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International life and politics today are marked by globalization and regionalization. Furthermore, the ideological components of international relations seem to grow in importance. On the basis of empirical data from 1973 and 1983, this article analyzes the amount, nature and trends of the present international flow of television programs as part of these processes. The survey was carried out in more than 50 countries around the world. The trends discovered in 1983 seem to repeat the 1973 patterns of a one-way traffic from a few exporting countries to the rest of the world and the dominance of entertainment. However, important regional developments also seem to have occurred, for example, in Latin America and the Arab countries. In Europe, the regional process of integration has strengthened arguments for improving European programming. The American influence, however, remains strong in Europe too, with some 12% of the total western European output being US programs. The eastern European countries seem to import more western programming than vice versa. The United States imports relatively fewer foreign programs than any other country. Only 1% to 2% of US broadcast time is composed of imported programs, although there are local exceptions. The issue of communication policy and cultural identity seems to remain strong both in the Third World and in such areas as Europe or Canada.

Current international debate on international communication issues as reflected in the drafting of media declarations is primarily based on recent studies about the flow of information. The background to these studies is described as well as their contribution to the debate. The paper discusses the problem that there is much work on the quantitative aspect of the flow but not enough qualitative work or theoretical understanding of the flow. Some attempts to summarize the findings are made. New areas for research such as transborder data flow are brought into the picture. As international policy recommendations, the paper concludes that flow studies should be extended to analyse how such crucial problems of mankind as disarmament, peace, development and human rights are affected by the national media and the international flow of information. The author's approach is to stress the demands of a truer and more perfect knowledge of each other's lives, stemming from UNESCO's constitution and reflected also in the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe. As a counterargument to the demand of free flow of 'all kinds of information', there is evidence which has led some scholars to conclude that 'the surest antidote for ignorance and deceit is the widest possible exchange of objectively realistic information - true information, not merely more information.' Therefore, the qualitative aspects of the contents of the flow become crucial for research.

Varis, Tapio. The Mass Media TNCs: An Overall Review of their Operations and of Control Options. Cooperation and Conflict, XIII, 1978 193-213. Recent discussions on transnational corporations (TNCs), especially in the UN, have been extended to include global communications and the mass media. An effort is made here to approach a definition of the mass media TNCs, as well as to describe the actual operations of these enterprises. The main focus is on the information media, al though some observations on the entertainment media are also made. The control options of these TNCs are discussed with particular attention to the problems connected with the introduction of an international code of conduct. The general conclusions are that a more systematic collection of data is needed, and that more preparatory research on the definitional aspects must be carried out. The paper suggests that institutions, unions, and other groupings active in international communication could give continuous input to the work of the code of conduct for the media, and should strengthen and use the existing alternative sources of information. A carefully planned national and inter national communication policy is of vital importance for progress in this field.