If ever it was clear that good evidence doesn’t prove a case, that is true of the international research project that started under the title of the “Foreign Images” study, circulated as “The World of the News: The News of the World,” and is being published as Foreign News in the Media. Emerging out of the international concern with the imbalance of news flows and news content, it was guaranteed a political life, to be used as ammunition in both social scientific debate about the nature of research and the role of evidence, and in the political debate that centers on UNESCO and the demand for a New International Information Order.

Perhaps no aspect of the NIIO debate has been more contentious and controversial than the question of international news. In the mid-l970s, argument about news flows and presentation, the imbalances of international communications structures, and the dominance of the Western news agencies agitated all concerned with the mass media: international organizations, national policy-makers, media researchers, and media practitioners. Bias in the flows of international news and distortion in its content, particularly regarding the image of the South, were the central themes. These were raised yet again at the General Conference of UNESCO in Nairobi in 1976, and a resolution was passed calling for study of this problem. This resulted in the joint study by UNESCO and the International Association for Mass Communication Research that is