The news media is often referred to as the Fourth Estate, alongside the other three Estates (church, nobility and merchant class) described by Edmund Burke, that comprised the body politic of 18th-century France. The Estates represented the acme of the social hierarchy – the powerful, established elite who determined how everyone else should worship and […]

In his kickoff post, Florian talks about well-connected societies using a “range of different media types available to them to exchange news, establish and maintain connections and establish history.” The last word, history, made me think about connectedness across time through your personal history. I use new media in so many different ways to stay […]

Connected? Has the Net been Darwinian in its brief evolution, and are the characteristics of a networked society akin to different genus/ nationalities, seemingly different people within a network sharing common characteristics or ideals? I ask this with regard to the tell tale signs that may be staring at us and what will probably emerge […]

Florian Brody asks: Should we wait for a random start-up to come up with some new web technology to find out about the next major change of the media that defines our society? From Florian’s discussion leading up to that question, he seems to really be asking “What’s missing, what holes are there, what opportunities […]

Thank you for the invitation to weigh in. Trust is as old as the human race, as is its opposite, betrayal. Why? You can get what you want through authority – “he or she who has the gold makes the rules” – or you can solicit what you want through trusted relationships. Trust is a […]

Last week, we talked about Trust in the Media (as well as trust generally). This week we have been talking about connectedness. Is there a relationship between the two? Karen Stephenson, a social-network business consultant and friend of the Media Center (I first met Karen at a Media Center sponsored Symposium last year) would argue […]