Barabasi argues that insofar as network evolution is governed by preferential attachment, one has to abandon the assumption that the Web (or Hollywood or any citation network) is democratic: "In real networks linking is never random. Instead, popularity is attractive" ( 86). Nodes that have been around for awhile, that have to an extent proven themselves, have distinct advantages over newcomers. In networks characterized by growth and preferential attachment, then, hubs emerge.
The fantasy of abundance-anyone can build a website, create a blog, express their opinions on the Internet-misdirects some critical media theorists away from the structure of real networks. Alexander R. Galloway, for example, emphasizes "distributed networks" that have "no central hubs and no radial nodes:' 17 He claims that the Internet is a distributed network like the U.S. interstate highway system, a random network that scales, to use Barabasi's terms. Embracing Gilles Deleuze's and Felix Guattari's image of the rhizome, Galloway notes that in a rhizome any point can be connected to any otherj there are no intermediary hubs and no hierarchies. For him, the Web is best understood rhizomaticaly, as having a rhizomatic structure. Barabasi's work demonstrates, however, that on the Web, as in any scale-free network, there are hubs and hierarchies. Some sites are more equal than others .. Imaginng a rhizome might be nice, but rhizomes don't describe the underlying structure of real networks. Hier.; archies and hubs emerge out of growth and preferential attachment.
Networked communications are celebrated for enabling everyone to contribute, participate, and be heard. The form this communication takes isn't concealed. People are fully aware of the media, the networks, even the surfeit of information. But they act as if they don't have this knowledge, believing in the importance of their contributions, presuming, say, that there are readers for their blogs, articles, and books. People tend to believe, then, in both abundance and registration. They believe that there is too much� out there and that their own specific contribution matters. "Why? As I explain in the next section, networked communications induce a kind of registration efect that supports a fantasy of participation.
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