Communication · Executive Insight Brief · 332
Permission to speak is not capacity
The MacBride Report and NWICO debate frame communication inequality through infrastructure, production capacity, reciprocity, participation, and political power as well as formal freedom to transmit
Premise
A communication system can formally permit speech while concentrating the practical means of being heard. The MacBride Report and the wider New World Information and Communication Order debate made that distinction central by asking who can produce, distribute, receive, and answer information, and who controls the infrastructure, capital, technology, institutions, and professional capacity behind those functions.
For executives, the framework changes the unit of analysis. Formal access is insufficient if languages are unsupported, local production is weak, distribution is concentrated, or feedback cannot travel upward.
What the model is: The MacBride Report and NWICO in Knowledge →
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- Why this matters
- Risks and limits
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- FamilyModel
- CategoryDoctrines, Principles & Normative Frameworks
- DomainMedia, Publics & Society
What these mean
Editorial orientation · Family
Model
In this series, Model names the editorial family primarily used to understand and explain communication: theories, frameworks, effects, traditions, principles and other conceptual resources. It is an umbrella for a route into the field, not a claim that every included object is a predictive model.
Editorial orientation · Category
Doctrines, Principles & Normative Frameworks
Sets out principles or criteria for what should be pursued, considered legitimate or done. Its contribution is evaluative or prescriptive: it gives reasons for judging conduct and arrangements, rather than merely describing their frequency.
- KnowledgeThe MacBride Report and NWICO