World Information Order Research Articles

“New World Information Order” Battle between Developed and Developing Countries—Analysis from the Perspective of “Cultural Imperialism”

“New World Information Order” Battle between Developed and Developing Countries—Analysis from the Perspective of “Cultural Imperialism”

Development News in Botswana, Zimbabwe and Malawi

DOES development communication flourish in Botswana, Zimbabwe and Malawi? Have official controls, direct or indirect, brought about a clear development communication policy in these countries? This article provides some empirical research into the radio, television and print media and tentatively finds that, despite the recommendations of the New World Information Order that the media pursue a national development policy, there still exist some elements of a 'free Press', that the Western democratic concept of Press freedom is not yet dead.

Educational Imperialism: Phantom India and The Non-Aligned Movement’s New World Information Order, 1969-1980

This article explores how the BBC’s new educational format, the BBC-2 docu-series, became consequential to global politics in the “long” 1970s. While educational television in the U.S. has long been an issue of contention among liberal and conservative political factions, European educational television was often understood by European legislators and media scholars as central to public broadcasting. This paper challenges such assumptions by uncovering 1970s debates over media ownership. In June 1970, the BBC showcased its new documentary series, <em>Phantom India</em> to much disapproval from the Indian state and the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). In response to the <em>Phantom India</em> affair, the NAM established its Commission for Broadcasting in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia in 1976. And yet, this article shows how ideological inconsistencies between Yugoslav broadcasting and its foreign policy undermined the NAM’s efforts to truly challenge Western media hegemony. Through close textual analysis and archival research, I offer a new understanding of educational television in the 1970s as a battleground for political and cultural dominance in the, then, faltering liberal world-system.

Free Flow versus Fair Flow: Revisiting the New World Information and Communication Order debates in the global era

This study reexamines the political and cultural dimensions of the New World Information and Communication Order debates, which were hosted by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization during the height of the Cold War. By both revealing stakes of – and enacting the values underpinning – the contest between the ‘free flow’ and ‘fair flow’ models of the press, these debates helped determine the eventual trajectory of the globalization of journalism. After an historical review which synthesizes contemporaneous press coverage and scholarly accounts, the author offers an analysis which emphasizes the disparate cultural commitments and the ‘performance’ of opposition by various actors (including journalists, academics, and government officials) on each side of the debate. Although there has been significant scholarly inquiry into the New World Information and Communication Order debates and the ‘MacBride Report’ which emerged from them, much of the previous research has focused each side’s distinct political or economic interests. By examining these debates through the lens of culture, this study illuminates the competing opinions, attitudes, and beliefs which contributed to the United States’ withdrawal in protest from the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (and to its reentry 20 years later) and the rise of international press freedom advocacy organizations. At a moment when elected leaders in the United States are once again ambivalent regarding their commitment to international institutions and their leadership position within international press freedom advocacy, this historical analysis offers an instructive account of a past breakdown in official diplomacy and revisits the values underpinning Western ideals of press freedom.

Geo-Political Dimensions of Brics: An Emergent Requirement of Strengthening New World Information Order in a Changing Global Landscape to Rebalance the Global Communication Order

Geo-Political Dimensions of Brics: An Emergent Requirement of Strengthening New World Information Order in a Changing Global Landscape to Rebalance the Global Communication Order

Social media and the nation state: of revolution and collaboration

This article examines the legal infrastructure of social media governance in the politically contested context of contemporary Turkey. It looks at how social media companies (specifically, Twitter and Facebook (FB)) and the nation state (Turkey) have negotiated power in the aftermath of Gezi Uprising in Summer 2013. I argue that while today’s concerns regarding online surveillance might echo the calls for a new world information order of the 1970s, the world system model based on the core–periphery distinction has considerably changed. The useful insights of cultural imperialism fall short of explaining the geopolitical context within which Turkey finds itself in the aftermath of the Arab Uprisings and the sub-imperial relations within which she struggles to establish hegemony in the region. Findings suggest that the Turkish state tries hard to establish the legal and material infrastructure for these companies’ operations. FB is more open to cooperation with the nation state, while Twitter has chosen to legally negotiate with the government. There also seems to be major risk for activists given the contradictory articulation of nation state and corporate interests.

Demystifying the Empowerment Virtues of the New Digital World Information Order

Despite being highly ambiguous, the vocabulary of empowerment has been used recurrently since the early 2000s for celebrating the emancipatory potential of digital technologies. Indeed, these have been repeatedly described as having the power of bypassing the controls that authoritarian governments exert on the circulation of news, but also of circumventing the domination that corporate actors exercise in this field.Basing this article on a discussion of the literature on news transnationalisation and adopting a historical perspective, we try here to critically assess these technology-deterministic perspectives. We show that they emphasise the virtues of the new digital platforms without taking into account the constraints of the political economy that still play a great role in shaping the circulation of news at an international scale.

English

&nbsp; Based on semi-structure interviews and secondary data, this paper examines the westernization of audiences - among other phenomena - as a serious challenge to the indigenization paradigm in Nigeria in particular and Africa as a whole. It pragmatically argues that this westernization of local audiences theoretically implies the shaping of media output (programming) according to audience interest which, unarguably, is progressively in favor of foreign content. Though commending the indigenization model &ndash; for representing a pertinent strategy for curbing the rampaging awful effects of cultural/media imperialism -, the paper argues that the &ldquo;cloning&rdquo; of Nigerian audiences into westerners theoretically calls for the instauration of a model of programming that is rather more inclined to heavy foreign media content. This is in line with the fact that, in principle, audience interest is a more cardinal and decisive factor in shaping media content and programming. The paper goes further to recommend moves towards &ldquo;de-westernizing&rdquo; and &ldquo;(re)enculturating&rdquo; Nigerian audiences. These moves would consist of a network of well planned cultural activities involving other influential social institutions such as religious and education institutions and the family. Through these activities Nigerian audiences may be sensitized to the necessity of conserving their authentic cultural identity (their &ldquo;Nigerianness&rdquo;/ &ldquo;Nigerianity&rdquo;) and resist their &ldquo;cloning&rdquo; into westerners or Americans. Such resistance would make Nigerian audience ready consumers of local media content. &nbsp; Key words:&nbsp;Westernization, media/cultural imperialism, indigenization model, world information order, audience Interest.

Pattern of Media Practice in Post - NWICO : The Implication for Nigeria under Democratic Dispensation

No doubt, the New World Information and Communication Order was a failure on the part of the developing countries, the Post New World Information Order has taken media practice to another heights. The paper is an empirical study of the trends of media practice in Nigeria with emphasis on democratic dispensation. The study made use of in-depth interview of practicing journalists from broadcast and print media houses. The finding from these media practitioners revealed that with the emergence of democracy in 1999, media practice in Nigeria witnessed series of changes which include: the establishment of more F.M stations; the commercialization and privatization of media services; the use of computer and internet technology in radio, television, and print media houses; the commercialization of news; the continuous sustenance of the News Agency of Nigeria as purveyor of Nigeria Foreign Policy; the emergence of entrepreneurship practice in Nigeria media; the passage of Freedom of Information Act ; and the use of smart phones as tool of news reporting and writing.

Book Review: American Journalism and International Relations: Foreign Correspondence from the Early Republic to the Digital Era, by Dell’orto Giovanna

Dell'orto Giovanna American Journalism and International Relations: Foreign Correspondence from the Early Republic to the Digital Era. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013. 287 pp.To many journalism students, Edward R. Murrow's universally recognized voice- . . . is London-can always remind us of the heyday of American cor- respondence shining in crucial moments of events. For many scholars of international communication, the UNESCO debate on foreign news flow and New World Information Order in the 1980s still looms large in memory. Nostalgia may dispose one to lament the diminishing role played by foreign correspondents within international relations in the digital era.The decline of international newsgathering by professionals over the past fifteen years, in particular for newspapers, is disheartening. According to American Journalism Review (AJR), the number of foreign correspondents employed by U.S. newspapers has markedly decreased since AJR's first census in 1998. AJR identified 307 full-time foreign correspondents and pending assignments in 2003, which decreased to 234 in 2011. As for broadcasting, networks' airtime for foreign news has been in free fall over the years, with only the exception of National Public Radio.1 The industry has been so pessimistic about foreign correspondence that few find phrases like demise of the foreign correspondent2 and death of the American foreign correspondent3 exaggerating.While scholars and professionals continue debating the role of foreign correspon- dence in news production and broadly, in international affairs, the handover of owner- ship of one of the most prestigious newspapers known for its coverage of international news and foreign affairs and policies-The Washington Post-may evoke more thoughts on the future of foreign correspondence and the importance of international news in international relations, if it is not yet an end of an era.Against this backdrop, Dell'orto Giovanna's newly published book provides a unique and timely investigation of the evolving role of journalism in international rela- tions. Emphasizing discourses in news media tell us about sociocultural mean- ings about the rest of the world (p. 26), this book aims to unravel the complicated interplay between news media and foreign affairs.Taking a constructivist perspective on international relations, communication, and journalism, this book features a careful discourse analysis of more than 2,000 news articles covering twenty crucial global events over 150 years to answer such central questions as, What foreign news has been covered and what discourses of the have emerged in the American press? How do th[e] images [of foreign countries and the world] compare with U.S. foreign policies contemporary to them? And how does the understanding of the shape both media coverage and actual policies? (p. 26).The extensive historical research conducted in this book convincingly supports the author's core argument that the press has always been indispensable in international affairs; it offers a public arena where the American audience and politicians can make sense of foreign nations, the as well as the United States's global role. The per- ceived foreign or international realities shaped by news media consequently serve as the basis for policy and action (p. 1).Four chapters are chronologically organized to report the findings of discourse analysis covering four defining periods of time, from 1848 to 2008, guided by the aforementioned essential research questions. Specifically, Chapter 2 focuses on five consequential events that took place in foreign countries between 1848 and 1900. Media discourses, as the author pinpoints, parallel Washington's growing involve- ment in affairs . . . and the establishment of the United States as a global power (p. 35). Chapter 3 emphasizes five major international events from 1910 through 1937 when the United States took the global central stage. …

Comparing the United Kingdom's Guardian newspaper with its co-owned South African Mail & Guardian Online: Towards productive global north–south collaborations in the digital world information order

This article highlights how one online news organisation in the global south, with no more than three staff and no foreign correspondents, strategically used multiple wire service feeds to successfully cover a significant story more comprehensively than its better-endowed co-owner. It compares the timeliness and comprehensiveness of coverage of this century's first genocide in Darfur, Sudan, by the United Kingdom's Guardian (UKG) and its co-owned South African Mail & Guardian Online (MGO). Despite the 3 000 miles distance between Darfur and Johannesburg, its lack of foreign reporters and few staff, the MGO covered the Darfur crisis earlier, with better attention to detail and specifics. The MGO staff expressed surprise at their more comprehensive coverage, and credited the clarity that came from their primary gatekeeping focus on Africa as the reason.

Documentation Under Duress: The Joint Conference of the International Federation for Documentation (FID) and the Association of Special Libraries and Information Bureaux (ASLIB), Oxford–London, 1938

A joint conference of the International Federation for Documentation (FID) and Aslib (the British Association of Special Libraries and Information Bureaux) was held in Oxford and London in late September 1938. It attracted large numbers of international delegates and a cast of distinguished speakers from the world of documentation, as well as celebrities such as H. G. Wells. It is now mainly remembered because it coincided with the “Munich” crisis (September 15–30, 1938), a context that apparently caused great tension among delegates, especially in relation to the substantial contingent from Nazi Germany. However, this article, following a detailed analysis of conference presentations and debates, observes that it also marked something of a turning point in the history of documentation itself. The project of the early twentieth-century documentalists—the “universe of knowledge” and its international mobilization—was called into serious question by some speakers; a state of affairs intensified by the disintegration of international relations outside the conference doors. In the end, this article argues, the Oxford conference heralded the emergence of a new, mid–twentieth-century world information order shaped during World War II and focusing upon the primacy of national (and later) commercial interests. In 1938, the dreams and schemes of Wells, Otlet, and their followers began to be recognized, for the time being at least, as the illusions that maybe they always were.

Whatever happened to Tanjug? Re-loading memory for an understanding of the global news system

What became of Tanjug, the once celebrated Yugoslavian news agency, first coordinator of the Non-Aligned News Agencies Pool, and major point of reference for the New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO) debates of the 1970s? The authors explore a service that offered alternative perspectives to those of news agencies of the major powers. Tanjug’s alternative service prefigured the NWICO debates by two decades. It achieved news coups of considerable relevance to the narrative of Cold War conflict. Tanjug’s history prior to and in the wake of NWICO is insufficiently registered in media scholarship. It continued to provide an alternative news service up to the disintegration of both the Soviet bloc and of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. The agency has survived even these setbacks, successfully accommodating the more limited and in some ways more conventional options available to a national news agency of a fairly small country.

Discourses in International Information Society Policy Before the World Summit on the Information Society

The paper analyses and describes the content and the evolution of the policy discourse on the Information Society in the period between the New World Information and Communication Order and the World Summit on the Information Society. It shows how two different streams of policy discourse were born at the time of the NWICO – one on the Information Society and the other one on questions of communication and media – and describes the evolution of the first during the 1990s. Adopting a neo-liberal approach, the discourse on the Information Society emerged in the North and gradually rose up to a more global level. At the same time the discussion moved away from a debate purely about infrastructures towards a debate on the role of information and knowledge in the economy, in development and in processes of social change. The paper concludes with some reflections on the WSIS and open questions about the actual convergence of the two streams during that time.

Public broadcasting in Finland: Inventing a national television programming policy

For a quarter century, Finland's artists, academics, and legislators have attempted to make national public television both an instrument of Finnish culture and an intellectual medium for educating its audience. These goals are similar to principles of the New World Information Order, whose policies were designed to help non‐industrialized Third World countries resist the cultural imperialism fostered by modern communication technologies. The advent of new technologies and new economic imperatives, as the country enters the information age, has led to modification of these goals.

Nigerian silent majorities

: In the clamour for a new world information and communication order (NWICO), extensive scholarly attention has been given to international disparities and their effects. But national and domestic issues have only been mentioned, when at all, in passing. This article attempts to investigate the possibility of there being a domestic dimension to the world imbalance. The daily news bulletins of four Nigerian broadcast stations were monitored for three months and analysed. The result shows that a very minute proportion of news (7.1%) deals with rural areas and rural issues. Even this little fraction is one-way information to and not from rural people. About one-third of the rural news is decontextualised. All these point to the need to tackle the quest for a new order on the home front as well.

Modernisation or participatory development: the emerging divide in journalist training for conflict-affected societies

The field of media development, as an intervention in conflict-affected societies, is both growing, and divided. This article identifies and discusses some emerging divisions in the sub-field of journalist training. On the one hand is a ‘modernisation’ approach, geared towards the implantation of western-style precepts and methods for reporting conflicts. On the other is a critical pedagogical approach intended to enable participatory media development. In the latter, ‘minority world journalism’ is effectively problematised, especially around assumptions about the role of the journalist vis-à-vis conflict and whether it is proper, permissible and/or practically possible for editors and reporters to set out to contribute to peace. The contestation this divide has occasioned partly recapitulates the UNESCO media debate of the late 1970s and early 1980s. The concept of peace journalism is now attracting attention, both as a form of critical pedagogy in journalist training and as a potential rallying point for reviving calls for structural reform in the world information and communication order.

New Media for Social Change

This article explores the role of state in administering an effective cultural policy to cultivate the gaming industry in Asia and in shaping popular media in a global context. Theories of globalisation have focused on the dominance of transnational companies in fostering today's global politics as well as new world information order. This article explains the historical context of cultural policy in South Korea and Singapore. Online game industries in the two countries show different levels of state involvement. While state and local companies in South Korea serves as significant actors in shaping the dynamics of the local industry, in Singapore state and multinational companies play pivotal roles in the development. By focusing on these two divergent locations, this article aims to demonstrate the significance of localisation in determining online gaming industries globally.

The disaster—media—relief nexus

This guest editorial reviews the now well recognized interdependence of aid and journalism, especially television, and the ubiquity of marketing considerations for humanitarian agencies in their drive for profile and funds. The potentially democratizing technologies of the internet and the mobile phone, as well as noticeable advances in non‐Western communications media, have been hailed by some commentators as heralding a radical change. It is argued here, however, that the tensions exposed in the 1970s by the Unesco‐sponsored MacBride Report, and in the associated campaign for a‘New World Information Order’, were never resolved and remain deep‐seated. The article draws on Sidney Mintz's classic historical study of the production and consumption of sugar to propose that, in the political economy of disasters and relief aid, a continuous export flow of disaster imagery is processed by media organizations for consumption in the North, which reciprocates through the Southwards provision of aid. The banana industry, a market‐led oligopoly, is adduced as a provocative metaphor. Finally it is suggested that transnational NGOs and their anthropological advisers could now have a major role in challenging the dominant market‐oriented model of a global information society.

News Agencies and Global Communication: Development Implications for Third World Nations

This paper is fundamentally, an overview of western news agencies and the roles they play in international communication. It argues that most of these roles have some consequences undesirable to the Third World Nations. Instead of facilitating the development of the poor nations of the world, the study reveals that the major news agencies by their worldwide operations are impeding the development of the under-developed counties. The study therefore, indicts the major news agencies for being a clog in the developmental wheel of Third World Nations, pointing out that they conspire with other impeding factors to render fruitless, the collective developmental efforts of most of the developing countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America. It attributes to the news agencies such global issues as: the reduction of the world to a “global village”, cultural imperialism, ethnocentrism, media imperialism, media dependency, global agenda-setting and the imbalance in world information order. It concludes on a crying call with developing nations (including Nigeria) to look inward for their re-birth, re-generation, re-discovery and development.LWATI: A Journal of Contemporary Research Vol. 5 2008: pp. 413-428