New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO)

Despite dramatic geopolitical and media changes worldwide, the New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO) continues to be a topic of interest to researchers and practitioners interested in international media. The conceptual framework of the NWICO placed journalism practice and international news media flow at the center of the political, economic, and cultural agenda of countries in both the developed and developing world. In the early twenty-first century, NWICO provides useful insight for understanding of current journalism trends. This entry provides a brief history of NWICO, its importance when it emerged in the early 1980s, its main concepts and principles, and its present significance.

Although its origins can be traced back to the critical perspectives on media and communication that emerged in the early 1970s, the NWICO was the product of the 1980 MacBride Commission report, Many Voices, One World, commissioned by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as a contribution to the debate about equity in international communication. Named after its head, former Irish foreign minister and 1974 Nobel Prize – winner Sean MacBride, the commission was charged with assessing international communication problems and making suggestions for their resolution in an effort to place these issues at the forefront of the international policy agenda (Thussu 2005). Proponents of NWICO identified the commission as part of an ongoing process, not as a compiler of “any given set of conditions and practices” (MacBride et al. 1980, xviii). Ensuring justice, equity, and reciprocity in information exchange; less dependency and downward diffusion of media; and increased self-reliance and cultural identity were the primary goals of NWICO.

UNESCO formed a commission that began work in December 1977 focusing on issues of accuracy and balance of information, infrastructure and functioning of news media, and rights and responsibilities of journalists and news media organizations. Its report included 82 recommendations aimed at reducing the gap between “the info-rich” and “the info-poor.” However, many around the world read the report as a forceful critique of the role of hegemonic influence of Western news media in the context of international relations and conflict resolution.

The MacBride report called for capacity building efforts in media and communication in developing countries through both infrastructure and human resource development. In addition, it also called for improvements in international news reporting, particularly in breaking away from what was described as an excessive focus on “negative news.” Rather, the commission proposed development journalism, and the use of media technologies such as radio and TV for development and preservation of cultural identity, as important functions in the context of developing countries. The commission emphasized the effective integration of communication into development and culture throughout its report. This included language related to people's participation in media production and elimination of barriers to diversity and choices of media products and content. The commission also called for international cooperation and partnership in the process of increased balances in information flow for reducing dependency of developing nations on media products from developed countries in the field of communication as a means to promote peace and security and to lessen political tensions.

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