Through technology's lens.

• Author: Acosta, Yvonne
• Position: Includes related articles - 'World Communication Report - The Media and the Challenge of the New Technology'

Phenomenal progress in new communication techniques - the digitization of images, sound and data, the digital compression of data and the growing power of electronic components - is part of the technological upsurge that is set to overturn completely the existing conditions under which information and knowledge are produced and disseminated, according to the World Communication Report - The media and the challenge of the new technologies, authored by Professor Lotfi Maherzi of Algeria and published by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

It states that the digital revolution will enable us to store and transmit information of any type - voice, image and text - free from any constraint of space, time or quantity, without changing the quality and content of the information itself. The convergence of activities in the information field and the gradual merging of telecommunications, computer and audiovisual technology allow us to imagine innovations unthinkable just a few years ago.

Says Alain Modoux, Director of the Communication Division of UNESCO: "Because of the convergence of informatics, the media and telecommunications, the telecommunications system that was controlled by the State in the past was now vanishing in an increasing number of countries as a result of privatization" Those developments and the changes brought about by marketing and globalization raise questions regarding the future role of States when major decisions are outside of State influence.

The stunning growth of the Internet and its potential developments are also addressed in the three-part Report; almost 200 countries were connected to the Internet in 1997. Although North America has the lead in the use of the network and utilizes virtually three quarters of the network access sites, it is estimated that by the year 2000 there will be some 100 million Internet users worldwide. It is a new information carrier, capable of transmitting news in real time equally, as well as written press, radio or television programmes. The extensive use of English, highlighted as one of the limitations of the Internet, could be addressed by both the State and civil society, says Mr. Modoux.

While the Report acknowledges issues such as questions of surveillance and security, the Internet's use to convey bigoted, racist or pornographic messages, and computer piracy, problems of data-overload and traffic jams, which appear to have worsened with the introduction of images that consume large volumes of computer memory, are also experienced on the network. It sees the Internet as potentially a powerful commercial medium, with infinite potential for training and education.

One of the main characteristics of the information highways is the ability to transmit an infinite variety of information simultaneously and interactively. They are now considered a priority for a country's entry into a new type of economy and are being developed in a number of industrial countries. Developing countries, however, express concern at...