Disrupted
: Internet and the new politics of media and communication policy in India

Student thesis: Doctoral ThesisDoctor of Philosophy

Abstract

This thesis focuses on the ideas, politics and activism surrounding the rise of the internet in India’s media system. In particular it considers the debates around media and communications policy to explore how the rise of online networks and technologies have changed the policy on related issue areas concerning the question of self-regulation in the press and safeguards from surveillance online. The thesis traces the change and continuity in these two related policy areas and analyses it in the context of rising tide of Hindutva politics as well as ongoing changes brought about by the internet and related digital technologies. By analysing politics of media policy since the rise of the internet, the thesis shows that there has been a shift from the dominance of Hindutva and its cultural nationalist ideology towards greater inclusion of citizens’ rights and recognition of privacy online.

By moving the analysis beyond media system theories that tend to focus on varieties of digital print capitalisms, this thesis aims to contribute to, and draws from, the wider literature on policy change. It considers politics in its fullest sense, which includes understanding the role of ideas that emerge in the course of rapid technological change. The thesis first considers the historical context for media and communications policy and maps a status quo that existed before the internet began to transform India’s media system. Using a discursive institutionalist approach (Schmidt 2008, 2010; Beland 2009), it examines the persistence of the colonial era institutions as well as the weakness in the ‘coordinating discourse’ of self-regulation until the 1990s. Similarly, in the context of policies concerning telegraphy and telecommunications more broadly, it analyses the interplay between ideas, interests and technology in the past and how policy changed since the pre-internet era when concerns relating to surveillance in communications policy were marginalised largely due to Hindutva politics of cultural nationalism.

Besides showing the change towards a new politics in the legislative arena, the thesis underscores the rise of ideational contestations beyond. Particularly in the discourse and institutions of the press which have seen a revival of debates around citizens’ rights and self-regulation. Taken together, the shift in media and communications policy also shows the crucial role of ideas associated with technology related public activism. The thesis however underscores the persistence of the Hindutva ideas and its communicative strategy that seeks to overturn the gains made in the recent years. This has implications for both the communication rights movement and the nature of India’s democracy at large. On the one hand the resulting conflict has brought technological change within the framework of ideational contestations making the internet related disruptions less revolutionary than is often argued. While at the same time, technological change has enabled technologists and allied new media activists who had traditionally ignored media policy, and been excluded from it, to bring their ideas into the political and policy mainstream.

Date of Award1 Oct 2018
Original languageEnglish
Awarding Institution
  • King's College London
SupervisorLouise Tillin (Supervisor) & Adnan Naseemullah (Supervisor)

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