Abstract

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Abstract: Ethical and epistemic standards for communication have been discussed since antiquity. And since antiquity they have periodically been disrupted by technological innovations, then revised and reinforced by cultural and latterly by legal and regulatory measures. However, the transformations produced by the mushrooming growth of digital technologies in the late twentieth century, which has coincided with growing globalisation and the declining regulatory capacities of states, may prove particularly challenging. These technologies were initially seen as extending possibilities for communication in ways that would support democracy and wider civic participation. The promise has not been sustained.