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Describes the conflict between using marketplace power to determine the cost of accessing information, and the public interest, and argues that a social policy is needed to guide the information age. It is noted that such a policy would incorporate such components as human needs, computer literacy, universality, and self-determination. (20 references) (CLB)

Innovations in information and communication technology have deepened the problem of workplace surveillance by expanding the capacity to measure and monitor worker activity. This article assesses the extent to which trade unions in Canada have made privacy a sufficiently serious concern to see that privacy protections are incorporated into collective agreements. It assesses the progress made since Bryant's 1995 study, published in this Journal, which found practically no reference to electronic privacy protection in Canadian agreements. Specifically, the article reports on a content analysis of existing Canadian collective agreements to determine the extent to which privacy has been recognized by trade unions; to examine which sectors, industries, or individual unions have incorporated surveillance protection into their collective agreements; and to identify specific models of surveillance protection clauses in collective agreements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the monopoloy control of Microsoft Inc. of communication and information technology in the United States. Advances in communication and information technology; Use of innovation to gain an unfair competitive advantage; Myths about computer technology and information highways.

The article discusses conservative paradigms that dominate the social research of mass media and information technologies in the U.S. It highlights the significance of the paradigms in directing attention to the growing impact of electronic media on political, social and economic lives. Among the conservative paradigms mentioned include the developmentalism which has shaped the study of international communications and pluralism which led researches on the system of electronic communication.