Communication in the Third World: The MacBride Commission

Throughout my studies, I’ve always been very aware of the inequalities in communication and the ways that different countries are portrayed in the media. There is definitely a stronger and more positive news flow from countries like South Africa that has more of a hold on the Western culture, than somewhere like Sudan or Southern Sudan who is normally the subject of the news for negative reasons.

In the Thussu reading, it discussed the MacBride Commission and the ways that members of the Third World attempted to break the inequality that existed within the media, which in turn "reinforced and perpetuated inequality in development" (Thussu 31). I think that the Commission had the right idea, but there was too much politicization of ideas driven by the West.

News coming from places in the Third World, like Africa, does normally have a negative connotation if it isn't coming from a more "Westernized" country. When you hear that something happened in Sudan, for example, you are going to make a certain assumption about it and most of the time that will be negative. The Sudanese media doesn't control the message that is put out about their country, the news put out is mostly by foreign correspondents or human rights organizations working in the country who know that stories of refugees and mass atrocities are going to get more recognition in most cases.

Also, the "Westernized" countries arguably have a stronger grasp of the news flow in the international market because they understand how news is disseminated. They also have access to greater technology, which makes producing news easier, and it can reach more of their population in the form that it was originally created like a newspaper or television news broadcast.

I also thought it was interesting how Thussu talked about opposition to the MacBride Commission, and how it was mostly the West that opposed on the basis of a "bias against private ownership of media and communication facilities" (Thussu 34) and also " 'problems created in a society by advertising' " (Singh and Gross qtd. in Thussu 34). Sometimes I believe the U.S. has more of a problem with advertising since it is such a huge industry here, and is some cases is even helping to keep the print news media alive. While I would love to see a more equal flow in the quality and quantity of international news across all borders, I know that there would be the same political problems today, if not more, than there were in 1980 when it was created.