SGER: Public Perceptions and Constructions of the Y2K Problem

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This Small Grants for Exploratory Research will test innovative technologies to collect an archive of television clips from 1999 mentioning the "millennium bug" of "Y2K" problem. The researchers assert that the Y2K issue provides a unique window to the public perception of technology, and especially perceptions about the implications of modern computer technologies for daily life; hence an archive of media references to the Y2K problem will provide a rich resource to scholars attempting to understand the relationship between technology and culture, drawing on social science theories such as agenda-setting or "discourses of ignorance." This project will use new cost-effective technologies that allow downloading of cable-television signals, scanning the close-captioning text for mentions of the Y2K problem, and then archiving only those segments that include reference to the issue.