Over-the-top and under the radarAn analysis of Internet distribution and its structural consequences in Denmark

Abstract

The article traces the evolution of over-the-top (OTT) services in order to analyse how the growing use of Internet distribution influences the structural conditions and institutional arrangements in Denmark. This story is told in four parts: first, I outline how the shift from postal services to e-mail restructured the conditions for asynchronous one-to-one communication; second, I examine the introduction of web-based services and the declining role of the press as gatekeeper for asynchronous one-to-many communication; third, I focus on the impact of mobile broadband and smartphones on synchronous one-to-one communication and the telecommunications sector; and fourth, I analyse the emergence of streaming technologies and the reorganisation of synchronous one-to-many communication and broadcasting. Building on these examples, I argue that key welfare state principles have come under pressure and that research tends to underestimate the fundamental transformations of the institutional order.

Crosscurrents: Welfare

“…On this note, Jakobsson et al (2022) have lately turned to the normative foundations and motivations of media welfare. Furthermore, investigations and conceptualizations of the media welfare state explore whether and how the premises of media welfare are still valid in a digital media ecology (Ala-Fossi, 2020; Enli and Syvertsen, 2020; Flensburg, 2021). For instance, Flensburg (2021) argues that the increasing commercialization of internet infrastructure implies tectonic shifts in the institutional logics guiding the development of the welfare state and its provision of welfare.…”

“…Furthermore, investigations and conceptualizations of the media welfare state explore whether and how the premises of media welfare are still valid in a digital media ecology (Ala-Fossi, 2020; Enli and Syvertsen, 2020;Flensburg, 2021). For instance, Flensburg (2021) argues that the increasing commercialization of internet infrastructure implies tectonic shifts in the institutional logics guiding the development of the welfare state and its provision of welfare. Relatedly, scholars have started to engage with the question of how processes of datafication are reshuffling the organization of the welfare state and the idea of welfare itself and its specificities in the Nordic countries (Andreassen et al, 2021;Dencik, 2022;Dencik and Kaun, 2020).…”