DEPARTMENT OF MASS COMMUNICATION

AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA

COURSE CODE;

MCOM 301

COURSE TITLE:

INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION

 

QUESTION:

Account for The Demand For A New World Communication Order Since The Cold War Ended In 1990

BY:

IBRAHIM SANI

U13MM1010

 

LECTURER:

DR. USMAN JIMADA

 

MARCH, 2016

INTRODUCTION

Man naturally has the desire to share information and ideas with his fellow members of the society. Throughout history, several attempts have been made to accomplish this objective.

The invention of Gutenberg press in the 15^th century which gave rise to print media, the discovery of radio waves capable of conveying electrical impulses, which led to the development of radio and television in the late 19^th century, open a new dimension to “new media of mass communication”.

Since then, the global share of global information and communication became dominated by developed countries at the detriment of developing or third world societies. This led to the demand for “new world information and communication order.

 

HISTORY OF NEW WORLD INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ORDER

When Samuel Morse invented the telegraph as a speedy and instantaneous medium (then) of information dissemination, the cable network share globally became like a commodity of some few countries like Britain, France and United State. They occupied virtually hundred per cent of the cable global share.

News agencies were established in Europe by Germany, France and England who were and are still one of the major distributors of news globally.

The discovery of radio also is not an exception. Britain established BBC in 1927 mainly to propagate British war messages during the first and Second World War. Equally in 1944, U.S government founded Voice of America which sought to tell the world about America. Radio Moscow was also established by the defunct Soviet Union to spread communism ideology worldwide.

These countries used these media to dominate the flow of information in the international arena, not considering the right of other (developing) countries’ interest. There was imbalance in terms of sharing news and information as most of the information flow from the developed country, with little or no going back to them from developing countries. Hence, the world became bipolarized between the U.S-led west and the Soviet-led east.

Following dissatisfaction form this marginalization, imbalance and inequality, developing countries under the aegis of Non Aligned Movement, an amalgam of 55 developing countries, started clamoring for New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO).

In order to achieve this, UNESCO established an international commission saddled with the responsibility of studying global communication problems led by Sean MacBride.

Specifically, MacBride commission report (many voices, one world) summarized the following as the major communication problem of the world. It put forward 82 recommendations designed to bring about transformation in the world communication patterns, flows and infrastructure to benefit the developing world and the “free flow information”. They include:

● Imbalances and inequalities global information and communication share,

● Elimination of negative effects of certain monopolies, public or private and excessive concentration,

● Removal of internal and external obstacles to the free flow of information and wider and better balanced dissemination of information and ideas,

● Plurality of sources and channels of information,

● press freedom and information,

● Journalists’ freedom and all professionals in the communication media,

● Respect for each people’s cultural identity, and

● Respect for the right of all people to participate in international exchanges of information on the basis of equality, justice and mutual benefit.

The commission argued that in a situation where the means of information are dominated and monopolized by a few, freedom of information really comes to mean freedom of these few to propagate information in the manner of their choosing and the virtual denial to the rest of the right to inform and be informed objectively and accurately.

However, it has been argued that in the end, most of these recommendations were not carried out. NWICO movement died in 1990s after U.S and Britain withdrew from UNESCO in protest.

In spite of these, Nordenstrong (1993) believed that there has been somewhat balance by the introduction of new media of communication. He argued that this new medium provided for virtually all the recommendations of the MacBride’s commission report. Individual citizens, including those third world or under-developed countries can now send and receive information without interference globally.

 

REFERENCES

MacBride, S. et al (1980). Many voices, one world. Paris: The UNESCO

Masmoudi, M. (1979) “The new world information order” Journal of communication 29(2): 172-185.

Nordenstrong, K. & Schiller, H. I. (eds) (1993) Beyond national sovereignty: International communication in the 1990s. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.

Uche, L.U. (ed) (1996) North-south information culture: Trends in the global communication and research paradigms. Lagos: Longman.