CONTEMPORARY TRENDS IN MEDIA AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

There was a seminar conducted by All India Forum of Freelance writers at Bhubaneshwer on 25th May. The discussion was “what are the contemporary trends in media and International relations and arena”.

This is a short summary delivered by me in this regard.

With the end of the cold war between Soviet Russia and America, there seems to be a new, more relaxed and cooperative environment prevailing in the world politics. But this situation is very deceptive. Developments in the US, on the domestic front, and their balance of payment position, and Russia, on the political and economic front, have dampened the dominant outlook presented at the beginning of the current decade. The fight to influence the developing countries has ended. Most of the communist countries are now desperately trying to get aid and cooperation possible for restructuring their own countries.
In India, the new economic policy has been formulated, and is being implemented now. The economy is opening up for the participation of the foreign companies. But this is not shaping up as planned and already there are misgivings internally and fears expressed about the stability of the country by foreign investors. Ironically, in such a fluid situation, the experts from both the west and third world countries, like India, are discussing such issues-like environment protection, AIDS,NPT, etc.,to salvage mankind from being wiped off from the face of the earth. This contradiction needs to resolve before any meaningful effort could be made to reverse the trend in the Third world.
All these issues are reflected in the TV and Radio programmes, satellite communication has wired the whole earth. People sitting in any town in any country can hook their there TV to the satellites and watch programmes of their choice. Due to the speed with which things are happening, decades or even centuries could be compressed in a few years time.
In the Third world, there is a sharp decline in autocratic and dictorial rules. The military-led regimes in South American, African and Asian countries have gone back to the barracks. The popular governments are taking over the reins of running their countries. There is a marked visibility of people at the grass root level participating in government. What we are witnessing is a phase of maturity in the former colonies of the imperialist powers.
The media of the third world does realise this change in the national and international political and economical spheres. Exchanging of the TV programmes , specially educational programmes are seen on the TV screens of the Third world countries. In the recently concluded International Film Festival in New Delhi, the quality of the movies from the west left much to be desired. This revealed the status the West still gives to such an important country like India.
Thus, despite the large-scale changes brought about by technology, imbalance persists in the media and coverage of the developed west vis-à-vis the developing countries of the Third World.