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The article develops the concept of ePunditry, a putative new lens through which to view the work of political blogging and associated digital modes. It starts by describing three conceptual frameworks which appear highly relevant: the information society thesis, the idea of the fifth estate and its relationship with the fourth, and the Habermasian ideal of deliberative democracy. The empirical content of the inquiry comprises interviews with twenty-seven political bloggers, ranging from celebrated figures such as Guido Fawkes and Iain Dale to lesser-known, arguably heroic practitioners working as far afield as Lebanon and Trinidad. The article evaluates their responses, where possible mapping these onto the conceptual frameworks, for example by showing their contribution to an activist form of democratic politics. It is concluded that ePunditry represents a useful new construct for journalism studies.

Silicon Valley, California – home of Apple, Facebook, Twitter, Google, and so on – is widely regarded as the epicentre of the information revolution. However, it is not just a technical or economic phenomenon; it has also made a social revolution. The article evaluates Silicon Valley from a normative perspective, seeking toidentify its real societal impact, negative as well as positive. A select review of significant literature is followed by exposition of primary data, based on in situ face-to-face interviews with Valley occupants; these range from the chief technology officer of a global brand to a homeless, unemployed Vietnam War veteran.The article organises its findings under three headings: the nature of information revolution; iCapitalism as a new technoeconomic synthesis; and the normative crisis of the information society. It concludes with a warning about ongoing attempts to clone Silicon Valley around the world.

PurposeThis paper retrieves relevant aspects of the work of idealist thinker T.H. Green in order to improve comprehension of, and policy responses to, various dilemmas facing contemporary 'information societies'.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is an exercise in interdisciplinary conceptual research, seeking a new synthesis that draws upon a range of ethical, metaphysical, empirical and policy texts and ideas. It is an application of moral and political principles to post-industrial problems, part of an ongoing international effort to develop viable normative approaches to the emergent information society. The background research included in situ study of archival papers.FindingsGreen's version of idealism illuminates current, technologically-induced shifts in our understandings of important categories such as self, substance and space. The paper finds that Green's doctrine of the common good, his alternative to the (still prevalent) school of utilitarian welfarism, combined with his famously 'positive' theory of the state, is highly relevant as a normative template for applied philosophy and policy. The article demonstrates its applicability to three vital contemporary issues: freedom of information, intellectual property and personal privacy. It concludes that Green's work provides exceptional resources for an original, anti-technocratic, theory of the information society as good society. Practical implicationsIt is hoped that, as part of the wider rediscovery of the work of Green and other idealists, the paper will have some impact on public policy.Originality/valueThe paper contains a new scholarly interpretation of Green's theories of the common good and of the state. In addition, it is believed to be the first major attempt to apply idealism to the information society and its problems

The paper addresses one of the main paradoxes of post-industrial society: information poverty. While digital divides of various types have been extensively theorized and researched, the actual condition of the information poor – those at the wrong end of socioeconomic information-divides – has not received sufficient attention. Yet if advanced nations have 'informatized' and thus become, at least in some measure, information societies, the plight of those lacking the definitive resource ought surely to be high on academic and political agendas. The article reviews the scattered multidisciplinary literature on the condition, confirming the iron link between economic poverty and information poverty, while also registering cultural and behavioural dimensions. Building on such work, a focused, up-to-date and, it is believed, original conception is able to be introduced, namely, information poverty as a deficiency in certain taken-for-granted categories of political and cognate information, or normal democratic information (NoDI). The new construct is then trialled in the field, among a sample of severely disadvantaged men in the city of Edinburgh, Scotland. The informants are indeed found to be, by and large, wanting in these key categories of information, an epistemic pathology that reflects and reinforces their material malaise. The article concludes that the 'option for the poor' – the political duty of care for the worst off – in the twenty-first century demands new modes of State action to combat an acute and increasingly salient social problem.