Even terrorist groups like Hamas have used the media to their advantage, as have fundamentalist dictatorships like Saudi Arabia. The issue is not one of truth but of business. We live in a mass media dominated society, with daily exposure to some sort of radio, television, computer, newspaper or magazine for almost everyone alive. It has been said that the media is the message, that the media has made itself into the focus of our lives. 

The media has, we might say, become our mind and influences, if not dominates, our thinking. Many of us spend more time taking in media information that interacting with other people or with the world of nature. These media images serve to color our minds down to a subconscious level. They program our behavior, a fact that advertising has long known and sought to benefit from. Now this Western information and media culture is spreading all over the planet, including the Third World, with the globalization of the economy. 

Even villages are getting television and the other trappings of Western modernity. India, China, and Asia in general are being brought under the influence of the media moguls. Unfortunately, this Western media and commercial culture has largely the same agenda as previous colonial forces, which only fifty years ago lost hold in Asia. This commercial culture seeks to supplant traditional cultures with a Western model, not only in terms of practical conveniences but also in terms of thought and belief. 

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