Dear Friends and Colleagues: About the interesting phrase, 'new media political economies', three sources that immediately come to MY mind are: 1. Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky, MANUFACTURING CONSENT: THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF THE MASS MEDIA, 2nd. Ed. (Pantheon, 2002) 2. Edward S. Herman and Robert W. McChesney, THE GLOBAL MEDIA: THE NEW VISIONARIES OF CORPORATE CAPITALISM (Cassell, 1997) 3. Edward S. Herman, THE MYTH OF THE LIBERAL MEDIA: AN EDWARD S. HERMAN READER (Peter Lang, 1999) Hope the work represented by these titles sheds some light upon this matter of the utmost concern. By the way, the phrase "social contract" appears in one of Philip Howard's titles.---Might not the overwhelming preponderance of the evidence these days suggest that the time has come to rewrite this "social contract," if not break it in its entirety??? Sincerely Yours, David Peterson