ABSTRACT
Before the contemporary advent of digital media, authority has historically been marked as having a contentious relationship with the development of newer communication technologies. Marvin (1988) illustrated, for instance, how the then-new medium of the electric bulb was accompanied by debates on the nature of authority and changing communication behaviors between the elites and masses. In the face of television, Meyrowitz (1985) argued that “authority is weakened when information systems are merged” (p. 63), that is, the authority of leaders diminishes when a medium allows different people to have open access and gain greater control over knowledge and social information. With web-based technologies there has been growing attention paid to authority and a set of interrelated issues of intensifying mediation, digital divides, participatory democracy, and grassroots activism.
