"A little bit of government guidance and regulation is better than ceding the responsibility to a few dominant media and software companies."

But others believe that video games - which already rival movie tickets in sales - are poised to become one of the dominant media of the new century.

"I predict in the future, men will be the dominant media figures and women will be flashes in the pan," Weisiger said.

The size and profit-seeking imperative of dominant media corporations are said to create a bias.

Government by referendum, by appeals to the mass of the French people, was accompanied by control of the press - the dominant 'media' of the day.

And many of the region's dominant media and telecommunication companies are also devoting huge resources to building up Internet businesses.

Memory space costs that was previously a concern was somewhat addressed with optical media becoming the dominant media for software games.

He became concerned that this dominant perspective was also shaping the way the dominant media reported foreign news and events.

"If 50 percent of America identifies itself as Christian, you'd think the dominant media of the day would reflect that," he said, but soon reprimanded himself.

As in Europe a few decades earlier, newspapers, mass market magazines, and illustrated books had become the dominant media of public consumption.