When Churchill told our predecessors (on the occasion of the awarding of his honorary degree in September 1943) that the “empires of the future are the empires of the mind,” the prophetic tone was clear. But the possible danger is also obvious. Access to information and knowledge—and, more importantly, dialogue—is necessary for the possibility of democracy. If we are to act as citizens, we must be able not simply to speak but to be heard and reply as well.

By focusing on itself the media has created an elite world in which it can self-referentially debate without ever acknowledging the possibility of other voices. If newsworthiness is discussed to the exclusion of those researched facts we once called news, that rocky slope of basic oversight—and of the media’s spurious megalomania—draws ever near. But who, en route, will fault a little gazing in the mirror? In these spectacular times, image is everything.

Maryanthe E. Malliaris ’01 is a mathematics concentrator in Lowell House. Her column appears on alternate Mondays.