Unit 3

North and South:
Channeling Information Flows

As we noted in Unit 2, a 1985 UNESCO study (see Mowlana, 1985) identifies three main actors in international communications. The first two are the state (as discussed in Unit 2) and multinational corporations or other non-governmental organizations (such as RCA or ITT). The third group of important players comprises the intergovernmental organizations that operate in the regulatory, trade and legal spheres, including the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), INTELSAT (which oversees the operation of broadcast satellites) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). These organizations facilitate the global exchange of equipment, concepts, programs and techniques (and are strongly influenced by the interests of the United States).

In the period leading up to the MacBride Commission, North-South conflicts over the so-called "free flow of information" developed several aspects. Concerns about economies and information systems were interlinked. Against the American defense of the sanctity of unchecked flows of information, the developing world demanded objective, balanced news, rather than the biased versions of events they perceived in First World coverage. Calls for a "New Information and Economic Order" (and variations on this term) included international demands for a resolution to deal with international media. A key principle, based on UN ideals, was that communication,
as a primary factor in cultural independence, also be recognized as crucial to political independence.

In a comparative study of world broadcasting systems, communication theorist Donald Browne (1989) considers geographical, economic, cultural and political factors affecting individual and interconnected systems. Communications policies, networks, ownership and regulations are necessarily shaped by these factors. Politically, for example, it is relevant whether a nation or region is run by a libertarian (capitalist), communist (centrally controlled), mixed or authoritarian style of government. Governments of the latter type have characterized many Latin American countries in this century.