lessons learned from the nwico history kaarle nordenstreng professor emeritus of journalism and mass...
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Lessons learned from the NWICO history
Kaarle Nordenstreng Professor Emeritus of Journalism and Mass Communication
University of Tampere, Finland
Presentation at international conference on Communication and Power Shifts Communication University of China
Beijing,12-13 October 2012
Earlier global power shifts
• Decolonization
• Collapse of Soviet Communism
Non-Aligned Movement (NAM)
• concept of information decolonisation - summit in Lusaka 1970
- summit in Algiers 1973
• concept of new international information order
- symposium in Tunis March 1976
- ministerial meeting in Delhi June 1976
- summit in Colombo August 1976
NWICO history
• Five stages1. Decolonization offensive
1970-76
2. Western conterattack 1976-78
3. Truce & compromise1978-80
4. Corporate offensive 1981-90
5. Globalization 1991-2010
• Overall• Birth in
decolonization offensive
• Consolidation in information war
• Decline in corporate offensive
• Revival in civil society
NWICO process
…the most significant struggle over international communication policy in the Fordist era.
…swept aside in the post-Fordist era by a kind of reregulation of neoliberal governance.
(Chakravartty & Sarikakis 2006)
Lessons
1. NWICO was on politics rather than on communication & media
• determining factors were socioeconomic and geopolitical forces rather than intellectual & moral arguments
• power rather than reason
Lessons
2. NWICO was on debate rather than on changing media reality
•abundant talk did not affect much structures & practices
•changes were occuring anyway
Lessons
3. NWICO survived under political pressure the better the more articulated was the idea
•new ideas do not travel as mere political slogans but need elaboration in theory & law
•conceptual clarity ensures resistance aganist ideological destabilization
Lessons
4. NWICO demonstrates the importance of a paradigmatic approach to global communication
•big picture & deep structure should be exposed
•meta concepts such as order testify of proper philosophical approach
