Consumers have power. The Internet portal Utopia.de means to show how they can use this power so as, if not to save the world, then at least effectively to improve it by ?intelligent? consumption. In the meantime businesses have begun to sit up and take notice....
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Give me back my hierarchical media system! Print journalists live in fear of the death of "good journalism" through Web 2.0 and yet a blogger was nominated Germany's journalist of 2007. While the discourse rumbles on Google is noiselessly earning 3 euros a month from millions of German users. By Robin Meyer-Lucht
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European democracy exists largely within nation-states, and not in the continental dimension. Even the ponderous TV channel "Euro-News" has not succeeded in creating a European public sphere. But without a European consciousness there will be no European federation. For this to happen interpreters are needed, to explain the motives of one side to the other. By Adam Krzeminski
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When gas, electricity or water are at stake, the state must guarantee the energy supply for the population. Shouldn't it do likewise when the other type of 'energy' is at risk, the quality press? All over the world, financial investors are increasingly replacing patriarchal publishers and imposing their idea of profitability. Philosopher Jürgen Habermas argues for state support for the quality newspapers.
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Newspapers by nature cover local matters. That belongs to the rules of the game. But what happens when the rules change? Only when they take an active interest in affairs abroad will paper's coverage on their home turf improve. Arne Ruth, long-time chief editor of Sweden's Dagens Nyheter, tells why cross-border journalism can help make the separate realms of Europe a single public space.
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The UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions entered into force on March 18. Rüdiger Wischenbart gives a quick overview of the realities behind translation.
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We live in a knowledge society, but it knows very little about itself. Information technologies allow us to organise knowledge faster than ever, yet we are regularly warned that we are losing touch with knowledge. The total of all stored knowledge is an exotic 5 exabytes, but a closer look reveals a network of one-way streets, detours, and barred routes. By Rüdiger Wischenbart
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Crisis is nothing new to the press. Newspapers will continue to exist, alongside the Internet, soon in paperless form. They must offer their readers exclusive news, bold opinion and captivating language. Mathias Döpfner, head of the Axel Springer media empire, answers Rupert Murdoch.
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Are there British intellectuals? Are they better than the rest? Or do they just happen to be speaking the right language at the right time in the history of public debate? By Naomi buck
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Prospect magazine's list of the world's top 100 public intellectuals speaks tellingly about the provincialism of today's global media, but says nothing about the ideas behind today's global world. By Arno Widmann
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Just when the old gags about the Germans were really starting to wear thin, the German media go and launch a full-scale positive-thinking campaign to try to get the people to pull their weight. Harald Jähner unwittingly witnessed the "Du bist Deutschland!" (you are Germany!) advert on TV, and had to pinch himself to check he wasn't dreaming.
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With Google Print, Google aims to realise the age-old dream of making all knowledge available at any time to anyone. But the notion that a single machine, company or algorithm is able to organise all freely available knowledge in a position of overwhelming dominance is hard to reconcile with the principles of cultural diversity. By Rüdiger Wischenbart
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