In this lecture, John Keane explores these conflicting trends and asks: when judged in terms of the democratic principle of free and equal communication, does the age of Google, Wikileaks and Facebook on balance proffer more democratic promise than risk? Or are contemporary media failures the harbingers of profoundly authoritarian trends that might ultimately result in the birth of ‘post-democracy’ – polities in which governments claim to represent majorities that in practice are artifacts of media spin, money, hidden power and force of arms?

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