This is a guide to the current state of global communication. The author sets the scene by exploring the notion of the "global village". He looks at how the media, globally, define "newsworthiness" and at the machinations of the international media marketplace. The book then presents a full history of world communication - from carrier pigeons to the Internet - exploring the factors that have shaped that history, including technological developments and international relations, state manipulation and the interests of transnational corporations. The third section explores recent communication trends that have had the most profound effects on the world's people - digitalization, consolidation, deregulation and globalization. Finally, the book looks at the idea of empowerment as applied to communication. It shows how global communication in its current manifestations is profoundly disempowering. The book ends with the author's ideas for changing this, and a draft "People's Communication Charter".