News Media

Communication information - to citizens, subjects, customers or aliens - varies widely by technological and government level.

• "News" Media may be an adversarial check and balance to government in a representative democracy - or it may be a fully-integrated propaganda function of a totalitarian dictatorship.

Description (Specifications)

No information yet available.

Information Dissemination Technology (Communication)

The means of disseminating information vary widely by tech level.

Tech Level	Written Word (News & Entertainment)	Audio/Visual (News & Entertainment)	Distribution/Storage (Education & Entertainment)	Consumption (Personal Communication & Entertainment)
0	-	Spoken Word	Town Crier / Oral Tradition/Storytelling	-
1	Handwriting/Calligraphy	Music	Paper/handwritten media	-
2	Printing Press/Typesetting	-	-	-
3	-	Etch Printing, Photography	Telegraphy	Community/commercial/government telgraphy offices
4	Linotype Printing (mass printing, illustrated printing	Motion Pictures, Telephony	Motion Picture film	Community or home telephone sets, community motion picture theaters
5	-	Radio Broadcasting	Teletype	Home Radio Receivers
6	-	Advanced Audio Recording, Television	-	Home Television Receivers
7	-	Videotape Recording	Institutional Computer Networks, Satellite Distrbution, Personal Computing	Personal Computers
8	"Electronic Paper", rudimentary text translation	-	Ubiquitous Electronic networking	Hand-held devices
9	On-Demand Text Translation	Universal personal video	-	Ubiquitous embedded devices
10	Real-time Transcription	Holovision	-	Holoviewers
11	-	Integrated infostreaming	-	Personal Global Communications
12	-	Real-time audio language translation	-	-
13	-	Ubiquitous holovideo recording	-	-
14	-	-	-	-
15	-	Meson Communication	-	-

History & Background (Dossier)

No information yet available.

Media and Law Level (Communication)

Government Codes

Code	Government Type	Type of Media
0	No Government Structure.	No formal organized news media. Small communities will have "media" for internal communication according to their tech level.
1	Company/Corporation.	Media serves as public relations for company/government
2	Participating Democracy.	News media is independent, attempts to check/balance government.
3	Self-Perpetuatlng Oligarchy.	"media" will largely be owned by oligarchy, run for oligarchy's benefit.
4	Representative Democracy.	News media is decentralized, largely homegrown, attempts to check/balance government
5	Feudal Technocracy.	Media serves largely entertainment and commercial roles.
6	Captive Government/Colony.	Media serves as propaganda for conqueror. Resistance will have alternate media - usually (but not always) one tech level lower than government.
7	Balkanization.	Media vary per local government.
8	Civil Service Bureaucracy.	Media can serve either as propaganda organ, watchdog, or both, depending on local system government and conditions.
9	Impersonal Bureaucracy.	Media can serve either as propaganda organ, watchdog, or both, depending on local system government and conditions
A	Charismatic Dictator.	Depending on nature of government, media can serve as any mixture of propaganda, entertainment and check-and-balance journalism.
B	Non-Charismatic Leader.	Depending on nature of government, media can serve as any mixture of propaganda, entertainment and check-and-balance journalism.
C	Charismatic Oligarchy.	Media is almost always serves the government's agenda.
D	Religious Dictatorship.	Media content almost always has government/religion-friendly agenda
E	Religious Autocracy.	Media content almost always has government/religion-friendly agenda
F	Totalitarian Oligarchy.	Media is inevitably a propaganda organ.

Resistance Media (Communication)

In repressive governments - types 6 and B-F - a resistance movement may well have developed the ability to disseminate information. Depending on the level of repression, the technology will be one or sometimes more tech levels below that of the system as a whole. For example - access to centralized data networks might be extremely hazardous, while publishing paper broadsheets might be a viable option.

Extremely repressive systems may have only have access to the spoken word - and even that may be dangerous.

References & Contributors (Sources)

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• Author & Contributor: Mitchberg