Chinesisch-Tibetischen Beziehungen. Das Dialog zwischen Peking und Dharamsala, welches in der frühen 1980er initiiert wurde, ist zusammengebrochen, China hat Wirtschaftsreformen und Infrastrukturprojekte gestartet, die für das Überleben des tibetischen Volkes fatal sein könnten, die Tibeter haben angefangen ihr politisches Anliegen zu internationalisieren und die Politik des Mittleren Weges wurde demokratisch von dem tibetischen Volk einstimmig akzeptiert. Es war ein Jahrzehnt von vielen hoffnungsvollen Anzeichen für das tibetische Volk – die Berliner Mauer ist gefallen, die Sowietunion ist zerfallen und der Kommunismus in Europa war besiegt, die chinesischen Studenten sind gegen ihre Regierung und für mehr Demokratie aufgestanden, der Straßburger Vorschlag des Dalai Lama hat eine weltweite Unterstützung erfahren und der Friedensnobelpreis wurde Dalai Lama verliehen. Für die Kommunistische Partei Chinas war es ein Jahrzehnt ernsten internen und internationalen Herausforderungen – ihr angeschlagenes Image zu aufzubessern und das Vertrauen des Volkes zurückzugewinnen. Andererseits bekam der tibetische Nationalkampf internationale Beachtung und Unterstützung. Immerhin, die chinesische Regierung hat nicht nur ihre Kontrolle über Tibet gestärkt, sondern es auch geschafft die internationale Kritik diesbezüglich zu vermeiden. Das Geduldspiel von Peking und seine unverändert harte tibetische Innenpolitik, sowie die “Wieder-Ausbildungskampagnen”, haben Dalai Lama dazu gezwungen auf den Aufruf für Unabhängigkeit zu verzichten und statt dessen für eine “reale Autonomie” zu plädieren. Dalai Lama und seine Exilregierung formulierten die Politik des Mittleren Weges, die von den Exiltibetern eindeutig unterstützt wurde. Sie erhielt auch einen großen Zuspruch von den westlichen Regierungen, den chinesischen Intellektuellen und den Befürwortern der Demokratie. Bis zum jetzigen Zeitpunkt konnte jedoch diese Politik die Regierung in Peking nicht überzeugen. Strategisch gesehen war das Jahrzehnt 1990-2000 eines der günstigsten für das tibetische Volk im Nationalkampf einen großen Schritt nach vorne zu machen und hat sich dadurch eine nähere Erforschung verdient. Diese Dissertation versucht die komplexen Faktoren zu analysieren, die den Chinesisch-Tibetischen Konflikt beeinflusst haben und die riskanten Politiken zu enthüllen – die Politiken des Bevölkerungstransfers und Unterdrückung der Glaubensfreiheit – welche von der chinesischen Regierung innerhalb des Tibetischen Autonomen Region implementiert wurden

Framing by media and social movement organizations: Cross-cultural prestige press coverage of the Kyoto Protocol

This dissertation examines the effects of news values and media routines on the framing of societal issues, with emphasis on cross-cultural prestige press coverage of the Kyoto Protocol. Media use news values to determine what makes the daily news and how that news is portrayed to the public. Journalists selectively choose news stories based on media routines, which help in gathering and disseminating the news in an efficient manner. Stakeholders attempt to frame the news in a manner worthy of news coverage, but media primarily report on the acceptance of or opposition to master frames. Evidence of this interplay exists when examining contentious issues like that of Kyoto Protocol. To find evidence of these processes, a computerized content analysis using the VBPro suite of programs examined 421 American prestige press articles, 721 British prestige press articles, 112, news releases and 443 opinion pieces appearing from January 1997 to Sept. 11, 2001. The texts were gathered from the Lexis-Nexis and Dow Jones databases. Hierarchical cluster analysis provided visual representations of the frames involved. The focus on prestige press coverage limits the external validity of the findings. The analysis uncovered four master frames supported by 10 stakeholder frames concerning global climate change and the Kyoto Protocol. The news value of prominence affected the master frames, though not in the predicted manner concerning stakeholder support or opposition. However, historical analysis indicates support for previous research that indicated international politics held sway over the issue. The analysis also found evidence of media routines at work, including gatekeeping, balancing competing positions and the spiral of opportunity. Theoretically, this dissertation provides a synthesis of communications and sociological literature, and a cross-cultural comparison of an international environmental issue. Methodologically, VBPro was shown to quantify master frames, which may be the first time this has happened. Practically, the dissertation provides an explanation to journalists and stakeholders in government, science, business, and social movement organizations of how news values and media routines lead to the acceptance or rejection of issue frames, as well as the possible de-legitimization of sources outside the media routine