Robin Mansell

A critical assessment of why today’s information ecosystems are troubling for democracy, this book is based on research in the Global North and Global Majority World on changes in news media, artificial intelligence, and data governance. It focuses on measures to improve the quality of public discourse, protect media freedoms, and ensure the resilience of public institutions. The analysis highlights policies aimed at enhancing the accountability and resilience of information ecosystems in the face of increasing weaponisation of information. Of interest to academics, policymakers, business, and civil society, the book showcases worldwide efforts to tackle Big Tech data extractive and monetisation practices, address news media instability, and ensure artificial intelligence applications are compatible with democratic values. Revised and updated from an earlier report, this book is essential reading for everyone seeking to reimagine what justice in a datafied world could be.

Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences and law, expertly written by the world's leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas. This cutting edge book introduces the origins and consequences of digital platforms, examining how artificial intelligence-enabled digital platforms collect and process data from and about users by providing social media and e-commerce services. Robin Mansell and W. Edward Steinmueller compare and contrast neoclassical, institutional and critical political economy approaches. They show how uneven power relationships between platform operators and their users are analysed in different economic traditions. Key features include:analysis of economic and public valuesprovides a foundation for platform regulationexamines the impacts of platforms on the media industrychallenges claims of the inevitability of platform dominancediscusses key challenges, including: artificial intelligence, data sharing and competition in the digital economy. This concise book will be indispensable for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students of media and communication studies, innovation studies and economics, particularly those focusing on platform economics.

Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences and law, expertly written by the world's leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas. This cutting edge book introduces the origins and consequences of digital platforms, examining how artificial intelligence-enabled digital platforms collect and process data from and about users by providing social media and e-commerce services. Robin Mansell and W. Edward Steinmueller compare and contrast neoclassical, institutional and critical political economy approaches. They show how uneven power relationships between platform operators and their users are analysed in different economic traditions. Key features include:analysis of economic and public valuesprovides a foundation for platform regulationexamines the impacts of platforms on the media industrychallenges claims of the inevitability of platform dominancediscusses key challenges, including: artificial intelligence, data sharing and competition in the digital economy. This concise book will be indispensable for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students of media and communication studies, innovation studies and economics, particularly those focusing on platform economics.

This book is an impressive survey of our collective and cumulative understanding of the evolution of digital communication systems and the Internet. Whilst the information societies of the twenty-first century will develop ever more sophisticated technologies, the Internet is now a familiar and pervasive part of the world in which we live, work, and communicate. As such it is important to take stock of some fundamental questions - whether, for example, it contributes to progress, social cohesion, democracy, and growth - and at the same time to review the rich and varied theories and perspectives developed by thinkers in a range of disciplines over the last fifty years or more. In this remarkably comprehensive but concise and useful book, Robin Mansell summarizes key debates, and reviews the contributions of major thinkers in communication systems, economics, politics, sociology, psychology, and systems theory - from Norbert Wiener to Brian Arthur and Manuel Castells, and from Gregory Bateson to William Davidow and Sherry Turkle. This is an interdisciplinary and critical analysis of the way we experience the Internet in front of the screen, and of the developments behind the screen, all of which have implications for privacy ,security, intellectual property rights, and the overall governance of the Internet. The author presents fairly the ideas of the celebrants and the sceptics, and reminds us of the continuing need for careful, critical, and informed analysis of the paradoxes and challenges of the Internet, offering her own views on how we might move to greater empowerment, and suggesting policy measures and governance approaches that go beyond those commonly debated. This concise book will be essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the challenges the Internet presents in the twenty-first century, and the debates and research that can inform that understanding.

This book is an impressive survey of our collective and cumulative understanding of the evolution of digital communication systems and the Internet. Whilst the information societies of the twenty-first century will develop ever more sophisticated technologies, the Internet is now a familiar and pervasive part of the world in which we live, work, and communicate. As such it is important to take stock of some fundamental questions - whether, for example, it contributes to progress, social cohesion, democracy, and growth - and at the same time to review the rich and varied theories and perspectives developed by thinkers in a range of disciplines over the last fifty years or more. In this remarkably comprehensive but concise and useful book, Robin Mansell summarizes key debates, and reviews the contributions of major thinkers in communication systems, economics, politics, sociology, psychology, and systems theory - from Norbert Wiener to Brian Arthur and Manuel Castells, and from Gregory Bateson to William Davidow and Sherry Turkle. This is an interdisciplinary and critical analysis of the way we experience the Internet in front of the screen, and of the developments behind the screen, all of which have implications for privacy ,security, intellectual property rights, and the overall governance of the Internet. The author presents fairly the ideas of the celebrants and the sceptics, and reminds us of the continuing need for careful, critical, and informed analysis of the paradoxes and challenges of the Internet, offering her own views on how we might move to greater empowerment, and suggesting policy measures and governance approaches that go beyond those commonly debated. This concise book will be essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the challenges the Internet presents in the twenty-first century, and the debates and research that can inform that understanding.

Mobilizing the Information Society comprehensively and critically examines the interaction between social, regulatory, and market developments underlying the growing use of new technologies such as the personal computer and the Internet. Based upon empirical research by an international team, it offers insights needed to understand public policy, corporate strategy, and individual choices taken in response to the deluge of new technological opportunities. A principal theme of Mobilizing the Information Society is that changes are governed by public decisions that establish the institutional framework in which the private sector operates. The quality and value of the information society for the citizen is not the inevitable consequence of market and technological forces. Policy choices, however, that fail to take market and technical influences into account will prove ineffective. The authors lay the foundation for improved theories of the process of change, more appropriate strategies to achieve desired aims, and more effective policies for mitigating the effects of dislocation and exclusion from the information society. Mobilizing the Information Society offers unique insights into the social, economic, and political forces that are structuring the pathway to the information society, and their consequences for businesses and citizens in their everyday lives.

'Mobilizing the Information Society' provides a critical assessment of progress towards the Information Society. It begins from the premise that the construction of the Information Society in Europe is a dynamic process and that the journey towards a society that is so heavily dependent on capacities to generate, distribute, and use digital information is far from straightforward. The book draws upon empirical research generated by researchers based in the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Italy, and France that was originally funded by the European Commission's Fourth Framework Advanced Communication Technologies and Services (ACTS) Programme which ran from 1994 to 1998. This book updates the original research, integrates the results around core themes, and provides an assessment of progress that has been made towards addressing key issues of interest to policy makers, the business community, and technology and service users. The authors lay the foundation for more useful theories of the process of change, more appropriate strategies to achieve the desired aims, and more effective policies for increasing the benefits and mitigating the effects of dislocation and exclusion from the Information Society. 'Mobilizing the Information Society' provides unique insights into the social, economic, and political forces that are structuring the pathway to the Information Society - and its consequences for business and individuals in their everyday lives.