The other side of cyberspace - interview with professor Manuel Castells - Cover Story

Communication World, March, 1999 by John Gerstner

I hope my trilogy contributes to understanding our new world, period. After that, it is up to people, and to their institutions, to make informed decisions to shape and improve their lives, both socially and individually. I am a researcher, not a prophet, not a politician, not a business consultant, all honorable professions, but not mine; thus my hope is to contribute relevant, rigorous knowledge about the interaction between information technology, economy, society and culture. I may be wrong in many ways, but there are objective criteria (as accepted in academia) to judge the relevance of the work. It is not a matter of opinion, but of fact and logical interpretation.

? - JG: In the final paragraph of your third book in your trilogy, you argue that there is nothing that cannot be changed by conscious, purposeful social action. This is followed by a long list of "ifs," including "if people are informed and active and communicate throughout the world, if business assumes its social responsibility, if humankind feels the solidarity of the species throughout the globe, and if the media become the messengers, rather than the message." Could you please elaborate on what you mean by that last "if"?

MC: It means that too often, media impacts are about a report being in the media. People have a quick notion about a sound bite concerning something, some potential scandal affecting a politician, for instance, and they retain the politician and the scandal, without receiving the context, the analysis, the meaning of the whole matter. Informative, responsible media should concentrate on providing context, on deepening the analysis, on helping people to understand, moving away from simple infotainment. Since media, and particularly TV, are the essential source of information/ideas for people, and this will increase with Internet-based media reporting, it is essential that journalists and media businesses add substance to their work. New media are an essential tool to induce a new culture and a new society.

? - JG: This may be an unfair question - sort of like asking an artist what her painting means - to which she is totally justified in answering: "If I could express it in words, I would have written a few sentences instead of applying paint to canvas." Still, what two or three ideas would you like the public to glean from your 14 years of grappling with the Network Society?

MC: New information technologies revolutionize our capacity for thinking, extending our brain to the whole world of production, communication, enjoyment, and decision making. Thus who we are and what we want become an explosive force. But who we are and what we want are largely conditioned by the values and institutions of society, most of which are rather primitive, unequal, and undemocratic. Unless we use our new thinking power to change or reform society, at home and in the world, we are in for a round of destructive creation, in contrast to the possibilities of creative destruction offered by technological and cultural innovation.