What I intend to do in this chapter is take insights from Giddens which I fi nd helpful to explore the signifi cance of information in an illuminating way. What follows is not a full exposition of his thinking, but rather an interpretation of trends in information that is grounded in my understanding of his writing (cf. Kaspersen, 2000 ). Thus I use Giddens as a launch pad to write extensively about core issues such as information war, surveillance and democratization, even where he has not considered these at any length, since I fi nd his work provides insight into understanding these matters.