Global Media and Communication current issue

Editorial

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 04:01:45 PST

Theoretical approaches and methodological strategies in Latin American empirical research on television audiences: 1992--2007

Lozano, J.-C., Frankenberg, L. — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 04:01:45 PST

This article reports the findings of a review and methodological critique of 96 Latin American empirical studies on television reception published between 1992 and 2007 in the most important journals of the region. The analysis compares the studies according to their theoretical approach, the research technique used, their sample size, the type of audience members studied, the type of television content researched and the scholars mentioned the most in their references. Findings show that Cultural Studies is by far the most popular theoretical approach in Latin American audience research, and that two of the topics covered the most were television and daily life and the importance of social and cultural mediations. The article also concludes that many studies lack a solid methodological base. Morley, Orozco, Martín-Barbero, García-Canclini and Lull were the scholars mentioned the most in the reference sections. The article ends with a diagnosis of the strengths and weaknesses of current Latin American empirical research on television audiences and points out the need for more methodological rigor and more emphasis on the analysis of ideological readings and impact.

Minorities, media, marketing and marginalization

Sinclair, J. — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 04:01:45 PST

Given that increased rates of population movement across borders in recent decades have coincided with an era in which audiences for mass media are being fragmented and ever more precisely targeted according to demographic criteria, we might expect to find that ethnic minorities have become exposed to intensive exploitation as consumer markets. We would be wrong. The small size and often dispersed distribution of many minorities makes it uneconomical for major advertisers to seek to reach them, whether through their own ‘ethnic’ media at the local level, or even the international satellite channels which now serve globally distributed minority audiences. While there may be enviable advantages to being segregated from commercial influence in this way, it is also a form of marginalization, a restriction of full cultural citizenship. This article contrasts the case of Chinese-speaking minorities in Australia with that of Spanish speakers in the United States.

Servicing 'self-scheduling consumers': Public broadcasters and audio podcasting

Murray, S. — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 04:01:45 PST

Podcasting has moved rapidly from the underground and pirate radio fringe to the heart of public-service media, with the BBC, NPR, CBC and Australia’s ABC all early adopters of the technology. The public-service broadcasting (PSBing) ethos appears both compatible with, and challenged by, the podcasting phenomenon. Podcasting’s appeal lies in its capacity for time-shifting, portable consumption and global distribution of audio content. Moreover, podcasting piggybacks on existing distribution infrastructure, and is particularly appealing to technologically savvy youth audiences whom public-service broadcasters (PSBers) traditionally have difficulty attracting. Yet podcasting simultaneously creates highly fragmented audiences with doubtful brand loyalty. Equally problematically, the medium’s relationship to commercial media has been close from its inception, as the term ‘podcasting’ itself suggests. It is precisely podcasting’s complex relationship with PSBing ideals — both complementary and potentially conflictual — which makes it such a rich case-study for examining the continued viability of PSBing in the digital media environment.

Representing the rise of the rest as threat: Media and global divides

Nederveen Pieterse, J. — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 04:01:45 PST

Like a giant oil tanker, the world is turning. New growth poles of the world economy have been emerging in the South and East. Globalization once belonged to the West and now the tables are turning. We have entered the era of the ‘rise of the rest’. Western media and politics of representation have celebrated the rise of the West for 200 years, how then do they represent the rise of the rest? The main trends are that the rise of the rest is ignored, or represented as a threat, or celebrated in business media as a triumph of the marketplace. Media echoing free market ideology have contributed to vast wealth polarization; representing the rise of the rest as a threat contributes to global political polarization; recycling the 9/11 complex produces cultural and political polarization; and overusing celebrity narratives contributes to existential polarization. These are the global divides discussed in this article. In the wake of the economic crisis of 2008 there have been marked changes in discourse and a new motif has taken shape: recruiting the rest to rescue the West.

Book Review: Karol Jakubowicz and Miklos Sukosd (eds) Finding the Right Place on the Map: Central and Eastern European Media Change in a Global Perspective Bristol: Intellect Books, 2008, 302 pp. ISBN 978 1 84150 1932

Metykova, M. — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 04:01:45 PST

Book Review: Yuezhi Zhao Communication in China: Political Economy, Power and Conflict Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2008, 384 pp. ISBN 978 0 7425 1965 7

Yu, H. — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 04:01:45 PST

Book Reviews: Elisabeth Eide, Risto Kunelius and Angela Philips (eds) Transnational Media Events: The Mohammed Cartoons and the Imagined Clash of Civilizations Nordicom: Sweden, 2008, 290 pp. ISBN: 978 91 89471 64 1

Poole, E. — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 04:01:45 PST

Book Review: Bart Cammaerts Internet-Mediated Participation Beyond the Nation State Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2008, 261 pp. ISBN 978 0 7190 7648 0

Hintz, A. — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 04:01:45 PST

Book Review: Colin Sparks Globalization, Development and the Mass Media London: Sage, 2007, 258 pp. ISBN 978 0 7619 6162 8

Servaes, J. — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 04:01:45 PST

Film Review: Why the sun shines on Slum Dog

Kavoori, A. — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 04:01:45 PST

TV Review: Blood and Oil, featuring Michael T. Klare (directed by Jeremy Earp) Media Education Foundation, USA (2008). Duration: 52 minutes. ISBN: 1 932869 25 5

Walsh, M. — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 04:01:45 PST