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MacBRIDE ROUNDTABLE ON COMMUNICATION:
=20
GLOBAL MEDIA AND GLOBAL RESPONSIBILITY:  A TIME TO CHOOSE.=20


The Ninth MacBride Roundtable on Communication will hold its annual meeting
in Boulder, Colorado, on October 1st and 2nd 1997.  This year marks the 50th
Anniversary of the U.S. Hutchins Commission, offering a historical reminder
to the Roundtable's deliberations. The Round Table will examine two emerging
and contradictory media worlds, one leading down the road to total market
control, the other striving to democratise media and communication from
local to global levels. =20

The Roundtable is calling for papers that offer insight into the dynamics of
world communication on all sides, exploring political and activist
strategies and seeking lessons in history to guide diverse but converging
progressive forces.

Occasion: =20

The Round Table is pleased to run alongside the conference: COMMUNICATION,
CITIZENSHIP AND SOCIAL POLICY, RE-THINKING THE LIMITS OF THE WELFARE STATE,
organised jointly by the Center for Mass Media Research, University of
Colorado, and the Department of Mass Communications, Free University of
Brussels, Belgium (October 4th to October 2nd to 5th). The MacBride Round
Table will convene on Wednesday October 1st all day, and the morning of the
October 2nd.

Venue: University of Colorado, at Boulder.

Abstracts by: June 30th=20

For more information on the MacBride Round Table and the Conference, see
http://tdg.uoguelph.ca/~drichard/macbride.html. or contact:

Sean O'Siochru: sean@nexus.ie
MacBride Round Table, 14 Eaton Brae, Shankill Co. Dublin
Tel: +353 1 282 1003 or 473 9599; fax +353 1 272 0034 or 4730597


Rick Vincent: rvincent@uhunix.uhcc.hawaii.edu=20
Department of Communication, 2560 Campus Road, University of Hawaii, Manoa
Honolulu, Hi 96822, USA
tel: +1 808 956 3352 fax: +1 808 956 5591


ROUNDTABLE THEME:

A 'New World Information and Communication Order' is coming into being even
as we speak, but not the kind that so many have fought for since the late
1970s.  This one is not about media equity, more balanced flow, or even, in
the end, about free flow. In this new world, old battle lines disappear;
information is purely a commodity, communication a means of delivering it to
customers - if you can afford it.  =20

This new world is being forged not from a clash of ideologies - dispensed
with even as camouflage - but on the back of a tacit acceptance by too many
that there is only one ideology, that of the marketplace and competition.
The battle is waged not in traditional halls of the UN, with declarations of
rights, learned Commissions etc. attempting to strike a reasonable balance
between the complex nature and realities of media and communication in
society.  Rather, its warriors are the global organs of commerce and Free
Trade:  The WTO, World Bank, IMF all do their bit to instate the new god of
competition; while regional coalitions like the EU, NAFTA and ASEAN speak
with the same voice.  And behind all of them is the virtually unchallenged
power of a globalised media and communication private sector, willing to
surrender all to greater profits.=20

But another vision, an alternative vision, of the New World is also coming
into view from several directions. A resurgence of alternative and community
media is evident in all continents, quickly coalescing into national,
regional and international NGOs: AMARC, Vid=E9azimut, APC, the Platform for
Democratisation and Communication to name a few.  In mass media, initiatives
like WETV and Med-TV give power to the voiceless. Mass movements like CEM
and the People's Communication Charter build commitment on the ground. Media
trade unions such as the IFJ and PTTI are globalising their activities to
counter private capital.  At the same time, many in the UN system and
national governments are increasingly uneasy, and various High Level
Commissions have called for innovative institutional ways to counterbalance
growing commercial interests, ensuring that the interests of all people will
be served.=20


The Ninth MacBride Round Table on Communication looks at these two opposing
Worlds, with which all those seeking a more equitable and sustainable global
information and communication system must grapple. Policy and political
orientations to support a critique of the former vision, and nurture the
second, are especially welcome, as are lessons from our historical heritage,
from the Hutchins Commission onward.=20


Sean O Siochru          tel:  +353 1 4730599 office
NEXUS Research          tel: +353 1 2821003 home office=20
14 Eaton Brae           fax:  +353 1 4730597 office
Shankill                        fax: +353 1 2720034 home office
Co. Dublin              e-mail: sean@nexus.ie
Ireland                 Web site: http://www.iol.ie/nexus