Transcript International Comm History

Media Globalization
History of International
Communication
International Communication
• The communication that occurs across international
borders, that is over the borders of nation states (Fortner
1993).
• The cultural, economic, political, social, and technical
analysis of communication patterns and effects across
and between nation states (Mc Phail 2002).
• The flow of information across borders for economic,
military, political and cultural purposes.
Media Globalization
• Globalization is a process that goes beyond
communication across borders. It is a process that seeks
to establish a global interconnected and interdependent
economic, political and cultural system (Moran 2004).
• Media Globalization results in cultural homogeneity
across the globe as more and more people have access to
the same cultural images and products (Hamelink 1983;
Mattelart 1983; Schiller1989).
• A process of cultural appropriation when people take
what is relevant to their own context and orient or adapt
it to their local needs (Appadurai 1996).
Historical Context:
Communication and Empire
• Communication has always been critical to the
establishment and maintenance of power over
distances.
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Persian Empire
Greek Empire
Chinese Empire
Roman Empire
Ashokan Empire
Mughal Empire
Historical Context:
• Mediums of Communication
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Clay Tablets
Papyrus
Parchment
Paper
• The Printing revolution
▫ Invention of movable type printing method by
Johanne Gutenberg in Germany.
International Communication:
Technological Advancements
• Telegraph
▫ Samuel Morse 1837
 Ensured the rapid transmission of communication as well as
secrecy and code protection.
▫ Businesses first to utilize it.
▫ Replaced long distant communication by sea.
▫ Military implications.
• Wireless Telegraph
▫ Invented by Guglielmo Marconi in 1901
▫ British domination and control over information
▫ Establishment of International Radiotelegraph Union to
challenge Anglo-American domination
World Cable Shares
Country
Global Share
in 1892
Global Share
in 1923
British Empire
United States
French Empire
Denmark
Others
66.3%
15.8%
8.9%
5.3%
3.7%
50.5%
24.2%
11.0%
2.6%
11.7%
International Communication:
The Economic & Military Imperative
• Industrialization
▫ Capitalism/ Liberalization
• Wars
▫ Algerian war
▫ Crimean war
▫ Civil war
• British hegemony
▫ Monopoly on overland and under sea cables.
▫ Played an enormous role in the unification & extension
of the British empire.
International Communication:
• International Telegraph Union (ITU)
▫ Founded in 1865
▫ 22 members (all European except Persia)
▫ Telegraphic transmissions increased from 29
million in 1868 to 329 million in 1900
• International Radiotelegraph Union
▫ Signed in 1906 in Berlin
International Communication:
• Telephone
▫ Invented in 1877 by Alexander Graham Bell.
▫ The American AT&T company dominated this
system of communication for the next 80 years.
▫ Coverage limited
International Communication:
From technology to media institutions
• News Agencies
▫ An organization which collected and disseminated
news nationally as well as internationally.
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Havas
Wolff
Reuters
Associated Press
▫ The Ring Combination
 The League of Allied Agencies
 Divided the region amongst themselves creating a
monopoly
International Communication:
The advent of Popular Media
• The Newspaper Industry
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The Times of India – India
The Straits Times – Singapore
Al-Ahram – Cairo
Asahi Shimbun – Japan
Le Petit Parisian – France
Chung-kuo Jih-pao – China
New York Journal – US
International Communication:
Popular Media
• Film
▫ First film screening in Paris & Berlin in 1895.
▫ French dominated film industry.
▫ 1909 – 1913 Development of independent film studios in the US
led to formation of Hollywood.
• Music
▫ His Master’s Voice (HMV).
▫ Electrical and Musical Industries (EMI)
• Advertising Industry
▫ US companies dominated advertising industry
▫ J. Walter Thomson
Assignment
• Non- Aligned Movement
• NWICO (New World Information and
Communication Order)
• NWEO (New International Economic Order)
• MacBride Commission
• Capitalism vs Communism
Part II
International Communication:
The Radio
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First transmission in 1902
Radio equipment cheap compared to Cable
Transmission easy
Could be used by US businesses as a tool to
break British monopoly on cable technology
The Radio & International
Communication
• Regulation of the Airwaves
▫ Radio frequency allocated on first come first served basis by the large
colonial powers (Britain, Germany, France, USA and Russia).
▫ Berlin, 1906 at the International Radiotelegraph Conference Radio
standards debated.
▫ No mechanism for assigning or withholding frequency slots. Interests of
developing world not looked after.
▫ Companies with technology and capital gained a monopoly over the
limited spectrum of airwaves.
• National Broadcasting Trends
▫ USA; The Radio Act of 1927. Radio used as a commercial enterprise
funded by advertising.
▫ Britain; The BBC 1927. Radio used as a non-profit, public broadcasting
monopoly.
▫ Soviet Union; TASS 1925. First nation to exploit this medium for
international broadcasting.
International Communication:
The Battle of the Airwaves
▫ Strategic significance of international communication grew with
the expansion of the radio.
▫ During Wars it was realized that was mobilization of opinion was
as important as the mobilization of men and means.
▫ Soviet Union first to realize the potential of the radio and take
advantage of it for Communist propaganda.
▫ In Nazi Germany, Hitler also used radio to disseminate his
propaganda to the world.
▫ These events prompted the British to create a monitoring unit in
order to listen to such transmissions and later create their own
Arabic language service.
▫ The Second World War saw an explosion in international
broadcast propaganda with the British Empire Service taking a
leading role in it.
▫ British propaganda much more effective than American
propaganda.
International Communication:
The Battle of the Airwaves
• First World War & Propaganda
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Soviet Union: All Union Radio - 1925
Germany: Nazi Reichsender – 1935
Italy: Radio Bari - 1935
Britain: BBC
• Second World War
▫ Japan: Nippon Hoso Kyokai
▫ The Empire Service by the BBC
▫ United States: Voice of America - 1942
International Communication:
The Cold War
• Second World War: Two victorious allies
▫ Soviet Union
▫ United States
• Communist Propaganda or Capitalist Persuasion
▫ Clash between two contrasting ideologies.
• Soviet Broadcast Propaganda
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TASS (Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union) & Radio Moscow.
Aimed at Eastern Bloc and Third World.
Marxist in content against imperialism and Capitalist world.
Broadcast centered on party-ideology not professional journalism
content.
▫ No match for western broadcasters.
▫ Communist propaganda ineffective.
International Communication:
The Cold War
• US Broadcast Propaganda
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VOA,
Radio Liberty,
Radio Free Europe &
American Forces Network.
Radio Free Russia
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Used to justify Wars by US.
Psychological warfare - ‘facilitative communication’.
Religious propaganda – against Godless communism.
Anti- US narrative.
▫ Capitalist propaganda more effective against Communism.
▫ The events of 9-11 replaced the demise of Communism.
▫ Arab & Muslim world replaced the Soviet Union.
International Communication:
Cold War Propaganda in the Third World
• Anti-colonial movements
▫ Potential for Communist indoctrination.
▫ West striving for control over raw material.
▫ Literacy levels low therefore radio considered a critical medium
for dissemination capitalist or communist ideologies.
▫ Indigenous resources weak & state controlled.
▫ The Middle East of special geostrategic significance as held major
oil resources.
• Pan-Arabism
▫ Pan-Arab sentiment also broadcast from Palestinian liberation
radio by the PLO to keep the Palestinian struggle alive.
▫ Gamaal Nasser of Egypt’s ‘Voice of Arabs’
▫ Helped create nationalism in the Arab/Muslim world
International Communication:
Cold War Propaganda by VOA
• VOA operated from Japan, Thailand, Philippines,
Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Indonesia, Latin America and
Africa.
▫ US broadcast propaganda reached new heights.
▫ In Latin America it was used to fight the communist
revolution led by Fidel Castro in Cuba.
▫ Africa remained a low target given its weak
geostrategic position in international relations.
▫ Initially receptive to the Soviet message of freedom
and from colonialism but growing influence of
modernizing elites and dependency on Western
economies meant effect of communism waning.
International Communication:
Development
• Non- Aligned Movement 1961
▫ Rejecting the Cold War bipolarity, developing countries opted for a
neutral Non-Aligned status.
▫ Egypt, India and Indonesia.
▫ Demanded that international communication issues be seen in terms of
the North-South rather than the East-West categories.
▫ The Non-Aligned countries, a group of 77 newly independent colonial
states demanded greater economic justice from the world.
• New International Economic Order (NIEO)
▫ The UN General Assembly approved of their demand by introducing the
NIEO.
▫ A redefinition of international relations based on equality and a
democratic economic order.
International Communication:
Development
• New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO)
▫ It was also realized that the new economic order had to be linked to a
new information & communication order.
▫ Helsinki Conference 1975: Freer and wider dissemination of information
of all kind.
▫ Technical and financial support from the developed world to bridge the
gap that existed between them.
▫ The use of new communication technologies for development.
• Satellite Television for Development
▫ Used through television to disseminate information on literacy,
healthcare as well as spreading consumerism amongst Third World
publics.
International Communication:
Demand for NWICO
• The North/South divide
▫ Unequal and unjust economic & political relations.
▫ Dependency on West for software and hardware.
▫ Control of North over major communication
channels created an exploitative and distorted
view of the South to world.
▫ Created a model dependency with a negative effect
on the polity, economy and society of the
developing countries.
International Communication:
Demand for NWICO
• Justifications for Demanding NWICO
▫ Center and peripheral demarcations.
▫ Economic and technological dependence on “information rich” of the
“information poor”.
▫ Monopoly of Western-based transnational corporations perpetuating
“vertical” rather than the desirable “horizontal” flow of communication.
▫ Commodification of information by West subjected to the rules of the
market.
▫ A new form of neo-colonialism.
▫ Imbalanced flow of communication.
▫ Manufacturing news by distorting facts in order to alter world opinion and
create their own hegemony.
▫ A landmark was reached in 1978 by the Mass Media Declaration in UNESCO
which acknowledged the role of the mass media in development and adopted
a resolution on NWICO.
▫ The commission set up to investigate the imbalance in communication flows
and the justification for establishing a new one was called the MacBride
Commission.
International Communication:
Opposition to NWICO
• Western opposition – Communist inspired idea- Third World design to
control mass media through state regulations.
• Suppression of ‘free flow of information’ by Third World dictators.
• Stifle media freedom & impose censorship by keeping away foreign
journalists.
• ‘Cultural self determination’, ‘media imperialism’ and ‘national sovereignty’
just excuses to maintain control over channels of communication.
• MacBride commission criticized.
• Western new organizations stoutly battled against any change the old
communication order by terming Third world demands as a pretext for
‘state intervention’.
• Cited ‘social responsibility of the press’, ‘protection of journalists’, ‘right to
communicate’ etc as reasons for disagreement.
• The US under Jimmy Carter was receptive to NWICO. However, the fall of
the Shah of Iran and Soviet invasion of Afghanistan the new entrant
Ronald Reagan was not as understanding.
International Communication:
NWICO and the new Cold War
• Reagan-Thatcher consortium: Trade not Aid.
▫ Opposition to MacBride Commission Report.
▫ US & Britain withdrew from UN body 1985-86.
▫ Reagan’s tough line responsible for cuts in in various
communication development programs.
▫ US demanded greater freedom for US-based media &
telecommunication corporations to explore Southern markets
and build privately owned rather than government controlled
media enterprise.
▫ Ideological shift from public service oriented media to a
privatized and deregulated industry.
▫ Mission to control communication channels for promoting proAmericanism & anti-Communism.
▫ Strengthened VOA & Radio Liberty in order to propagate
message abroad more effectively.
International Communication:
The End of the Cold War
• End of Communism
▫ Fall of Berlin Wall – 1989
▫ Disintegration of Soviet Union – 1991
▫ The end of a bipolar world and beginning of a unipolar one.
• Shift of Focus
▫ From news & information – global telecommunication & transnational data flows.
▫ Higher priority awarded to investment in the telecommunication sector.
▫ The emergence of new information and communication technologies.
• New Information Technologies & Convergences
▫ Direct Broadcasting Satellites (DBS), fiber optics and microcomputers.
▫ The convergence of information and informatics – combination of computers and
telecommunication systems raised new questions about international
communication.
▫ The globalization of communication emerged, made possible through
privatization and the discovery of newer faster technologies encouraging the
compression of time and space.
▫ Created media and communication organizations operating on a global scale with
their physical presence distributed in the global market.
Case Study Assignments
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Reuters
BBC
Havas & Wolff
Radio Free Europe
Voice of America
Satellite Instructional Television Experiment
(SITE)