On the 100th anniversary of the League of Nations' 1925 Resolution on the Collaboration of the Press in the Organisation of Peace, we talk with Professor Kaarle Nordenstreng to explore how media, moral disarmament, and broadcasting shaped interwar internationalism and later global media debates.

Professor Nordenstreng shares his thoughts on his research on the 1925 Resolution and the developments that led up to the 1936 International Convention on the Use of Broadcasting in the Cause of Peace. He connects these landmarks to the first mass media declaration by UNESCO in 1978. He also recounts highlights from his career from his early involvement in radio to interviewing Carl Jung in 1961, and speaking at the UN in 1982, and reflects on the continuing challenges of journalistic ethics, disarmament, and multilateralism today.

The episode connects past media diplomacy to today’s challenges, urging renewed focus on media ethics, international cooperation, and the power of journalism to shape public opinion for peace.

Resources: Ask a Librarian! Ask an Archivist!

Communicating the League of Nations: Contributions to a Transnational Communication History of the League of Nations in the Inter-War Period (1920–1938).  United Nations Historical Series. 2024.  https://doi.org/10.18356/9789213589274

Kaarle Nordenstreng’s home page https://sites.tuni.fi/kaarle/

Publications available via the homepage related to the episode:

Nordenstreng, K. and Seppä, T. The League of Nations and the Mass Media: Rediscovery of a Forgotten Story. Paper presented at the XV Conference of the International Association for Mass Communication Research IAMCR, New Delhi, August 1986. (17 pp.) 

The New World Information and Communication Order: Testimony of an Actor. In Frank Deppe, Wolfgang Meixner & Günter Pallaver (eds.), Widerworte. Philosophie Politik Kommunikation. Festschrift für Jörg Becker. Innsbruck: Innsbruck University Press, 2011, 227-237.

Revisiting 45 Years of History in Communication Policies (with Juan Somavia). Media Development, Vol. LXVII, 2/2021, 5-10.

Does communication research and education take peace seriously? Panel presentation in IAMCR Conference Plenary “The contribution of academia to peace-building: Critique, creativity and activism” in Lyon, 11 July 2023.

Where to listen to this episode 

Content   

Guest: Professor Kaarle Nordenstreng

Host, production and editing: Amy Smith, UN Library & Archives Geneva

Recorded & produced at the United Nations Library & Archives Geneva