Media Policy and Globalization - Blogs Unpad

THE INFORMATION SOCIETY 125
and across the “developing” world, through the auspices of the World
Bank. These policy directions have been thoroughly represented in policy
recommendation papers and consultation meetings between representatives
of the industries and representatives at the highest ranks of the
state. The core message of these policies was then to be applied at the national
level. Analysing the structural changes in Canada with an agenda of
harmonization of policies, Abramson and Raboy comment that they correspond
to the ‘new’ version of IS that was to be ‘taken home’ (1999: 781).
One of these new organizations (but not with any ‘new’ actors) emerged
in 1998 to influence the direction of policy with regards to the global
framework of e-commerce: the Global Business Dialogue on electronic
commerce (GBD). It consists of some of the most powerful transnational
corporations in the field of electronics and telecommunications, such as
Deutsche Telecom, France Telecom, Hewlett Packard, Siemens, NEC
Corporations and Toshiba, among others. According to GBD, representatives
of the organization have been in constant consultations with the
governments of Europe, the USA, Canada, Japan (largely the G8) since
1998. It is interesting to note that since its foundation, representatives
of the organization have been in official consultations with these governments
on a monthly basis. The philosophy of GBD and indeed of the
corporate world is neither hidden nor modest:
The private-sector – with its detailed day-to-day involvement in a
multinational operating environment – is in a unique position to play
an important role in shepherding the world through a sensitive period
of globalization. (GBD 2004: 1)
This is the opening statement of GBD’s major policy recommendations
document in the executive summary of 2004 – a position represented
at national, regional and international fora, such as the World Summit
2005. Recommendations cover not only issues of technical standards or
issues directly related to electronic commerce, but also on electronic
governance, health and information. They also cover issues of surveillance
and domestic policy. Again the – oversimplistic – philosophy of the
recommendations is spelled out on page 18:
In point of fact, if the words ‘speaker’, ‘contributor’, and ‘voter’ are replaced
by ‘consumer’, ‘purchaser’, and ‘statements’ and/or the words
‘contributions’ and ‘opinions’ are substituted with ‘inquiries’ and ‘orders’
of products and services, it is readily seen that the very same environment
is necessary for e-commerce. Citizens and businesses making
requests or opinions to Government are no different than consumers
who make similar requests to shops or companies. (GBD 2004: 18)