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As communications technologies increase humankind's ability to send more messages across greater distance at even faster speeds, the opportunities multiply for transnational information sharing. The threats to the fair & free use of mass media increase as well. The trend toward concentration of ownership of mass media in the United States & other free countries continues, but it does not seriously inhibit the choice of United States citizens. Some Third World countries which have one-party systems & government-owned news media are slowly relaxing restrictions on domestic journalism. Developing nations have valid reasons to criticize Western coverage of their societies. Such objections need not be met by hampering free flow of information, as press control states like the USSR contend, but by broadening & diversifying the flow of ideas. Modified HA.

As communications technologies increase human-kind's ability to send more messages across greater distance at even faster speeds, the opportunities multiply for broader and deeper transnational information-sharing—but threats to the fair and free use of the mass media increase as well. The more massive the communications systems become, the smaller the number of communicators who can control what larger numbers of receivers can see or hear. The trend toward concentration of ownership of the mass media continues in the United States and other free countries but it does not seriously inhibit the choice of American citizens. Some Third World countries which have one-party systems and government-owned news media are slowly relaxing restrictions on domestic journalists. Harsh information controls in the Soviet Union and elsewhere have not provided successful models for the development of Third World countries. Developing nations have valid reasons to criticize Western coverage of their societies. Such objections need not be met by hampering the free flow of information—as press-control states contend—but by broadening and diversifying the flow of ideas.

Sociology was the first social science to investigate communication empirically. A review is offered of sociological research into the mass media, which is often multidisciplinary in approach. Concepts important in this area are those of medium, communicator, content, & audience. Investigation of mass media action & influence leads to study of the functions of these institutions in society & culture. Recent trends in this field have led to dissatisfaction with the present position; without loss of accumulated knowledge, a shift is needed both toward interpretation of the past & concern for the evolution & future changes of society. W. H. Stoddard.