Communication Power Quotes

“the media are not the holders of power, but they constitute by and large the space where power is decided.”
― Manuel Castells, Communication Power

“Yet, the main issue is not the shaping of the minds by explicit messages in the media, but the absence of a given content in the media.”
― Manuel Castells, Communication Power

“In the United States, congressional and state elections typically attract little voter interest, and voters have scant knowledge about the names of their representatives or their challengers. A growing body of research suggests that, for these politicians, particularly during primaries, being implicated in a scandal may actually be beneficial (Burden, 2002). This benefit is particularly pronounced for office challengers. As Mann and Wolfinger (1980) first noted, people are better at recognizing a candidate’s name than spontaneously recalling it. This is important because voting only requires that voters recognize a name on a ballot. Thus, participation in scandal may be beneficial at these lower levels because it increases name recognition, which may translate into a higher percentage of the vote. However, for major political candidates, scandals are detrimental because voters already possess information about them and are more inclined to follow the details of the scandal.”
― Manuel Castells, Communication Power

“Según mi hipótesis, la superioridad histórica de las organizaciones verticales jerárquicas sobre las redes horizontales se debe a que las organizaciones sociales en red tenían límites materiales que vencer, fundamentalmente en relación con la tecnología disponible. La fuerza de las redes radica en su flexibilidad, adaptabilidad y capacidad de autorreconfiguración. Sin embargo, cuando superan cierto umbral de tamaño, complejidad y volumen de flujos, resultan menos eficientes que las estructuras verticales de mando y control, en las condiciones existentes con la tecnología preelectrónica de comunicación”
― Manuel Castells, Comunicación y poder