The Struggle for Control of Global Communication: The Formative Century (The History of Media and Communication)

The 1840s through World War I marked the initial formulation of communication markets and the regulation of international communications. Jill Hills analyzes power relations within global communications during the period.

The telegraph shifted communications from a national to international concern. Information became a commodity while ownership of the communications infrastructure became valuable as the means of distributing information. The struggle for control of that infrastructure occurred in part because British control of communications hindered the economic power of the United States. Hills explores the technological advancements and regulations that allowed the United States to challenge British hegemony. She also demonstrates that control of global communication was part of a complex web of relations between and within the government and corporations of Great Britain and the United States.

Detailed and astute, The Struggle for Control of Global Communication reveals how the interplay between American federal regulation and economic power shaped communication technologies and proved a harbinger for the organization of power in contemporary global communications.

 Jill Hills, a professor in the School of Communication and Creative Industries at the University of Westminster, is the author of Deregulating Telecoms, Information Technology and Industrial Policy, and Telecommunications and Empire.