The Rise and Fall of NWICO From a Vision of International Regulation to a Reality of Multilevel Governance

industrialized countries. “Development”, the process of evolution toward a modern society, occupied center stage. Scholars and development experts assigned mass communications a central role in the development process. In the Cold War era the newly independent countries of the third world were of strategic importance to both East and West. Development aid was an important factor for “winning the hearts and minds” of developing countries. New patron-client relationships emerged; old, established ones evolved. The successes achieved by the oil-producing countries in OPEC in the 1970s strengthened the position of the third world as a bargaining partner (albeit rising fuel prices had serious impacts on some developing countries). In succeeding years, the third world made its voice heard in international fora as never before, formulating programs for farreaching reform. A set of demands that would result in a New International Economic Order was put on the agenda; demands for reform of existing patterns of news and information flows – in short: a new international infomation order – were soon to follow. But a new international information order, in the sense its authors intended, was not to be. After some brief years of debate, the issue disappeared from international agendas.