Instantaneous communication of words and images from one end of the world to the other is a part of many people's daily lives. This constant and rapid flow is of more than dry information. An extensive network of cross-cultural exchanges has unveiled the richness, diversity and also poverty that exist in the world. Age-old barrier and divisions have been broken down. National lines are being erased. Communication has freed many people from enforced isolation or ignorance. At its best, communication has made a distillation of the ideas of the people of the world, and a meeting of minds, a more realistic proposition than ever before.
In some ways, however, enhanced technological horsepower is a mixed blessing as expectations or desires can be created for things unattainable or inappropriate, and established natural and social systems threatened by new patterns of behaviour. Further, effective means and a greater amount of communication do not automatically result in a better quality of what is being communicated or in a sympathetic relationship between communicator and audience. As the barriers of distance dissolve they can starkly expose any remaining mental barriers, cultural misunderstandings or prejudices, intolerance or disrespect which, because they seem nearer, may also be exaggerated. Under the justification of offering entertainment or novelty, people or cultures can be portrayed in a distorted or incomplete way.