Cyberspace (网络空间)， data superhighways, mullet media-for those who have seen the future, the linking of computers, television and telephones will change our lives for ever, Yet for all the talk of a forthcoming technological utopia (乌托邦) little attention has been given to the implications of these developments for the poor. As with all new high technology, while the West concerns itself with the “how,” the question of “for whom” is put aside once again.
    Economists are only now realizing the full extent to which the communications revolution has affected the world economy. Information technology allows the extension of trade across geographical and industrial boundaries, and transitional corporations take full advantage of it. Terms of trade, exchange and interest rates and money movements are more important than the production of goods. The electronic economy made possible by information technology allows the haves to increase their control on global markets-with destructive impact on the have-nots.
    For them the result is instability. Developing countries which rely on the production of a small range of goods for export are made to feel like small parts in the international economic machine. As “futures”(期货) are traded on computer screens, developing countries simply have less and less control of their destinies.
    So what are the options for regaining control? One alternative is for developing countries to buy in the latest computers and telecommunications themselves-so-called “development communications” modernization. Yet this leads to long-term dependency and perhaps permanent constraints on developing countries’ economies.
    Communications technology is generally exported from the U.S., Europe or Japan; the patents, skills and ability to manufacture remain in the hands of a few industrialized countries, It is also expensive, and imported products and services must therefore be bought on credit-credit usually provided by the very countries whose companies stand to gain.
    Furthermore, when new technology is introduced there is often too low a level of expertise to exploit it for native development. This means that while local elites, foreign communities and subsidiaries of transitional corporations may benefit, those lives depend on access to the information are denied it.

    The estimates of the numbers of home-schooled children vary widely. The U.S. Department of Education estimates there are 250,000 to 35,000 home-schooled children in the country. Hone-school advocates put the number much higher-at about a million.
    Many public school advocates take a harsh attitude toward home schoolers, perceiving their actions as the ultimate slap in the face for public education and a damaging move for the children. Home schoolers harbor few kind words for public schools, charging shortcomings that range from lack of religious perspective in the curriculum to a herd-like approach to teaching children.
    Yet, as public school officials realize they stand little to gain by remaining hostile to the home-school population, and as home schoolers realize they can reap benefits from public schools, these hard lines seem to be softening a bit. Public schoolers have moved closer to tolerance and, in some cases, even cooperation.
    Says John Marshall, an education official, “We are becoming relatively tolerant of home schoolers. “The idea is, ‘Let’s give the kids access to public school so they’ll see it’s not as terrible as they’ve been told, and they’ll want to come back.
    Perhaps, but don’t count on it, say home-school advocates. Home schoolers, oppose the system because they have strong convictions that their approach to education-whether fueled by religious enthusiasm or the individual child’s interests and natural pace-is best.
    “The bulk of home schoolers just want to be left alone,” says Enge Cannon, associate director of the National Center For Home Education. She says home schoolers choose that path for a variety of reasons, but religion plays a role 85 percent of the time.
    Professor Van Galen breaks home schoolers into two groups. Some home schoolers want their children to learn not only traditional subject matter but also “strict religious doctrine and a conservative political and social perspective. Not incidentally, they also want their children to learn-both intellectually and emotionally-that the family is the most important institution in society. “
    Other home schoolers contend “not so much that the schools teach heresy (异端邪说), but that schools teach whatever they teach inappropriately,” Van Galen writes. “These parents are highly independent and strive to ‘take responsibility’ for their own lives within a society that they define as bureaucratic and inefficient.”

    Every year television stations receive hundreds of complaints about the loudness of advertisements. However, federal rules forbid the practice of making ads louder than the programming. In addition, television stations always operate at the highest sound level allowed for reasons of efficiency. According to one NBC executive, no difference exists in the peak sound level of ads and programming. Given this information why do commercials sound so loud?
    The sensation of sound involves a variety of factors in addition to its speak level. Advertisers are skilful at creating the impression of loudness through their expert use of such factors. One major contributor to the perceived loudness of commercials is that mush less variation in sound level occurs during a commercial. In regular programming the intensity of sound varies over a large range. However, sound levels in commercials tend to stay at or near peak levels.
    Other “tricks of the trade” are also used. Because low-frequency sounds can mask higher frequency sounds, advertisers filter out any noises that may drown out the primary message. In addition, the human voice has more auditory (听觉的) impact in the middle frequency ranges. Advertisers electronically vary voice sounds so that they stay within such a frequency band. Another approach is to write the script so that lots of consonants (辅音) are used, because people are more aware of consonants than vowel (元音) sounds. Finally, advertisers try to begin commercials with sounds that are highly different from those of the programming within which the commercial is buried. Because people become adapted to the type of sounds coming from programming, a dramatic change in sound quality draws viewer a attention. For example, notice how many commercials begin with a cheerful song of some type.
    The attention-getting property of commercials can be seen by observing one-to two-year-old children who happen to be playing around a television set. They may totally ignore the programming. However, when a commercial comes on, their attention is immediately drawn to it because of its dramatic sound quality.

    In the United States, the need to protect plant and animal species has become a highly controversial and sharply political issue since the passage of the Endangered Species Act in 1973. The act, designed to protect species’ living areas, and policies that preserve land and forests compete with economic interests. In the 1990’s, for example, the woodcutters in the Western United States were challenged legally in their attempt to cut trees for timber in the Cascade Mountains. The challenge was mounted to protect the endangered spotted owl (猫头鹰), whose remaining population occupies these forests and requires the intact, ancient forest for survival. The problematic situation set the interests of environmentalists against those of corporations and of individuals who stood to lose jobs. After months of debate and legal battles, the fate of the woodcutters-and the owls-was still undecided in mid-1992.
    Similar tensions exist between the developed and the developing nations. Many people in industrialized nations, for example, believe that developing nations in tropical regions should do more to protect their rain forests and other natural areas. But the developing countries may be impoverished (使穷困), with populations growing so rapidly that using the land is a means to temporarily avoid worsening poverty and starvation.
    Many of the changes to Earth that concern scientists have the potential to rob the planet of its biological richness. The destruction of Earth’s ozone layer (臭氧层), for example, could contribute to the general process of impoverishment by allowing ultra-violet rays to harm plants and animals. And global warming could wipe out species unable to quickly adapt to changing climates. Clearly, protecting will come only through coordinated international efforts to control human population, stabilize the composition of the atmosphere, and preserve intact Earth’s complex web life.

    Most Americans spend far more of their leisure time with the mass media than in any other occupation. In addition, most of us hear, see, or read some of the media while engaged in other activities. Thus an extremely large number of our waking hours are spent with the mass media. Of all the media, television is clearly dominant, with newspapers a close second, at least as a source of news and other information. Our exposure to all media is important, however, because all of them contribute materials for the construction of that world in our heads. For most people, increased use of one medium does not decrease use of another. In fact, in certain cases, and especially for certain purposes, the more one uses one medium, the more likely one is to use others.
    There are various factors that can cause you to expose yourself to the media selectively, avoiding much of the material with which you disagree. Some of that selective exposure is probably due to the psychological pressure you feel to avoid the discomfort caused by confrontation with facts and ideas contrary to your beliefs, attitudes, or behavior. However, some selective exposure is not due to the pressure for consistency but to other factors, such as your age, education, and even the area in which you live and the people with whom you associate.
    Quite a different sort of factor that affects your media experiences is the social context of exposure: whether you are alone or with others when you are exposed to a medium; whether you are at home, at the office, in a theater, and soon. These contexts are as much as a potential part of the message you will form as film images on the screen or words on the page. In addition, that social context affects—both directly and indirectly—the media and the media content to which you become exposed. New friends or colleagues get you interested in different things. Other members of the family often select media content that you would not have selected, and you become exposed to it.
    There various factors have so much influence on your media exposure that so little of that exposure is planned.
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