ABSTRACT
From an optimistic perspective, the media are widely credited with increasing the visibility of power in ways that have widened opportunities for resistance and diminished potential for agenda control (Thompson, 1990). In this respect, there is nothing especially new about new technologies of communication. The invention of the printing press in 1516 brought about profound change in the way that humans communicate (Downing, 2000; Garnham, 2000; McLuhan et al., 2011 [1962]). It marked the birth of the author and the death of the oral tradition; it introduced a new record of history; fostered an information explosion and unprecedented spread of knowledge; gave rise to a new wave of scepticism that catalysed social change; and provided the foundation for the emergence of a public sphere (Habermas, 1962).
