Page 191 - Culture Society and the Media

CULTURE, SOCIETY AND THE MEDIA 181
continentwide affairs. If there were more independent coverage, the major
agencies might better be able to gauge the real nature of Third-World news
requirements. A substantial proportion of all world agency news distributed in
Latin America is, in any case, gathered in Latin America by Latin American
nationals working for the western agencies, transmitting mainly in Spanish.
While the agencies are often accused of ignoring authentic ‘Third-World’ angles
in news coverage, Matta also gives examples of important development-related
stories carried by the world agencies but not used by the Latin American media.

COMMUNICATION AND DEVELOPMENT

It has been suggested that the ‘totalistic’ approach has resolutely concentrated on
negative evaluations of western media influence. It is useful, therefore, to review
some of the more optimistic claims originally entertained by some western
researchers, among others, not because such claims can easily be upheld—far
from it—but because the evidence suggests a greater element of ambiguity and
diversity than ‘totalistic’ theorists would allow.

Media availability
Any general discussion of media impact should include an assessment of the
extent to which populations are actually exposed to the media. The most
important factor helping to account for exposure is physical availability of the
media. This is still something that cannot be taken for granted in very many of
the poorer countries. The major obstacles to media development pertain to
market conditions, political insecurity, linguistic diversity, illiteracy, and
technology. In the west, the press developed as a form of ‘mass’ communication
because it could ‘sell’ large audiences to advertisers, and advertising revenue
made it possible to sell newspapers at below-cost levels. In many poorer
countries there are relatively small markets for the commodities that major
advertisers want to sell. Even the purchasing ability for mass media products
themselves is still extremely low in many countries. The conditions of
production, and particularly of distribution, are often very much more difficult
than in most industrialized economies, for reasons of distance, terrain, shortages
of equipment and skills, shortages of foreign exchange. Advertising is directed
disproportionately towards the small circulation élite media. This contributes to
the information gap between rich and poor, since the greater revenue enjoyed by
the ‘élite’ media improves their coverage and presentation. Media diversity is
constrained by the nationalization of media systems by governments, which tend
to feel threatened by privately-owned media, and which are often the only
sources of substantial media investment available. Political insecurity often
dissuades governments from attempting to decentralize media systems or from
encouraging cultural pluralism through the media. Government control does not
of itself help to overcome print illiteracy. If priority has been given to the need to