Weissberg, Jean-Louis <br/><br/>
The Fiduciary Crisis of Mass Media 

 -  2005.<br/>							 
<br/><br/> 64 
<br/><br/> Belief in media conglomerates has been considerably altered by a movement that corrodes the legitimity of traditional media organizations under the effect a permanent suspicion. New models of direct production of information (like weblogs) as well as emerging forms of experimentation (like the politically realistic videogames described in the article) sketch an innovative media landscape: we are witnessing a joint crisis of representative democracy and of the mass media, both affected by the same corrosion of the pyramidal model of power. However, these two movements do not always push in the same direction. At opposite extremes, individual and collective positioning through comparison and confrontation of diverse points of view coexists with conspiracy theories that can be aligned on revolting forms of historical revisionism (as illustrated by Meyssan’s book on 9/11). It is crucial to measure the emancipatory power liberated by the shaking of the pyramidal model and, in spite of its dangers, to take stock in the post mass media era that is currently taking shape.