Computers and television provide new ways to acquire, store, process, and communicate information. In this context, the first amendment is designed to limit government control of information and to encourage the flow of information on society. Achieving goals of the first amendment, however, depends on the media used for communication. If a medium is easy for government to control, free expression may be jeopardized. Some of the most vulnerable first amendment doctrines in the new electronic media environment, where the contest between media qualities and legal power will be most evident, concern access to information, information processing, and the transmission of information. Information will continue to have value because it is indispensable to economic and intellectual growth. In general, therefore, new media are incompatible with totalitarian or restrictive legal systems. The electronic media environment will generate many problems for the courts as they attempt to evaluate first amendment rights in an environment where new techniques of collecting, using, and transmitting information are continually emerging.