For the Good News.

The explosion of information and communication technology has made our world a smaller place. Video phones, cellular phones, faxes, data networks and modems all serve to bring people together faster and more efficiently than ever before.

Such technology has revolutionized the news media. Now, instant news-gathering equipment and satellite broadcasting take us live to the world's trouble spots to watch history as it is being made. As a result, public opinion can be influencied, and governments ca be pressured to re-evaluate their policies.
Likewise, media coverage of the Gulf War profoundly affected the way we think about armed conflict and even technology itself.

No longer can governments hide their darkest deeds behind blankets of secrecy. High-tech news-gathering teams will be on hand providing up-to-the-minute coverage to expose their crimes to a worldwide public.

Benign censorship, however, will ensure that the worst excesses of violence and propaganda are not beamed straight into our living room. Before anyone starts complaining that censorship is a bad thing remember that it is necessary in some circumstances.

For once the cynics and pessimists may have to be silent. The world we live in is shrinking - and as result we are all getting closer.

Vocabulary:

Trouble spots: troubled places

Likewise: similarly

Deeds: something someone does, something that is very good or very bad

Benign: kind and gentle

Beam: to send a radio or television signal through the air

For once: for this time, now

Straight into: moving directly into.