If you want to read the bit I didn't read to the SIME audience, please go on. Before I end this tiny introduction, I just want to add in a few comments about the media. I told you just a few seconds ago that the transition from the modern to the postmodern condition generates loss of experience values and knowledge hyperinflation, as happened to the typographers when confronted with desktop publishing. This loss of position and scale to measure your experience on, begets a need of authority. When you cannot trust your own experience, you turn to the authorities.
Media fill out that gap.
This sort of explains the increased power of the media in the late 80's and early 90's. Media tells you what is on the agenda, what is hot and what is not. It tells you where to go. It is your servant, guide and God. However many critics, notably Noam Chomsky, have pointed out the obvious fact that media is biased.