Internet Between Utopia and Dystopia The Narratives of Control

Abstract

The Internet has often been envisioned as a technological utopia, framed by the rhetoric of hope. However, after studying the popular discourse, three meta-narratives are identified : utopian narratives containing the pro-innovation position ; dystopian narratives containing the anti-diffusion position ; technology-as-risk narratives containing the control position . While narratives of anti-diffusion are more or less invisible, narratives of control are sur - prisingly absent from the scientific discourse about the Internet. The present article sets out to explore narratives of control as they were presented in the Norwegian press during the 1995-2006 period. We have also studied how the expectancy cycles of the Internet fluctuate over time within this period. The study supports two general conclusions: (1) the expectancy cycles for the Internet in the mass media fluctuate in a manner comparable with the stages of the innovation-decision process and; (2) the control position promotes individual, social, technological and institutional control, and is more prominent when the Internet is lower on the media agenda