History And Development of International Communication

Introduction:

The nexus of economic ,military, and political power has always depended on efficient systems of communication from flags to ships and telegraph wires and now satellites.

Cont..

During the two World wars and the Cold war, the power and significance of the new media-radio and television for IC were proved by their use for international propaganda as well as recognizing their potential for socio-economic development.

IC has been traditionally concerned with government-to –government information exchanges, in which a few powerful states dictated the communication agenda.

Advances in Communication and information technologies in the late twentieth century have greatly enhanced the scope of IC going beyond government-to-government and including business-to-business and people-t0-people interaction at a global level and at speeds unimaginable even a decade ago.

Communication and Empire:

Communication has always been critical to the establishment and maintenance of power over distance.

From the Persian, Greek and Roman empires to the British, efficient networks of communication were essential for the imposition of imperial authority, as well as for the international trade and commerce on which they were based.

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Persian king Darius I used to send news from the capital to the provinces by means of a line of shouting men positioned on heights.

This kind of transmission was 30 times faster than using runners.

Writing system in Empires

While many rulers, including the Greek polis used inscription for public information, writing became more flexible and efficient means of conveying information over long distance.

Rome ,Persia and Great khan of china all utilized writing in system of information gathering and dispersal, creating wide ranging official postal and dispatch system.

Mughal period in indian history, the Waqi’a nawis were employed by the king to appraise them of the progress in the empire.

Horseman and dispatch runner transmitted news and reports.

Importance of trade and culture

The technologies of International communication and globalization may be contemporary phenomena but trade and cultural interchanges have existed for more than two milennia between the Greco-Roman world with Arabia, india and China.

Information and ideas were communicated across countries, as shown by the spread of Buddhism, Christanity and Islam.

Printing Press and Language

Paper was invented in 105 AD in china.

In the fifteenth century the first printing press was opened in Goa in 1556.

In sixteenth century printing press were turning out thousands of copies of books in all major European Languages.

The new languages, especially Portuguese, Spanish ,English and French become the main vehicle of Communication for the European Clolonial power in many parts of the world.

Industrial revolution and transport

Industrial revolution in western Europe founded on the profits of the growing international commerce encouraged by colonialization gave huge stimulus to the internationalization of communication.

With the innovation in transport of railways and steamship, international links were being established that accelerated the growth of European trade and consolidated colonial empire.

Growth of telegraph

Invented by samuel mores in 1837 telegraph enabled the rapid transmission of information, as well as ensuring secrecy and code protection.

Business community was the first to make use of this technology.

The first underwater telegraph cable which linked britain and USA in 1866.

The outcomes of two imperial wars the Spanish-American war and the Boer War (1899-1902) strengthened the European and US positions in the world and led to a rapid expansion in world trade that demand immediate and vastly improved communication links.

Invention of telephone

Inventor of telephone Alexander Graham Bell in 1877.

The first international telephone made between Paris and Brussels in 1887.

At the end of the nineteenth century the USA had a largest number of telephones due largely to the fact that they were manufactured there.

Era of News Agencies

Newspaper industry played an important role in the development of international communication and increases the demand of news.

AP Reuters German agency Wolf

The New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO)

Introduction

The New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO) is the result of a political proposal concerning media and communication issues emerging from international debates in the late 1970s.

DEMAND FOR A NWICO

The international information system the NWICO protagonists argued perpetuated and strengthened inequality in development with serious implications for the countries of the south, which were heavily dependent on the north for both software and hardware in the information sector.

Cont…

It was argued by the Third World leaders that through their control of major international information channels, the western media gave an exploitative and distorted view of their countries to the rest of the world.

The main complaints from the third world demands were as follows:

Owing to the socio-technological imbalance there was a one way flow of information from the centre to the periphery which created a wide gap between the ‘haves’ and havenots’.

This vertical flow was dominated by the western-based transnational corporations.

Cont..

Information was treated by the transnational media as a commodity and subjected to the rules of the market.

The entire information and communication order was a part of and turn propped up international inequality.

Cont..

According to Masmoudi by transmitting to developing countries only news processed by them, that is, news which they have filtered, cut, and distorted the transnational media impose their own way of seeing the world upon the developing countries.

Cont…

As a result in 1979 the international commission for the study of communication problems was set up. The Macbride commission as it was popularly known, submitted its final report to UNESCO in 1980, a document which for the first time, brought information and communication related issues on the global agenda.

The Macbride Commission

The international commission for the study of communication problems that was established under the chairmanship of sean Macbride by UNESCO occupies a prominent place in the debate regarding the establishment of a NWICO.

This Commission report created in 1977 commonly known as Mcbride Report gave intellectual justification for evolving a new global communication order.

The commission was established to study four main aspects of global communication.

The current state of world communication

The problems surrounding a free and balanced flow of information and balanced flow of information and how the needs of the developing countries link with the flow.

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How the media could become the vehicle for educating public opinion about the world problems.

The Macbride report which was hailed as the ;first international document that provides a really global view on the worlds communication problems received a mixed response.

The protagonists of NWICO generally welcomed the report, while the west criticized it.

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The world Press Freedom committee (WPFC) consisting of journalistic organizations, including the international federation of Journalists, AP,UPI and the American Newspaper Publishers Association (ANPA), was critical of what it considered to be the reports bias against private ownership of media and communication facilities and the problems created in a society by advertising.

The resolution proposed;

Elimination of the imbalance and inequalities which characterize the present situation.

Elimination of the negative effects of certain monopolists, public or private and excessive concentration.

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Removal of internal and external obstacles to a free flow and wider and better balanced dissemination of information and ideas.

Plurality of sources and channels of information.

Freedom of press and information

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The sincere will of developed countries to help them attain these objectives.

Respect for each peoples cultural identity and for the rights of each nation to inform the world public about its interests, its aspirations and its social and cultural values.

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Respect for the right of all peoples to participate in international exchange of information on the basis of equality, justice and mutual benefit.

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Respect for the right of the public, of ethnic and social groups and of individuals to have access to information sources and to participate actively in the communication process.

OPPOSITION TO NWICO

The opponents of NWICO argued that the demand for NWICO was a pretext for third world dictators to stifle media freedom, to impose censorship and keep away foreign journalists.

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The western news organizations stoutly fought any change in the old information order. They maintained that they were only reporting the reality of life in the third world- political instability economic backwardness, human and natural disasters and that this objective journalism was disapproved of by undemocratic governments in the south.