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The document discusses the dominance of Western media corporations in shaping global news and information flows. It argues that Western media largely control the international communication system and use it to promote their political and economic interests. The New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO) was proposed in the 1970s as a way to establish a more balanced global communication system and reduce the dominance and negative impacts of Western media. However, the proposal was controversial and criticized by Western nations who saw it as a threat to media freedom.
The document discusses the dominance of Western media corporations in shaping global news and information flows. It argues that Western media largely control the international communication system and use it to promote their political and economic interests. The New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO) was proposed in the 1970s as a way to establish a more balanced global communication system and reduce the dominance and negative impacts of Western media. However, the proposal was controversial and criticized by Western nations who saw it as a threat to media freedom.
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The document discusses the dominance of Western media corporations in shaping global news and information flows. It argues that Western media largely control the international communication system and use it to promote their political and economic interests. The New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO) was proposed in the 1970s as a way to establish a more balanced global communication system and reduce the dominance and negative impacts of Western media. However, the proposal was controversial and criticized by Western nations who saw it as a threat to media freedom.
Copyright:
Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Verfügbare Formate
Als DOC, PDF, TXT herunterladen oder online auf Scribd lesen
the world information and entertainment networks. These major corporations are the key players in shaping the direction of the media— news agencies, international newspapers, magazines, news and entertainment channels, radio, music, advertising, and film. The evidence suggests that the West dominates and controls the flow of news and information to the world and they have the ability to set the agenda of international communication. During the 80s, it was believed that the West has controlled the international flow of communication only but, now, with the expansion of television, the globalization of the western way of life is the main concern. Though, there are more producers of information and images like India, China and some other Asian countries but the global flow of information between Africa, Latin America and Asia is still mediated by content provided by the Western news agencies. They share information, visuals and even journalists. The corporate nature of the global media affects the content and sometimes the broadcasters themselves exercise self-censor when dealing with sensitive issues.
Information is power in framing and shaping
the foreign policies and the flow of information to the system is used just like other tools are used in this regard. The radio waves and television screen are used to promote their viewpoint. They redefined their public diplomacy for their national and international interests. They do not care if such shaping and reshaping of the content jeopardize the interests of other nations. Wars in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan were sold out across the world by the Western media but the reality was not told. Majority of the facts were presented in the twisted form to secure their interests at the cast of other nations’ interests. The drama of weapons of mass destruction was played successfully. The war against terror is being successfully marketed. To serve these purposes, information is fully controlled and censored. The American media discuss the military policy of the government but the journalists rarely criticize these military interventions in the light in the UN charter. The use of NATO forces in Afghanistan is the clear violation of its constitution but the matter was tone down in the Western media. The media always extend full support to the foreign policy and military adventures of the US State Department and Pentagon. The media paint these military interventions as the introduction of democracy and helping the masses against their undemocratic rulers. They never discuss that their governments are fully supporting the Kings, the Royals and dictators in the Muslim World. They never tell the world that the war against terror in the war of occupation of the natural resources of the poor nations. Similarly, they provide full justification to the war against Palestine and never condemn Israel for its barbaric actions against humanities.
The New World Information and
Communication Order (NWICO) The protagonist of the NWICO believed that the international information system has strengthened inequality in the economic and socio-political development. The developing countries are heavily dependent on the technologically advanced countries for soft and hardware in the information sectors. Leaders of the Third World argued that through their control of information channels, the Western media were giving the distorted view of their countries. The existing information order has created negative effects on the economy and society of the developing countries. Their demands were expressed by Tunisian Information Minister, Mustapha Masmoudi. The main points were as follows: 1. socio-technological imbalances has developed one way flow of information which created a wide gap between the poor and the rich countries; 2. the information rich countries are in a position to dictate their terms and conditions on the poor countries, creating severe socioeconomic and political implications for poor countries; 3. the vertical flow of information was imposed by the Western transnational corporations; 4. information was treated by the transnational media as a commodity; 5. the existing international information order has expedited inequality resulting a new form of colonialism. Masmoudi believed that events in the developing countries are reported by transnational media. They transmit the information to developing countries after filtering, cutting and distorting and impose their own version of the event upon them. These problems were also identified by other scholars who evaluated the international information system. They pointed out that the existing information system projects the economic and political interests of the West.
The proposal for NWICO came from a
series of meeting on the Non-Aligned Movement, especially Algiers and Tunis. An agreement was signed with UNESCO in 1978 and General Assembly of the United Nations adopted a resolution in favor of the proposal. As a result, in 1979 the International Commission for the study of communication problems was set up. The commission submitted its report to UNESCO in 1980 that brought information and communication related issues on the world agenda.
The MacBride Commission
The International Commission for the study of communication problems under the chairmanship of Sean MacBride occupies a prominent place in the debate regarding NWICO. The commission report commonly known as MacBride Report provided justification for a new global information order. The commission was formed in response to resolution passed by UNESCO in 1976 and took four years to submit its report in 1980. The commission had 16 members and was established to study four main aspects of global communication: 1. the current state of the world communication; 2. the problems surrounding a free and balanced flow of information and how the needs of the developing countries link with the flow; 3. how a NWICO could be created; and 4. how the media could become a vehicle for educating public opinion about the world problems.
The report created a heated controversy
because it had legitimized the recommendation and establishment of the NWICO. It built a case against the Western wire services for their distorted coverage of the Third World. The report generated high level interest of the international community that provided more insights to the problems. The most important recommendations were those dealing with democratization of communication. The commission agreed that democratization is impeded by undemocratic political systems, bureaucratic administration, technology controlled and understood only by a few.
The report pointed out that the freedom for
the rich had undesirable consequences for the poor and called for the abolition of censorship. The report suggested self- censorship by the communicators themselves. The report was critical of the constraints imposed by commercialization, pressure from advertisers and concentration of the ownership of the media. It criticized the growth of transnational corporation and made it responsible for one way flow of information. The report also criticized some transnational media corporations which were reluctant to open up flow to share scientific and technological information to educate the audiences. The commission charged that in the guise of freedom of expression and flow of information, some governments and transnational media undermine the internal stability and integrity of the other countries that disturb their national development.
The MacBride report received a mixed
response. The Third World communication leaders welcomed the report while the West criticized it. The American based news organizations and international media was critical and thought that it is a subjective view about flow of information. They believed that it was biased towards the private ownership of the media and communication. The UNESCO passed a resolution demanding the implementation of the report. The resolution proposed: 1. elimination of the imbalance and inequalities in information which characterize the present situation; 2. elimination of negative effects of the communication monopoly; 3. improvement in the free flow of information among the nations; 4. plurality of sources and channels of information; 5. increasing the capacity of the developing countries to improve their own situation; 6. the devotion of the developed countries to help them attain these objectives; 7. respect for each other’s cultural identity.
The West believed that the new information
order is a Soviet inspired model of flow of news. It is designed to control the mass media through state authority. They thought that this idea is basically in conflict with the liberal Western values and the principle of flow of information. Its opponents argue that NWICO was a pretext for the Third World dictators to harm media freedom, impose censorship and keep away foreign journalists from covering the events in the Third World region. The West contended that the slogan of cultural self- determination, media imperialism and regulation was designed to control channels of communication. The West maintained that they were reporting the reality of the life in the Third World—political instability, economic backwardness, natural disasters. They criticized the role of UNESCO in producing and promoting of this report. The West media viewed the NWICO demands of national communication policy and democratization of communication as increasing the state powers to intervene the flow of news and the exclusion of the foreign press. To summarize the argument and debate against NWICO put forward by the Western governments and the media reveals that the debate was examined only in terms of curtailing freedom of the press by the Third World governments.
(International Political Economy Series) Steen Fryba Christensen, Li Xing (Eds.) - Emerging Powers, Emerging Markets, Emerging Societies - Global Responses-Palgrave Macmillan UK (2016) PDF