Digital Commons Network^™

Analysis Of Freedom Of Information For Its Effect On Society By Considering 2011, The Year Of The Arab Spring, Paul D. Callister, Kimberlee Everson

Faculty Works

2011, the year of the Arab Spring, presents a unique opportunity to look back and study how the relative freedom and development of information environments affect stability in nations throughout the Middle East and world. Such study raises interesting questions about whether freedom of information and speech are ultimately stabilizing influences for society in terms of loyalty, violence and political unrest — questions all the more important as societies face the onslaught of the internet, mobile devices and cell phones. Are non-democratic regimes “better off” by monopolizing and controlling the flow of information over new information channels? Are democratic societies, …

Identity And Market For Loyalties Theories: The Case For Free Information Flow In Insurgent Iraq, Paul D. Callister

Faculty Works

When monopoly control over the flow of information is lost, the unavoidable consequence is destabilization. Information flow through a society can be understood as a market - not a market exchanging cash for goods, but loyalty for identity. Hence the market is called the Market for Loyalties - so labeled by an economics of information theory first developed by Prof. Monroe Price, of Cardozo Law School, and Director of the Howard M. Squadron Program in Law, Media and Society, to explain government regulation of radio, TV, cable and satellite broadcasting.

In post-invasion Iraq, Saddam Hussein lost or monopoly control over …