Network Neutrality and Digital Dialogic Communication ― How Public, Private and Government Forces Shape Internet Policy

In the months after the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) 2017 decision to repeal network neutrality as US policy, it is easy to forget the decades of public, organizational, media and governmental struggle to control digital policy and open access to the internet. Using dialogic communication tactics, the public, governmental actors and organizations impacted the ruling through YouTube comments, the FCC online system and social network communities. Network neutrality, which requires that all digital sites can be accessed with equal speed and ability, is an important example of how dialogic communication facilitates public engagement in policy debates. However, the practice and ability of the public, organizations and media to engage in dialogic communication are also greatly impacted by the FCC’s decision. This book reflects on decades of global engagement in the network neutrality debate and the evolution of dialogic communication techniques used to shape one of the most relevant and critical digital policies in history.

Alison N. Novak is an Assistant Professor of Public Relations in the College of Communication and Creative Arts at Rowan University. She received her PhD from Drexel University in Communication, Culture, and Media. Her work explores the intersections of policy, media discourses and public engagement. She is the author of Media, Millennials, and Politics: The Coming of Age of the Next Political Generation and the coeditor of Defining Identity and the Changing Scope of Culture in the Digital Age. Her work is featured in Wired Magazine and Redbook Magazine, and on NBC News.

Melinda Sebastian is an Assistant Professor of Communication Studies at Kutztown University. She received her PhD from Drexel University in Communication, Culture, and Media. Her research focuses on gender, technology, law and policy. She recently published “Privacy and Consent: The trouble with the label of ‘Revenge Porn’” in Feminist Media Studies and has a book chapter entitled “The Digital Age and the Social Imaginary” in Remembering and Forgetting in the Digital Age, Law, Governance, & Technology for Springer Verlag, arriving in 2019. She is the Secretary Historian for the Feminist Division of the International Communication Association.