A Media Discourse of Broadband Policy in a Developing Country Context

Abstract

The formation of bodies like the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) and the incorporation of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have given birth to the importance of connectivity, thus putting the Internet on the national agenda of every nation in the world. Countries (especially developing nations) have started drafting their own broadband policies so as to be able to ‘quickly’ provide Internet access to ‘all’ their citizens and to be able to ‘immediately’ start ‘reaping’ the fruits provided by broadband. This paper, therefore, looks at this process in the Republic of South Africa - that is, the discourses around the formulation of the National Broadband Policy - in order to uncover possible distortions and misconceptions. Moreover, it also looks at the interactions that existed amongst the actors that were involved or were supposed to be involved in the policy formulation process. This is done by using Habermas’ Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA).