ABSTRACT

Year by year more people are saying more over more channels on more topics to a bigger total audience. The Internet is exploding. The talk in cable television is of 500 channels. Videotape stores sell used tapes to clear their crowded shelves. Desktop publishing pours out newsletters, self-published books, magazines, and multimedia presentations, with no end in sight. New computer software arrives every day. In free industrial nations, bookstores and magazine stands are jammed with product. Libraries hardly know what to do with all their books. It has been true for decades that anyone can own a book. Now, in industrial societies, almost anyone can own a movie. Meanwhile, more movies are being shot than ever. And desktop video is bringing a budget version of Hollywood to Main Street. Meanwhile, home computers expand information use in ways only recently undreamed.