Use of symbols as well as encapsulation of ideas into short narratives – parables, fables, sonnets, anthems, poems, etc. – since time immemorial have proven to be a very effective tool for “democraticising” ideas and acquiring a mass audience for them. Entire thought frameworks – ideologies, philosophies, and belief systems – have been reduced into terse slogans and visually appealing symbols for mass consumption. For Nazism it was the swastika, for Christianity it was the cross, for Zionism it was the six-pointed star, for Satanism, the pentagram, for Communism, the hammer-and-sickle, for corporations, the “logo”, etcetera, etcetera. Each one had its portfolio of taglines that were disseminated by propaganda machinery of one sort or another usually euphemised into terms like “religion”, “nationalism”, and “brand”.

Today, modern Media consumers have become accustomed to receiving their information in even smaller packets – text messages, “tweets”, sound bytes, “status updates”, etc. Users have unprecedented access to computing power too. They manipulate audio-visually represented data on their computer thanks to the user interface revolution that started with the point-and-click graphic screens commercialised by Apple and Microsoft back in the mid 80’s. These “desktop icons” increase usability but insulate users from their logical underpinnings.