Perceptions of Third World news coverage and American advertising by foreign correspondents in U.S.

I lOTRODUCTION Communication satellites and highspeed transmission of news and data are continuously revolutionizing the way in \rt*iieh nations and people learn to communicate with one ariother.During the late 1960s and early 1970s, mass communication research was at the center of the international political stage.Change in the status quo of international communication order-a two-way, and balanced, circulation of news between poor and rich countries-was called for in 1969 at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) meeting in Montreal.Prior to the Montreal meeting the research and projects sponsored by UNESCO tended to legitimize and reinforce the existing system and established order in \«*iich the flow of information was predominantly from the West to the Third World.Thereafter, international communications became a subject of sharp debates at conferences in such places as Alaska, Colombo, Geneva, Mexico City, Nairobi, New Delhi, New York, Sri Lanka, and Tunisia.This thesis examines the perceptions of foreign correspondents stationed in the United States with regard to: a) Third World news coverage in the American Press, b) social stereotypes of the Americans, and c) American international advertising.The Western press has been accused of serving the interests of capitalist nations by "presenting developing countries in a bad light and suppressing their authentic voices" (Lewis, 1981b).A news-worthy event according to Gauhar (1981a) depends on media policy, dictated by commercial considerations, cultural environment, the tastes and needs of a national audience, and finally, the judgment of an editor.Violence is the focal point of brief news stories.Violence is in the forefront, while social and political factors recede to the background.This study examines whether foreign correspondents in the United States agree with this assessment of the Western (American) press.Interest in the Third World countries is iirportant because of the developments taking place at an accelerating pace in population, in agricultural output, in GNP growth, in increased exports and in savings and reinvestments.Peculation growth coirparisons among the five continents in 1983 showed Asia with 1.9 per cent increase, Africa with 3.0 per cent, Europe with 0.3 per cent, Latin America with 2.3 per cent, and the U.S.A. with 0.9 per cent (Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1984).Between 1978 and 1982, the annual GNP growth rate of developing countries was 5.7 per cent as coirpared with 3.4 per cent in developed countries and their aggregate manufactured exports grew at an impressive rate of 10 per cent.Despite skyrocketing oil import bills, developing countries managed to save and reinvest nearly a quarter of their national income.Agricultural production grew at a rate of 3.2 per cent (2.8 per cent for developed countries), manufacturing production by 6.9 per cent (4.0 per cent for developed countries), and gross investment by 8 per cent (4.8 per cent for developed countries).Life-expectancy in the Third World increased in the past two decades by as much as it increased in the industrialized world in a century, and a number of diseases, such as malaria, were brought under control, and others, such as smallpox, virtually eradicated.The Physical Quality of Life Index-a composite indicator of infant mortality, life expectancy and literacy-increased in the Third World from 39 in 1960 to 57 in the late 1970s (Kurien, 1982). Why PerceptionIt is widely accepted that perceptions differ because they are influenced by culture, tradition, political/economic systems, and even the media system (Hornik, 1980).Hachten (1981) describes differing perceptions about the nature and role of news as being both a) rooted in the divergent political philosophies and historical traditions and b) reflected in five political concepts of the press found in the world today, namely.Authoritarian, Western, Communist, Revolutionary

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