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Abstract
This article investigates the public debate over proposed U.S. legislation designed to give prosecutors and copyright holders new tools to pursue suspected online copyright violations. We compiled, mapped, and analyzed a set of 9,757 stories published over 16 months relevant to the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA), Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), and PROTECT IP Act (PIPA). This study applies a mixed-methods approach that combines text and link analysis with human coding and informal interviews to map the evolution of the controversy over time and to analyze the mobilization, roles, and interactions of various actors. We find a vibrant, diverse, and decentralized networked public sphere that exhibited broad participation, leveraged topical expertise, and successfully reframed a debate and focused public sentiment to shape national public policy. A network of small-scale commercial tech media, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and individuals fulfilled the fourth estate function; traditional media then amplified the work of these actors. The campaign involved substantial experimentation and rapid development of mobilization strategies. We observe an increased public awareness of an agenda originating in the networked public sphere, which emerged successfully despite substantial expenditures attempting to produce a mass media narrative that favored the legislation. Moreover, we witness what we call an attention backbone, in which more trafficked sites amplify less-visible individual voices on specific subjects. The data suggest that, at least in this case, the networked public sphere enabled a dynamic public discourse that involved both individual and organizational participants and offered substantive discussion of complex issues contributing to affirmative political action.
Notes
1. In this article we use the term “SOPA-PIPA” as shorthand for the debate that commenced with COICA.
2. The maps that accompany this article represent a selection of the network maps generated for this study. An interactive tool to further explore the maps is available at http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/research/mediacloud/2013/mapping_sopa_pipa.
3. Four coders manually coded each media source in the data set by media type. Inter-coder reliability was determined by a test in which two coders double-coded 147 Web sites, resulting in a high Krippendorff’s alpha of 0.9.
4. We borrow this framing from Bruno Latour’s (Citation1987) conception of scientific controversies, but apply it here to political communication and action.
5. We recognize that certain topics (e.g., legislatively driven topics like SOPA-PIPA) may have more natural beginning and end dates than other clusters of issues. Across all topics, our analysis emphasizes the temporal dimension by carefully selecting the dates at which data collection begins and ends, which both affords us the opportunity to focus on the dynamics of the controversy at a particular moment with greater granularity and enhances our analysis of changes over time.
6. This version, seen only through publicly visible interventions in the networked public sphere, omits the strategic planning and coalition building that occurred in face-to-face meetings, telephone calls, and e-mail. For a description of behind-the-scenes efforts, see Gross (Citation2012).
7. Links to all stories and data cited in this article are available at the authors’ Web site https://core.mediacloud.org/include/data_dumps/sopa_data.zip.
Additional information
Funding
Notes on contributors
Yochai Benkler
Yochai Benkler is Berkman Professor of Entrepreneurial Legal Studies, Harvard Law School, and Faculty Co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University. Hal Roberts is a fellow, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University. Robert Faris is Research Director, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University. Alicia Solow-Niederman is Project Manager, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University. Bruce Etling is Director of the Internet & Democracy Project, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University.
Hal Roberts
Yochai Benkler is Berkman Professor of Entrepreneurial Legal Studies, Harvard Law School, and Faculty Co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University. Hal Roberts is a fellow, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University. Robert Faris is Research Director, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University. Alicia Solow-Niederman is Project Manager, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University. Bruce Etling is Director of the Internet & Democracy Project, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University.
Robert Faris
Yochai Benkler is Berkman Professor of Entrepreneurial Legal Studies, Harvard Law School, and Faculty Co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University. Hal Roberts is a fellow, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University. Robert Faris is Research Director, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University. Alicia Solow-Niederman is Project Manager, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University. Bruce Etling is Director of the Internet & Democracy Project, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University.
Alicia Solow-Niederman
Yochai Benkler is Berkman Professor of Entrepreneurial Legal Studies, Harvard Law School, and Faculty Co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University. Hal Roberts is a fellow, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University. Robert Faris is Research Director, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University. Alicia Solow-Niederman is Project Manager, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University. Bruce Etling is Director of the Internet & Democracy Project, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University.
Bruce Etling
Yochai Benkler is Berkman Professor of Entrepreneurial Legal Studies, Harvard Law School, and Faculty Co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University. Hal Roberts is a fellow, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University. Robert Faris is Research Director, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University. Alicia Solow-Niederman is Project Manager, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University. Bruce Etling is Director of the Internet & Democracy Project, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University.
