By Dan Schiller
The MIT Press, 1999

Reviewer: James F. Scotton
Marquette University

Schiller's book is an out-and-out attack on the new media, specifically the Internet. Claims by Microsoft's Bill Gates and others that the Web will bring "robust direct democracy" and "friction-free capitalism" are just a utopian vision, says the author. The Internet is becoming a centrally-controlled supranational market system. "Neoliberal" U.S. government policy deregulating the telecommunication industry is a major cause of this drive to turn active citizens into compliant consumers, Schiller says. Overseas governments have privatized their communication with "punishing job losses." The result, he says, will be increasing social inequality world-wide as few institutions or even nations are able to resist powerful, market driven transnational conglomerates.

Schiller's is among recent books (The Global Media, 1997; Electronic Empires, 1998) warning that transnational media corporations are reshaping social institutions. Like the others, Schiller cites some benefits from these new media corporations. He mentions much cheaper long distance communication, but quickly adds that this comes because costs are shifted to local telephone bills of less affluent consumers. U.S. households are installing telephones at a record rate, but Schiller says the very affluent get most of these.

The first three of the book's four chapters do not come up with new arguments although there is a mass of information. These chapters average 230 notes. Most cite recent articles in magazines and newspapers ranging from the Wall Street Journal to Variety. At times one wishes for more analysis to help the reader digest and evaluate. Also, at times Schiller slips into the conspiratorial mode. He suggests that strong American government support of telecommunication deregulation and privatization around the world is part of a plan to "renew waning U.S. global political-economic power." He says the U.S. Postal Service was "pressured" to drop a proposal for its own email system in favor of a commercial system."

It is Chapter 4 that will most interest readers of this review. Again, the arguments and even much of the information are familiar but Schiller presents a picture of future higher education that may discomfort many members of the academy. Schiller sees colleges and universities rapidly adopting a corporate model of education. Business has been in the education field for decades but its corporate model of education has grown rapidly in recent years. In 1998 there were 1,200 "corporate universities." Some are small, but Motorola's had 1,200 faculty members (400 full time) and 100,000 students, nearly a quarter from outside the company. Links with universities enable many of these programs to grant degrees, including the Ph.D. A major difference between these programs and traditional university education is that the corporate model is "performance-based." In this model "efficiency" (i.e., overall profit) is very important, perhaps paramount. This model wants to serve the maximum number of customers (students) with the fewest employees (faculty) at the lowest cost (tuition). Schiller sees traditional universities rapidly moving to this corporate model. For example, he says, real teaching costs in 1997 were lower than they were in 1972 because nearly half the faculty work part time. Schiller asks whether will there be successful "social opposition" to this model." If not, the only remaining question may be who's going to run this new corporate education model?

Not just universities and colleges are attracted to the profit-making model. Schiller sees elementary schools and even governments adopting the mantra of "efficiency." Transnational corporations, with their control of the Internet and its control of media will have the "power to define and shape social institutions." The result, says Schiller, will be "a redistribution of wealth and social responsibilities." In other words, the rich will get richer and the poor will find even basic social services have a price they cannot afford.

Like previous authors on the subject, Schiller sees some grounds for optimism but not many. He cites demonstrations against World Trade Organization (WTO) efforts to promote globalization and the increasing strikes, particularly in Europe, of workers resisting privatization. His book was published before the Seattle protests against the WTO and also before the AOL-Time Warner merger.

Works Cited: