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POLITICS OF INFORMATION

As you access and use information--especially electronic information-- in your research, it is important to understand some political and social issues that affect the availability of information to the public. Your ability to access information may be affected by how our society answers questions such as: "Who should have access to what information and at what price?", "Who owns or controls what information?", "Is there some information that should not be allowed to be published?", "What rights do you have to copy and use Internet resources?" or "What personal information about you is available to the public?"

Below are links to more information about these issues and questions.

Access to Information for All

• American Library Association Office for Information Technology Policy. Background on Universal Service. - http://www.ala.org/oitp/background.html
• Sandra Schickele. "The Economic Case for Public Subsidy of the Internet" - http://www.eff.org/pub/GII_NII/net_subsidy_schickele.paper

Media Concentration, Public Relations & Advertising

• Janine Jaquet. "The Media Nation: Publishing." The Nation 3/17/97 - http://www.thenation.com/extra/publish/map1.htm
• Mark Crispin Miller. "Special Issue: National Entertainment State." The Nation June 3, 1996. -http://www.thenation.com/issue/960603/960603.htm Articles and info about media conglomerates. 

Intellectual Freedom

• "Intellectual Freedom Legislation: the State of the States" - http://www.bookwire.com/ljdigital/legislation.articles
• ACLU. "Fahrenheit 451.2: Is Cyberspace Burning?: ACLU Special Report on Internet Ratings and Free Speech" - http://www.aclu.org/issues/cyber/burning.html
• Censorship Pages - http://www.booksatoz.com/censorship/index.htm
• Banned Books Online - http://www.cs.cmu.edu/Web/People/spok/banned-books.html

Intellectual Property

• Benton Foundation. "Intellectual Property" - http://www.benton.org/Library/KickStart/kick.intellectualproperty.html
• Crash Course in Copyright - http://www.utsystem.edu/OGC/INTELLECTUALPROPERTY/cprtindx.htm#top
• Copyright & Fair Use - http://fairuse.stanford.edu/
• The Copyright Act of 1976 - http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17

Privacy & Human Rights

• Privacy Rights Clearinghouse (PRC) - http://www.privacyrights.org/
• Privacy on the Net: What Can Others Learn About You? - http://www.walthowe.com/navnet/privacy.html
• ACLU Cyber-Rights - http://www.aclu.org/issues/cyber/hmcl.html
• David Banisar. "Big Brother Goes High-Tech." Covert Action Quarterly #56 (Spring 1996). - http://www.caq.com/CAQ56brother.html
• Nicky Hagar. "Exposing the Global Surveillance System." Covert Action Quarterly #59 (Winter 1997). - http://www.caq.com/CAQ/CAQ59GlobalSnoop.html
• Mitzi Waltz. "Policing Activists: Think Global, Spy Local." Covert Action Quarterly #61 (Summer 1997). - http://www.caq.com/CAQ/caq61/caq61spylocal.html

Background reading on several of the issues listed above:

Branscomb, Anne Wells. Who Owns Information: From Privacy to Public Access. N.Y.: BasicBooks, 1994. 

For more information on all the issues on this page, see the course web site for:

"The Politics of Information Access" - HON 201, Honors College, University of Illinois at Chicago - Instructors: Laura Quilter (lauramd@uic.edu) and Veronda Pitchford (vjpitch@uic.edu) - http://www.uic.edu/classes/hon/hon201/
 

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These materials may be used for educational purposes if you inform and credit the author and cite the source as: LSCI 105 Computerized Research. All commercial rights are reserved. To contact the author, send comments or suggestions to: Eric Brenner at brenner@smcccd.cc.ca.us