Can media art be applied as an engine of change in the context of development? How much of media art– induced change is due to technology rather than to typical content? Do the media diffuse innovations effectively? The story of the rise of the media, certainly tends to depict media as a generally progressive force, especially because of the link between democracy and freedom of expression and between media and the opening of markets and liberalization of trade.However, there are other narrative to consider. For instance, critical theory has typically viewed the media in modern times as conformist and even reactionary. In the early twentieth century, as in Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia, the media were employed as a tool of change, even if with mixed success. The case of modernization and development in Third World countries received much attention in the early post- second world war years, when mass communication was seen, especially in the USA, as a powerful means of spreading American ideals throughout the world and the same time helping to resist communism. But it was also promoted as an effective instrument of social and economic development, consistent with the spirit of free enterprise. Several effects were predicted to follow on from the voluntary import of US mass media content.These included: consumer aspirations, values and practices of democracy, ideas of liberty, literacy. Subsequently, there are a large number of investments in communication projects designed to diffuse many technical and social innovations. The results were hard to evaluate and the efforts described gradually became redundant or possible.