ABSTRACT
The aim of this chapter is to characterize the variety of communication contexts and network structures in the most general terms possible. We build up to articulation of a conception of communication power through first setting out a series of distinctions that articulate an ontology for the study of any communication system, no matter its medium, that facilitates reasoning in all its social forms—from collaborative science to organizational decision-making, and, most critically, to the political dynamics of conflict and consensus. The concept of communication power aligns with this book’s ambition to characterize the reasoning process in terms of communicative action. What further good might such a concept of communication power do for us? As this chapter argues, trust and communicative power are correlated—that are enjoyed, for example, by a broadcast source, such as a scientific publication or a news outlet, in proportion to the number of recipients in its broadcast area who adopt its messages or at least are open to receiving and considering them. This chapter thus connects the idea of trust with concepts of signaling in communication networks. In turn, trust is connected with the idea of people power—the power of a people to curb the ambitions of individuals at the helm of their state—in other words, a power that puts a check on tyranny. It will become clear that the power that redounds to the capacity for communication is not restricted merely to persuasion. Is it possible to measure a people’s capacity for containing the ambitions of any regime at its helm—its ability to resist the power of a tyrant? We begin here from the premise that this power has to be in proportion to individuals’ capacity—both individually and in groups—for communicating, at least among themselves, dissatisfaction with the regime. As the chapter subsequently shows, by articulating an ontology of information diffusion on a communication network structure, it is possible to take some stock of the features of a communications network that facilitate resistance to tyranny, and so to begin answering questions about the sort of power that people living within them might be able to mobilize, while not yet answering outright the question of how to measure the power to resist.
