Computing History in the Study of Media Empire in Latin America
A History & Theory of New Media lecture, presented as part of BCNM's Latinx & Latin American Media Ecologies program
with Colette Perold
Assistant Professor of Media Studies, University of Colorado, Boulder
This talk brings the history of computing to bear on theories of media empire in Latin America. Using the concept of “Pan-American Computing,” this talk analyzes the creation of South American markets for tabulating equipment and early mainframe computers through two little-known programs: the 1950 Census of the Americas and the 1960 Latin American Free Trade Association. In this talk, I demonstrate how data integration and trade integration became two components of a regional strategy for U.S. corporate dominance over hemispheric tabulating and computing industries. The International Business Machines (IBM) corporation was a major player in this process, and through these programs achieved near-monopoly status in hemispheric information-processing markets by the mid-1960s. It did so by coopting Latin American attempts at regional integration that sought autonomy from — not greater dependence on — U.S. corporate power.
About Colette Perold
Colette Perold is an Assistant Professor of Media Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. She researches the relationship between media technologies, labor, and U.S. foreign policy, specifically the ways in which multinational IT companies shape U.S. policy priorities in Latin America. Her work has been funded by various sources including the Charles Babbage Institute’s Tomash Fellowship, the Society for the History of Technology’s Brooke Hindle Fellowship, and the National Endowment for the Humanities’ Fellowship.
Accessibility
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