Canadian Telecommunications

This study provides Canada's first comprehensive, integrated treatment of the emergence and development of key communication sectors: telegraph telephones, cable TV, broadcasting, communication satellites, and electronic publishing. By focusing on real institutions, actual (and frequently predatory) business practices, and law and regulatory policies, in both historical and contemporary perspectives, Babe helps demystify current communication issues. Stressing the flexibility of communication 'technologies' on the one hand, and the element of corporate power on the other, Babe reintroduces the principle of corporate/governmental responsibility for communication outcomes, a principle that has been largely drowned out by the shrill cries of 'Information Revolution.'

Rideout focuses on the protection of the public interest, a crucial element neglected by most recent studies, and shows that although alliances have been formed between labour, consumers, and public interest activists, significant disagreements over issues such as free trade, long distance and local competition, and a targeted subsidy program for very low-income Canadians have meant that this united front has not been able to counter the forces of the new neo-liberal telecommunication policy regime. Continentalizing Canadian Telecommunications details the complex relationships between the various corporate and government interests, shows how the changes they brought about have locked Canada's telecommunications system into the orbit of the US system, and discusses the implications this has for Canadians.

Mussio is a communications consultant who traces how Canada handled expansion in telecommunications and the arrival of the computer in the three critical decades following World War II. Like technological transformations in transportation and utilities, the spread of new communications systems forced governments to respond; in continental Europe and the UK, they asserted control and ownership of national telecommunication networks. In the US, private companies were permitted to manage systems and provide services. In Canada both models were adopted, and domestic hybrids combining both also flourished.Distributed in the US by Cornell University Services. c. Book News Inc.

Canadian Communication Policy and Law provides a uniquely Canadian focus and perspective on telecommunications policy, broadcasting policy, internet regulation, freedom of expression, censorship, defamation, privacy, government surveillance, intellectual property, and more. Taking a critical stance, Sara Bannerman draws attention to unequal power structures by asking the question, whom does Canadian communication policy and law serve? Key theories for analysis of law and policy issues—such as pluralist, libertarian, critical political economy, Marxist, feminist, queer, critical race, critical disability, postcolonial, and intersectional theories—are discussed in detail in this accessibly written text. From critical and theoretical analysis to legal research and citation skills, Canadian Communication Policy and Law encourages deep analytic engagement. Serving as a valuable resource for students who are undertaking research and writing on legal topics for the first time, this comprehensive text is well suited for undergraduate communication and media studies programs.

Today's internet service providers mediate communication, control data flow, and influence everyday online interactions. In other words, they have become ideal agents of public policy and instruments of governance. In Telecom Tensions Mike Zajko considers the tensions inherent to this role – between private profits and the public good, competition and cooperation, neutrality and discrimination, surveillance and security – and asks what consequences arise from them. Many understand the internet as a technology that cuts out traditional gatekeepers, but as the importance of internet access has grown, the intermediaries connecting us to it have come to play an increasingly vital role in our lives. Zajko shows how the individuals and organizations that keep these networks running must satisfy a growing number of public policy objectives and contradictory expectations. Analyzing conflicts in Canadian policy since the commercialization of the internet in the 1990s, this book unearths the roots of contemporary debates by foregrounding the central role of internet service providers. From downtown data centres to publicly funded rural networks, Telecom Tensions explores the material infrastructure, power relations, and political aspirations at play. Theoretically informed but grounded in the material realities of people and places, Telecom Tensions is a fresh look at the political economy of telecommunications in Canada, updating conversations about liberalization and public access with contemporary debates over privacy, copyright, network neutrality, and cyber security.