News

===Further transformation in global news flow===
By the 1980s, much of the Third World had succumbed to a [[Latin American debt crisis|debt crisis]] resulting from unpayable large loans accumulated since the 1960s. At this point, the [[World Bank]] took an active role in the governance of many countries, and its authority extended to communications policy. The policy of developing Third World media gave way to a global regime of [[free trade]] institutions like the [[World Trade Organization]], which also protected the free flow of information across borders.<ref>Chakravartty and Sarikakis, ''Media Policy and Globalization'' (2006), pp. 33–38.</ref> The World Bank also promoted privatization of national telecommunications, which afforded large multinational corporations the opportunity to purchase networks and expand operations in the Third World.<ref>Chakravartty and Sarikakis, ''Media Policy and Globalization'' (2006), pp. 58–72, 133–136. "In almost all cases, a combination of privatization schemes and higher rates of public investment led to double-digit growth in teledensity figures throughout the 1990s and continuing today (see Table 3.3). Private telecommunications operators were drawn to emerging markets like Brazil, China, and India, among others, because technological innovation coupled with policy reforms promised access to lucrative high-density business and urban middle-class consumers. […] The few comparative studies of telecommunications reform in the South show that the political environment—whether the state is responsive to democratic public interest—\and its relative power vis-à-vis foreign capital and G8 nations have shaped the terms of reform."</ref><ref>Ali Mohammadi, "Communication and the Globalizing Process in the Developing World", in Mohammadi (ed.), ''International Communication and Globalization'' (1997).</ref>

In countries with less telecommunications infrastructure, people, especially youth, tend today to get their news predominantly from mobile phones and, less so, from the internet. Older folks listen more to the radio. The government of China is a major investor in Third World telecommunications, especially in Africa.<ref>Geniets, ''Global News Challenge'' (2013), pp. 22–27.</ref> Some issues relating to global information flow were revisited in light of the internet at the 2003/2005 [[World Summit on the Information Society]], a conference which emphasized the role of civil society and the private sector in [[information society]] governance.<ref>Chakravartty and Sarikakis, ''Media Policy and Globalization'' (2006), pp. 136–143.</ref>