From Past to Present: The Issue of Communication in a Polarized World

Abstract

Resulting from persistent complaints by the developing countries in the 1970’s, of imbalance in information-flow between the developing and developed countries of the world, the UNESCO, in 1976, constituted a commission headed by Sean Mac Bride of Ireland, to look into information and communication between the two divides of
the world. The committee went to work and submitted its report to UNESCO in 1978. The report of the committee confirmed the existing gap in information flow between the developed and the developing countries. Also established in the report was the fact that ownership and control of information and communication technologies were
solely in the hands of the developed countries. There was therefore, the need for New World Information and Communication Order. Thirty years after, this paper has examined the information and communication relationship between the two divides of the world and the gap rather seems to be widening on. The developing countries are challenged to be insightful in searching for ways of bridging the gap. Solutions from
international agencies to this widening gap may continue to remain a mirage.