Global South's Early Efforts to Counter Western Media Dominance

Highlights

• Western agencies like Reuters, Wolffs Telegraphisches Bureau, and Agence Havas largely controlled international news dissemination from the 19th century onward.
• The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), formally established in 1961, united nations seeking an independent course during the Cold War.
• NAM members aimed to bolster their own news agencies and communication systems to rectify imbalances in global news reporting.
• The Non-Aligned News Agencies Pool (NANAP) officially launched in 1975, with Yugoslavia's Tanjug agency playing a key role, as announced by Sri Lankan Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike.

Details

For many decades, a select group of Western news organizations dictated the circulation of global news. Reuters, founded in 1851 during the British Empire's zenith, exemplified this, leveraging telegraph networks and exclusive rights to establish a vast international presence. However, as colonial empires dissolved in the 20th century, newly sovereign nations began to question why the international news landscape remained so heavily concentrated in Western hands.

The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) initiated concrete steps towards fostering enduring collaboration among its members. According to Sima Kokotovic, a scholar at the University of Pennsylvania, progress was made at conferences in Lusaka (1970) and Algiers (1973). The movement scrutinized the extent to which mass communication was controlled by Western media corporations and, to some degree, the Soviets, debating the capacity of nations to craft their own stories and influence how they were portrayed globally.

These discussions culminated in a broader campaign for a New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO), which was debated within UNESCO. Proponents advocated for developing nations to build stronger news organizations, broadcasting infrastructure, and direct avenues for sharing information to lessen their reliance on Western media outlets. Nabil Dajani, an emeritus professor of media studies, recalls NWICO as an ambitious yet idealistic endeavor to address disparities in worldwide information flow.

Why it matters

These foundational efforts challenged the one-sided reliance in global information transmission, emphasizing that information is not merely a commodity but a fundamental human right. Countries in the Global South sought to share more about their cultures, people, and daily lives, focusing on subjects often overlooked by Western media. These initiatives raised a question that remains relevant today: "Who determines what the rest of the world learns?"