Media and the Power of Knowledge

In Media and the Power of Knowledge, Fuller argues that from literacy to digitality, access and control of the available media have arguably done the most to shape the course of knowledge.

Fuller radically extends Marshall McLuhan’s slogan, ‘The medium is the message’, by reading the distinction between ‘hot’ and ‘cool’ media through the lens of sociologist Max Weber’s ‘prophetic’ and ‘priestly’ religious voices. The former demands that receivers complete the message, while the latter requires they conform to it.

Readers will find a comparative appraisal of Socrates and Jesus as long-standing media personalities, as well as an examination of the fate of individual integrity, expert authority, and the public sphere in the radically democratised landscape of the post-truth condition, in which truth-telling has been turned into a performing art that may adopt many forms. Does the tweet signal the return of the aphorism as a conveyor of insight about the world?

Historically and philosophically informed, while presenting provocative arguments that address today’s concerns, this book considers the likely future developments of the media and its far-reaching implications for the human condition.