ABSTRACT
New media have historically given rise to utopian as well as dystopian perspectives on the role of communication in society – from Plato’s concern that writing would promote forgetfulness rather than memory and wisdom, via recurring debates. With digitalization, the idea of communication has, once again, been called into question. For more than two decades, research has been struggling to understand what comes after mass communication. Communication, accordingly, comes with a deadline, imposed on communicators by their natural as well as cultural and social circumstances. The end of communication is to end: ideally, having been enlightened and empowered through communication, individuals, groups, and institutions as well as entire societies and cultures go on to act. The stakes of communication are especially high when it addresses alternatives and choices, and when it involves a critical mass of people, for example, challenging received worldviews, vested interests, and heartfelt identities.
