MCJ 307: International Communication

Sixth Semester 2020

Mass Communication and Journalism

University of Dhaka
 Dimensions of Global Communication

This topic examines the scope and importance of worldwide

communications as reflected in some of the most burning
controversies of the world.

These controversies arise from issues such as the proliferation of

nuclear weapons, imbalanced resource use, hunger and poverty,
the destruction of the rain forests, and “greenhouse effect”.
 The global village and the “war of ideas”
 Marshall McLuhan (1960s) – “global village” – a world interconnected by the
marvels of electronic communication, in which the old social, racial and ethnic
barriers would break down.
 Huge stretches of territory are still not interconnected.

 The “global village” does not resemble a true neighbourhood.

 Far from being a single human consciousness, the world is a battleground of
opposing ideas and beliefs.
 The End of History? – Francis Fukuyama (1989)

 The Clash of Civilizations – Samuel P. Huntington (1996)

 Communication and national sovereignty

• During the period of decolonization, communication and information were seen as

economic resources that should not be turned over to foreign interests.

• Free and unrestricted flow of information – dominant media countries influence

and undermine local development in the former colonies.

• Information sovereignty – nations enjoy the full rights of sovereignty and

territorial integrity in the areas of communication and information.
• New communications technologies pose several problems for the concept of
sovereignty.
• National information sovereignty –

• Transborder data flow (TDF)

• Direct-broadcast satellites (DBS)

• Remote sensing satellites (RSS)

 Increasing concentration and transnationalization
• A handful of huge conglomerates dominate the world’s flow of information and
communication.
• A conglomerate is one very large corporation or company, composed of several combined
companies, that is formed by either acquisition or mergers. In most cases, a conglomerate
supplies a variety of goods and services that are not necessarily related to one another.
• A few corporate giants own and control most of the world’s important newspapers,
magazines, books, radio and television outlets, cinema, music industries and computing
industries.

• These “lords of the global village” (corporations) exert a homogenizing power over ideas,
values, culture and commerce that affects populations of different countries.

• Most of these corporations are headquartered in the USA.

• Concentration or oligopolization process in global communication.

 Transnationalization

A transnational corporation (TNC) is “any enterprise that

undertakes foreign direct investment, owns or controls
income-gathering assets in more than one country, produces
goods or services outside its country of origin, or engages in
international production” (Biersteker 1978, p. xii).
 Increasing concentration and transnationalization

Global media dominated by a ‘first tier’ of very large global firms:

• Disney (Disney, abc, ESPN, History, Marvel, PIXAR, The Walt Disney Studio, etc.)

• TimeWarner (Cartoon Network, cinemax, CNN, HBO, hulu, WarnerBrothers, Time magazine,
etc.)

• Comcast corporation (CNBC, E, MSNBC, Movies 24, SyFy, Universal Pictures, etc.)

• Sony (Japan) (AXN, Sony MAX, Sony Ent., Sony pictures, TRISTAR, etc.)

• News Corporation (Fox, 20th Century Fox, National Geographic Channel, New York Post, etc.)
• ViacomCBS (CBS, MTV, nickelodeon, Paramount pictures, etc.)
• Vivendi Universal (France)

• Bertelsmann (German)
• Google

• Microsoft

• Facebook (Instagram, WhatsApp, etc.)

• Yahoo
 Deregulation and privatization

• Deregulation is based on a faith in the workings of the “invisible hand” of the

marketplace.

• In the USA, deregulation started in late 1980s with telecommunications

industry. Later, print and electronic media were deregulated.

• Deregulation leads to privatization.

• In Europe, deregulation of broadcasting industries started in the mid-1980s.

 Deregulation and privatization

Deregulation and globalization led to:

Mergers, acquisitions and integration in the media and

telecom industries.

• Horizontal integration

• Vertical integration
Deregulation and privatization
 The “flow” controversy

• The flow of information between states is a one-way unbalanced traffic.

• What are these communication materials?
• TV, film, and record products;
• News stories or news pictures;
• Cultural exchanges;
• Foreign correspondents;
• Telephone conversation;
• Transborder data flow;
• Letter and parcel post;

• In no way it helps the global principle of freedom of speech.

 The “flow” controversy
• Associated Press (AP), United Press International (UPI), Agence France Presse (AFP), and
Reuters control the bulk of the world’s news flow.

• Television programmes are exported from the industrialized countries to the rest of the
world.

• There are, of course, a few regional exporting nations.

• This unbalanced flow situation perpetuates the colonial era of dependence and domination.

• Just as political and economic dependence are legacies of the era of colonialism, so is the
case of dependence in the field of information which in turn retards the achievement of
political, cultural and economic growth.
 The “News Values” controversy

• The Western press gives inadequate and superficial attention to the realities of
developing countries, often infusing coverage with cultural bias.

• Traditionally it emphasizes on the “coups and earthquakes” syndrome.

• This type of coverage is not only unbalanced but also detrimental to the
development process.

• The Western monopoly on the distribution of news amounts to neocolonialism and

cultural domination.