BOOKS IN BRIEF

Reporting a Revolution: The Iranian Revolution and the NIICO Debate by J V Vilanilam; Sage Publications, New Delhi; pp
THE book is the outcome of a larger research thesis on foreign news in newspapers in two "culturally and geographically distant countries" India and the US, with the focus on the possible influence of the foreign policies of each country on the process of selection and presentation of news. Specifically, the book looks at Iranian revolution. News reporting on the Three Mile Island nuclear accident and the energy crisis which were part of the original study have been omitted from this book. As the author points out, the Iranian revolution coincided with the peak of the debate on the New International Information and Communi cation Order (NIICO) which drew attention to the inequality in terms of information flow between the North and the South. After discussing the elements which influence choice of news, the book also looks at the debate on the NIICO and the suggestions which came out of it. It studies the coverage on the Iranian revolution by two newspapers, the Times of India and the New York Times and finds surprisingly that neither paper has interpreted Iran "from an Iranian perspective". The book would probably have been more interesting and useful if it had included the other two originally surveyed events as Well. Good reading if you arc into media research.