The first book to address two of the foremost issues in international communication: the UNESCO debate over "the New World of Information Order" (NWIO) which attempted to reach a global consensus on the purpose of journalism; and secondly, the place of mass media and telecommunication in the development of third world countries. It traces the growth of these issues from their beginnings in the sixties through the UNESCO declaration on mass media in 1978 into the present decade. Key features of this text are the examination of the role communication plays in countries with differing systems of government and an explanation of the issues that brought UNESCO into the limelight in the eighties and its importance to the future.