| The implications of new information technology for the countries of Africa, Asia, and Latin America, the so-called "developing" world or South, have not been adequately explored. What literature exists usually concentrates on the economic aspects of IT to the exclusion of political or social ramifications. This dissertation addresses the imbalance by examining the political role of information technology in the Philippines. It uses a theoretical framework inspired by Antonio Gramsci to examine how images of information technology strengthen current conceptions of development in a project that secures the hegemony of the dominant faction of capital in the Philippines today.; In particular, the dissertation looks at the depiction of call centres, e-government programs, and e-commerce in two major daily newspapers, the Philippine Daily Inquirer and Business World Philippines , and argues that the way these technologies are portrayed in the press reinforces a vision of development as globally-oriented, dependent on civil society, and entrepreneurial. The dissertation examines how this vision appeals not only to the dominant faction of capital in the country today, but also to its partners, foreign multinational capital, and the middle class. It is argued that a workable, if fragile, hegemonic consensus is created as a result. |
