The New World Information and Communication Order - Essay Example

NWICO - An International Debate on Culture By Devangini Mahapatra Chauhan The New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO) signifies a new order in the distribution of communication and news in context of the global village context. It also signifies the undercurrents of a debate over media representations of the developing world in UNESCO in the late 1970s and early 1980s, which is where it was born. The primary policies and strategies of the New World Information Communication Order have been described by the MacBride Commission in a report titled "Many Voices, One World". Therefore, the NWICO primarily stands for a movement towards equal global media representation for all countries. (Kirkpatrick, 2004. p 235 - 240) In this context, it has been held by people from various quarters that the Third World has been widely ignored on many counts that will be discussed through this essay. The West has been criticised for cultural domination in the operating values of the NWICO. This is a fact that comes across in role played by the U.S. when it comes to the creation and reproduction of this worldwide consumer society. This role might have reduced in significance, but there is still a strong American upper hand in the complementary institutions and the content that is transmitted. In terms of assessing the NWICO's stand regarding the third world criticisms of the cultural domination of the west, this essay tries to look at the justifications for such claims. Through a study of various examples from different areas, I will seek to discuss the options available to study and combat the disbursement of unequal information flow in terms of the results it reaps and the events it triggers. This paper will thus aim at an analysis of the conception of the Western strategy that is targeting the third world nations by giving them "false consolation". In this context, the third world maintains that the West is in reality not aware of the third world and continues to conduct itself as a superior power as far as industry, technology and culture are concerned. In this paper, I will resort to the use of terms like "Third World" and "developing coutries" without trying to sound subjective. Also, in this context the terms "centre" and "periphery" will be used to denote countries that enjoy more stable economies and a greater media presence. Origin of the Debate The debate revolving around unequal information flow in different corners of the globe first began in the 1970s. This was an overthrow of the demands by the Third World leaders for a New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO). At that time, these people tried to argue their case by stating that the control of major international information channels and sources is held tightly by the West and its media owing to which the rest of the world ends up being showcased along a disadvantageous line. (Reeves, 1993. p 25 to 44) With the concept of "de facto hegemony", the Tunisian Information Minister Mustapha Masmoudi based demands on the claims that West was ignorant of the aspirations and sentiments that shaped the events and trends in the developing world which led to transmission of information regarding any and every events in a way where emphasis was on the West. This resulted in the McBride Commission which laid down that each nation must have a platform to express itself in terms of relevant transmission of its interests, values and events, so as to command equal respect from all quarters. Therefore, it acknowledged the fact that the West and its monopoly over communication, paid attention only to the political instability and economic backwardness of the Third World. (Reeves, 1993. p 56 to 70) In response, Margaret Thatcher and Ronal Reagan led an attack on the possible reforms for international information flow models with the claim that the third world was simply a throw back on the Soviet syndrome. The fall of the Soviet Union led to a death of the debate. Finally in 1996, information ministers of several non-aligned nations were seen lobbying for a revival of the NWICO, in a bid to correct the distorted picture that the international media had presented of them. Symbols attached to Third World Representations Reports of ever widening discrepancies have been on the rise where quantity in Third World media coverage has been a source of great reasoning. While many blame the scarce nature of resources like time and space where it becomes virtually impossible to pay equal attention to every detail emanating from every corner of the world, there are others who believe that this works as a disadvantage where most people depend on mainstream media for their daily fill of news. This has left the third world in a constant fear that their interests will slip from public memory if there is inadequate coverage. With a highly selective team occupying most media counters, it is but natural that anything that has little or God forbid, nothing to do with the White House, is non existent. Similarly, only the aversion of a national security situation will give the third world a chance to be represented in the media. Further, war stories have become extremely popular - and extremely repetitive. The third world claims that the clientele of the news channel decides when a story is over - a clientele that hardly wants to see anything that has no representation of "white interests". This has led to various gaps in the understanding of third world cultures. This pattern of information flow observed between "centre" and "periphery" can also be found within the Third World where, the information about the developed countries put on the backburner where information about Hollywood comes in. Therefore, this has led to a situation where people in these countries know more about Hollywood and less about their own political scenario. Foreign Locations and Journalists With differing social realities, Western journalists have been regarded by the third world as unequipped to interpret and neutrally report events regarding the third world countries. The basic element of this criticism has to do with the justification that they are culturally impaired in the environment that is offered by most third world countries, thus making them susceptible to covering views that are only on the outside. Thus, the "centre" hardly has any journalists in these countries - with the major hubs being London and New York. This is true especially for military and natural disasters where both sides cannot be effectively covered due to non understanding of the cultures on the part of the journalists. News values This brings us to the qualitative aspect of news and communication flow. The patterns in the flow of information between as well as within the "centre" and the "periphery" have exposed a number of news values which determine the coverage enjoyed by the events in question. These factors include events that have a touch of negativity to credit to these countries, as well as culture driven stories that have a short life. Also, maximum importance is awarded to the perspective of the "elite" nations in terms of representing the "periphery" as they please. In the face of these kind of principles, the third world believes that its long term developments will go unnoticed as competition is won by mainstream media as it gathers maximum credibility on the basis of sensationalizing a story to the extent of giving it a negative twist. Thus, positive developments hardly thrill these people as the simplification of complex issues may also keep society and government from taking responsibility for anything. It has been asserted that the coverage of negative events is less time consuming and thus more desirable, in terms of the representation of various third countries as mere problem areas that the West needs to work on even in the face of impossibility of development. Therefore, whether it was the civil war in Angola or the refugee camps in Rwanda, the West used these opportunities to showcase the tribal rivalry angle to the living conditions. This brand of distortion gives the West to hide discrepancies in their own systems by focusing on the failures in the third world, and making them look like their failures are greater than anything the West could conceive. (Schiller, 1998. p 17 to 26) Therefore, anything that is a departure from the known boundaries of culturally motivated and commercialized stories will go unnoticed on account of being "too foreign". This stems from the fact that the white journalists will trust anything that is closer home - and with the lack of many "non white" journalists in the international media and information hubs, as discussed above, there is a desensitization of most issues that are important for the third world. (Tomlinson, 1991. p 33 to 54) In this regard, there are many facets to this trend of one-sided accounts of Third World events. The other factors include a need to showcase and present the perspectives of an elite audience - an audience that is more or less western. Apart from scarcity of time, space and budget, non availability of resources is an important factor. This simply furthers the cause of the elite west which is also dependant on certain schedules. This restricts them to consider office hours in Asia or elsewhere. As a result, the third world countries are being discussed without being given a voice to say anything back. In this regard, ignoring a story is blamed on non availability of official data on it. Thus, it has been observed that natural catastrophes that take place in these countries are not shown in light of the conditions arising from human error which lead to the same. As far as terrorism is concerned, the West simply ignores the fact that it has a role to play in the fact that Pakistan is being targeted by the Al Qaeda on account of being an "ally" to the US. Conclusion In conclusion, it would be imperative to note that the NWICO has various irregularities and the claims of the third world countries in this regard are not completely unfounded. Distortions are happening all the time with a focus on negative stories. This needs to be corrected with a stronger emphasis on the global village phenomenon to transgress boundaries like time and space in information flow patterns. A well balanced information flow model in this regard could consist of imperatives from the NWICO to include basic elements like a strengthening of the trust factor when it comes to local journalists as well as encouragement of the development of ideals connected to the public journalism movement. References: Kirkpatrick, J. (2004) 'Neo-conservatism as a Response to the Counter- Culture', pp.235-40 in I. Stelzer (ed.) Neo-conservatism. Atlantic. Reevs, G. (1993) Communication ad the 'Third World' London: Routledge. Cahps. 2 & 3. Schiller' H.I. (1998) 'Striving for communication dominance: a half-century review' pp. 17-26 in D.K Thussu (ed.) Electronic Empires. Arnold Tomlinson, J. (1991) Cultural Imperialism: A Critical Introduction. Pinter. Read More