Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels had little to say specifically about communication and language, but their works hint at the direction their critique of communication might have taken. Language and consciousness are conditioned by specific means of production and sociopolitical circumstances and are therefore ideological. The domain of ideology coincides with the domain of signs (words with meaning); whenever a sign is present, ideology is present. Each class within a society accents the particular connotations of its signs that enhance its own interests; these different accents result in the class struggle. The ruling class in capitalism creates and sustains its ideology and restricts social intercourse by organizing the economic forces of society. Also, capitalism and the mass media developed together as it became necessary for merchants to be aware of world events. The mass media exploit workers by attempting to make the capitalistic ideology uniaccentual. As part of the production process spread by the mass media, advertising exploits workers in the economy and in the world market. Communication research, like most social sciences, is grounded in the status quo and reproduces the uniaccentuality of the ruling class ideology. (TJ)