This essential text on global communication, by one of the world's leading mass communication researchers, is an accessible guide to an increasingly important sector of social and political relations globally. The author first explores the notion of the 'global village'. He looks at how the media, globally, define 'newsworthiness' as well as the machinations of the international media marketplace. He then presents a full history of world communication - from carrier pigeons to the Internet - exploring the factors that have shaped that history: technological developments, but also North/South and East/West relations, state manipulation and the interests of trans-national corporations. The third chapter examines recent communication trends that have had the most profound effect on the world's people - digitalization, consolidation, deregulation and globalization. Finally, the book explores methods of making global communication empowering to all the world's people.