Toward a Theory of Communication Systems: a Developmental Approach

Abstract

The world's desperate communications needs, first for literacy and education but also for meaningful information, are deeply depen dent on and influenced by the communication structure and system that operate in the United States. American power, expressed in dustrially, militarily and culturally, has become the most potent force on earth. Its impact transcends all national boundaries. Directly by economic control, indirectly by trade and a foreign emulation effect, communications have become a decisive element in the extension of United States world power.¹