World News Flow

WORLD NEWS FLOW
WORLD/INTERNATIONAL MEDIA:
The media refers to the various channels of communication e.g radio ,television ,newspaper
,magazines ,journals, books, news letters etc. The world media therefore, refers to the channel
of mass communication with a global reach . They are media that can beam and transmit
information to a large and diverse international audience beyond their national frontiers .
WORLD/GLOBAL/INTERNATIONAL NEWS FLOW :

Global news flow (also referred to as international news flow) is a field of study that deals with
the news coverage of events in foreign countries. It describes and explains the flow of news
from one country to another.
Studies on global news flow typically attempt to understand why certain countries are more
newsworthy than others.. Along the years it has been found that the economic power of
countries plays a particularly crucial role in their news prominence as well as the presence of
international news agencies . ]Thus, the US has been found to be very prominent in news
mentions around the world (18%), followed by China, Western European and Middle Eastern
countries (about 3-5% each).
The unequal representation of the world and the under-representation of developing countries
have been already of a great concern at least since the 1950s, since they influence the way
people perceive the world and the image of countries.] This problem was later addressed in the
MacBride report, and his set of recommendations for a New World Information and
Communication Order. The unequal representation of the world has been also linked to the
World System Theory, and the unequal economic structure of the world.
Recent empirical studies show that among online news websites and news aggregators the
unequal representation of the world has been perpetuated and even further intensified.
Economically powerful countries, as well as their opponent countries (mainly in the Middle East
and Asia) get the most news coverage around the world.
ISSUES AND DEBATES:
INTRODUCTION
The debate over the role of information and communication in developing countries was never so intense before the
Second World War. During the two decades which followed questions were raised on the imbalance pertaining to
global news flow and later on, in other forms of media. During the 1970s, centre stage was given to the concerns
about communication in ‘development’ of a nation. It would be crucial to note that this was a period of changing
international political set-up and shifting of power. Many countries which were being decolonized and the prevailing
‘developing’ countries echoed similar demands regarding the bias existing in favour of the Western countries in
terms of news, information and communication technology.
UNDERSTANDING THE NWICO DEBATE

“The domination endured by the poor of the world as a result of oppression by the powerful is a reality that degrades
the whole of humankind as such. Hope for equality and justice is at the root of the struggle of every social group for
the well-being of its members.”
The above statement defines the concerns of the Third World countries which led to a calling for a New World
Information and Communication Order (NWICO) during the 1970s. It was mainly initiated by the countries of the
Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) who later raised it the General Assembly of the United Nations. During 1970s the
domination of global media and information industry by a handful of transnational giants raised serious concerns
about the injustice and imbalance prevailing in the processing of world information. Simply put, ‘The legal debate
over the NWICO centers on the differences between the U.S. position that a free and unfettered flow of information
is an established international legal principle, and the NWICO proponents' belief that a government balanced flow of
information is permitted by international law’. . There existed disparities between developed and developing
countries, regional disparities, one-way flow, vertical flow, market dominance, distortion of content, cultural
alienation, barriers to democratization, lack of critical awareness and lack of cooperation between nations when it
came to communication and information sector. These problems were recognised and pointed out later in the
MacBride Report titled Many Voices, One World (1980) published by UNESCO, which identified all these problems
and the MacBride commission came up with recommendations.
The NWICO debate had three stages. The first stage (1973-1976) demanded ‘the establishment of a free and
balanced flow of information and rejected any attempt at cultural colonialism’ . This was when the term NWICO
had not emerged and it was called NIIO (New International Information Order). The first phase of NWICO was
criticized to be very ideology-driven . The second stage (1976-1979) of the debate was the most important one. It
was during this phase when the theoretical paradigms of the first stage were researched upon and a connection
between ideology and ‘reality’ in the world order was established, much to the displeasure of the developed
countries. It was actually the third phase which gave a concrete shape to this debate with UNESCO publishing the
MacBride Report in 1980. There were sixteen international experts in the MacBride commission which were
‘largely representative of the world’s political, economics and geographic spectrum- had been asked to study no less
than “the totality of communication problems in modern societies”’ . MacBride report placed the communication at
the centre of development process for any developing country. It stated that “development strategies should
incorporate communication policies as an integral part in the diagnosis of needs and in design and implementation of
selected priorities. In this respect communication should be considered a major development source, a vehicle to
ensure real political participation in decision-making, a central information base for defining policy options, and an
instrument for creating awareness of national priorities”
The basic demands of the NWICO were the four Ds- Democratization, Decolonization, Demonopolization and
Development.
‘1. News flows are castigated as “one-way flows”, and measures to ensure a more equitable balance of news flows
between countries are demanded (Democratization).
2. The ’one-way flow’ and misrepresentations are interpreted to reflect a lack of respect for the countries’ cultural
identities, a matter of great importance to the non-aligned countries (Decolonization).
3. The monopoly status of transnationalcorporations in terms of communications technology is perceived as a threat
to national independence (Demonopolization).
4. The vital role of mass media in the development process is underlined, and the non-aligned countries join together
to demand a more just distribution of communication resources in the world (Development).’

World News Flow

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WORLD NEWS FLOW

WORLD/GLOBAL/INTERNATIONAL NEWS FLOW :

UNDERSTANDING THE NWICO DEBATE

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