the information space

The internet big “lowest-common-denominator battle for attention.” A chaotic maelstrom of consumption, performance, and sensational reaction. Understanding the relationship between information systems and society is the great challenge of our time.

Brandon Marcus

Western democracies, by contrast, with our open speech and open systems, are supposed to have a commons, a marketplace of ideas that allows for cross-cutting dialogue and eventual consensus. It has been replaced by an information ecology shaped by algorithmic selection. Content and creators optimized for engagement outcompete everything else—not... See more

Renee DiResta • Crisis of Trust 2026: The Retreat Into Insularity

The chain of sharing works as a natural selection of public significance. The Viral Editor is a constant plebiscite on significance, where voters can improve the ballot right in the process of voting in order to attract others to vote. In old media, news was filtered before publication, making the media the gatekeepers. The Viral Editor reversed

Andrey Mir • The Digital Reversal. Thread-saga of Media Evolution

We had reached that singularity of real-time imagery that Baudrillard talked about and violence had become an on-demand, streamable piece of media in the process.

The media deluge also alienated us from the graveness of what is actually happening. It’s not that people don’t understand the scale of annihilation in Gaza, but there is a generalized... See more

DeLillo's Visions of Violence

We've restructured the presentation of ideas around the needs of advertising platforms, and not by accident, and we're living with the consequences.

The Case for Blogging in the Ruins

It would be impossible to imagine interstate commerce without the infrastructure of federal highways. Likewise, it’s impossible to imagine the free exchange of ideas and information that democracy requires without the press. This goes beyond news, which is only one component of communities’ informational needs. Consumer alerts, emergency weather... See more

The Media Is Essential Democratic Infrastructure

a flood of new digital communication platforms inundating free societies with instantaneous information and nonstop networked dialogue.

Zac Gershberg • The Paradox of Democracy

with so much noise on social media and so many news outlets disseminating contradictory information, citizens are justifiably confused and cynical. Many find it easier to retreat into echo chambers and share misinformation than discern what’s real amid the chaos of the public sphere.

Zac Gershberg • The Paradox of Democracy

To function, democracies require more than just voting. Citizens are afforded access to information and an open system of debate. But throughout history, when new forms of communications arrive—from the disingenuous use of sophistic techniques developed in Athens to the social media–enabled spread of propaganda we see today—they often undermine the

Zac Gershberg • The Paradox of Democracy

Digital technologies ended the gatekeeper era, emancipated authorship, removed the boundaries on discourse and put reality up for grabs. Truth is contested and crowdsourced.