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Arts and cultural debate with Philip Dodd including social media and democracy, photographer Dayanita Singh plus Verdi...and Shakespeare.

Philip discusses the growing public interaction with the internet and rapid spread of social media; together are they creating a new form of organised network - one which alters historic mappings of power and authority? William Dutton, from Oxford University's Internet institute believes the evidence is growing for the emergence of a Fifth Estate - capable of calling democracies to account in new ways. While digital commentator Tom Standage argues that new social media, twitter, face book, weibo, and blogs are really a return to the very old media of parchment, pamphlets and coffee shops - that in fact, the more things change the more they stay the same.

The photographer, Dayanita Singh, documents our interior landscapes. At her new exhibition at London's Hayward Gallery, Go Away Closer, she tells Philip how her approach to the camera is influenced by the rigors of indian classical music and the demands of literature. For Dayanita Singh, images must be displayed and curated in such a way that they tell part of a story...and since the story is constantly evolving and changing, so must the way she chooses to show her work.

And as Radio 3 continues its season marking Verdi at 200 Philip Dodd talks to music historian Sarah Lenton and scholar Rene Weis about Verdi's passion for Shakespeare, how Shakespearean themes infuse all his operas after Macbeth and why he thought the baritone voice was perfect for his Shakespearean anti-heroes.