This international collection explores the role of ideology in the information age, challenging the dominant ideology of the information age through examinations of its philosophical and theoretical assumptions, its images of the future, and its international dimensions.

The growth of developmental and intercultural communication in recent years has prompted scholars to focus their attention on communication systems in non-Western nations, especially those in the Third World. This volume advocates and demonstrates the need to consider continuity and change as the fundamental principle in the development of communication systems. It constitutes the first attempt to critically review the use of indigenous communication systems, as continuing from the past, for plannned change.

The volume examines the role of telecommunications in the development process. While it seems obvious that telecommunications contribute to the efficient operation and productive growth of an economy, telecommunications may be a cause, a consequence, and a manifestation of development. There has been a growing interest among researches in examining the impact of telecommunications in both industrialized and developing societies. The purpose of this volume is to bring together the research in the field in order to make it more widely available, and to put research questions and findings...

This book presents a perspective on the role of modeling that has relevance to both practice and theory. The authors provide an empirical assessment of the role of computer models in urban policy decisions, presenting a survey and four detailed case studies focusing on the use of a specific class of computer-based fiscal impact models in American logical governments. The findings are interpreted in light of this perspeectiv on the social and political dynamics of models in the policy process. From this perspective, called consensus modeling, a model is viewed as a tool for facilitating...

This volume combines computer research with current issues in linguistics and second language teaching. The fundamental connection between language education and information processing has emerged in recent years, as numerous prominent linguists have turned their attention to the computer and information analysts have turned to linguistics and language education for models, techniques, and explanations required in language programming. Thus, this volume addresses the pressing theoretical and practical problems encountered in both fields.

Within a comparative, theoretical and global network, this volume focuses on the impact of information technologies on the prospects for democratic development. It deals with the hopes as well as the fears for democracy and development that have emerged out of the current technological revolution in information and communication. The volume argues that information technologies have historically played a dual and paradoxical role in political formations. Generally, the Big Media (the national press, broadcasting and mainframe computers) have served the centralizing forces, while the Small...