This event marked the launch of Professor Manuel Castells latest book, 'Communication Power', in which he analyses the transformation of the global media industry by the revolution in communication technologies. He argues that a new communication system, mass self-communication, has emerged, and power relationships have been profoundly modified by the emergence of this new communication environment. 

The lecture itself touched upon many facets of communications, but focused on negotiations within. There is no area left untouched; Castells, for example, spoke about how neurobiology plays into communications, and how emotions can dictate what is registered, what is remembered, and what is passed on – the negotiation of meaning.  Castells also focused on politics and the economy providing points of convergence and expansion – the negotiation of power. In all these cases, Castells provided a basis of how every aspect of society is interconnected, and shaping the future of communications.

Manuel Castells is university professor and the Wallis Annenberg Chair Professor of Communication Technology and Society at the Annenberg School of Communication, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, and research professor of information society at the Open University of Catalonia,   Barcelona. 

You can purchase his book here.