| Criteria | Global Village | Global Metropolis |
| Main communication mode | Oral-aural communication | Mediated communication |
| Major source of information | Interpersonal network | Mediated (mass and new technologies) communication networks overlaid and intermeshed with local interpersonal networks |
| Control of communication systems | Sometimes hierarchical, but decentralized. Information is available to everyone at the same time. | Hierarchical and centralized. Core groups have more control of information distribution over peripheral groups |
| Access to the means of communication | Equal access is assumed | Inequalities - different level of access by group status |
| Role of communication systems | Create intimacy, new identities, or the dissolution of inequality | Facilitate conversation and personal assessment
of events at distances; Enable multiplexed identities some of which may be virtual. |
| Form of community(ies) | Sense of one community in harmony | Interdependence of various groups with different
economic, political, cultural resources and histories; Simultaneous membership in multiple communities, some of which may be harmonious, others unrelated, or even some in conflict. |
| Structure of communication flows among groups | Decentralized and horizontal | Multi-directional: top-down, diagonal, horizontal, and bottom-up flows of information. Indirect exchange of information among peripheral groups. |
| Assumption on global culture | Homogenization but Westernization dominates. | Segmentation at local levels but some homogenization at global levels |
Table 1. Summary table of two metaphors about global communication systems.