THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Many 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 18^th 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”