to be grown up about it, but if that is not the case, we can spell that out. >> going through the first time with little knowledge and information was difficult. now that we have got our record of how to do this, i think the next clerk and the city will be much informed with having our process and having our archives to look too. >> and that is how san francisco government worked out the kinks, twists and turns, bombs in the road, to select its new interim mayor, ed lee. san francisco's first asian- american mayor. >> this has been an unprecedented and historic transition of power here in san francisco. i am so happy the board of supervisors came together to select an outstanding choice along many outstanding candidates to lead us over the next several years. >> over the past several months when this issue has come up, it had been agonizing. the board has been put into a

difficult situation. there are a lot of differences of opinion on how to run the city, how to mass make a decision, who should be in place, 11 people to agree on that is a challenging thing. i think we have done the best we can do in the process, considering the difference of opinions. >> the people of san francisco can now choose their mayor, the direction they want to go. that is why this decision was so appropriate. >> the other big shock is that the moderates seem to have won this round. people thought, progressives have themselves on the board. there is no reason that they will not get together and take a noted leader who is a progressive to be interim mayor, and then stayed there for another term. the great thing about being in term mayor is to get to run as an incumbent. the fact that the progressives could not get together to get somebody into office as interim mayor in their own self-interest was very surprising for a lot of us. >> what happened in the last

month in city hall was an incredible show of democracy that was part policy, part politics, and it all came together, and more than anything -- not just from a reporter's perspective, often was this? but there was a public interest as well on what was going on in san francisco government. we take it for granted a law that there is a city government here. this was something that brought people together. you heard people talking about it at the cafes, park playground, people who do not always pay attention. in that $0.10, it was the best thing we could have done for city government, even though it was a little bit messy. it was a lot of fun and an eye opener. it got people interested again.

[singing in foign language] [car horns honking]

captioning made possible by the annenberg/cpb project [singing in foreign language] [nasa controller] 6, 5... we have engine start... 2, 1... we have ignition, and we have lift-off. [narrator] events like the challenger mission focus on the human achievement in space exploration. far more important is the revolution which space satellites have brought about in global communications. are we creating a future which could change the shape of the world? there are now hundreds of communications satellites in space, but the first one was only launched in 1957,

and the first transatlantic tv linkup was not until 1962. [announcer] ladies and gentlemen, we have just been informed that this baseball game is being seen in europe right now over the telstar satellite. let's give all the baseball fans... [narrator] the development of space-shrinking technologies has increased the pace of life and disrupted our sense of distance. a moment ago, the president of the united states opened his weekly conference with washington reporters. today it can be seen as it's happening in 16 european countries. [radio] hello, bbc, this is frank gillard recording just outside tille, a mile or two back from tille... [narrator] international news reporting has been transformed from the sound-only reports of the second world war. [radio announcer] this is the bbc home service. here is the news.

no statement has been made about... [narrator] since then, communication technologies have developed at a dramatic rate and revolutionized the ways in which we make sense of the world. the 1950s and 1960s saw the widespread dissemination of television and with it, a growing knowledge of the rest of the world. [bbc announcer] correspondent anthony lawrence reports from saigon. [lawrence] targets were along the east coast. naval pilots reported knocking out a bridge and damaging the approach to a ferry landing not far from the town of dong hoi. heavy antiaircraft fire was reported. air force pilots reported hitting a ferry and some targets further north. the pilot of a plane shot down was later rescued. [narrator] but even as recently as the vietnam war, news reports were still recorded on film and physically transported to the studio for editing.

the instantaneous satellite-based news coverage of the gulf war meant that this was the first war to be covered live and seen in three time zones. press conferences were timed to coincide with the deadlines of european and north american media. [bbc reporter] ...missile as it heads towards its targets. pictures are beamed back to the american aircraft crew so that when the second missile's fired, it can be aimed at exactly the same spot. this is not a video game. it's not as simple as putting a cross on a target and flying off. [narrator] space-shrinking technologies have enabled people to have access to a far wider range of information sources than ever before. [reporter] by dawn, a final section was lifted away from what had been the most heavily guarded border in the world. [narrator] as news events break and develop, we find out about them through television news reports.

the dismantling of the berlin wall and the breakup of eastern europe was seen by millions of people around the world. new developments in communications are now opening up more and more parts of the world to media images. the possibilities offered by satellites and now by digital compression and fiber-optic cables and the information flows they allow mean that we're witnessing the beginning of a global information revolution. the digital revolution and the power of communication are leading us into a world that seems to be becoming smaller and smaller, where distance means less and less. [commercial] ...the minute you wanted to? learn special things... from faraway places. the computer as a digital production environment allows more people access to the power of communication,

which is, after all, the most powerful force in the world. that's what brought down communism and the berlin wall. it wasn't revolution. it was this digital revolution that brought down those areas of tyranny, and it's the power of communication that is spreading like wildfire. [reporter] an hour later, and two holes had been smashed through. [narrator] whether developments in communications are the major force in social change is open to question. what is certain is that they've created the infrastructure for the globalization of mass media and the emergence of global media corporations. they have realized the huge rewards of going global. global markets and global sales mean bigger profits and market share. they can also spread the cost of production. going global not only means trying to distribute in many more markets.

it also means linking together a wide variety of media companies and products. film and television studios, telephone and electronics companies, cable operators, book and newspaper publishers are all merging together to create new global media empires that could change the ways in which we access information. [commercial] ...when you just got to let off steam, go ballistic in super bomberman 2, where the object of the game is... [narrator] in this brave new world of integrated mass media with the possibility of hundreds of channels, one of the main things is to get control of the production facilities to fill the channels. the distributional technology needs content. [singing] the hollywood studios have been one of the major battlegrounds. such well-known names as paramount, columbia, 20th century-fox, and warner bros. have all been the focus

of a series of major mergers and takeovers during the 1980s. [man] what has happened is that the major studios in hollywood, in the movie industry, in the music industry, in the tv industry have been increasingly taken over by global multimedia conglomerates like time-warner, for example, or like sony, the japanese firm, or like matsushita. um, ahem, and what i think is happening in this case is that these conglomerates are positioning themselves with respect to entertainment markets or entertainment and information markets, because now really hollywood is not just entertainment. it's also very much tied up with information. they're positioning themselves with respect to these markets in sound, in film, in tv, in printed material, and also in the technologies,

the information technologies in particular, and the hardware that is used to disseminate this information and entertainment material. [narrator] one of the biggest global media companies is time-warner. it's involved in films, records, books, and television. barbara brogliatti is the senior vice president for television publicity. [barbara brogliatti] it used to be time. it was time inc. and warner bros. merged a few years back, and it kind of combined the two major presences in the communications field to become the largest entertainment and communications company in the world. the two companies felt that the synergies were really quite unique in the business, where you would cover everything from publishing to movies to television to cable, bringing together all of the various communication means. [man] right where the red flower was!

[narrator] one of time-warner's most well-known programs is superman. it started life as a feature film. now the television series and associated products are marketed all over the world. i think towards camera. [brogliatti] our philosophy basically is this is a shrinking world, and we want to be part of it. our drama travels quite well, especially action adventure, and we have found a whole new lease on life in the international marketplace, which is allowing us to do shows like lois & clark--the new adventures of superman. we could not do them if it weren't for our sales to the international marketplace. the deficits are too large. tad got his powers from superman. have you seen tad lately? oh, yes. he was here quite recently. yesterday, i think. [brogliatti] it's one of the things we're doing, is we are now hopefully getting into what we call the channels business,

starting programs that are seen over cable or satellite to the world's emerging markets. we'll probably start with what we call a family-oriented channel, utilizing our depth in families and using our classic looney toons and our dc supercomics, uh, superheroes, from everything, you know, from superman to daffy duck. [television] fasten your seat belts for a bumpy ride. [narrator] the potential of 500 cable and pay tv channels is set to change the viewing habits in the united states. tv viewing may well cost more, creating a society of information rich and poor. the people who will gain are the big new global media companies who see their own national markets as just the beginning.

asia is now seen by the industry to be one of the biggest potential markets, and hong kong is at the center of the competition. the key to the broadcasting revolution in asia was the development in the early 1990s of satellite-based star tv in hong kong. the satellite footprint covers most of india, china, and southeast asia. star tv is now owned by murdoch's news corporation, who saw the significance of the area with its huge population and rapid economic growth.

in 1994, a major new program sales event known as mip asia was held for the first time in hong kong. television companies from all over the world are beginning to see the strategic importance of the asia area. hong kong sits, favored by geography, as a gateway to the largest emerging market in the world. it is, therefore, no accident that hong kong is playing such an important role in broadcasting in the region and has led the way in pioneering the introduction of significant new developments in the television field which affect the whole of asia. countries all over asia are scrambling to cope with technological advances of dynamic proportions. countries with no domestic free-to-air services at all were overnight pushed into the satellite age.

people cut off from the outside world for decades suddenly could have access to an array of programming from a world they knew little about. the culture shock to many must have been immense. [narrator] some governments in the region are concerned about the cultural and political impacts of western programming over which they have little or no control. i think that the growth of television industry in southeast asia has seen major changes in the last few years. i think with the combination of the introduction of pay tv, whether it is via cable or via microwave, and the introduction of satellite tv that was triggered by star tv three years ago, i think it's spurring that development. so southeast asia as well as actually other parts of asia are experiencing the same kind of growth. [commercial] the discovery channel

brings you breath-taking images, exciting entertainment that will thrill your senses and capture your imagination. [man] one of the fallacies that people don't fully appreciate is they say what i call the two billion mitten syndrome, particularly with regard to china, but it's true across asia. we're talking about between 1/2 and 3/4 of the population of the world. in percentage terms, the percentage is actually quite small, but the absolute numbers that those translate to-- right now, today, the multichannel market in asia is roughly about the size of the united states. somewhere probably in the order of 65 million multichannel households receiving television through one form or another, either through an mds or through cable or through encrypted uhf. it's a mixed bag, but it's a very, very large universe,

and it's growing at an incredibly rapid rate. it will probably, by the year 2005, be two to three times the u.s. market. there's no place that we're leaving out. we don't make complete priorities, uh... out of what's going on. europe is our oldest and by far most mature audience base, and we measure upwards of 60 million households in that region, and it's very important to us and will continue to be important to us. asia pacific is by far the most near-term potential for audience growth, and so that, for the moment, is our focus, although a nonexclusive one. it has been the subject of our expansion in terms of satellites with the new apstar series, our facilities and coverage exemplified by our opening up of a hong kong based production center

for program making here, and in news gathering generally it's been the focus of our greatest bureau expansion over the last two years. [narrator] international news gathering has helped lead the way into the global marketplace. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1... you're on. the headlines. the american vice president... [speaking foreign language] very quick. out in 10 seconds. [narrator] nation-based news organizations are a thing of the past. in order to survive the competitive environment of the 1990s, news organizations are thinking globally. [speaking foreign language] [man] the bbc has always been in international broadcasting, ever since it founded the empire service before the war.

i think the approach is rather different now. cultural imperialism is definitely out. but global expansion is seen as a very necessary thing for a big national broadcaster like the bbc to be doing. the question, in strategic terms, was did we see our international role simply in the licensing of television programs for retransmission on other people's services, or could we, the bbc, build on that reputation that we have or that brand that we have internationally in taking television services internationally? it was an exploration of that idea that i think, first of all, led us to believe that in terms of a news and information service, there was both a demand and an opportunity. [narrator] bbc worldwide news is transmitted live from the bbc studios via satellite. it is simultaneously translated and dubbed into mandarin chinese and japanese.

[hugh williams] we're unique in world-wide television in that we began in the east and moved back into the west, whereas most global broadcasters grew out of the western markets and moved eastwards as those markets opened up. we began in asia. we started broadcasting out of hong kong with what is now rupert murdoch's star television. it was then owned by hutchison wam po, the lee kai shing family in hong kong. [narrator] how television develops in asia will be critical to the future of the new global media empires that are being created. i think that audiences all over the world are going to take time to become attuned to the concept of international news. people are still principally interested in what's happening in their own patch, even if that patch is very big. so it is going to take us time to develop in, as far as television is concerned,

the international idea, but i do think that idea is beginning to grow, and i think more and more people will want the news from a different perspective. cnn has been very successful from an american point of view over the last 14 or 15 years in building up an international perspective, albeit based from the american point of view, and i think now is the time for a british point of view to come forward in the same way. the other thing we have to be careful about is the fear, particularly among small and third world nations, that they are going to be dominated by something from outside. that this is another example of the westerners coming in and taking away their own heritage. we have to be very sensitive culturally and journalistically in the way in which we approach these areas. [narrator] the issues of language and culture are at the heart of this debate. it's estimated that half of the world's 6,000 languages will die out in the next hundred years, and the spread of more dominant languages

via electronic media will play a major part in this. [commercial] mtv continues to unite a worldwide generation. in 1981, mtv began a journey into the minds of american youth. today mtv has traveled around the world weaving the common threads of international youth into a global music source. [narrator] the language of rock music is a powerful force in the newly emerging markets, and some governments are very wary. mtv is one of the largest satellite broadcasters in the world, and it's led the way into the asian market, but do mass markets inevitably mean a global culture? [man] the notion of global television is largely a fiction. it can work as a novelty. certainly some networks, some formats, some types of programming have much more universal appeal than others.

i think big newsworthy events like the gulf war that come along only so often are going to get people in all time zones to watch television simultaneously, but this mcluhanesque notion of everyone in the world watching the same flickering images on a screen in real time will never be a reality. i think the more that you look at it, the current market makes clear that the more people are tied together by all this new technology and standardized hardware, the more they seem to want software that affirms their own cultural identity, their own traditional values, and most often that means in their own language. the big business in this business, as before, will be local programming. i think there's no doubt about that. [commercial] each mtv international affiliate uses a mix of original... [narrator] mtv is looking at ways of adapting to local cultures with the development of local content on mtv asia.

international broadcasters need to accommodate cultural diversity. [commercial] sample seven of the planet's most incredible wonders. mtv india, giving young adults a source of music entertainment that stretches across india. mtv, baby. [speaking foreign language] mtv's most wanted-- the show where you get to pick your favorite songs. [speaking foreign language] so be sure to geus your requests... [thomas freston] one of the advantages viewers get with mtv is not only are we bringing you what's going on in your neck of the woods, but we're also plugging you in to what's going on in this increasingly smaller global world. you'll find out what's going on in argentina. if there's something of note going on in australia, it's likely to find its way on to mtv in europe, so it sort of accelerates, in a certain sense, this whole process of not homogenization so much

but really just increased communication, understanding. [commercial] and offering the first ever truly global youth programming network. mtv speaks to many different youth cultures. i think it's a force, no doubt. it isn't all of mtv's doing, because what we do to a large extent is really program music from artists, stories about things that are happening and caused by other people in the world and really give them airtime and allow them to be received into these peoples' minds. but i think, unquestionably, mtv, as well as a lot of other forms of media, accelerate the process, have partially caused the process. some of the more superficial things-- the type of motion pictures, clothing styles, food that's eaten, sodas that are drank, music that's listened to, posters you might find on a kid's wall whether he's in mexico city or in madrid-- quite often are going to be the same. it's all part of this smaller world

that is driven by satellite communication. [commercial] have you ever watched the movie you wanted to... [narrator] what's becoming apparent is that the new technology which has helped to create the global market may now be leading us into a new future. the differences between television, computers, and telephones are disappearing. at the same time, the way we access information will radically change and shift. scott billups is a hollywood producer who is at the forefront of the new digital technology. he works from his high-tech home located on the edge of a los angeles canyon. [scott billups] you've got a broad base of people that can create content for an ever-expanding network of distribution, and i think it's only starting, because desktop production is-- impactful and dynamic as desktop production is,

it's nothing compared to the next step, which is desktop broadcasting. the new cable environments, the new superhighway or internet or whatever you want to call this convergence, it goes both ways. it's not just like cable coming into your home, it goes back out, so you can add to, enhance, add, create your own content, whichever. [narrator] the revolution in communications could fundamentally alter how we work, learn, entertain ourselves, how we live, but will it be true for everyone? while some people are moving closer together in time-space, others are moving further apart. who will control this new future? are we creating a world of information rich and information poor? captioning made possible by the annenberg/cpb project captioning performed by the national captioning institute, inc.