Suchergebnisse

This article seeks to test certain hypotheses drawn from structural communications theory, hypotheses that tend to support the call for a New World Information Order (NWIO). Structural theorists such as Johan Galtung and NWIO advocates from the Third World have charged that developing nations are dependent upon the West for international news. News dependency, in turn, is said to lead to the adoption of Western news values and subsequent cultural imperialism in the South. Finally, news dependency is said to be neocolonial in the sense that information flows through "vertical" channels (from North to South) and within distinct spheres of communication hegemony. These claims are tested with a news flow study drawn from African and Latin American dailies. Results of the empirical tests show that the Third World is dependent on Western agencies for the bulk of its international news, and that Third World newspapers reflect the news values of Western prestige dailies. Nonaligned newswires, however, are shown to be more resistant to journalistic westernization, as their coverage is markedly different from that of the Western wire services. Finally, news flow patterns do exhibit a pronounced neoimperial character. Agencies from the United States, Great Britain, and France each hold sway over their own regional domains within the Third World.

A test of those theories that maintain that a causal relationship exists between inputs of Western media & increased levels of sociopolitical violence in Third World nations. Result of analyses of cross-sectional data on 24 nations run counter to structural theory & policy proposals from UNESCO's New World Information Order. Imported media have little or no connection to increased levels of violence in less developed countries. Furthermore, increased press freedom is associated with decreased levels of violence, a finding supporting liberal arguments regarding press freedom as a means for promoting political tolerance. 1 Table, 1 Figure, 26 References. Modified HA

Whether press freedom and imported media lead to increased violence.