Media and political transformations: Revolutionary changes of the world's cultures

This essay posits that a relationship exists between the dominant communication technology of a nation‐state and the controlling political structure and process of a nation‐state. In other words, we suggest that how a nation‐state acquires and processes information is directly related to the type of political system employed to make and implement societal decisions. The ten‐year period from 1985 through 1994 provides an excellent opportunity to explore such a relationship, because it is the period when profound transformations occurred in the political identity, geographic boundaries, and power of nation‐states (such as the U.S.S.R. and Germany) while these same nation‐states also underwent an equally profound set of changes in their dominant communication technologies. Media profiles of 169 nation‐states in 1985 and 181 nation‐states in 1994 are compared and correlated to changes in their subsequent political orientations. In general, it is concluded that nation‐states are likely to adopt increasingly liberal political structures and processes as they shift toward the use of more individualistic and participatory communication technologies. A profound change in either the dominant communication technology or political structure and process can set off the cultural transformation.

Key concepts:

• communication technologies
• political systems
• orality
• literacy
• telecommunication systems
• interactive computer systems
• radical
• liberal
• conservative
• reactionary
• culture
• cultural change