Mass media, a global treatment (BAIETZ Fundazioa does not share necessarily all the opinions that can appear in articles)   Microsoft, the mirror of the U.S.A. The eminent north american progressive thinker Noam Chomsky (author of several books published by Txalaparta, the last one of them "We speak of terrorism", with Heinz Dieterich) has been interviewed by Anna Couey and Joshua Karliner, of Corporate Watch, to speak about the power of Internet and the powerful influence that personages as Bill Gates has reached on the media communication world. Television as an object of study Published by the magazine «Txalaparta, Letras & Ideas» Television is taking the place of the school as a space of socialization and divulging of values. Nowadays no one can imagine politics without television: Like the other media, television grants a "state of reality", i.e. anything which is published by the media exists, and what they don't record seems as if it never had existed. Manufacturers of candidates for elections "american way" Serge Halimi (journalist) An extensive article on " a new power in the North American policy ": the advisers in communication. A perfectly exportable power, until the point in which a same speech, can be pronounced so much by Anthony Blair four months before its victory in 1997, like by William Clinton, also four months before his in 1992. Adviser's offices destined to sterilize ideologies, making "centrism" fashionable and avoiding any discussion on inequalities. The manufacture of an "unbrained" consensus in the United States Herbert I. Schiller (Professor of communication in the University of California in San Diego). The brutal projection of power of the United States abroad is explained widely by the way in which the inner consensus is made. Omnipresent publicity; ideological bombing orchestrated by numerous institutions that, financed by the companies, reject the same idea of public policies or communal property; ignorance of the rest of the world; cultural protectionism without equivalent: that is the heavy tribute North Americans pay by the hegemony of " business ".  The journalists " for everything " of the Chicago Tribune Eric Klinenberg (Investigator in the University of California, Berkeley, the United States) The process to president Clinton continues in the middle of the general boredom. The media hoped to have the same audience of the case Simpson, but they have understood that the Lewinsky case will not provoke that same result and, therefore, have preferred to treat "ad náuseam" the announced retirement about the basketball player Michael Jordan... Similar retraction of the information, imputable to a market logic, will be denied by the liberating power of the new technologies? The survey in a great conglomerate of press of the Middle West seems to indicate the opposite.  Aims of the mass communication: social and pragmatic purposes By Jose Inazio Basterretxea (Journalist and teacher of the University of the Basque Country) Mass media communications are, in our society, sellers of the model of knowledge that is known as information. Information is, nowadays, a product that can be bought and sold, that works under demand. As a market product, the information is produced depending on what the market demands; we is needed, more; when is not nedded, less; depending on what is needed for, for that it will be made. Therefore, information is subjected to big media holdings, bureaucratic institutions and demands of the market, at least the information that becomes published. Media as mirror to the world Ryszard Kapuscinsky (Polish journalist and writer) To what extent do the media reflect the real state of the world? With the new technologies turning the world of journalism on its head and paving the way for the creation of massive media groups with global ambitions, the question is now more relevant than ever. Instantaneity and direct reportage have transformed the business of journalistic inquiry, and the profit imperative has replaced notions of civic responsibilities. But in many parts of the world - for instance Iran, Burkina Faso and Algeria - there exists another journalism that is more concerned with the values of truth and rigour. Spin doctors made in USA Serge Halimi From Argentina to Estonia, Israel to Britain, Western-style political consultancy is a growth industry dominated by a few US superstars. As election campaigns lose political content, political parties are withering and the impact of money and marketing is increasing. These developments are linked to the ideology of the "middle way" which unites "modern" politicians of left and right in unquestioning acceptance of the rules of the global market economy. Even though it could stem the rising tide of civic apathy, the subject of social inequality is becoming a no-go area. To see is not to understand Interview to Ignacio Ramonet (Director of Le Monde Diplomatique) His thoughts about the mass media have been expressed in a suggesting article (The Tyranny of communication), in which he reviews the dominant tendencies of the Mass Media communication, the over-dose of information we have nowadays, as well as other aspects about mind manipulation, the new media empires and the ideology of tv-news. Information, instrument of war Jabier Salutregi Mentxaka (Director of EGIN) Ever since language code was invented, communication in all of its variations, was, is and will be the desired formula coveted by Power, because whoever would control and possess the code for communications' solutions will become the owner of the dungeon's keys where they want us confined. The Irish contention and the mass media Txente Rekondo Since 1969, Northern Ireland is living a new situation of conflict. Since then, the attention of numerous communication media from the whole world has been looking to that part of Ireland. During all these years, often news related to the conflict has appeared on the first pages of newspapers, as well as having been opening lines in many TV and radio programs. It has become evident that these news, almost in their totality, are linked to the armed conflict taking part there. During this explanation we will observe the role that the mass media has played in the developing of the conflict as well as the influence that it has had on it. (Spanish summary, french summary, full version in Basque) Globalisation and the Media. A commentary Dario Machado (Director of Centro de Estudios de America. La Habana) «The struggle against totalitarian ideology is the struggle against the new offensive of the trans-national capitalism which is now attacking the world to impose its power without alternatives» (French summary, full version in spanish) The first and only power Jabier Salutregi Mentxaka (Director of EGIN) «Nobody misses anymore the fact that history is written by the one who possesses the source of expression. Whoever has enough power to perpetuate one or another version of history". "Information has to be seasoned and wrapped up conveniently to deliver the interpretation the Power favors» Communication's Infinity, finitude of desire Toni Negri «It is about imagining and building a system of collective communication in which the private and the state were excluded. It is about building a system of public communication based on active and co-operative interrelation of subjects. It is about uniting communication/production/social life in ways of proximity and co-operation increasingly intensively. In other words it is about considering radical democracy in society as well as in production, which has to take shape in the conditions of post-mediatic horizon». (French summary, full version in spanish) Howard Zinn. Counter-information Theorist Fito Rodriguez A summary of a meeting celebrated at Egia, Donostia during his last visit to the Basque Country. A compilation of opinions and data about the ones who attended the reunion. " It's very important to work in the fields of history, theory and information when one wants to change the situation from its own roots" (Spanish summary, full version in Basque) Journalism and national identity A chapter taken from the book «Ultimas noticias sobre periodismo (The most recent news about journalism)» by Furio Colomo. The author raises the question of the journalist's national identity and the conditions determined by this circumstance. The price for getting informed An article published in Le Monde Diplomatique and written by its editor, Ignacio Ramonet. Perceiving the battlefield (Sintiendo que el campo de batalla) Interesting abstract from the book by Paco Ignacio Taibo II. An instructor expounds for what journalism is good.