A Critical Discourse Analysis of three US municipal wireless network initiatives for enhancing social inclusion

The US has a long history of telecommunications policy aimed at providing equitable access to information and communication services. In this paper we examine the most recent of these efforts, municipal wireless broadband Internet networks. Using three cases (Philadelphia, PA; San Francisco, CA; and Chicago, IL) we examine how social inclusion is expressed in the digital inclusion policy articulated in each municipality’s broadband network public rhetoric. Using Critical Discourse Analysis, our findings confirms that the growing use of digital inclusion rhetoric around broadband deployments has brought the social inclusion issue to the forefront, and effectively links discourse and technology with discursive practices and types.