Chronicles the development of public broadcasting from early attempts to develop noncommercial radio through organizations such as the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Public Broadcasting Service. Discusses the need for federal support and the resulting conflicts. (JMF)

Describes the decline of foreign language study in the United States and lack of a national language policy. Encouragement has been fostered recently by the President's Commission on Foreign Language and International Studies, the Modern Language Association, and the American Council of Learned Societies Task Forces. (JMF)

Introduces a special issue focusing on ways in which communication and information policy are forms of power for the state. Discusses problems in analysis of the state; history of the concept of the nation and the state; the decline of the state; problems in the analysis of power; and phases, forms, attributes, and units of power. (SR)

A test of a videotaped trial (article is a part of a symposium on legislative and judicial communications). (CH)

Describes the autonomous workings of the British Broadcasting Corporation and the Independent Broadcasting Authority, where editorializing is prohibited, advertising is limited, and the aim of programing is to provide the public with real choices at all hours, and to maintain high standards of planning, writing, production, and presentation. (JMF)

Outlines the challenge to both government monopoly and community participation posed by the rise of local private stations in Italy. Local broadcasters represent democratic participation and a new vehicle of political, social, and cultural growth.

Argues that policy development in the United States is not dealing adequately with changes in the nature of international telecommunication conferences. Warns that possible agreements regarding frequency allocations demand reexamination of U.S. positions. (JMF)

Points out some of the social, legal, economic, and political effects of information technology. Concludes that the United States along with other nations must find ways to maximize the use of telecommunications technology without homogenizing people, without overriding national boundaries, and without engulfing and diluting other value systems.…

Examines how interactions among institutions of education, public media, business, and government present non-American culture within American life through foreign languages or presentations of foreign culture in English. Concludes that a lack of focus of national cultural policy fosters an insensitivity to foreign language and culture. (JMF)

Analyzes the creation of the new media policy in Poland formed at the 1989 "round table" negotiations between the Polish leadership and Solidarity, a Polish trade union. Discusses the issues of censorship, access to newsprint and to the airwaves (primarily to television), and the legalization of underground publications. (KEH)

The reorganization of broadcasting in France in 1974 created an economic rather than a public service goal for programing. (JMF)

Describes the Austrian broadcast industry which is dominated by foreign influences. Suggests the restoration of autonomy of Austria's media through a system of promotion of and subsidies to Austrian media efforts, as well as a decentralization of foreign influence to increase the quality and competitiveness of domestic production. (JMF)

Raises several policy issues concerning interactive cable television, including the role of government and the regulation powers, and the implications of telecommunication/social service system concerning privacy and confidentiality, approaches to electronic opinion polling, and the potential widening of the information gap between rich and poor.…

Describes the nature and operations of Integrated Services Digital Networks (ISDN). Argues that while Western European nations have advanced centralized planning for the introduction of ISDN, the United States is proceeding slowly because of a lack of universal standards and the state of deregulatory policy. (MM)

Discusses the role and possible impact of Congressional action on United States' policy at the 1979 World Administrative Radio Conference. (JMF)