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International Communication Gazette
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Freedom of the Press

A World System Perspective

Shelton A. Gunaratne

Mass Communications Department, Minnesota State University Moorhead, 1104 Seventh Ave S., Moorhead, MN 56563, USA. gunarat{at}mnstate.edu

The world system theory can provide a refreshingly different perspective of global press freedom. The starting point of assessing press freedom should be the world system, not the ‘atomistic’ nation-state, because one cannot understand the part without knowing the whole, which is more than the sum of the parts. This article proposes the application of a revised formulation of the world system theory – which presumes a capitalist world-economy dominated by three competing center-clusters each associated with a dependent hinterland of peripheral economic clusters – to examine global press freedom. It proposes a three-tiered typology for measuring press freedom at the world system, nation-state and individual levels. It suggests that press freedom indices should factor in the power of the center-clusters, themselves led by a hegemon cluster, to flood the hinterlands technologically with a barrage of information-communication.

Key Words: freedom of communication outlets • press freedom • right to communicate • world system

International Communication Gazette, Vol. 64, No. 4, 343-369 (2002)
DOI: 10.1177/174804850206400403
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