The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires

The Internet Age: on the face of it, an era of unprecedented freedom in both communication and culture. Yet in the past, each major new medium, from telephone to satellite television, has crested on a wave of similar idealistic optimism, before succumbing to the inevitable undertow of industrial consolidation. Every once free and open technology has, in time, become centralized and closed; as corporate power has taken control of the ‘master switch.’ Today a similar struggle looms over the Internet, and as it increasingly supersedes all other media the stakes have never been higher. Part industrial expos�, part examination of freedom of expression, The Master Switch reveals a crucial drama – full of indelible characters – as it has played out over decades in the shadows of global communication.

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