The rise of the network society - the suffusion of much of the economy, culture and society with digital interconnectivity - is a development of immense significance. In this innovative book, Robert Hassan unpacks the dynamics of this new information order and shows how they have affected both the way media and politics are 'played', and how these are set to reshape and reorder our world. Utilising many of the current ideas in media theory, cultural studies and the politics of the newly evolving 'networked civil society', Hassan argues that the network society is shot-through with contradictions and in a state of deep flux. Today, political, cultural and media struggles are being conducted between the proponents of neoliberal globalization, and a growing worldwide movement that seeks to establish a fairer, more sustainable 'global civil society'. Information and communication technologies, he argues, now constitute the weapons of choice in this 21st century battle; and the terrain is what writer-activist Naomi Klein has termed 'the chaotic pathways of the Internet'. This book will be a vital resource for those wishing to understand the network society - and play a part in shaping it.