One village, many voices, few controls: World disinformation order in perspective

Abstract The McBride Commission had the intention of making the new media technology available for the development of the whole world. The world was then grappling with the idea of a New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO). Then came the Marshal McLuhan prediction of a time when the pace of development of technology in media will make the world to become a “global village.” In all these, the idea was to dream of a time when the technology will make it possible for everyone to know what everyone is doing at every point in time. This seemed improbable then. However, the development of the internet and the World Wide Web have catalysed the realisation of that prediction. Today, the networking of computers around the world, the mass production of mobile phones, the ability of programmers to write applications that can make the computers and phones do a lot of things hitherto thought to be impossible has completely changed our lives and how we do things. The new technologies have succeeded in expanding the information horizon by significantly increasing the number of people involved in communication around the world, as well as the number of issues being discussed. Consequently, order, which is the main distinguishing characteristic of the human world is being called to question. This has given birth to a new phenomenon tagged, World Disinformation Order, which is the main focus of this paper. Key Words: World Information Order, World Information Disorder, Disinformation, Misinformation, Malinformation JCMR Journal of Communication and Media Research, Vol. 14, No. 1, Special Issue 2, June 2022, pp. 19-25 © Association of Media and Communication Researchers of Nigeria (AMCRON). About the author *Akeem Mojisola Adeyanju, PhD, MNIPR, mni, is Head, Advancement Office, National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru, Jos, Nigeria Article Citation Adeyanju, A. M. (2022). One village, many voices, few controls: World disinformation order in perspective. Journal of Communication and Media Research, 14 (1, SP. 2): 19-25. Full Article Words: 4,792 Pages: 7 To access full article, click on download.