Information and Power: Popular and Personal Storytelling in the Digital Age

This accessible and original book offers a novel analytical framework for understanding the relationship between information and power as the tension between popular and personal stories. Information and Power: Popular and Personal Storytelling in the Digital Age describes the relationship between information and power as a pendulum that constantly shifts from popular to personal stories and never reaches its balance. Through four detailed chapters, each framed as a question, the book looks at the past, present, and future challenges of Western societies. It examines the ever-growing commercialization, selfie culture, influencers, fake news and misinformation, hate speech, national identity, international conflicts, and the race of big tech companies to develop the next generation of artificial intelligence. All those seemingly unrelated topics are explained through a single prism—the tension between popular and personal stories, and our search for more meaningful identities. Finally, the book offers various ways to address these issues by promoting modesty and trust through education and regulations as well as future technology design and usage. Written in accessible language and requiring no prior knowledge of the field, this book is intended for undergraduate students in communication and media studies, sociology, political science, international relations, and all those interested in the issues it addresses.