Transcript Daya Thussu: Internationalizing Media Studies and the

Internationalizing Media Studies
and the ‘Rise of the Rest’
Presentation at the ECREA conference
Istanbul
October 2012
Dr Daya Thussu
Professor of International Communication
Co-Director of India Media Centre
University of Westminster, London
[email protected]
Global Media?
Hollywood-imported or inspired programming (in
original, dubbed or localized versions):
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In music (MTV)
Factual entertainment (Discovery, National Geographic,
History Channel)
Sports (ESPN)
News (CNN)
Children’s programming (Disney, Cartoon Network)
On-line media: Google, Yahoo!, Facebook, Twitter,
YouTube
American entertainment?
The US-UK news duopoly
The world’s top 5 media corporations
Global Fortune 500 ranking
2009 revenue, billion $
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57
36
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76
30
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82
28
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170
13
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177
13
BRICS and Beyond
Study of post-Cold War media in
former Eastern bloc:
‘to extrapolate theoretically from
such relatively unrepresentative
nations as Britain and the United
States, is both conceptually
impoverishing and a peculiarly
restricted version of even
Eurocentricism’ (Downing, 1996).
‘De-westernizing’, part
of ‘a growing reaction
against the selfabsorption and
parochialism of much
Western media theory’
(Curran and Park, 2000).
Imperatives for
internationalizing media
studies by broadening its
remit, warranted by
unprecedented growth of
media in non-Western
world (Thussu, 2009)
Imperatives for internationalization
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Globalization of the media means that
research demands it
Globalization of higher education means that
students demand it
Globalizing the canon?
Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527)
Chanakya (Kautilya) 3rd century BC
A tale of two cities
Cairo
Established 970 AD
Bologna
Established 1088 AD
Media: a global history?
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Printing was invented in China not in Europe
First printing press in the Ottoman Empire
was established in 1511, and in Mexico, in
1535
Strong tradition of anti-colonial journalism in
Asia, Africa and the Arab world
Sun Yat Sen worked
for Chung-kuo Jih-pao
(Chinese Daily
Newspaper), founded
in 1899.
India’s greatest journalist
‘Chindia’ impact
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China is poised to have more impact on the world
over the next 20 years than any other country. If
current trends persist, by 2025 China will have the
world’s second largest economy and will be a
leading military power…
India probably will continue to enjoy relatively
rapid economic growth and will strive for a multipolar world in which New Delhi is one of the poles.
-Global Trends 2025: A Transformed World, US Government, 2008
Race to top: China vs. US
Valuation of GDP based on PPP in $billion
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
China
10.11 11.31 12.46 13.74 15.16 16.80 18.67
US
14.52 15.06 15.49 15.99 16.62 17.39 18.25
Source: IMF
The top five: Out of Fortune 500
US
Japan
China
France
Germany
133
68
61
35
34
‘Chindia’ and global communication
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China and India’s combined economic and cultural
impact, aided by global diasporas: globalization with
an Asian accent
Media and communication growing in both countries
– more than 800 communication programmes in
Chinese universities. Mushrooming of media
research institutes in India
Both source of a number of postgraduate and
research students studying media and
communication
Chinese TV to watch
A Million
Media Now!
Media and communication in ‘Chindia’
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India: More than 120 round-the-clock TV news
channels; world’s largest producer of feature
films and one of its most linguistically diverse
media landscapes
China biggest mobile phone market, highest
blogger population; largest exporter of IT
products
World Association of Newspapers reported that
in 2010, India, with 110 million copies sold daily,
is the world’s largest newspaper market,
followed by China with 109 million copies
Top ten Internet users, in millions
Media for a ‘post-American’ world?
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The limits of ‘neo-liberal’ corporate
globalization – ‘Anglobalization’
Media contra-flows
Cultural consequences of the ‘Chindia’
challenge: the ‘peaceful rise’ of China and
India’s ‘demographic dividend’
Civilizations – from clash to conversation?