Global Communication and Media Policy

The second theory I chose to focus on, which is part of the second chapter of the textbook, is the ‘free flow of information’. This concept has emerged post WW2, as a reflection of the Western capitalist ideology. This ideology perceived international communication as a mean of promotion for democratic ideals, free market and freedom of expression. On the contrary, the Marxist ‘side’ commonly promoted state regulated communication, and was said to use communication for propaganda. The concept of ‘free flow of information’ means that the media are part of a liberal, free market economy, and can be sold privately from any owner to any other one. Because of the Western domination over world’s media resources and related capital, the West had also the most to gain from the international implementation of this ideology, and from the commodification of international communication. The ‘free flow of information’ has both a political and an economic dimensions. On one hand, the politica...

Chapter 7 of the textbook focuses on what was named the ‘Internet age’ by the Business Week, in 1999. What is meant by this terminology is an age when information treatment has become so much faster and less expensive, thanks to the development of a major new communication tool: Internet. The idea, or concept, I will focus on throughout this reflection is the “free flow of commerce”. Not only the rise of Internet has allowed an unprecedented increase in the volume and diversity of information exchanged; but it also gave birth to a new form of commercial transactions: the e-commerce. The textbook points out the way trade on Internet has outpaced all expectations and was representing $1.4 trillion in 2003. The reason why e-corporations have been so quick to rise is that Internet has made transactions considerably cheaper and faster. It reduced transaction costs, and eliminated issues of geographical positioning, while allowing a more direct form of online marketing. Moreover, as...

Chapter 6 of the textbook addresses ‘contraflow in global media’, or in other words the non-Western mass production and export of communication content (e.g. Brazilian telenovelas; Indian film industry…). The concept I will focus on here is the one of ‘cultures of diaspora’. It is defined in the textbooks as the results of the physical displacement of communities, which carry with them their own cultures and traditions. This mass movement of communities has been conceptualize by Appadurai under the name “ethnoscape”. The texbook presents some examples, such as populations of “South Asians in Britain, North Africans in France, Turks in Germany, and Latin American in the United States”(p.207). Indeed, it is becoming more and more complicated to associate a single culture to a geographical area. Waves of immigration and the globalization of the workplace through the rise of multinationals companies, have led to multiculturalism and multilingualism becoming a new norm. Because of this...

The 5th chapter of the book focuses on the relationship between Communication and cultural globalization. The notion I will address here is the one of cultural diversity, and more specifically the way in which cultural globalization might threaten it. Cultural diversity is defined in the book as: “ a 'manifestation of the creativity of the human spirit', and is required 'by principles of equity, human rights and self-determination'; it is needed to 'oppose political and economic dependence and oppression' for 'sustainability' and it is 'aesthetically pleasing to have an array of different cultures', it 'stimulates the mind' and can provide a 'reserve of knowledge and experience' about good and useful ways of organizing society ” (UNESCO), p.180. Cultural globalization takes the form of an increasing production and consumption of the same cultural products all around the world. Whether we are talking about music, movies or books, ...

The second chapter of the book is complementary to the first one, in the sense that they both tend to contextualize the study of global communication, through presenting the key references to know. The second one aims on one hand to explain the key theories approaching international communication, and on the other hand, to assess their validity and usefulness in understanding the subject. From the different approaches presented throughout the chapter, the one I was the most interested in was the part on ‘Hegemony’, and this is the one I will talk about here. The conception of hegemony by Antonio Gramsci is presented in the reading as a strong influence in the study of ideology (which concerns both critical theorists and cultural critics). Gramsci addresses the way dominant social groups or classes exercise control over the society by “build[ing] a consent by ideological control of cultural production and distribution”. Ideological power is therefore exercised through a control over so...

The use of communication as a tool has been often observed in history. The evolution of communication is strongly correlated to economic, political or military historical situations. Throughout my reading of the textbook’s first chapter, I have been particularly interested in the concept of propaganda, and in how it was adapted to different technological advances and new medium; in order to serve political or military purposes. I wished to focus here on the way Radio in particular has revolutionized propaganda, and made it a phenomenon of masses. From centuries before the invention and then popularization of radio, communication was already used as a way to spread ideologies to the masses. Writing is an example of that, as the popularization of it to non-formal languages, thanks to the printing revolution, had “undermin[ed] the authority of priests, scribes and political and cultural elites”(p.13), which means that these actors were using their domination on printing as way for id...