在电报时代之前，信息行动比率足够接近，因此大多数人都有能够控制生活中某些意外情况的感觉。人们所知道的具有行动价值。在电报创造的信息界中，这种效力消失了，这正是因为整个世界成为新闻的背景。一切都变成了每个人的事。第一次，我们收到的信息毫无疑问，无论如何，哪个不允许回复权。
(Prior to the age of telegraphy, the information-action ratio was sufficiently close so that most people had a sense of being able to control some of the contingencies in their lives. What people knew about had action-value. In the information world created by telegraphy, this sense of potency was lost, precisely because the whole world became context for news. Everything became everyone's business. For the first time, we were sent information which answered no question we had asked, and which, in any case, did not permit the right of reply.)