Global Media and Communication recent issues

Editorial

2008-07-07

Framing the Mohammad cartoons issue: A cross-cultural comparison of Swedish and US press

Stromback, J., Shehata, A., Dimitrova, D. V. — 2008-07-07

The purpose of this article is to investigate how Swedish and US elite newspapers framed the publication of cartoons of the Muslim prophet Mohammad in a Danish newspaper in September 2005, and the events that ensued from that publication. These cartoons proved to be very controversial, and, since the original publication has been reprinted several times, continue to stir controversy. In order to investigate how different frames emerged in the news coverage, the study includes all news articles published in the selected newspapers during a six-month period from the first publication of the Mohammad cartoons. Methodologically, the study uses quantitative and qualitative content analysis. Theoretically, the study is based on framing theory and international news determinants. The results show some interesting differences as well as similarities. In the conclusions, four propositions that might be explored in future research are offered.

Advertising in the global age: Transnational campaigns and pan-European television channels

Chalaby, J. K. — 2008-07-07

The first pan-regional satellite TV stations in Europe ran into financial difficulties because too few companies had the interest and ability to run international advertising campaigns. Their financial shape improved with the upturn of the pan-European advertising market in the 1990s. The pool of international advertisers expanded as multinationals adjusted their marketing strategy to the challenges and opportunities of globalization. The advertising industry restructured, this article argues, creating media buying agencies with specialist knowledge of pan-European television and the network to run transnational advertising campaigns that mix local and global objectives. Pan-European TV stations began, the article notes, to offer flexible local advertising windows and integrated communication solutions involving cross-format and cross-platform opportunities for advertisers.

Global 24/7 news providers: Emissaries of global dominance or global public sphere?

Cottle, S., Rai, M. — 2008-07-07

The study of international and global news to date has focused on the operation of foreign news values, the unequal flows and emergent contra-flows of transnational news as well as the phenomenology of 24/7 live broadcasts. Today these debates are often played out under opposing `global dominance' and `global public sphere' positions. Each in its own way is concerned about communications democracy — whether its discerned curtailment by processes of geo-political economy or temporal-spatial extension by increased global cultural flows. In this article we contend that there is a `democratic lacuna' at the heart of these debates. This silence concerns how exactly leading world news channels — principally CNNI and BBC World but also international competitors such as Sky and Fox News — communicatively present the voices, views and values of contending interests and identities from around the world. Elaborating a new conception of `communicative frames' based on contemporary positions of social and political theory and applying this to a large corpus of news output, we begin to evaluate generalizing theoretical claims, both critical and celebratory, about the contribution of global 24/7 news to processes of global dominance or an emergent global public sphere.

Review Essay: The inadvertence of Benedict Anderson: A review essay of Imagined Communities on the occasion of a new edition

Desai, R. — 2008-07-07

Book Review: Jeremy Tunstall The Media Were American: U.S. Mass Media in Decline New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. 480 pp. ISBN 9780 1951 8147 0

Boyd-Barrett, O. — 2008-07-07

Book Review: Paula Chakravartty and Katharine Sarikakis Media Policy and Globalization Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2006. 224 pp. ISBN 978 0 7486 1849 1

Abramson, B. D. — 2008-07-07

Book Review: Ursula Huws (ed.) The Spark in the Engine: Creative Workers in a Global Economy Blackpoint, Nova Scotia: Fernwood Publishing, 2007. 158 pp. ISBN 0 85036 582 1

Artz, L. — 2008-07-07

Book Review: Kai Hafez The Myth of Media Globalization Cambridge: Polity, 2007. 232 pp. ISBN 9 7807 4563 9086

Corcoran, F. — 2008-07-07

Partisan public television: A last barrier to the democratization of South Korea?

Chang Keun Lee, — 2008-07-07

Editorial

Thussu, D. — 2008-03-04

Communication and empire: Media markets, power and globalization, 1860--1910

Winseck, D. R., Pike, R. M. — 2008-03-04

This article focuses on the formation of the `global media system' from 1860 to 1910. It begins with a critique of conventional knowledge in international communication and focuses on three themes: first, the rise of the global media; second, how markets, states and imperialism shaped the global media; and third, how the global media developed as a series of multinational cartels — powerful `private structures of control' through which corporate and national foreign policy objectives were pursued. We critique the strong tendency in the literature to conflate the history of the global media with the history of imperialism and to exaggerate the extent to which powerful nations struggled constantly with one another to control world communication. Over and against this `struggle for control of international communication' model our concept of empire combines classical theories of imperialism with one of capitalist imperialism. Within this context, the global media evolved as part of a project of creating a worldwide system of accumulation and modernization. Lastly, we show that the global media — in terms of ownership, alliances, corporate identity, international and national laws, views of modernization and imperial strategy — were more global and organized as a system than is often assumed.

Mediating solidarity

Fenton, N. — 2008-03-04

With the apparent increase in the number of alternative political media, political pluralists are again faced with the question: does the proliferation of subaltern counter-publics lead to a multiplication of forces? Fragmentation in political culture is fuelled by the rise of identity politics that focuses on consumption not production. Party allegiances and class alliances give way to more fluid and informal networks of action. Postmodern theorists celebrate fragmentation because it allows the recognition of diversity in political desires, acknowledges difference between individuals and debunks the myth of homogenous political units leading ultimately to liberation. But for political efficacy there must be more than the apparent freedom that comes with embracing difference and diversity. This article argues that if we accept the description of society as fragmented, in order to create a viable political community then solidarity is crucial. In a global economy, solidarity can be mediated through new communication technologies but the challenge is to articulate the politics online with actual movements and struggles on the ground.

Transnational circulation of Chinese language television dramas

Ying Zhu, — 2008-03-04

In the late 1990s, a wave of dynasty drama serials began to dominate primetime dramatic programming in People's Republic of China (PRC) television, which soon created a viewing frenzy among Chinese audiences around the world. Together with Taiwan's idol drama and Hong Kong's martial arts sagas and contemporary social mobility dramas, by the early 2000s, PRC's dynasty drama had saturated a pan-Chinese media market. Using transnational dramas from the three Chinese language media production centers as a springboard, this article explores two issues concerning the global circulation of Chinese language television dramas: the forces conducive to their transnational circulation and its cultural and economic impact. It utilizes the framework of the `cultural-linguistic market' to analyze the factors enabling the formation of a Chinese cultural-linguistic media and the products viable for the market. It further entertains the question of how the emergence of a Chinese cultural-linguistic market, together with other cultural-linguistic markets, complicates the power dynamic of global cultural flow.

Review Essay: Change and continuity in the `information age'

Lee, S. — 2008-03-04

Book reviews: Cass R. Sunstein Infotopia: How Many Minds Produce Knowledge New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. 273 pp. ISBN 978 0 19 518928 5

Webster, F. — 2008-03-04

Book reviews: T.J.M. Holden and Timothy J. Scrase (eds) Medi@sia: Global Media/tion in and out of Context Routledge, 2006. ISBN 9780 41537 1551

Sun, S. — 2008-03-04

Book reviews: Robert A. Hackett and William K. Carroll Remaking Media: The Struggle to Democratize Public Communication New York /London: Routledge, 2006. ISBN 0 415 39469 4

Williams, G. — 2008-03-04

Book reviews: Maya Goetz, Dafna Lemish, Amy Aidman, Hyesung Moon Media and the Make-Believe Worlds of Children: When Harry Potter Meets Pokemon in Disneyland Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2005. 229 pages plus CD. ISBN 0 8058 5192 5

Davies, M. M. — 2008-03-04

Film Review: The Yacoubian Building (2006): Director Marwan Hamed, 172 mins

Daniels, K. — 2008-03-04

Editorial

2007-10-29

Part I: Researching media internationalization: Comparative media research as if we really meant it

Couldry, N. — 2007-10-29

Internationalizing media studies: A view from the Arab world

Jayyusi, L. — 2007-10-29

The meta-process of `mediatization' as a conceptual frame

Krotz, F. — 2007-10-29

Cultural diversity and global media studies

Frau-Meigs, D. — 2007-10-29

A systems view of `international' communication, its scope and limitations

Gunaratne, S. A. — 2007-10-29

Part II: Institutional perspectives: Internationalizing media and communication studies: Reflections on the International Communication Association

Livingstone, S. — 2007-10-29

Why regional and international cooperation? Reflections from a Nordic horizon

Carlsson, U. — 2007-10-29

The problem of internationalizing media and communication research

Mansell, R. — 2007-10-29

Part III: Exploring pedagogic and research dimensions: Language and the internationalization of media studies

Wilkinson, K. T. — 2007-10-29

Bring back the local, work the divide: two curricular recommendations

Kavoori, A. P. — 2007-10-29

Internationalizing the journalistic professional model: imperatives and impediments

Josephi, B. — 2007-10-29

Internationalizing doctoral education: problems and pitfalls

Dahlgren, P. — 2007-10-29

The Other in North American doctoral dissertations: early findings

Mody, B., Alexander, S., Stencel, D., Ingersoll, A. M. — 2007-10-29

Part IV: International regional national: The national media system as the lead player

Tunstall, J. — 2007-10-29

Reflections on the global public sphere: challenges to internationalizing media studies

Ndlela, N. — 2007-10-29

De-Westernizing media studies: a Japanese perspective

Takahashi, T. — 2007-10-29

The Chinese model and paradigm of media studies

Hu Zhengrong, — 2007-10-29

Communication media and globalization: an Iranian perspective

Kamalipour, Y. R. — 2007-10-29

Part V: Broadening media discourses: Global media policy defining the field

Raboy, M. — 2007-10-29

Creative industries as policy and discourse outside the United Kingdom

Cunningham, S. — 2007-10-29

Neither state nor market: NGOs and the international third sector

Miller, J. — 2007-10-29

Covering Eastern European and Russian elections: the US media's double standard

Sussman, G. — 2007-10-29

Historical memory, media studies and journalism ethics

Calabrese, A. — 2007-10-29

Review Essay: Race, ethnicity and global communication studies

2007-10-29

Editorial

2007-07-19

What's wrong with globalization?

Sparks, C. — 2007-07-19

This article reviews the range of views that are grouped together under the heading `theories of globalization'. Rather than advocating one from the range of conflicting theories, the article attempts to establish the basic ideas that they have in common. These, mostly very abstract, ideas are then developed in order to arrive at propositions that may be examined in relation to evidence about the contemporary world. It is found that none of the five major planks upon which most theories of globalization rest are accurate. On the contrary, even quite easily available evidence contradicts them. It is therefore concluded that, whatever their popular appeal, theories of globalization are not an accurate guide to the investigation of the world. The distorted consequences that flow from an adherence to a mistaken theory are demonstrated through a consideration of the nature of contemporary migration, which is shown to be an overwhelmingly intra-state, rather than transnational, phenomenon. It is argued that processes like this, and the other developments considered here, are better explained by developing the same kinds of analytic tools that were appropriate to an earlier phase of capitalist development.

The economic inefficiencies of market liberalization: The case of financial information in the London Stock Exchange

Davis, A. — 2007-07-19

This article returns to the long-running public service versus free market debate in media and communications but from a rather unconventional perspective. Critics of the steady, globally driven marketization of national public media and information services tend to object on social and political grounds. Market advocates, in contrast, make their case on economic grounds. Greater competition in markets, including media markets, brings economic efficiencies which, in turn, are a `public good'. This economic assertion is rarely scrutinized within media studies. The study presented here, which looks at financial media and communications in the London Stock Exchange (LSE), does just this. In recent decades the LSE has been opened up to accommodate the needs of international financial institutions and international capital flows. This has had a detrimental impact on its media and information systems. Such liberalization, it is argued, has made the LSE less economically efficient, not more, and with quite negative economic (as well as social) consequences.

Concentration of ownership, the fall of unions and government legislation in Turkey

Christensen, C. — 2007-07-19

As a subject of academic research, Turkey has found itself caught in an intellectual and theoretical `no-man's land' located somewhere between south-eastern Europe and the Middle East. This article aims to position the Turkish media experience in relation to those of geographically, politically, economically and historically proximate nations/regions. It analyses the problems facing journalists and the institutions of journalism in Turkey by addressing three interrelated phenomena: (1) the concentration of media ownership in Turkey; (2) the efforts (largely successful) on the part of media owners to break the power of unions; and (3) government legislation affecting the rights and working environments of news workers. Following a presentation of empirical data on these three areas, I offer suggestions as to how the present situation in Turkey could open the door for the further refinement of research on, and theory regarding, nationally and regionally specific media.

Habermas and the public sphere

Garnham, N. — 2007-07-19

Book review: Janaki Nair The Promise of the Metropolis: Bangalore's Twentieth Century. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. ISBN 0 1956 6725 5

Chakravartty, P. — 2007-07-19

Book review: Guillermo Mastrini and Mart�n Becerra: Periodistas y Magnates: estructura y concentraci�n de las industrias culturales en Am�rica Latina [Journalists and Moguls: Structure and Concentration of the Cultural Industries in Latin America] Buenos Aires: Prometeo Libros, 2006. 334 pp. ISBN 987 574 092 6

Lozano, J.-C. — 2007-07-19

Book review: Yochai Benkler: The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom New Haven, CN: Yale University Press, 2006. 515 pp. ISBN 0 3001 1056 1

Currah, A. — 2007-07-19

Book review: Bernard Bel, Jan Brouwer, Biswajit Das, Vibodh Parthsarathi and Guy Poitevin (eds); Communication Processes Volume 1: Media and Mediation New Delhi: Sage, 2005. 408 pp. ISBN 0 7619 3428 6

Ravi Srinivas, K. — 2007-07-19

Telesur and the new agenda for Latin American integration

Burch, S. — 2007-07-19

The revival of Chinese leftism online

Hu, A. Y. — 2007-07-19