Media Virus

Finally, there is a way to understand the bizarre relationship we Americans have with our information technology: the media is alive. Welcome to the "datasphere," also known as the late twentieth century. Here, good news, bad news, any news, travels in the blink of an eye. And not just news, but information: ideas, images, and icons; fads, fashions, and fantasies; truths, lies, and propaganda. While cable television, fiber-optic telecommunications, satellite dishes, computer modems, camcorders, fax machines, and videocassettes form the crisscrossed arteries of a vast "information…