El "gran joc mundial" de la comunicació

The great world game of comunication. Questions of geo-strategy with regard to the information super-highway

It has become a commonplace to speak of the information super-highway as a sort of technological Eldorado in which future societies will find the solution to all their problems. This uncritical and utopian vision contrasts, however, with the initial approach to the question, marked by the efforts of one country, the United States, to recover world economic leadership starting from its hegemony of industries related to communication and entertainment. The challenge launched by the White House in 1993, in the document, "Technology for America's Economic Growth. A New Direction to Build Economic Strength", has been answered by the European Union with the "Bangemann report" and in Japan by the Kyosei plan, all based on the promotion of basic telecommunication infrastructures by means of the direct involvement of private initiative. The existence of struggling economic blocs and the "urgent" need not to be left behind with regard to the competition constitute, then, the backdrop for the advent of the "information society.