Mailing lists as discourse networks: the case of Iphealth

Abstract

This paper discusses the communication on intellectual property and health that takes place on a dedicated mailing list (Iphealth) run by the Consumer Project on Technology (CPT). The mailing list archives were studied by content and citation analysis. The list is more an information dissemination and news alert channel than a discursive forum in which strategies are discussed, as indicated by the low number of threads. The types of documents forwarded are diverse: 21 types of documents were identified, ranging from legal texts to company press releases. Most of the messages were forwarded press articles and the geographical location of the news reported spanned the globe. The posters are mainly working in NGOs, although other sectors such as academia, government and industry are represented. Thematically, the broad issue of the relationship between intellectual property (IP) and health revolves around AIDS drug patents. This is revealed by an analysis of the most frequently occurring word titles and classification of the messages according to the CPT's own "Intellectual Property and Health" site subject tree structure. The messages sent over the course of two months were coded to reveal which strategies according to Keck and Sikkink's (1998) theory of transnational advocacy networks (information, symbolic, leverage, accountability) were predominating at that moment. The predominant strategy is leverage, indicating that the issue was far from closed yet. The diversity of documents and their functions on the mailing list is used to reflect on the relationship of activism with the media, science, law and politics.