International Flow Of Information Research Articles

Regulation of international information flows

Abstract International information flows are receiving increased attention in the media. Perhaps inevitably with such a complex issue, press reports are frequently sensational, with facts, opinions, and concerns so mixed that it is hard for the public to separate them. What this article attempts to do is just that—to separate the issue into its component parts, indicating what is fact, what is planned, and what is merely speculation. At least 25 national governments are currently considering the issue of international information flows. Most of the interest stems from legislative attempts by national governments to extend the protection given personal data within their territories to personal data transmitted abroad.

U.S. coverage of the Iran crisis: an assessment

The credo of the American press to publish “all that’s fit to print” somehow falls flat in its treatment of the Iran Crisis. Uniting behind the nation, the American media has been churning out not hard news, but rather the prejudices of the people toward an Eastern culture. There is no responsible reporting; only opinions. These same biases are not confined within American borders, but are disseminated by the major (American) wire services. The man in the developing country arguing for a more balanced international flow of information needs no other proof of imbalanced flow and biases than to read the local newspapers carrying these reports.

Free flow of information: Myths and shibboleths

It is generally believed that the problem of international flow of information assumed importance and started attracting the attention of the UN and its agencies after the end of World War II.1 But the story began at least two years earlier. Schiller suggests that the genesis of the doctrine 'no barriers should prevent the flow of information among nations' is roughly conterminous with 'US global hegemony'.2 According to Schiller the concurrent emergence of 'the policy of free flow of information and the imperial ascendancy of the United States' was not fortuitous, the first element being a prerequisite for the second. By 1943 the US could see itself emerging from the conflict 'physically unscathed and economically overpowering'.3 The horrors of Nazi occupation and the Fascistic deployment of the mass media made the times particularly propitious to advance the concept of freedom of expression as an antidote to 'the indoctrination of national thought in the direction of hatred and mistrust'. Free flow of information thus came to be associated with hopes for peace and rehabilitation. The British controlled the oceanic cables at the time. It was their 'administrative and business organisation of news and information which held the colonial system together', promoting its advantages and insulating it from external assault. The Americans, therefore, had to penetrate the British worldwide communications network, and free flow of information was the instrument which they selected to dislodge the British from their dominant position. Soon the lines were drawn between Associated Press (AP) and Reuters. In a language remarkably similar to current Third World rhetoric, Kent Cooper, the AP Executive Manager claimed that by precluding the American agency from

Computers and the International flow of information

The extension of data protection regulation from the national to the international level raises a large number of questions. The object of regulation and the beneficiaries of protective measures are not the same in all countries; yet some form of harmonization must be achieved. Placed in a wider geographical perspective the problem has at the same time gained an important historical dimension. Data protection, although set into motion by the computer revolution, is a matter that does not hinge on computer technology alone; nor should the impact of data protection regulation in other fields including the relations between developed and developing nations be neglected.

Theoretical Considerations in Predicting Volume and Direction of International Information Flow

Theoretical Considerations in Predicting Volume and Direction of International Information Flow

Foreign Capital in Economic DevelopmentForeign Capital and Economic Development: Japan, India and Canada. Nurul Islam

The rate and pattern of economic development of less developed economies has been, and may be influenced by developments in other countries, or by changes in the means of economic, social and political intercourse with these countries: for instance, by changes in incomes or productivity abroad, in the facilities for or obstacles to foreign trade, or in factors relating to the international movement of productive resources, such as labor or capital. Less obvious, but very important, is the influence exerted through the international flow of information. Thus, information about organized action of labor or other groups, real incomes, and standards and patterns of living in more advanced or progressing economies may significantly affect the desire for economic development, incentives, rates and patterns of income growth, and saving-income ratios. And the flow of technological, commercial and business information may in various ways facilitate economic growth.

International Exchange of Scientific Information

RECENTLY the State Department issued the results of an advisory survey on Science and Foreign Relations which was concerned primarily with the international flow of scientific and technical information. This survey was conducted under Lloyd V. Berkner of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, who had been appointed special consultant to the Secretary of State. The State Department had requested this survey to advise on international science polity procedure and as to what might be done in improving the State Department's position in science. The Hoover report indicated inclusion of science in the State Department program; this survey was partially in response to that suggestions. The Berkneir report fully recognizes that under the existing organization and operation of the State Department, there have been difficulties with respect to the handling of international scientific problems. The solution proposed is that there should be no change in the existing structure of the operating functions of the Sta...