The perfection of communication and public relations techniques has, in a sense, greatly enlarge modern man’s horizon by providing an infinite variety of constantly changing experiences. At their best, therefore, mass media have a tremendous potential for good. Television has been acclaimed by educators in the greatest educational tool since the invention of the printing press. The easy access to newspaper, book and magazine provides the basic material for the increasing growth of literacy. Communication have become a significant aid in modern educational techniques and methods of learning.
Under restrictive forces, however,, mass media may also have tremendous potential for evil. The press, radio, or television in the hands of a demagogue can distort reality in the interest of propagandizing a cause whose purpose are antisocial. There have been many instance of divisive propaganda, directed at minority group through modus operandi of direct mail letters or pamphlets. Restriction place on a free and responsible press can distort the news picture. The dual problems of censorship and monopoly in the American press are of increasing concern to students of the social science and , indeed, to all public spirited citizens.
In addition, the communication media, because of the rapidity of their stimuli, are not cohesive. Despite the fact that they reach many groups simultaneously, their effect is frequently evanescent. The rapid succession of stimuli, for example, may not leave as much time reflective thinking as does reading the book. At the same time, the growth of international communication appears to have made more of a positive contribution to psychological warfare and the to the “cold war” than to development of a peaceful world. Paradoxically, it appears that the development of more perfect instruments of international communication has sent asunder alliances than it has welded together.Mass media, therefore, are not without their restrictions and their limitations. Indeed, their very speed and relentless efficiency are implicitly self limiting. The rapidity with which the news is gathered and disseminated give rise to a succession of stimuli are dispersed before their probable consequences can be appraised. Television, for example, is just about the most technically perfect of the mass communication devices, yet widespread criticism is leveled by educators and critics at the alleged inferior estate of a considerable amount of TV programming. The perfection of the mass media, it is argued, has not resulted in a richness and diversity but rather in a flat standardization of all experience for all individuals
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