UNESCO's MacBride Commission Report and the Editorial Reactions of Four Major Communications Trade Publications

This analysis examines the International Commission for the Study of Communications Problems (CIC), known popularly as the MacBride Commission, and compares reactions of four major communications journals to the Commission's report.

The Commission was convened by the United Nations' Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1977. Its report was presented in October, 1980 at UNESCO's 21st general conference held in Belgrade.

The United States journals studied are: Editor and Publisher, Advertising Age, Public Relations Journal and Broadcasting.

It was hypothesized the news and editorial coverage of all four journals would (1) narrowly reflect primarily the specific ways the report might affect that particular medium or function in the United States; (2) tend to ignore the major worldwide issues; and (3) react in similar ways.

Issues of the four journals were examined for the twenty-four month period from October 1979 to October 1981 and bracketing the October 1980 presentation of the report in Belgrade. Thus the reactions of the four journals were considered for twelve months before and twelve months after the report was discussed at the UNESCO general conference.

The analysis indicates the publications (1) were generally hostile to the report and (2) viewed the Commission's work primarily as a threat to the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, and (3) expressed little interest in, or awareness of, the worldwide communications problems discussed by the MacBride Commission.

Three of the major journals--Editor and Publisher, Advertising Age and Broadcasting-- confirmed the specific hypothesis. The fourth journal, Public Relations Journal, did not discuss the MacBride Commission in its 1979-1980 issues.