Toward a NWICO for the twenty-first century?

• Author: Mowlana, Hamid
• Position: New World Information and Communication Order - Power of the Media in the Global System

The rampant quest today for a so-called new world order is not new to contemporary international relations. In particular, the technologies and institutions of communication that have become so central to world politics and economics over the last couple of decades have fundamentally altered the nature and sources of power and influence, both domestically and internationally. Clearly, a new global order of information and communication has emerged -- but whose order is it?

There has been much discussion -- in academia, in government and among the mass media -- as to whether the faster transmission of greater volumes of information that occurs through the global media today has in fact brought the peoples and nations of the world closer together. For example, many argue that the simultaneous, instantaneous and worldwide broadcasts of such images as bombs falling on Baghdad during the 1991 Persian Gulf War, or U.S. Marines storming the beaches of Somalia in December 1992, have begun to increase and more equally distribute the world's communication resources. This would represent the realization, at least in part, of Marshall McLuhan's "global village," in which everyone in the world system has the opportunity to listen and be heard through an international communications network that can be accessed by all.(1)

Yet despite the technological and scientific developments in communications -- including the tremendous growth of information hardware and software over the last several decades -- the majority of residents of this global village are deprived of even the most basic tools of modern communication, information and knowledge. They live in degrading conditions of illiteracy, disease, hunger, unemployment and malnutrition. This paradox is well-captured by J.V. Vilanilam:

If there were 100 residents in this global village, only one would

get the opportunity for education beyond school level, 70 would

be unable to read and write. Over 50 would be suffering from

malnutrition, and over 80 would live in sub-standard housing. Six

of the 100 would hold off the entire income of the village. How

would these six live in peace with their neighbors without arming

themselves to the teeth and supplying arms to those willing to fight

their side?(2) Far from the ideal of a global village composed of equitable partners, the village as it exists in reality appears more to be a hierarchy of chiefs.

The persistence and even worsening of this situation in many less-developed countries (LDCs) forces the question: Who is benefiting from the communication advances of the late twentieth century? A serious examination of the emerging technologies, their ownership and influence are needed to assess the extent of this new world order.

"MANY VOICES, ONE WORLD": THE NWICO DEBATE

During the 1970s, calls for a New International Economic Order (NIEO) and a New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO) were the hallmarks of an international debate in the United Nations and its specialized agencies, as well as among non-governmental organizations (NGOs) active in the fields of economics and the media. The main protagonists and promoters of that debate were members of the Non-Aligned Movement, including most LDC governments and numerous intellectuals. These parties demanded a more equitable share of the world's economic and communication resources -- particularly increased democratization of the media and more equal access by the world's "many voices" -- in light of a fundamental imbalance in the North-South information flow and the growing disparity between the rich and the poor. The non-Western and less-industrialized countries resented Western domination of radio, television, film and satellite communication. Their demands included more equal distribution of the world's limited radiofrequencies; reduced international postal rates for magazines, books and newspapers; preferential telecommunications tariffs; less restrictive copyright laws; protection against possible direct broadcast satellite intrusion; and rejection of the attitude that media are commercial products, rather than instruments for development. These demands, however, largely fell victim to the superpower rivalries of the Cold War, as well as the overwhelming opposition of the private, commercial media and information industries -- all of which dictated adherence to the status quo.(3)

The NWICO proposals also encountered enormous hostility from the United States and other Western nations, who saw them as a threat to the ideals of the unrestricted flow of information and the free market, as well as an unacceptable form of state intervention in and control over international communication.(4) The arguments of NWICO's supporters were also distorted by the mainstream Western media, who struggled to coalesce their commercial self-interests with their traditionally free-market, liberal philosophies concerning the appropriate direction for world communication. Within the field of information and communication, the debate ultimately resulted in the withdrawal of the United States and the United Kingdom from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Several lessons can be drawn from this early NWICO debate. First, it crystallized the natural reaction of the world's major economic and political actors to resist any genuine change in the global order, if such change threatened their dominance over the world's vital resources. Second, the state-centric argument for creating a new world order -- popular during the 1970s and 1980s -- is not sufficient in an era of increasing global interdependency, although basic reforms must begin at the national level with a comprehensive communication policy. Third, the mobilization and participation of NGOs, individuals and the other components that make up civil society are vital elements for any world order that seeks legitimacy -- and hence the ability to cope with the realities of complex global interactions.

THE NWICO LEGACY

In the two decades since the NWICO challenge was first posed, the changes that then appeared impossible to many are now a part of everyday life. The world continues to witness a social transformation that cannot be explained merely by orthodox political and economic theories of social or developmental change. In this era of challenging and chaotic digital transformation, human relations and international...