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Interaction versus Integration 149
Table 5.3 Broadcast and network as forms of communicative
integration
Broadcast integration Network integration
The many interact with the many by way of The many interact with the many by way
the agent of message procedures (‘media of computer simulations of presence
workers’, the culture industry, etc.)
High level of recognition/identification Low level of recognition/identification
Very low level of interaction Very high level of interaction
Individual experiences strong identity/ Individual experiences weak
identification with figures of authority, identification with others as figures of
charisma or cult movements authority or charisma
Concentration spans of audiences are sold The need to communicate in highly
to advertisers urbanized settings is sold to
individuals
Source: from Holmes, 1997: 31.

of consciousnesses in their person. The intensity of such concentration can
have substantial consequences for the distribution of recognition relations
within the specular field of a given broadcast medium. As discussed in
the next chapter, celebrities may become over-exposed, whilst audiences
can be too dispersed for cult fixation to gather momentum. These kinds
of changes will have an effect on the kind of virtual community that is
constituted by media events as much as entire mediums.
But there is also the question of the number of broadcast channels
that are available in a given national frame. The ‘nationwide’ audience
which Morley (1980) first theorized can only occur in settings where there
are a relatively small number of channels and broadcast conduits. In
Australia, commercial networks have recently staunchly opposed the
introduction of multi-channelling, ‘which would reduce their capacity to
offer advertisers a mass market on a single channel, while bringing in no
extra revenue’ (Tingle, 2002: 1). In order for advertisers to have an effec-
tive mass audience, the number of broadcasters either has to be very small
or very specialized, as in the case of cable TV.

Interaction without reciprocity – the Internet

To turn now to the second column of Table 5.3, just as there can be reci-
procity without interaction, there can also be interaction without reciproc-
ity. This is exemplified by any form of interaction between strangers at a
distance, as in much of the communication on the Internet. Such forms of
interaction are possible in fleeting, transient, face-to-face contexts in
abstract settings like a large metropolis where there is little likelihood of
such communication being repeated. But on the Internet it becomes a