Reviews 227

The authors’ conclusions about the impact of television on politics are rather predictable and cautious. The prevalence of personality and image over substance is certainly not a new discovery, nor is the importance of financial resources to mount an effective media campaign. The implications for the future of political party organizations are grim in this television age; again, not an original conclusion (see, for example, David S. Broder’s me Party’s Over: i%e Failure of Politics in America (New York: Harper & Row, 1972). Of greater value is the Langs’ discussion of the role television plays in “shaping the impression of public support for public policies and public personalities,” and their focus on the acquisition of “mediated knowledge” and the creation of a “symbolic environment” through which the public experiences politics. This revision was finished before the 1984 election and contains very few references to the 1980 election and the 1984 primaries. A major weakness is the lack of an index; also, documentation is minimal-only a few footnotes appear at the end of each chapter.

In the years since Politics and Television was originally published, a number of important studies have emerged and several of these are more useful than the Langs’ revision. The eminent political scientist Austin Ranney surveyed the situation in Channels of Power: The Impact of Television on American Politics (New York: Basic Books, 1983); ten years earlier an influential Twentieth Century Fund Report on Presidential Television, compiled by Newton N. Minow et al., was published (New York: Basic Books, 1973); a skeptical view was offered by Thomas E. Patterson and Robert D. McClure in The Unseeing Eye: The Myth of Television Power in National Politics (New York: Putnam’s, 1976); and, a broader perspective was provided in Doris A. Graber’s Mass Media and American Politics, 2nd Edition (Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 1984).

Academic libraries will not be in short supply of high-quality books on politics and television. Collections with little recent material in this area should certain consider purchasing Politics and Television Re- Viewed; other, more comprehensive collections, can be more discriminating.

The Uneasy Eighties: The Transition to the Information Society By Arthur J. Cordell Ottawa, Ontario: Science Council of Canada, 1985, 150 pages, Can. $8.40. (Background Study Number 53) ISBN 0-660-l 1747-9. LC 85154201.

Reviewed by Tom Riley

Tom Riley is President, Riley Information Services, P.O. Box 261, Station F, Toronto, Ontario M4Y 2L5 Canada.

The Science Council of Canada has released a study on the transition to the information society and the effects on society as a whole. The author identifies the protection of personal information (privacy) brought on by the ability of the computer to collect and disseminate information, as one of the key issues concerning the individual today.

228 GOVERNMENT INFORMATION QUARTERLY Vol. ~/NO. 2/1986

T7ze Uneasy Eighties: 7ke Transition to an Information Society, by Dr. Arthur Cordell, addresses three important issues: the evolution of the computer today as an accessible tool to the majority of society; how this tool will affect the production of goods and the workplace; and the threats to privacy posed by the information society and what can possibly be done about it.

The amount of personal information already being collected in both the public and private sectors is staggering. It is estimated that the United States government has the equivalent of 17 items of information for each man, woman and child in the U.S. and “the amount of personal information collected in Canada is probably on the same scale.” The Associated Credit Bureaus of Canada exchange credit information with 3,000 businesses in Montreal alone. This means that at least 3,000 people in that one city have access to personal information on millions of Canadians.

Tracing the history of privacy legislation in Canada (particularly the Federal Privacy Act and the Fair Credit Reporting Acts on Ontario and British Columbia) as well as in European jurisdictions it is evident that there has been much done to protect the individual’s privacy. Much more is needed. While the right of privacy could be enshrined in Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, legislation is not enough. A “combination of legislative curbs and public opposition to breaches of privacy will be needed.” It is necessary for us “to revise our understanding of what constitutes privacy.” The issue is “not whether individuals unreservedly disclose themselves to others, it is whether they have the choice of doing so.”

The proliferation of personal information in computers has caused the small town concept of everyone knowing about one’s person life to be now transferred to the city. Individuals can no longer seek the anonymity of the city. This is because computers have robbed individuals of their anonymity. Building profiles and extensive checks on all forms of personal details can now be accomplished with ease.

There is a suggestion that while people may learn to cope with the loss of privacy brought about by the information society they may not do so. Much more public discussion and awareness raising of the implications of implementing privacy rights is needed, Understanding will be the key to adapting to the changes that are occurring because of the new forces shaping the information society.