CHAPTER 11 Knowledge, Perception and Utilization of the Declaration Hamid Mowlana and Howard H. Frederick This chapter is based on a number of interviews conducted during visits in North and South America and in Europe, an open letter of inquiry sent to pro- fessional and research organizations around the world, and a survey of jour- ,1alism educators. Although by no means rigorous or comprehensive, we believe that it provides a useful insight into certain aspects of the impact of the Declaration. Despite its worldwide significance, the Declaration and its unanimous sup- port among member states is little known among media professionals. Never- theless, it may have helped to sensitize certain sectors of world opinion about the role of media in international relations and issues of peace and war and human rights . . While in the community the Declaration has not received much attention, it nevertheless has laid some important foundations for future research. A special 1979 issue of the Journal of Communication,1 Unesco's own monographs, 2 and Kaarle Nordenstreng's book 3 provide the groundwork for further investigation. Our survey of 15 textbooks on international com- munication published between 1980 and 1986 in the United States, Canada, Federal Republic of Germany, Czechoslovakia, Spain, Finland, Costa Rica, Cuba, Turkey, Iran, and India found a fair amount of reference to the Declaration's principles and, in a few instances, extensive discussion on ethical frameworks for global information flow. 4 During the same period at least three empirical studies in the United States and one in the Federal Republic of Germany were conducted to test some of the specific articles of the Declaration: whether the media do operate to pro- mote peace and understanding and provide alternative concepts of the social role of news media. One of these investigations was a case study of the media coverage in the very well-publicized rapprochement between Israel and Egypt. The second study involved the images portrayed in the media of Turkey and Greece about each other, while the third study attempted to measure the degree of independence available to the mass media in different societies. Results were mixed and in one instance it was found that the major papers in two conflicting countries do not contribute to a reduction of tensions between the two parties. 5 The fourth study listed here dealt with the images of 89