构建国际传媒新秩序
李从军
第二次世界大战之后，随着联合国的成立，世界建立了新的国际秩序。60多年来，国际社会通过努力，已经构建了一套更加平衡、公正和理性的政治经济秩序。
不幸的是，管辖国际传媒秩序的规则落后于时代，特别是与政治经济规则的变化相比。这种差距首先体现于国际传播中的极不公平现象。信息基本上是单向流动的：从西到东，从北到南，从发达国家到发展中国家。
1980年，联合国教科文组织(United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization)第21次大会讨论了国际新闻报道中的不平衡与不公平现象，并呼吁建立新的国际大众传播秩序。多年来，包括很多西方人士在内，越来越多的有识之士已经提出改革方案，他们相信，现有秩序离公正、理性和平衡还有很远的距离。
在这个互相依赖的世界中，人类社会需要有一套更加文明的国际大众传播规则。这让我想起本人十分喜欢的桥牌。现代桥牌被叫做“定约式桥牌”(contract bridge)，意思是参与者受合约约束，整个游戏就是一个叫牌过程。在这里，信息交流是否明智、有效，取决于是否以公平、公正的方式进行协作与沟通。
早期桥牌被叫做“bridge-whist”或曰“straight bridge”，跟定约桥牌不一样。“bridge-whist”中没有叫牌，整个游戏就只是赌博，使参与者很难沟通。现代桥牌是多年来逐步修改规则后形成的。
从某种意义上讲，因为缺乏公正的“定约”与“博弈”，连接现代信息流动与国际传媒的“桥”正在坍塌。这种情况与当代世界是不兼容的。不公正、不理性的秩序不利于国际传媒行业的可持续发展，并会加剧当今世界的诸多问题。我们需要通过规则的改变，着手从事一场建设性的改革，来重建传播桥梁，让传媒行业在推动人类文明进步的过程中发生更积极的作用。
价值观的改变应当贯彻四项原则：
公平：这要求各国传媒机构都有权平等参与国际传播。反过来，这些传媒机构应当提供全面、客观、公平、平衡和准确的报道，以最大化地减少歧视和偏见。
多赢：应创造条件允许不同国家的传媒机构一起分享信息与传播行业的发展成果，在国际大众传播之中发挥更积极作用，并扭转强者愈强、弱者愈弱的不平衡态势。
包容：要保持世界的多样性，传媒必须尊重不同国家独特的文化、习俗、信仰和价值观；努力消除疑虑，消除不同文化和文明之间的屏障；增强对话与沟通；求同存异。
责任：传媒机构既要确保公开、透明，以推进一个开放社会的构建，同时也应保持理性和建设性，让大众传播成为一个推动社会进步的积极力量。
我们还应当继续完善规则、探索国际传播新机制。联合国教科文组织应当在联合国框架下积极协商并解决问题。但是，有必要继续完善规则，并在条件成熟时探索一个长远的非政府机制来协调全球传媒行业，比如建立一个“传媒联合国”。这可以成为全球传媒交流、协商的机制，并且有可能演变成一个发挥协调、甚至仲裁作用的机构。
拿体育来打个比方，或许有助于解释我的意思。乒乓球在20世纪70年代中美恢复外交关系的过程中发挥了特殊作用，现在被称为中国的“国球”。许多年来，中国乒乓球运动员在几乎所有国际大赛中都取得了冠军。这就形成了一个悖论：一个团队变得越强大，它就越是希望维持地位并不断提高。但在一个团队太长时间内所向无敌之后，就没有多少人愿意与之竞争。
从长远来看，中国享有如此优势的乒乓球运动，其吸引力将会越来越小，生存能力将越来越弱，最终有可能被将来的奥运会抛弃。事实上，乒乓球运动已在过去20年经历了一系列重大的规则改革。2000年悉尼夏季奥林匹克运动会之后，原来的38毫米球被40毫米球取代，原来21分记分制被改为11分制。这些旨在限制“超级球员”优势的改革，增强了乒乓球运动对于其他国家球员的吸引力。
“限制超级大国”、“保持均势”的理论同样适用于传媒。扭转发展中国家传媒的边缘化趋势、改变其欠发达状态、增强它们在国际传媒市场中的表达权，是时候了。为此，需要建立一套国际合作、交流与协调的机制，并加大对发展中国家传媒的资金与技术支持。
在发现双螺旋结构接近50年过后，詹姆斯•沃森(James Watson)在他的《DNA：生命之谜》(DNA: The Secret of Life)一书中说，人类基因组计划(Human Genome Project)发现，人类基因的构成是相似的。我们的共同之处，远远超过任何可能导致我们分道扬镳的或有鸿沟。
和基因的转录与表达一样，信息流动在文明的进步中发挥着至关重要的作用。重新设定国际传媒行业的规则和秩序，是对国际关系民主化趋势的适应。有了多元化的表达和信息流动，我们就可以修补破损的跨文化交流桥梁，修建一条通向未来的信息之路。
Toward a New World Media Order
LI CONGJUN
The world established a new international order after World War II with the founding of the United Nations. For over six decades, the international community has endeavored to create a more balanced, just and rational political and economic order.
Unfortunately the rules governing the international media order lag behind the times, especially compared to changes in politics and economics. The gap is seen, first and foremost, in the extremely uneven pattern of international communication. The flow of information is basically one-way: from West to East, North to South, and from developed to developing countries.
In 1980, the 21st General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) addressed the imbalance and inequality in international news reporting and called for a new order in international mass communication. Over the years, a growing number of insightful people, including many from the West, have proposed changes with the conviction that the existing order is far from just, rational and balanced.
In our interdependent world, the human community needs a set of more civilized rules to govern international mass communication. This reminds me of bridge, a game I truly enjoy. Modern bridge is known as contract bridge, indicating that players are bound by a contract and the game is a bidding process, in which wise and effective exchanges of information rely on collaboration and communication carried out in a fair and just manner.
Earlier variations of bridge, known as bridge-whist or straight bridge, were different. In bridge-whist, there was no bidding and the game was all about gambling, making communication difficult. The modern game has been shaped by gradual rule changes over the years.
The 'bridge' linking modern information flow and the international media is crumbling, in a sense, due to a lack of fair 'contracting' and 'gaming.' This situation is incompatible with the contemporary world. An unjust and irrational order hinders the global media industry's sustainable development and contributes to the problems in today's world. We need to start a constructive reform through rule changes to rebuild the bridge of communication and let the media industry play a more active role in promoting the advancement of human civilization.
Four principles should guide changes in the value system:
• Fairness: This requires that media organizations from all countries should have the right to participate in international communication on equal terms. Those media organizations in turn should provide comprehensive, objective, fair, balanced and accurate coverage to minimize discrimination and prejudice.
• All-win: It is advisable to create conditions allowing media organizations from different countries to share the fruits of development in information and communication industries, to play an active role in international mass communication, and to reverse the unbalanced situation where the strong get stronger and the weak get weaker.
• Inclusion: To maintain the world's diversity, media must respect the unique cultures, customs, beliefs and values of different nations; strive to dispel suspicions and remove barriers between different cultures and civilizations; enhance dialogue and communication; and seek common ground while putting aside differences.
• Responsibility: Media organizations should not only ensure openness and transparency to promote the building of an open society, but also keep to rational and constructive rules so as to turn mass communication into an active force for promoting social progress.
We must also keep improving rules and explore new mechanisms governing international communication. Unesco should actively negotiate and settle issues within the U.N. framework. However, it is necessary to keep improving rules and, when the conditions are ripe, to explore a long-term, nongovernmental mechanism to coordinate the global media industry, something like a 'media U.N.' This can be a mechanism for global media exchanges and consultation, and it may evolve into an organization for coordination and maybe even arbitration.
A sports analogy may help explain what I mean. Ping-pong, or table tennis, played a unique role in restoring China-U.S. relations in the 1970s and is known as China's 'national sport.' For many years, Chinese ping-pong players have taken the top prize in almost all major international events. This presents a paradox: The stronger a team becomes, the more it desires to maintain its position and keep improving. However, when a team is invincible for too long, few others are inclined to compete.
In the long run, the sport in which China enjoys so much advantage will be less appealing, less viable, and may eventually be excluded from future Olympic Games. In fact, ping-pong has undergone a series of major rule changes over the past two decades. After the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, the older 38mm balls were replaced by 40mm balls and the former 21-point scoring system was changed to an 11-point system. These changes, aimed at limiting the advantage of 'super players,' have made the sport more enticing to players from different countries.
The theories of 'checking superpower' and 'maintaining equilibrium' also apply to the media. It is time to reverse the marginalization of developing nations in the media, change their underdeveloped status, and enhance their rights of expression in the international media market. To that end, a mechanism for international cooperation, exchange and coordination is needed, as well as an increase in funds and technical support for media from developing countries.
Almost five decades after the discovery of the double helix, James Watson said in his book, 'DNA: The Secret of Life,' that the Human Genome Project found that human beings are similar in genetic makeup. Our common ground is far wider than any potential gulf that threatens to separate us.
Information flow, like gene transcription and expression, plays a vital role in the evolution of civilization. Resetting rules and order in the international media industry is an adaptation to the trend of democratization of international relations. With diversified expression and information flow, we can mend the broken bridge of cross-cultural communication and build an information link to the future.
