Dreaming of the common good

The author contends that digital conglomerates have hijacked public spaces, replacing organic community meaning-making with a profit-driven consumerist ethic. This corporate dominance leads to the marginalization and potential physical endangerment of excluded groups, such as indigenous peoples in the Amazon and the Uyghur community in Xinjiang. The text calls for civil society and the ecumenical movement to defend the integrity of public communication spaces to uphold social justice and the common good.

• Digital platforms, while functioning as public spaces, are dominated by a neoliberal consumerist ideology that prioritizes the maximization of profits and the monetization of human meaning-making, which in turn fosters tribalism and a breakdown in the ability to imagine the common good.
• The consolidation of media control by a small number of global corporations has created a situation where exclusion from these digital spaces can lead to the silencing of minority groups and, in extreme cases, physical annihilation.
• Digital corporations are engaging in 'corporate capture' by moving into government sectors—such as education, medicine, and transport—offering free services in exchange for impunity from regulatory frameworks, which further empowers corporations and obstructs community-government interaction.
• The author suggests that the shift toward interactive media could potentially lead to a 'democratic renaissance' and a more just society, though this depends on social and political organization outside the digital realm.

APA

Smith, D. (2022). Dreaming of the common good. World Association for Christian Communication. https://waccglobal.org/dreaming-of-the-common-good/

Chicago

Smith, Dennis. Dreaming of the common good. World Association for Christian Communication, 2022. https://waccglobal.org/dreaming-of-the-common-good/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Smith |first1=Dennis |title=Dreaming of the common good |publisher=World Association for Christian Communication |date=14 February 2022 |url=https://waccglobal.org/dreaming-of-the-common-good/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{smith2022dreaming, author = {Smith, Dennis}, title = {{Dreaming of the common good}}, publisher = {World Association for Christian Communication}, year = {2022}, month = feb, url = {https://waccglobal.org/dreaming-of-the-common-good/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }