ABSTRACT
An argument often advanced by the proponents of the new communications technologies, particularly when they direct their attention away from the needs of trade, industry and the telecommunications sector and address themselves to the implications of cable and its adjuncts for the mass media, is that these promise to increase variety and afford a greater range of choice for the public. This argument is adduced in the Federal Republic of Germany, but with a change of emphasis from the general term ‘variety’ to the more specific ‘plurality of opinion’ (Meinungsvielfalt).
