this is something I have had to learn from social theory - in communications we are much more interested in who is making the noise and what kind of noise they are making.  The social theorists are just as interested in silences - blank spaces on the edge of the debate which people skirt around so as not to draw attention to them. Usually they tell you much more about the landscape than the noisy bits.

I spotted 2 silences today. There's a new grouo on facebook called Silence at the Inauguration which concerns the excising of Bishop Gene Robinson form the Inauguration because as the first practicing gay bishop it was to much for the media company to stomach so his contribution simply disappeared from the video record. 

The second was the announcement that Agent Provocateur's Kylie ad has won an award for being the utltimate cinema ad. You might have thought that they would name CDP the agency involved - but they didn't. Though they named the creatives who wrote it. Conspiracy theory aside this can be attributed to the fact that the quality of CDP's creative output in its later years didn't amount to much -  in sad contrast to two golden periods in the 1960s and 1970s when it virtually wrote the rules for UK advertising. CDP no longer exists and probably just as well. But as a former employee I just wanted to draw attention to this silence. That in its last shout CDP done good. Take a look at the ad. 

 Silences are an invaluable shorthand - watch for them and profit. Though there will always be someone who wishes you hadn't.