An examination of the new world information order

The purpose of this study was to review and investigate some of the issues surrounding the New World Information Order. This review and investigation was conceived as a beginning to the end of an absence of serious study of the complaints of the lesser developed world concerning international mass communication. These complaints have been centered around the idea that the international channels of communication are biased in favor of technical and economic wealth. Critics of the order accuse its proponents of using its agruments to justify denying the people of the lesser developed world their right to freedom of information.

A review of the important events and literature sur rounding the New World Information Order was conducted and presented in the form of a literature review. A content analysis of three principle newspapers in the Federal Republic of Nigeria was conducted to verify or prove false the charges of the New World Information Order proponents that the lesser developed countries are awash in a flood of information, particularly from the Western bloc of industrial nations.

The literature review showed that the pivitol document in the New World Information Order was the Report of Commission International Communication of the United Nations Educational, The report, dubbed the MacBride Report, made eighty suggestions for further study and change in international mass communication. These suggestions included the licensing of journalists and international rights of reply and rectification. The content analysis indicated that the newspapers in Nigeria do not reprint automatically the information circulated by the West.

The content analysis also suggested the existence of Bonds of Association" between nations. These bonds were links II of interest between nations that create a prediliction to the interchange of information between those nations. The character of the "Bonds of Association" a nation has with other nations may predict the content character of that nation's mass media.