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This study provides a cultural-historical analysis of remote control in three stages. In the early 20th century, remote control first emerged as the extension of individual intention across geographic space. Later, remote control became articulated to shifting geopolitical contexts, which placed in tension the reliability and security of the connection between the individual and the outcome. In more recent years, remote control has been articulated as both a geopolitical threat and a domestic blessing. As a result, this study demonstrates the complexity of the concept of remote control and the utility of a cultural historical approach for understanding the mutual constitution of technologies and culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article historicizes journalism's present crisis of credibility as rooted in the criticisms of partisanship and commercialization that continually arose throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It then explores how the Internet, as the most compelling solution to this crisis, developed to meet very different needs than those of mainstream journalism organizations. Following this Internet analysis and discussion is an investigation of the invasion and gradual acceptance of nonprofessional online content from the 1990s to today. The article concludes by asserting that the Internet cannot be heralded as the solution to the crisis of credibility, largely because the crisis is not a technical one of information delivery, but an epistemological conflict at the heart of journalism practice, a conflict between the irreconcilable values of deliberation and verification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article addresses the phenomenon of user production and the concept of convergence and suggests autonomia as an alternative perspective and its melding with the cultural materialism theorized by Raymond Williams. Convergence assumes the explanation of user production which suggests the separation of technology from society. Autonomia asserts an agency or independent entity of labor outside the operations capitalism resulting to working class valorization. Williams proposes a mode of culture of production that is based on social knowledge and collective effort. An analysis of user involvement at the cable television and Internet commercial company Current TV reveals its organization of republican communications all geared to contests.

In the mid-1950s newspapers were the primary source of news for most Americans. By the 1970s television had taken over as the primary source of news. Through a thematic analysis of Nieman Reports and Editor & Publisher from 1954 to 1974, this study examines how newspaper industry representatives characterized television news and how they planned to remain relevant during a time of media transition. This study provides some of the historical context necessary to better understand the arguments and assumptions made by the newspaper industry today as they face the competition posed by Internet-enabled communications technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]