Why the search for global newsflow balance should begin at home

Abstract: In the clamour for a new world information and communication order

(NV/ICO), extensive scholarly attention has been given to international disparities

and their effects. But national and domestic issues have only been mentioned,

when at ail, in passing. This article attempts to investigate the possibility of

there being a domestic dimension to the world imbalance. The daily news bulletins

of four Nigerian broadcast stations were monitored for three months and analysed.

The result shows that a very minute proportion of news (7.1%) deals with

rural areas and rural issues. Even this little fraction is one-way information to and

not from rural people. About one-third of the rural news is decontextualised.

All these point to the need to tackle the quest for a new order on the home front

as well.

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