INTERNATIONAL POLITICS OF MASS COMMUNICATION

Ogwu C. Attah, Ph.D1

Department of Mass Communication
Kogi State University, Anyigba
[email protected]

James Dada Mohammed2

Department of Mass Communication
Kogi State University, Anyigba
[email protected]

INTRODUCTION

Communication is fundamental to human co-existence. In fact, it is the lifeblood of human co-

existence. Communication is described as a process of sharing meanings, which involves giving

expression to ideas, thoughts, feelings and desires. Communication are in various forms, they

include intra-personal, interpersonal, person-to-group, group-to-group, small group, large group,

one-person-to-many, many-persons-to-one, point-ta-point (telecom), cybernetics, mass

communication and international communication. Amassing from all these forms of

communication, countries all over the world have shown concern especially on the international

communication, where a cross current of inter-cultural interaction has been made possible by

discoveries in the field of mass communication. This inter-cultural interaction has paved way to

international politics, which rules all the activities of various countries whether developed or

developing. Olise, (2007) noted that international communication and international politics,

though two separate concepts, have an intertwining relationship, which affects the world in

virtually all aspects of life.

Agba (2000, p. 250) defined international communication as the exchange of meanings across

national frontiers and between two and more countries. He noted that international

communication comes because of the interdependency need of man, a situation that makes it

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imperative that the same way a man needs to reach out to other men for meaningful existence, so

does a country need to reach out to other countries for better life of its citizens. Mcphail (2006,

p.2) on his part says international communication refers to the cultural, economic, political,

social and technical analysis of communication patterns and its effects across and between nation

states. He added that international communication focuses more on global aspects of media and

communication systems and technologies and as a result, less on local or even national aspects or

issues.

International communication involves a lot more than message transfer across national

boundaries, it structures the world to its audience. Although international communication

determines the social and politico-economic life of the people of the world, unfortunately, the

status quo in the international communication system does not favour most developing nations

especially Africa (Olise, 2007).

Olise (2007) noted that since the 1990s, the global focus or prism through which interactions

were analysed has changed substantially by two related events. The first is the end of the cold

war and the sweeping changes this has brought; the second is increasing global interdependence,

which is a fixture of the expanding global economy. Thus, the radical changes introduced by

these communications facilities have led some communication scholars to predict an eventual re-

definition of mass communication. Analyst of the African media and development experts like

Mustapha Masmondi and Sean MacBride, all, have, regularly, pointed out that communication in

these area is used as a tool of the continued exploitation and subjugation of the African continent

(Olise, 2007).

International communication field has in fact taken far reaching dimensions in world politics,

economics, social life, religion, propaganda, inter/intra country conflicts, wars and crisis

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resolutions. It is determined from the point of view of communication imbalance; a situation

often cited as the bedrock of many; a woe of the black race. This imbalances in communication

flow between the developed and the developing nations has called for serious concerns. The

developing nations are at the receiving end of this development. Some of the terms that have

evolved to express the result of the western overbearing tendencies and hegemony in

international communication are neocolonialism and imperialism. For example, the western

dominance of communication technology and networks rendered African Communication

industry dependent, inefficient and unable to exhibit high and long distance reception (Olise,

2007).

For years, western news media have come under searing criticism for their reporting of

developing countries. A number of scholars note that western news media underreport events and

issues in developing countries (Alozie, 2006; Peterson, 1980 in Dan, 2008; Wu, 1998). Others

criticize western media for their crisis-oriented coverage of developing countries (Marthoz,

2007).

The developing countries on their part lack the technological-know-how to do same, thereby

being at the receiving end of the quest to politicize mass communication to gain economic

relevance and dominance among countries.

INTERNATIONAL POLITICS OF COMMUNICATION

International politics is a process of adjustment of relationship among nations in favour of a

nation or a group of nations by means of power. In addition, it is the study of the control of

conflict and the establishment of cooperation among nations. Notably, international politics is

always changing. Many factors are responsible for this change in international politics. Olise

(2007) highlighted these factors as National interest, Conflict/cooperation and Power Means.

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National interest as a factor affecting international politics centred on those concerns and values

that a nation regards as priority to its existence. Sometimes, this national interest can lead to

international conflict. Conflict is a disagreement dissonance; however, the preoccupation of

politics is the resolution of conflict. Power means, which is the third factor affecting international

politics, is a conglomerate of institutions (nations) from which power is drawn. Unfortunately,

some of these institutions have an edge over the other due to their level of technological

advancement and informational control. Thus, it has led to oppression especially in the flow of

international news (Olise, 2007). To add credence to this, Aina (2003, p.385) portrayed the

oppressive feature of the pattern of news flow as thus: “International news reflect a flow from

high to low, from big countries to small, from rich to poor, from powerful to weak”. He submits

that four (4) related issues determine the direction of international news, they are: Technical

economic factor, political, historical editorial weighing and audience definition or market place

factor. All these create the complexities that characterize the imbalance in communication flow

and make possible the different levels at which they occur. An example is the existing "packing

order" whereby the "big cocks" (powerful nations) park the smaller ones or one nation confronts

another by indulging in blocking behaviours detrimental to its interests. The cold war analysis

between the East and the West which lasted for about 40 years is of peculiar interest here, not

only because it defined World affairs, especially who got what from whom for about four

decades, but because that was when the world saw the use of media propaganda in its primitive

and deadly form (Olise, 2007).

Besides, the phenomenon influenced the posting of foreign correspondents by influential world

media and divided the world into two during the debates on the New World Information and

Communication Order (NWICO). The resultant cold war on cultural, political, media and

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propaganda levels led to the struggle for allegiance by other nations in sympathy with each side.

Propaganda was one of the major tools of the ideological rivalry during the cold war, and this

information flow, has been labelled by researchers as "political persuasive communication" and

more recently as "public diplomacy" (Aina, 2003, p.41).

GLOBALIZATION, INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION AND INTERNATIONAL

POLITICS

Since we live in an independent world where political, cultural, economic, and foreign affairs

imperatives make information power a dominant factor in human affairs, the media in this

scenario occupy the centre stage in their search for information and its dissemination across

national boundaries. The proper relationship between the press, politicians, and the public is a

difficult issue that has been evolving rapidly over the last 60 years; it has found different answers

around the world. That is, many critics believe the media affect the public's political opinions by

presenting biased reports toward a particular candidate or political party. Thus, it provides

information upon which people base their decisions and actions and plays a key role in the

building of the political textile of any democracy (Olise, 2007).

Political scientists argue that most aspects of international relations revolve around multinational

corporations which are backed by their government all the time and which influences a lot of

political and economic reforms in the countries of their domicile. These skills are also noticeable

in the ways various mass media of various countries present the interests, goals and aspirations

of their nations. Hence, in international politics, a country's foreign policy encapsulates all the

principles it adopts in dealing with other countries, and these principles underscore a nation's

interests, objectives, goals and aspiration in relationship with other countries (Olise, 2007).

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Today, a nation's interest, objective, goals, and aspirations have relatively merged together with

other countries' because of globalization. These ideas defined and explained above are within the

domain of international politics of mass communication allover the world and generally

protected by the countries involved in the politics or “politricks”.

Globalization simply refers to the process of increasing interconnectedness between societies

such that events in one part of the world, more and more have effects on peoples and societies

faraway, (Nsude, 2004, p. 103). By this, one can say that globalization has led to the

interconnection of nations political, economic, cultural, and social as well as communication

events. No wonder, Wilson (2005, p.165) regarded globalization as a concept that has a link with

global communication in its cultural context, where even events in one country are inseparable

from those in another. For instance, when a military coup d'etat, say in Cote d' Ivoire or Pakistan

elicit a strong rebuff from the Nigerian government because of the fear that the effect of such

actions will have implications for nascent 'democracies' like Nigeria or when another

democracies join in condemning the military junta for the same political reasons. McQuail

(2005, p.556) added that globalization is the overall process whereby the location of production,

transmission and reception of media content that ceases being fixed geographically, partly

because of technology but also through international media structure and organisations.

No doubt, globalization has played an immeasurable role in both international communication

and international politics. Thus, one can rightly put it that globalisation is an indispensable

process by which the social, cultural, political, economic as well as communication system of

nations are integrated into a common system. It is important to state here that globalization is a

different concept from international communication, international politics and centralisation of

media (Olise, 2007).

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In globalization of communication, each country is a production and transmitting centre while

centralisation reduces the process of one centre. International communication is communication

between and among nations in almost the same sense as European community's directive on

'Television Without Frontiers' (TWF) whose purpose as affirmed by Dupagne (1992, p.99) was

to harmonise national laws for trans national broadcasting (Wilson, 2005, p.165). On the other

hand, International politics is the political process in which nations control the relationship

among nations in favour of a nations or group of nations by means of power. All these are easier

through globalization.

Globalization reverberates through the corridors of politics and communication. It has affected

both the journey of both International communication and International politics and the

destination called 'global village'. It has also led to the internalisation and liberal democracy and

integrated market economy, society and culture. There is no doubt that the world is becoming

homogenous and differences between people are diminishing. Thus, because of this bridge in

gap, the practices of International communication and International politics have increased

(Olise, 2007).

Furthermore, the potential impact of globalization on International communication process

speaks to the issue of diversity of expression. Baran, (2004, p.28) asked in relation to this – will

distant, anonymous, foreign corporations, each with vast holdings in a variety of non-media

business, use their power to shape news and entertainment content to suit their own end?

Opinion is in two-fold. Some observers feel that this concern is misplaced; the pursuit of profit

will force these corporations to respect the values and customs of the nations and cultures in

which they operate. Some observers have a less optimistic view. They point to the 1998

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controversy surrounding the publication of East and West as a prime example of danger of

globalization.

Similarly, critics of globalization would have a lot to say especially if developing countries are

considered.

Globalization has promoted relations of dependency rather than economic growth. The

imbalance in the flow of mass media content undermines communication and politics and holds

back its development. This imbalance is because of different technological advancement levels

in different countries. Thus, an unequal relationship in the flow of news is evident and it has

increased the relative global power of large and wealthy news producing countries. Okigbo

(1996, p.284) averred that the controversy about the inequality in the international flow of

information is inevitable. To this extent, it has hindered the growth of an appropriate national

identity and self-mage. The developed countries alone stand to gain in this new development

called globalization. It may have also resulted from a fact Okigbo (1996, p.285) postulated,

"Those that are rich in world resources are also rich in communication and information while

those nations that are poor in resources are also deprived in communication and information

terms.

News agencies are active actors in both international communication and international politics

and the World because they provide no less than 75 percent of the world news. Sadly, the

developed nations own virtually all the trans-national news agencies in the world, and this is not

in the favour of Africa. However, despite the excitement and noise about international relations

and globalization, the international news and information media can hardly assumed any

meaningful international unity, consciousness and responsibility. This is simply and squarely

because each medium is interested in the welfare of its home country. The same thing applies to

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the news agencies, and treating news and information to suit a country's interest means

emphasizing individual peculiarities, which alienate other interests, introduce differences and

complaints, and eventually become the problems and bane of true international co-operation

through communication.

INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION AND NEWS FLOW IMBALANCE

The International Communication news flow imbalance is traceable to the monopolistic grip,

which the five transnational news agencies, Reuters, United Press International (UPI),

Associated Press (AP) and Agency France Press, all in the west, and the former Soviet Union

TASS etc have on mass communication sourcing globally. Agba (2002, p.258) confirmed this

when he revealed that: “They have ample technological and economic resources with which to

gather all kinds of information from all nooks and crannies of the world and distribute them

globally in an instant at the lowest cost”.

For MacBride, international Communication governs the ability of International opinion to come

to grip with the problems that threaten the survival of humanity and it has been an international

instrument for propaganda and cultural hegemony. Therefore, the foregoing has been responsible

for the persistent call by the least developed countries for reparation since the end of Second

World War. In 1974, the United Nations General Assembly Passed a declaration on the

establishment of a New International Economic Order (NIEO) and in 1976, the General

Conference of UNESCO, held in Nairobi, Kenya, also passed a declaration of the establishment

of New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO), (International Commission,

1981, p. 34-43).

Despite the establishment of these bodies, it is sad to note that there are no visible changes until

date. This could be as a result of the monopolistic grip of the west on international

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communication due to their technological advancement in relation to the rest of the world.

Despite the international politics going on, NWICO is still redressing this monopolistic grip.

Information and communication are crucial to man's existence. Thus, information power is

unique in that it is convertible to other forms of power. The need therefore for a balanced, fair

and socially justifiable flow of information between the advanced nations of the world and the

less advanced ones, or what is called the core and the dependent peripheries, is the basis of the

epochal struggle which gave birth to the New World Information and Communication Order

(NWICO).

However, the most important outcome of NWICO debate is the wider recognition of the implicit

flaws in the "free flow" ideology and the recognition of the fact that in the present day world,

preconditions have to emerge for the implementation of a real free flow of information. If a

general, principle is not to continue as an advantage for the few and a detriment for many at both

national and international levels. In the view of Vincent (1997, p.378), the New World

Information and Communication Order (NWICO) attempted to provide answers to these

problems and more specifically, how communication inequalities could be resolved as the

dialogue came under pressure from a variety of forces, NWICO efforts became defensive and its

attempts to resolve long-standing problems in global communication put in hold.

Although nothing immediate ever came out of these early observations, the seeds of NWICO

have come to stay, and the rhetoric over problems in international communication became louder

and stronger. NWICO is an effort to engage in a dialogue, on an international level, concerning

the role of communication and the possibilities of organizing and using the means of

communication to reflect the needs and aspirations of the entire world's people.

GLOBAL COMMUNICATIONS AND INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

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Increasingly commercialised news media organisations play an important part in the global flow

of modern communications. The impact of the media and their relationship to the international

system has scarcely begun to be appreciated. In Global Communications, International Affairs

and the Media since 1945, Philip Taylor traces the increased involvement of the media in issues

of war and peace. The author analyses the nature, role and influence of communications within

the international arena in the modern world and its interaction with foreign policy. He noted that

politics, society, culture, the economy and foreign affairs are all now inseparable from the

information created and exchanged on an international basis. Taylor (2003) added that mass

communication and mass media are comparatively recent phenomena but provide the conditions

in which politicians, statesmen and soldiers have been increasingly forced to operate.

Politics and public information about the world is increasingly ‘packaged’ for ready consumption

in a manner more akin to entertainment than instruction or information, hence the advent of a

new word: ‘infotainment’. World events demand better, fuller and more contextualised reporting

than they currently receive. Today, the practice of covering world events in twelve column

inches or a three-minute news segment encourage prejudice rather than empathy, national pride

rather than international harmony, and emotional rather than rational judgements (Taylor, 2003).

From the establishment of the international news agencies in the mid-nineteenth century to the

formation of the global digital superhighways of today, the speed at which information flows

around the world has revolutionised every aspect of our daily lives in ways no less significant

than the agricultural and industrial revolutions did. This ‘communications revolution had no

tangible beginnings, in that it can be traced back variously to the development of the printing

press, of writing, even of language, and it is certainly far from finished as we approach the next

millennium in anticipation of travelling through ‘cyberspace’. But the past one hundred and fifty

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years, and the past fifty especially, have seen it accelerate at an ever more rapid rate, to the point

where it is now almost impossible to understand how our world ever functioned without

telephones, television or computers (Taylor, 2003).

Indeed, as Hamid Mowlana has pointed out, “the technologies and institutions of communication

that have become so central to world politics and economics over the past couple of decades

have fundamentally altered the nature and sources of power and influence, both domestically and

internationally” (Hamid, 1993, p.59).

Indeed politics, society, culture, the economy and foreign affairs all now operate inseparably

from the information created, shared and exchanged on an international basis, while the mass

media continue to occupy the most significant place for most people when they access the world

beyond their immediate environment.

Although mass communication and the mass media are comparatively recent phenomena, barely

a century old, we have scarcely begun to appreciate their relationship to the international system,

whether as contributors to, or merely conveying a sense of, its order and disorder.

While communications and the media constitute interesting subjects in their own right, whether

viewed from a sociological or cultural or any other point of view, they simply cannot be

separated from the conditions in which they operate. Modern communication is indeed about

technology, but it is also about human creativity. Because something is communicated to

someone, an impact or an influence is likely to be the result, which often depends on how

creatively the content of communications is deployed (Taylor, 2003).

WESTERN NEWS MEDIA COVERAGE OF DEVELOPING COUNTRIES (AFRICA)

Most research has broadly focused on western media’s coverage of developing countries as a

group. Many scholars referred these countries as the “Third World,” a phrase that gained

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currency after the Second World War. Today the phrase is considered derogatory. The phrases

“underdeveloped countries,” and “developing countries,” are more acceptable in academic

circles and hence widely used to refer to countries in such regions as Africa. In keeping with this

nomenclature, this study used these descriptors instead of “Third World.” African countries have

long chafed at the way they are portrayed in the Western media. They have characterized

Western media’s reporting of Africa as inadequate, negative and mainly focused on crises or

disasters that occur in those countries. A number of studies that have examined the Western new

media’s framing of international news vindicate this claim.

Garrick (2012) noted that In-depth coverage of Africa has not been a top priority for Western

media. Ebo (1992) in Atadoga (2020) averred that in global conversations about Africa, 53

nations are often lumped together as one while the continent is often portrayed as a crocodile-

infested dark continent where jungle life has perpetually eluded civilization. More than 50 years

after attainment of political independence, Africa is still viewed negatively by Westerners

(Poncian, 2015). Africa has been portrayed as a dark continent in need of civilization, and its

heathen in need of enlightenment through slavery and colonization. Evaluating the claims that

Africa is poorly covered by the Western media, there is a body of research arguing that the

activities of interest groups, policymakers, journalists, and other groups interested in shaping

media agendas and frames influences the “volume and character” of news messages about Africa

(Scheufele & Tewksbury, 2007, p.12).

An analysis of news stories from Africa that appeared in both the New York Times and the

Washington Post from the end of March to Mid-August of 2000 argued that all 89 published

articles lacked sufficient context and were negatively framed (Ojo, 2012). Ojo further claimed

that most news stories about Africa are presented as tribal conflicts with strong metaphors and

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imagery of “savages” and “beasts” in which people with the “hearts of darkness” are killing

themselves for no reason or dying from AIDS. (p. 2). Reflecting on his role as a reporter that

covered news in Africa, one-time Asian born BBC African correspondent, Alagiah (1999)

confessed in The Guardian thus: “My job is to give a fuller picture. [But] I have a gnawing

regret that, as a foreign correspondent, I have done Africa a disservice, too often showing the

continent at its worst and too rarely showing it in full flower”. Algiah’s confession is one of

several by media reporters/agents that previously covered Africa for the Western media. These

confessions support the claim that stories from Africa are being manipulated by Western media

gatekeepers to fit the negative narrative. Makunike (1993) in Atadoga (2020) said:

We hear about famines and coups, but not the rejuvenation of its cities and the

cultural vitality of its village life...about oppression and massacres, but not

education, economic self-help and political development...about poaching and

habitat destruction, but not ongoing active efforts at conservation, reforestation

and environmental awareness (p. 12).

The pictures of Africa that emerges in the Western media is often vastly different from the reality

(Atadoga, 2020).

Though it is recognized all over the world that the western media focuses more on the coverage

of negative events on Africa, research suggests that there are certain criteria that influences such

media’s reportage on Africa in the manner they have been doing for decades. These criteria are

identified as commercial interests, socio cultural bias and political interests (Ebo, 1992 in

Atadoga, 2020). Makunike (1993) as cited in Atadoga (2020) posits that:

For American readers or viewers to be interested, news out of Africa must be

negative. It must conform to the traditional stereotypes in its spotlight on

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 grotesque and sensational events. It must show misery, corruption,

mismanagement, starvation, primitive surroundings and, as in the case of Somalia,

chaos and outright anarchy (p. 12).

Looking at the effect that the poor coverage of Africa by the Western media has on how

Westerners perceive Africa, Suge, as cited in Nittle (2012) claimed that:

The single perennial thread is so synonymous with the continent that it is hard for

people to accept that there’s another side to the story…If a coup breaks out in

West Africa and I am going to East Africa, I get cautionary emails from

colleagues telling me to be careful. That story has shrunk Africa to one country

full of every piece of bad news the mind can think of (p. 12 -13).

One cannot speak of the persistence of Western negative presentation and perception of Africa

without contextualizing it in the way Africans characterize and present the continent before the

West (Poncian, 2015). The continued use of negative labels to describe Africa suggests that

Africans are doing little to define themselves otherwise. The act of adopting the negative labels

used in defining Africa by Africans in defining themselves is a factor Poncian identified as

encouraging people from the Western world to cling on their perception about Africa. Most

African leaders are accused of “adding color” to the negative images associated with Africa at

international gatherings.

If poverty, conflicts, diseases, and what have you continue to provide African political leaders

with an easier route to attract foreign aid, they continue to reinforce these images and at times

would want to make international allies believe that these are what define Africa. African

political leaders tend to say little about the impact of local initiatives in the growth and

development of the economy of their country.

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CONCLUSION

The terrain of international communication policy has radically shifted from the earlier

information flow, given the importance of communication to the international political economy,

and the way that people understand one another and their position in the world. With

globalization, one expects that that international communication and international politics will

not be for just the developed countries. Unfortunately, the low technological know-how of

developing countries has worsen the situation. It is also not surprising that efforts to change the

international communication system along the lines promoted by NWICO have met with either a

nonchalant reaffirmation of the status quo or outright misrepresentation and suppression. After

all, what better way to ensure continued domination when those promoting alternative visions are

prevented from being equal participants in the construction of the future or, better still, not

allowed to participate at all? By maintaining a communication and political order more or less as

it has been in recent time, the western monopoly on power and resources continues (Vincent,

l997, p. 382 in Olise, 2007).

That is why Akuta (2001) noted that globally, the flow of news tends to be imbalanced because

news media agencies in industrialized nations dominate the collection and distribution of news,

and so these industrialized nations also tend to receive the bulk of news coverage.

To bridge this gap, developing countries need to do all it requires to upgrade their technology

especially in Africa. No wonder, Olise (2005, p.19) stated among other things that it has become

important of African leaders to look critically into their technological sector and call for

improvements and advancement in order to compete favourably with the western world whose

strength lies only on their technological power. This is because globalization revolves around

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technology and advancement in technology will help to put the developing nations and the

developed countries at the same level in the relay of information internationally.

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