‘United States Culture and Communications Policy and the Internet at the End/the Beginning of the “American Century”

Seit September 2002 wurde am Institut für Geschichte der Universität Salzburg unter Leitung von Prof. Reinhold Wagnleitner in einem vom Jubiläumsfonds der Oesterreichischen Nationalbank geförderten Projekt zur historischen Genese unserer gegnwärtigen Komminikationswelt(en) und dem Einfluss der US-amerikanischen Kulturpolitik im späten 20. und frühen 21. Jahrhundert geforscht. Gerade im Lichte der jüngsten geopolitischen Ereignisse kommt der Beobachtung und Analyse der historisch gewachsenen Dominanz der USA nicht nur im Bereich der (Massen-) Kommunikation – im Speziellen im Bereich des World Wide Web - gesteigerte Bedeutung zu.

Kurzbeschreibung des Projektes: (aus der Projektbeschreibung, OeNB-Projekt 9763):

The internet has developed into the most imminent (cyber-)space, defined by global economic, cultural, political, and military encounters and competition. A few years ago, President Bill Clinton has called the internet ”the battlefield for the economic world war”, a war the United States is poised to win, and serious estimates presume that within only a few years about half of the jobs in the United States will be in the area of communications. While most Europeans have not even realized that such a ”war” is on, the United States has well-positioned itself for the information age and has gained a significant lead. Despite the many problems e-commerce is currently facing, the internet has a tremendous impact on the way countries produce, market, and trade goods. Access to the internet and to information will increasingly have more influence on the terms of trade and will be the dividing line between the ”Haves” and the ”Have Nots” in the 21st century.

The information we receive through the internet, however, does not only carry just pure data. Embedded in any sufficiently large body of text (here broadly defined not only as words but also as visual representation such as pictures, graphs, ads, etc.) are values that provide a basis for decoding the text. The internet, in addition to conveying data, is thus a system of cultural exchange that disseminates interpretations of events and causal relations based on a pattern of premises that have been shaped by the historical development of nations, regions, and communities. The internet will therefore play a immense role in interpreting the world and defining paradigms that shape the future.