GLOBAL FLOWS OF COMMUNICATION Theoretical Approach 3

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GLOBAL FLOWS OF COMMUNICATIONTheoretical
Approach 3

• MEVIT3220/ 4220
• Media and Globalisation
• Carol Azungi, 25 November 2007

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IntroductionThe lecture in a nutshell

• The 21stC mediascape is characterised by
  multi-vocal, multimedia, multi-dimentional flows
  of information and communication
• In todays digitally connected globe, flows of
  all kinds of info. Circulate around the world at
  a speed unimaginable even a decade ago
• A shift from state-centric national views of
  media to one defined by consumer interests and
  transnational marketskey factor in expansion
  acceleration of media flows
• What does this mean?
• Explanation of main concepts
• Counter arguments
• Theoretical extrapolates
• Examples from the curriculum

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Ponder during lecture

• Has globalisation increased western cultural
  influence or triggered the possibilities of other
  flows?
• What is the role of media ownership in
  determining the flow of information and
  communication?

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Introducing some of the Concepts

• Mapping out the main concepts that have
  characterised global flow of communication
  studies over the past 30 years.
• Some of the the concepts and arguments developed
  in the 1970s and 1980s still influence current
  debates in global flow/ globalisation.

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Media Flows

• Media Flows- concept developed by a series of
  empirical studies in the 1970s and 80s. The
  research claimed the existence of unbalanced,
  unidirectional flows of TV programmes and foreign
  news from the centre to the periphery
  (Kaarle, Nordnstreng Tapio Varis 1974 study TV
  Traffic- A One-Way Street A survey and Analysis
  of the International Flow of Television Programme
  Material. UNESCO

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Cultural Imperialism

• Cultural Imperialism- popularised by Jeremy
  Tunstall who described this term as a situation
  in which authentic traditional, local cultureis
  being battered out of existence by the
  indiscrimate dumping of large quantities of slick
  commercial and media products, mainly from the US
  The Media are American Anglo-American Media in
  the World (1977 57).

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Media Imperialism

• Media Imperialism-developed within a broader
  analysis of cultural imperialism and dependency
  theories. Oliver Boyd-Barret defined it as the
  process whereby the ownership, structure,
  distribution of content of the media in any one
  country are singly or together subject to
  substantial external pressures from the media
  interests of any other country or countries
  without proportionate reciprocation of influence
  by the country so affected (1977 117)

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US film imports (1998)

• Isreal 80
• India 72
• Australia 72
• Germany 69
• Hong Kong 66
• Italy 64
• Japan 60
• Mexico 59
• Russia 59
• France 57
• Spain 55

• Ecuador 99.5
• Barbados 97.8
• Costa Rica 95.9
• Gabon 94.5
• Zimbabwe 90.2
• Cyprus 88.8
• Sri Lanka 88.5
• Syria 86.1
• Madagascar 84.2
• Lebanon 83.0

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Feature film exports (UNESCO)
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Read about responses

• EU Media Policies and Structures
• Television without boarders
• Support for film industry
• Challenges
• Hollywood hegemony
• Language
• Nationalism
• Regionalism

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Counter Arguments / Concepts

• Contra-flows - countries once thought as major
  clients of media imperialism such as Mexico,
  Canada, Brazil have successfully exported their
  programmes and personnel into the Centre.
  Mexico (Televisa Group), Brazil (TV Globo),
  Canada (CanWest) now export TV programmes and
  music to the countries all over the world.
• Regionalism- there is now greater exchange of
  news, TV programmes, print media, music between
  regions, e.g. DSTV (South Africa), Nollywood
  (Nigeria), Bollywood (India), Star TV (Hong
  Kong), Al Jazeera (Qatar), EuroNews (EU).
  Exchange of cultural products has also increased
  in Scandinavia.

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Counter Arguments / Concepts

• Localisation - local programmes remain popular
  and attract large audiences. People prefer to
  watch their own locally made programmes.
• Glocalisation / Hybridity- term popularised by
  British sociologist Roland Robertson in the 1990s
  and later developed by Zygmunt Bauman. This is
  characterised by the global-local interaction, by
  cultural fusion as a result of adaptation of
  Western media genres to suit local cultures and
  languages. For example, US generic models (e.g.
  soaps, sitcoms, action movies) have invited
  domestic imitation based on the countrys
  cultural and social realities.

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Counter arguments contd...

• Alternative media
• community media from the margins to the cutting
  edge
• Address the digital divide access, voice for the
  voiceless
• Platform/spaces for civic engagement and
  expression
• Internal flows of communication (devcom
  endogenous community, local culture, indigenous
  knowledge etc)
• Internet as alternative media enabling reversal
  of flows (see youtube.com, myspace and other
  people-centric channels, suggestions?)

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Determinants of reversal of global flows

• Post-Fordist mode of production
• New technology (satellite, internet)
• Changing patterns in geo-politics
• Deregulation of the media
• Growth of diasporic communities in the West see
  Indias Zee Tv watched by second generation
  British Asians, Chinese TV channel Phoenix and
  the pan-Arabic entertainment network MBC are
  examples of media representing what may be
  labeled as geo-cultural flows aimed at largely a
  diasporic pop.(Thussu, 2007, 14)

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Dimensions of Global Flow

• Another influential study on global flows is one
  developed by Arjun Appadurai in the early 1990s
• He identified 5 different dimensions of global
  flows
• Ethnoscapes - landscape of people who constitute
  our shifting world, e.g tourists, immigrants,
  refugees,
• Technscapes - the fluidity of technology (similar
  to the network society concept)
• Finascapes- movement of currency markets and
  money, across boundaries
• Mediascapes - distribution of electronic
  capabilities to produce disseminate news
• Ideascapes- movement of political ideas and
  images, e.g. freedom rights democracy.

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Theoretical Approaches influencing international
communication

• Concerns of the times
• Emergence of theories of communication parallel
  to socio-economic changes of the IR
• Communication part of the organic Society where
  each part played a role in the functioning of the
  whole (Road infrastructure, credit system and
  communication-postal, telegram, press) the
  nervous system, channel for the centre to
  propagate its influence to the outermost parts
  (Thussu, 2000, 54).
• 20th C, theories reflected the political,
  economic, technological developments of the time
  and their impact on the social and cultural
• The critical theories have also dwelt on the
  patterns of ownership and production in the media
  and communication industries (particularly the
  commodification of communication and its impact
  on inequalities

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Some of the theoretical approaches

• Free Flow of Information
• Modernisation theory
• Dependency theory
• Structural imperialism
• Hegemony
• Critical theory
• IS and discourses of globalisation

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• Free Flow of Information
• After the second world war and the establishment
  of a bi-polar world of free market capitalism and
  state socialism, theories of international
  communication flows became part of the new cold
  war discourse
• The concept Free Flow represented western,
  especially US antipathy to state regulation,
  censorship and the use of media for propaganda by
  its communist opponents
• The free Flow was a liberal, free market
  discourse that championed rights of media
  propriators to sell where ever and what ever they
  wanted.
• The free flow therefore served economic and
  political purposes. Here, media organisations of
  rich countries could dissuade other from erecting
  trade barriers to their products or from making
  it difficult to gather news from their
  territories
• Their arguments drew on premises of democracy,
  FOX, media role as watchdogs and their assumed
  global relevance.
• For their compatriot businessmen, free flow
  assisted them in advertising and marketing their
  goods in foreign markets through media vehicles
  that championed the western way of life,
  capitalist values and individualism

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• Modernisation theory
• (see Lerner 1958, Schramm, 1964)
• Complementary to the doctrine of Free FLow was
  the view that international communication, key to
  development in the third world
• International mass comm could be used to spread
  the message of modernity transfer economic,
  political models of the west to the newly
  independent countries of the south
• Western ways (power, wealth, skill, rationality
  etc) seem as a stimuli for development and a
  bridge to a wider world
• Critism
• Top-down approach
• Narrow approaches
• Media are not neutral force (they have economic,
  political, social attachements and political
  power in hands of few)
• Modern (western) and traditional are not mutually
  exclusive (see Freira 1970)

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• Dependency theories
• Emerged in Latin America in late 1960s early
  1970s in opposition of modernisation theory, need
  for alternative approaches, from the south
• Cultural imperialism/media imperialism from
  dominance of western cultural products especially
  hollywood (Schiller, 1976)
• Critism
• They offer no tangible solutions

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• Structural Imperialism (Galtung 1971)
• Notions of centre and periphery
• Forwards Castells notions of space of flows i.e.
  harmony of interest between the core of the
  centre nations and the centre in the periphery
  nations (p83)
• The centre-periphery relationships are maintained
  and reinforced by information flows and
  reproduction of economic activities. These create
  institutional links that serve the interests of
  the dominant groups.

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• Hegemony (Gramsci 1891-1937)
• The role of ideology and state power in the
  capitalist society
• The dominant social group/nation has the capacity
  to excercise intellectual and moral direction
  over society or others and builds a new system of
  alliances to support its aims-Gramsci-this
  happens when this group excersise control over
  mass media, schools, religion etc
• The dominant class then coersively imposses its
  will on subodinate classes

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• Critical theory (Adono, 1903)
• Cultural Industries production of culture as a
  commodity by the capitalist societies as enmass
• This lead to standadization resulting into mass
  culture leading to the deterioration of other
  cultures
• Forum for propagating capitalism ideologies and
  thinking among recipients
• These debates have greatly influenced debates of
  thee Global flow of information and communication

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• Theories of the IS
• Innovations in ICTs especially computing and
  their rapid global expansion has led to claims
  that this is an IS
• Speed, volumes, costs influencing global flows
• Covergence of telecoms with computing creating
  new infomation and communication flows between
  states, between business and among (ordinary)
  people

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Cases from the curriculum

• Miss World Going Deshi Addressing an Indian
  television audience with a global media product
  by Nobert Wildermuth (in Media in a Globalised
  Society ed. By Stig Hjarvard, pp 207-253
• National Prisms of a Global Media event by
  Chin-Chuan Lee et al (in Mass Media and Society
  ed James Curran et al, pp 320-333
• The Whole World is Watching Online Surveillance
  of Social Movement Organizations by Sasha
  Costanza-Chock (in Who Owns the Media? Global
  Trends and Local Resistance ed by Pradip Thomas
  et al, pp 271-292)

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Case Study 1

• Miss World 1996 in Bangalore
• http//edition.cnn.com/WORLD/9611/23/miss.world/mi
  ss.world.28sec.mov
• Controversial tv program Cultural assault Vs
  foreign capital flow, show casing Indian culture
• Events
• Four bombs weeks before the contest
• Calls for boycott
• Peaceful demonstrations
• Feminists promise to set themselves on fire
• 15 Nov-8 days before the show, Kumar Suresh
  committes self-immolation

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• Beach wear round (Nov 6-11) moved to Seychelles
• Miss Personality (Nov 9) moved out of Bangalore
  for security purposes
• Appeal to High court to ban show (culture and
  heritage)
• Karnataka Supreme Court asks show to be
  mornitored to ensure conditions are met (alchohol
  and decency, laws of the land etc)-only after an
  affidavit from organisers
• Final day (Nov 23) 24hour Bangalore bandh
  (general strike by BJP

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• Despite the strikes
• 2.5 billion tv viewers world wide
• 200million Indians (poll results)
• 120 countries

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• Article explores the following issues
• Protesters misjudgement and reflections on
  paternistic media consumption
• Process of hybridisation as part of Indias
  glocalisation efforts
• Conflicts between the local and the global
• Ideological fights over the meaning of Indias
  culture (cultural imperialism)
• Competing visions of national identity
• Contested representation of gender (the
  traditional Indian woman vs. the modern Indian
  woman).

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Case Study 2

• Coverage of the handover by the UK of Hong Kong
  to the Peoples Republic of China in 1997.
• 1842-1997 marking the end of 150 colonial rule
• Media spectacle 8000 journalists, 776 media
  organisations and several national ideological
  struggles between east and west, capitalism and
  socialism, democracy and authoritarianism etc

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• Western media and national ideologies (fear and
  doubt)
• US representing itself as the guardians of
  democracy (Tiananmen crackdown, question of Tibet
  and HK seen as a target of abuse and negative
  influence)
• Britain Imperial nostalgia
• Australia/Canada significance of HK to china,
  defence of America
• Japan Economic interests

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• Chinese media and national ideologies (chinese
  jingoism)
• 3 major media giants, common policy, access to
  pro-china HK sources
• Patriotism, emotions
• (common ancenstry, family centredness and the
  final process of reunifying Macao and Taiwan)
• End of 150 years of national humiliation (Deng
  Xiaoping, the paramount leader and ingenious
  author of the one country, 2 systems and how
  chinese heroes beat British imperialists
  villains. Ignore
• Chinas military-national strength

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• Hong Kong media
• Identified with chinese culture but rejects their
  communist system.
• Reminiscence of the positive British presence
  especially cultural but not the political
• Taiwan media
• Endorse British decolonisation while rejecting
  Chinas nationalism branding it as hegemonic and
  expansionist

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• Articles raises the following
• International news-making (foreign news) still
  determined by domestic and national
  interests.
• Promotion of national interests in a global
  news story
• Discursive struggles in international news making
• What it means to be Chinese - cultural and
  national meanings of identity (global Chinese
  communities)
• National triumph vs. Western imperialism

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Case Study 3

• Social Movements and new communication
  technologies
• USA Patriot Act 2001 allows
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vglTzekPGLCofeature
  PlayListpE8356527487842BAindex0
• Expanded wire taps
• Secret searches
• Information sharing among agencies
• Access to voice mail
• Interception of electronic communication (like
  e-mails)
• Credit card numbers, Tel. numbers
• IP addresses
• Search warrants for emails
• Access to records of meetings, sessions etc

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Some examples...

• US
• Seattle Protests
• Palestine.indymedia.org
• Somalian Internet

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Consequences

• Vulnerability to selective prosecution
• Persistant data
• Chilling effect
• Delegitimation of social movements
• Climate of fear
• Disruption of work
• Deterrrence of legitimate political expression
  and activism

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• Article raises the following issues
• Use of internet for broader movement coalition
  building across national boundaries.
• Multidimensional flow as opposed to one-way
  diffusion of information (social movement
  interaction)
• US surveillance of social movements organisations
  (Big Brother watching?).
• New technologies also curtails the SMOs (U,S govt
  uses different kinds of surveillance techniques).

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Questions for Discussion / Reflection

• In light of new developments in global and
  national media, is the concept of media
  imperialism still relevant?
• What forms of glocalisation / Hybridity can
  you perceive in your own country?
• Despite the reversal of cultural flows from the
  North to the South, why do you think US cultural
  products (TV, Films, books) still dominate?

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Announcements

• 8 November Dags lecture on Hollywood and
  Globalization
• Undelivered term papers should be delivered to
  Sarah today after the lecture
• Lin Prøitz PhD Defence
• trial lecture on the 1st of Nov., 1715,
  auditorium 4, Eilert Sundts hus, A.
• Disputas 2. november 0915 i theologisk
  eksamenssal, domus academica, sentrum