GLOBAL FLOWS OF COMMUNICATION

Theoretical Approach 3

MEVIT3220/ 4220Media and Globalisation

Carol Azungi, 25 November 2007

Introduction:The lecture in a nutshell

The 21stC mediascape is characterised by multi-vocal, multimedia, multi-dimentional flows of information and communication

In today´s 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 markets:key factor in expansion &acceleration of media flows

What does this mean? Explanation of main concepts Counter arguments Theoretical extrapolates Examples from the curriculum

Ponder during lectureHas 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?

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.

Media FlowsMedia 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

Cultural ImperialismCultural Imperialism- popularised by

Jeremy Tunstall who described this term as a situation in which “authentic traditional, local culture…is 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).

Media ImperialismMedia 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)

US film imports % (1998)Isreal 80India 72Australia 72Germany 69Hong Kong 66Italy 64Japan 60Mexico 59Russia 59France 57Spain 55

Ecuador 99.5Barbados 97.8Costa Rica 95.9Gabon 94.5Zimbabwe 90.2Cyprus 88.8Sri Lanka 88.5Syria86.1Madagascar 84.2Lebanon 83.0

Feature film exports (UNESCO)

Country 1968 1978 1988 1998France 117 160 137 183Germany 107 57 57 119Spain 117 104 63 65UK 88 54 40 108Poland 22 36 30 14Mexico 90 63 112 7Brazil 47 101 88 40 Indonesia 8 81 84 15 Hong Kong 156 135 139 92Japan 494 326 265 249South Korea 219 117 87 43Thailand 64 150 - 30Egypt 40 51 60 16South Africa 12 19 52 10USA 180 240 617 661

Read about responses

EU Media Policies and StructuresTelevision without boardersSupport for film industryChallenges

Hollywood hegemonyLanguageNationalismRegionalism

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.

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 country´s cultural and social realities.

Counter arguments contd...Alternative mediacommunity 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?)

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 India

´s 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)

Dimensions of Global FlowAnother influential study on global flows is one

developed by Arjun Appadurai in the early 1990sHe 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”.

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

Some of the theoretical approaches

Free Flow of InformationModernisation theoryDependency theoryStructural imperialismHegemonyCritical theoryIS and discourses of globalisation

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

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 approachNarrow 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)

Dependency theoriesEmerged 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)

CritismThey offer no tangible solutions

Structural Imperialism (Galtung 1971)Notions of centre and peripheryForwards 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.

Hegemony (Gramsci 1891-1937)The role of ideology and state power in

the capitalist societyThe 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

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

Theories of the ISInnovations 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

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)

Case Study 1Miss World 1996 in Bangalorehttp://edition.cnn.com/WORLD/9611/23/miss.world/miss.world.28sec.mov

Controversial tv program: Cultural assault Vs foreign capital flow, show casing Indian culture

Events:Four bombs weeks before the contestCalls for boycottPeaceful demonstrationsFeminists promise to set themselves on fire15 Nov-8 days before the show, Kumar Suresh

committes self-immolation

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

Despite the strikes:2.5 billion tv viewers world wide200million Indians (poll results)120 countries

Article explores the following issues:Protesters misjudgement and reflections

on paternistic media consumption Process of hybridisation as part of India´s

glocalisation effortsConflicts between the local and the globalIdeological “fights” over the meaning of

India´s culture (cultural imperialism)Competing visions of national identityContested representation of gender (the

traditional Indian woman vs. the “modern” Indian woman).

Case Study 2Coverage of the handover by the UK of

Hong Kong to the People´s Republic of China in 1997.1842-1997 marking the end of 150 colonial

ruleMedia spectacle: 8000 journalists, 776

media organisations and several national ideological struggles between east and west, capitalism and socialism, democracy and authoritarianism etc

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 nostalgiaAustralia/Canada: significance of HK

to china, defence of AmericaJapan: Economic interests

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

China´s military-national strength

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 China´s nationalism branding it as hegemonic and expansionist

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

Case Study 3 Social Movements and new communication

technologies USA Patriot Act 2001 allows:http://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=glTzekPGLCo&feature=PlayList&p=E8356527487842BA&index=0

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

Some examples...

USSeattle ProtestsPalestine.indymedia.orgSomalian Internet

ConsequencesVulnerability to selective prosecutionPersistant dataChilling effect

Delegitimation of social movementsClimate of fearDisruption of workDeterrrence of legitimate political

expression and activism

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).

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?

Announcements8 November: Dag´s lecture on Hollywood

and GlobalizationUndelivered term papers should be

delivered to Sarah today after the lectureLin Prøitz PhD Defence

trial lecture on the 1st of Nov., 17:15, auditorium 4, Eilert Sundts hus, A.

Disputas 2. november 09:15 i theologisk eksamenssal, domus academica, sentrum