Abstract
The history of the Internet has been narrated many times. However, political histories of the Internet with a non-US-centric focus are still an uncharted research area. This paper contributes to closing that research gap. It reconstructs the Internet’s history in Germany through the lens of semantic changes in press coverage on politics. In our investigation, we sought to analyse semantic change as a political history by drawing on insights concerning the relationship between semantic change and political conflict from the perspective of discourse theory and theoretical reflections on politicisation. The study follows our intuition that semantic struggles of the past leave traces in word contexts. Conversely, it uncovers semantic change by following the traces of semantic struggles in these contexts. In line with this rationale, we conducted a ‘blended reading’ of word contexts that relied on a quantitatively assisted qualitative text analysis. The study finds that the Internet has long been understood predominantly as a tool for politics in the political public. In the late 2000s, its perception as a highly politicised object of governance also became dominant. While the Internet was always associated with a medium and a public sphere, its characterisation changed from ‘web 1.0’ to a ‘web of corporations’.
Highlights
The history of the Internet has been narrated many times
As we are interested in semantic struggles in political publics, we focus on the intersection of the public sphere and the governmental sphere
In response to Treguer’s (2017) conclusion that non-US-centric political histories of the Internet are still an uncharted research area, this paper aimed to contribute to this field by analysing the political history of the Internet through the lens of semantic change in the German political public
Summary
Political histories of the Internet with a non-US-centric focus are still an uncharted research area. This paper contributes to closing that research gap It reconstructs the Internet’s history in Germany through the lens of semantic changes in press coverage on politics. There is hardly any sector of society in which these changes are more obvious than in the political realm It is within this realm that societies negotiate the distribution of technology-related opportunities and risks and respond to these perceptions by crafting public policies. The history of attributing meaning to the Internet within the political realm has rarely been the subject of investigation. As Treguer (2017) shows, the Internet’s political history is still an uncharted research area, most notably those parts of its history that are not US-centred
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.