Contenu du sommaire : L'hégémonie à l'ère du tout numérique

This article questions the discourses of researchers since the decades 2000–2010 who put forward the idea that the Web would be animated by a “participation” of the users to the digital world. But what does “participation” means exactly : isn't it a simple illusion, a semantic ruse of the powerful to exploit more subtly the users ? Or, on the contrary, could this type of interpellation lead to a more democratic distribution of the ability to act towards agents that are a priori remote from the centres of power ? To participate supposes that the individual takes part in the situation in such a way that he can possibly modify the state of things by his contributive gestures. Does the rhetorical insistence of analysts to find the existence of this “participation” not tantamount to playing the game of the big companies of the Internet ? Today, the capture of traces opens up to a permanent commodification of human time and the monetization of attention.

This paper considers both the empowering and the disempowering features of the digital environment in relation to the scope for individual and collective agency to shape the mediated environment. Digitally mediated life is disempowering for citizens much of the time as a result of power asymmetries framed by global capitalism. It is misleading, however, to suggest that digitally mediated communication is always exploitative. It is argued that the power dynamics within the prevailing digital governance regime need to be understood. Analysis of these dynamics often suggests that online participation coincides with a deterioration in the choices available to citizens, but contradictory dynamics nevertheless may yield opportunities for citizen empowerment and choice.

The drip-feed disclosures about state surveillance following Edward Snowden's dramatic departure from his NSA contractor, Booz Allen, angered some and prompted some serious heart searching in others, and challenged those who engage in Surveillance Studies. Three kinds of issues present themselves: One, research disregard: responses to the revelations show a surprising lack of understanding of the complex, large scale, multi-faceted panoply of surveillance that has been constructed over the past 40 years or so that includes but is far from exhausted by state surveillance itself. Two, research deficits: we find that a number of crucial areas require much more research. These include the role of physical conduits including fibre-optic cables within circuits or power, of global networks of security and intelligence professionals, and of the minutiae of everyday social media practices. Three, research direction: the kinds of surveillance that have developed over several decades are heavily dependent on the digital, and, increasingly, on so-called Big Data, but also extend beyond it. However, if there is a key issue raised by the Snowden revelations, it is the future of the internet. Information and its central conduits have become an unprecedented arena of political struggle, centred on surveillance and privacy. And those concepts themselves require rethinking.

Discussion of the wider implications of the Internet often situate it in relation to utopian aspirations or dystopian fears. In this paper I will attempt to break out of this by now hackneyed dilemma. The Internet does have broad implications for modern life, but neither utopia nor dystopia adequately describes it. Instead, elements of both show up as the Internet gradually matures. This is particular clear in the impact of the Internet on the public sphere. It is in this domain that something really new is happening. Exactly what is the subject of this paper.

The article analyzes media concentration process and convergent activities such as telecommunications and the Internet in Latin America, as this process is one of the main reasons for the adoption, by the governments of the region, of new regulations for a decade. Analyzing the concentration of the activities of production, storage, distribution and exhibition of information and communication, this article characterizes the main conglomerates working in the region, compares their economic scope and their main sectors of intervention. Indicators of the concentration process that contribute to its quantification are also presented.