The Rhetoric of a Juggernaut: AOLTimeWarner's Internet Policy Statement

This paper addresses an issue of public policy regarding the Internet. It is motivated by the belief that the Internet is in danger of being controlled by a few megacorporations. We seek to understand the nature of such control by performing a textual analysis of the ‘Internet Policy Statement’ released by AOLTimeWarner in 2001. Our analysis reveals hidden assumptions, ideology and metaphor; highlights how rhetoric influences social expectations; and generally helps us make sense of the words of a mega‐corporate managerial elite and how this elite views the Internet. We reveal a self‐serving and persuasive public policy statement made by a corporate Juggernaut.

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