HISTORICAL
BACKROUND
The
popular Struggle for a free flow of information and equal control of the world media
known as the- new world information and communication order- (a term coined
during debates over third world misrepresentation in the `international media in
the 1970s and popularized by the MacBride commission) started in 1973 with the
meeting of non–aligned nations in Algiers – although arguably the official date
of the struggle is 1980 when the MacBride report was first published.
Ulla
Carlson (2004) gives this view of what the NWICO debate stands for
The demand for a new international information order
was an outgrowth of third-world resentment of the imbalances in international
news flows, as summarized in the phrase, 'one-way-flow'; the lack of respect
for third-world peoples' cultural identity that such imbalances reflected, the
monopoly positions of transnational communication corporations, which were
perceived as a threat to the countries' national independence; and the
inequitable distribution of communication resources in the world.
As
at 1973, the Struggle though visible was only at a conceptualization stage, the
developing countries had realized there was something like imbalance in the flow of news between the
developing world and the developed world but could not prove its existence due
to lack of evidence. Soon and especially between 1976 and 1979, there was
accumulation of evidence through the MacBride commission of the united nations
educational scientific and cultural organization (UNESCO) which was setup to
study communication problems. One very important source of evidence was the
formulated 'new order' plan by
Tunisia's Information minister Mustapha Masmoudi titled “mass media declaration”
in 1978.
N,B, As all this happened we must not forget that
this was still during the period of the cold war between the United States and
the Soviet Union and according to (Carlsson, 2004) “The Cold War defined the front lines
in this period, but a new “front” was also emerging — that between North and
South”.
By 1980 when the MacBride report was published
under the title “many voices one world”, the developed world was totally
against the idea that the underdeveloped or developing world should ever want
to have an equal share of the quantity and quality of news reported in the
developed world or have an undistorted and fair report of events in the south.
UNESCO was accused of being an enemy tote free press and to frustrate the
debate, Britain and America walked out of UNESCO lead by the then president of
the United States of America – Ronald Regain. Subsequently the report was
scrapped out of UNESCO before the return of America and Britain in 2003 and 1996
respectively
Operational definitions
South, third world,
underdeveloped countries: these words or phrases are used
interchangeably in this essay to mean the countries that are adversely affected
by the imbalance in the global media
According
to
West, North, developed
countries: these are also used interchangeably as a
cover term to refer to the technologically advanced countries that coined the phrase
third world, have participated in and are still involved in the practice of
misinforming the third world and its own citizens about the third world
countries.
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
ReplyDeleteMany theories could be used when studying the struggle for a new world information order but for this study I will be using the cultivation theory.
CULTIVATION THEORY
This theory according to (Asemah, 2011) was propounded by Gerbner et al in 1976. The theory proposes that television plays an important role in the way people view their world – and in this case western television affects the way Africans view their world in respect to superiority or inferiority to the north and how the north views itself as superior to the south.
Though the theory includes a larger part about violent influence; I will like to focus on just the influence it as or is believed to have over its viewers
For the proponents of this theory, television viewers do not necessarily verify information gotten from television and so it is whatever they are given that they use to view their world and in relation to third world citizens, it has been that of how bad these countries are and how good the developed world is and hence potential investors from the north refuse to bring investment to the south and even among the third world countries some are made to believe they are at least better than some other third world countries and they also refuse to initiate business with the lesser third world nations. Therefore, the opportunity for the developing world to ever rise to its feet financially and really take control of the means of media production is reduced. Also, third world members with potential to develop their nations are carted away in numbers by the same deceit that there is no facility in the third world for their dreams to see the lit of day, and so in another way our resources (human resources) are taken away to develop more ways to deprive the third world of a means to ever rise.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Ekeanyanwu (2008) defines NWICO as
a conceptual framework that tries to address the imbalance and inequalities existing in international communication as well as recommending and proposing a system of international communication where the world as a whole will feel very secure in the emerging or already emerged global village
After attaining political independence, developing countries have been struggling for self reliance in all fields and communication has not been an exception (Nageswar)
The NWICO debate during its tenure raised a lot of dust between the developed world, United States especially and the UNESCO. Hocking (1985) however said this was not the first time such happened, citing the “anti – Israeli resolutions passed at the 18th general conference in 1974 which led the senate foreign relations committee to suspend contributions to UNESCO”s budget for 1975 -1976” as an example of such behavior or attempt by the developed world to runcate the activities of UNESCO that did not favor them.
(savage, 1987) sees the struggle for free flow as one of political relevance that may infringe on the sovereignty of states and brings to mind the genuine fears of governments about the possible invasion of its citizens with foreign propaganda stating that communist states are well known in the practice of isolating its citizens from “pernicious propaganda”
IMBALANCE as an issue that lead to the debate
Imbalance according to Encarta dictionaries is -an unevenness, inequality, or bias existing between two or more people or things, especially in their degree of emphasis, proportions, or function
According to (Ekeanyanwu, 2008)- imbalance in international communication refers to the unequal flow of mass media messages from the …industrial world to the third …or developing world. This imbalance e says is the reason for the international debate for new world information order.
ReplyDeleteImbalance can be measured or assessed in terms of its forms or levels at wic it occurs
The forms of imbalance include:
Qualitative imbalance – this refers to the image portrayed for Africa in the global media. Most if not all the western owned media are prone to exaerate the crisis, unrest, uner, poverty or any other predicament of the third world while avoiding any good or pleasant report wic may actually be more than the unrests.
Also the western media has fed on the predicament of the third world and as used it to increase positive popularity for the west
Quantitative imbalance: in this form of imbalance, there is little or no mention of the third world in the so called global media. Only news about industrialized countries fill the top headline and sometimes toward the end of the bulletin (and sometimes in a manner of – o lest we forget) the third world is mention. So by this manner of news reporting the global media is telling the world that the third world is not as important as other parts of the world because the news bulletin is always arranged in order of importance from the most important to the least important and therefore these issues have given rise to the third worlds struggles for a free and balanced flow of news.
The diagram below by (Domatob, 1994) illustrates the quantitative and qualitative forms of imbalance in the global media about Africa