Delegates from 66 UNESCO member states were involved in this conference, as well as various observers and members of other organizations. The following were the main points of the agenda: (1) major environmental problems in contemporary society; (2) role of education in facing the challenges of environmental problems; (3) current efforts at the…

During the summer of 1944, journalist William Lindsay White accompanied Eric Johnston, president of the United States Chamber of Commerce, to the Soviet Union. Early the next year White published an account of the trip, "Report on the Russians," which made the best seller lists, but which pleased few individuals and attracted a great…

The concept of "objectivity" suggests that facts are selected and constructed according to formal rules by professional journalists. A comparison of American and Soviet concepts of news leads to the observation that both share similar claims to objectivity. The similarity defies whether objectivity assumes the form of facts detached from…

The Stanley Foundation annually assembles a panel of experts from the public and private sectors to assess specific foreign policy issues and to recommend future direction. The participants in the round-table discussion summarized in this report agreed that the Soviets are moving from a Marxist-Leninist version of socialism to a broader version,…

"Glasnost" or openness, to many Western observers, is a sign of democratization and a loosening of central control in almost all aspects of Soviet life. However, an analysis of excerpts from "Pravda" shows no evidence of any breaks with Leninist theory or revision in the roles of the government and masses and instead suggests…

A Study investigated the informal methods of governmental information control used in four countries--the United States, Great Britain, West Germany, and the Soviet Union--to determine how the governments discretely and quietly limited unfavorable publicity. The examination revealed seven possible control methods: (1) preemptive leaks, (2)…

A study analyzed the content of "Pravda," the major newspaper of the Soviet Communist Party and "Vremya," the main evening news program of Soviet television for changes that could be attributed to Soviet General Secretary Gorbachev's policy of "glasnost" (openness). The "Pravda" sample consisted of 18…

Mexican mass media, especially television, incorporates an abundance of American programming and serves as a catalyst to motivate lower strata Mexicans to pursue life in the United States, resulting in a tremendous influx of both legal and illegal Mexicans and other Latin Americans to the United States. Although Mexico benefits because many…

This paper describes Secretary Gorbachev's efforts to reform education by introducing experimentation and freedom of expression through "glasnost." A brief educational history demonstrates the lingering effect of the "continuity phenomenon" that has plagued attempts at liberal educational reform. Essentially, the continuity…

This paper describes and compares the processes of economic and social planning in France and the U.S.S.R., with particular emphasis on national educational planning and how it relates to the overall economic plan. Chapter 1 focuses on various aspects of integrating the educational plan into the overall social and economic plan, with particular…

The organization and development of the library education system in the USSR is described by K. I. Abramov of the Moscow State Institute of Culture and is summarized in a comment paper by Charles D. Churchwell, Washington University. Abramov begins by stating the philosophical basis for the existence of libraries and librarians in the USSR, and…

A study examined the influence of nation states' self-interests on their media's coverage of a major news event, in this instance, the Soviet shooting down of a Korean airliner. It was hypothesized (1) that there would be discrepancies between different accounts of the KAL 007 incident, a complex news event with international political…

American foreign policy must operate within the parameters of public opinion, and governmental and non-governmental actors must educate the characteristically alienated citizenry concerning policy issues. Since rational discourse is of limited benefit in the process, advocates instead use verbal representations or metaphor to instill within the…

A review of policy statements made in the past 10 years in Soviet academic journals and Communist Party newspapers indicates that integrating rural and urban populations has become a concern of academics, government officials, and policymakers in the Soviet Union. One means by which the rural segment of Soviet society could be pushed or helped…

Education in the U.S.S.R. is much more strongly oriented toward the scientific and technical fields than is that of the United States. This may be an asset in the development of specialists with the ability to attain the short-term technological targets of the Soviet economic plan. However, the more flexible, theoretical, broader-based higher…