ABSTRACT
There is a disparate group of commentators on the ‘Information Society’ that, while conceding that there is a lot more information in circulation nowadays, remains unenthusiastic about pronouncements of an ‘information age’. Such commentators tend to regard this information as being tainted, as having been interfered with by parties which have ‘managed’ its presentation, or which have ‘packaged’ it to ‘persuade’ others, or which have ‘manipulated’ it to serve their own ends, or which have produced it as a saleable commodity that is ‘entertaining’. These thinkers lean towards the view that the ‘Information Society’ is one in which advertising campaigns, ‘disinformation’ strategies, the public relations ‘expert’, the parliamentary ‘lobbyist’, the judicious ‘presenter’ of government policy, the ‘official leak’ from ‘reliable sources’ and the commercial imperative to produce ‘infotainment’ all play disproportionate roles.
