ABSTRACT
The NWICO debates of the 1970s and 1980s primarily centered on the global imbalances of information flows and the maldistribution of communication technologies across the world. Today the same questions must be raised within the context of viral pandemics. The imbalances in information flows that still exist suggest prescriptions for situations in more advanced societies about ways to deal with global crises are taken up by local media without consideration for local dynamics. Although such interventions may partly address the problem, they may also amplify already existing challenges. For instance, calls for self-isolation and social distancing ignore the informality and ephemerality of daily earnings in African countries. Furthermore, most governments in Africa do not have the capacity to compensate businesses and workers for lost earnings in the event of total lockdowns. Although this incapacity may arise from local failures and ineptitudes, the role of neoliberal policies in sustaining massive inequalities between the Global North and Global South cannot be underestimated. The chapter argues that by attending to global and local inequalities as proposed by dependency theorists and developing countries during the NWICO debates, more effective local responses to global crises such as viral pandemics can be achieved.
