Theories of international communication

1. Theories of international communication • Free Flow of Information, pp. 55-56 • Modernization Theory, pp. 56-60 • Dependency Theory, pp. 60-64 • Structural Imperialism, pp. 64-67 • Hegemony, pp. 67-68 • Critical Theory, pp. 68-70 • Public Sphere, pp. 70-72 • Critical Studies, pp. 72-73 • Theories of Information Society, pp. 73-76 • Discourses of Globalization, pp. 76-81 • Critical Political-Economy for the Twenty-First Century, pp. 81-82

2. Theories of international communicationPart 1 • Free Flow of Information, pp. 55-56 • Modernization Theory, pp. 56-60 • Dependency Theory, pp. 60-64 • Structural Imperialism, pp. 64-67 • Hegemony, pp. 67-68 • Critical Theory, pp. 68-70

3. Theories of international communicationPart 2 • Public Sphere, pp. 70-72 • Critical Studies, pp. 72-73 • Theories of Information Society, pp. 73-76 • Discourses of Globalization, pp. 76-81 • Critical Political-Economy for the Twenty-First Century, pp. 81-82

4. Free Flow of Information Free Flow of Information • Theories of international communication became part of the new Cold War discourse • For the supporters of capitalism, the primary function of international communication was to promote democracy

5. Free Flow of Information Free Flow of Information • The concept of “free flow” of information reflected western and US antipathy to state regulation and censorship of the media and its use for propaganda • The “free flow” doctrine was essentially a part of the liberal, free market discourse

6. Free Flow of Information Free Flow of Information • Media organizations of the media-rich countries hoped to dissuade others from • Erecting trade barriers to their products • Making it difficult to gather news

7. Free Flow of Information Free Flow of Information • Free flow assisted businesspersons from the rich countries in advertising and marketing their goods and services in foreign markets • Free flow helped to ensure the continuing and unreciprocated influence of Western media on global markets

8. Free Flow of Information Free Flow of Information • Free flow doctrine contributed to providing channels for communication of US government points of view to international audience • Free flow helped to strengthen the West in its ideological battle with the Soviet Union

9. Modernization Theory In light of the free flow doctrinal argumentation, the modernization theory argued that international communication was • the key to the process of modernization • and development for the so-called “Third World” (please do not use this term)

10. Modernization Theory Modernization theory arose from the notion that international mass communication could be used • To spread the message of modernity • To transfer the economic and political models of the West to the newly independent countries of the South

11. Modernization Theory The pro-media bias that mass media would help transform traditional societies • was very influential • and received support from • Local and national governments • International organizations such as UNESCO

12. Modernization Theory Modernization Theory: Daniel Lerner • Daniel Lerner, a political scientist, is one of the earliest exponents of the modernization theory • His classic work, the Passing of the Traditional Society (1958) examined the role of radio in Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Turkey and Iran • The main thesis of this first comparative survey was that the use of the media helped the process of transition from traditional to modernized state

13. Modernization Theory Modernization Theory: Wilbur Schramm • Wilbur Schramm, another modernization theorist, published his book Mass Media and National Development in 1964 in conjunction with the UNESCO • His main thesis stated that the mass media transmit new ideas and models from the North to the South and , within the South, from urban to rural areas

14. Modernization Theory Modernization Theory: Wilbur Schramm • The theme and timing of Schramm’s book was significant, as the UN declared the 1960s as “the Decade of Development“ • UN agencies, Western Europe and the US were generously funding research • The international communication research inspired by the modernization theory discourse shaped university communication programmes and research centre globally • This “administrative research” failed to analyze the political and cultural context of international communication (lazarfeld, 1941)

15. Dependency Theory • The theory emerged in Latin America in the late 1960s, • partly as a result of the political situation in the continent • And partly with the realization that the developmentalist model to international communication had failed • Dependency theorists provided an alternative framework to analyze international communication

16. Dependency Theory • Central to dependency theory was the view that global players exercise control over the developing countries by setting the term of exchange, global trade and the structure of global markets • They strengthen the dominance of the centre and maintain the peripheral nations in a position of dependence and to make conditions suitable for “dependent development” • The result of this asymmetrical relationship was the “development of underdevelopment” (Frank, 1969)

17. Dependency Theory • Dependency Theory: Herbert Schiller • Schiller a neo-Marxist , analyzed in his seminal book , Mass Communications and American Empire (1969/1992) • the global power structures in the international communication industries and • the links between global players and the dominant states

18. Dependency Theory • Dependency Theory: Herbert Schiller • At the heart of Schiller’s argument was that US-based global players in league with US military interests • They were undermining local cultural autonomy and sovereignty

19. Dependency Theory Dependency Theory: Herbert Schiller • Schiller recently reviewed the US role in international communication to find out that • the US is still promoting an ever-expanding communication sector

20. Structural Imperialism • Structural Imperialism • Structural imperialism model was developed by the Norwegian sociologist Johan Galtung • He argued that the world is divided into a developed centre and underdeveloped periphery

21. Structural Imperialism • Structural Imperialism • He defines structural imperialism as a “sophisticated type of dominance relation which cuts across nations basing itself on bridgehead which the centre of the centre nation establishes in the centre of the periphery nation for the joint benefit of both”

22. Structural Imperialism For Galtung • There is a harmony of interest between the core of the centre and the centre in the periphery nation • Less harmony of interest within the periphery nation than within the centre nation • Disharmony of interest between the periphery of the centre nation and the periphery of the periphery nation (Galtung, 1971: 83)

23. Structural Imperialism For Galtung • In terms of values and attitudes, the elite in the periphery is closer to the elite in the centre than with groups in the periphery • Southern states receive information about the North and little information about fellow developing countries • Information flow is determined by capital flow as well as by historical and colonial ties

24. Structural Imperialism According to Galtung, • News flow from the core to the periphery via the transnational news agencies • The core actors define the news according to • their needs • and criteria for the developed world market

25. Structural Imperialism • Galtung’s theory of structural imperialism is similar to Schiller ‘s theory of cultural imperialism • in that both argued that vertical free flow of information • helped re-create certain aspects of the center's values in the periphery

26. Hegemony • Hegemony is a key term in the critical studies of international communication • The term hegemony is associated with the Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci and • his famous book, Selections from the Prison Notebooks published first in English in 1971

27. Hegemony • The term is rooted in the notion that the dominant social group in a society has the capacity to exercise • intellectual • moral • direction over society at large • to build a new system of social alliances to support its aims

28. Hegemony Gramsci argued that • Military force was not necessarily the best instrument to retain power for the ruling classes • The more effective way to use power was to build a consent by ideological control of cultural • production • and distribution

29. Hegemony • The dominant social class exerts • moral • Intellectual • leadership through its control of such institutions as • Schools • Religious bodies • Mass media

30. Hegemony • In international communication, the notion of hegemony is widely used to • conceptualize political functions of the media in • propagating • maintaining • the dominant ideology

31. Hegemony • In international communication, the notion of hegemony is widely used to • In explaining the process of media communication production • The dominant ideology shapes the production of news and entertainment

32. Hegemony • Though the media are notionally free from direct government control, • yet they act as agents of legitimization of the dominant ideology

33. Critical Theory • Critical Theory • The critical theory school was associated with Max Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno and Herbert Marcuse • The critical theory analyzed the industrial production of cultural goods such as films, radio programmes, music, magazines, etc • In a capitalist society the trend was towards producing culture as a commodity

34. Critical Theory • Adorno and Horkeimer believed that cultural products manifested the same kind of • management practices, • technological rationality • organizational schemes • as the mass-produced industrial goods such as cars

35. Critical Theory • Industrial production led to • standardization that results in a mass culture • made up of a series of objects • bearing the stamp of the culture industry

36. Critical Theory • The industrially produced and commodified culture led to • a deterioration of the critical role of culture • Critical theorists borrowed the notion of • commodification from Marx, • who had argued that objects are commodified • by acquiring an exchange value • instead of their own intrinsic value

37. Critical Theory • In an international context the idea of • mass culture • and media and cultural industries • have influenced debates about the flow of information between countries

38. Critical Theory • The issue of commodification of culture is present in many analyses of the • operation of book publishing • films • popular music industries

39. Critical Theory • One indication of this was the 1982 UNESCO report which • argued that cultural industries in the world • were greatly influenced by the • major media • and communication companies • Cultural industries were being continually corporatized

40. Critical Theory • The expansion of mainly Western-based cultural products globally • had resulted in the gradual marginalization of cultural messages • that do not take the form of goods • primarily of values as marketable commodities

41. The Public Sphere • The Public Sphere • Jürgen Habermas is another figure of the Frankfurt School • He lamented the standardization, massification and atomization of the public • Habermas developed the concept of the public sphere in his book The Structural Transformation of the public Sphere : An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society 1962

42. The Public Sphere • The Public Sphere • Habermas argued that the “bourgeois public sphere” emerged in an expanding capitalist society exemplified by eighteenth-century Britain, • where entrepreneurs were becoming powerful enough to achieve autonomy from state and church and increasingly demanding wider and more effective political representations to facilitate expansion of their business • “No taxation without representation”

43. The Public Sphere • The Public Sphere • Habermas gave prominence to the role of information • The idealized version of a public space was characterized by greater accessibility of information, a space independent of both business interest and state apparatus • In the twentieth century, the growing power of information management and manipulation through public relations and lobbying firms has contributed to making contemporary debates a “faked version” of a genuine public sphere

44. The Public Sphere • The Public Sphere • In this “refeudalisation of the public sphere, public affairs have become occasions for displays of power in the style of medieval courts rather than a space for debate on socio-economic issues • With the globalization of media and communication, there has been talk about the evolution of a ”global public sphere” where issues of international significance can be articulated through the mass media

45. Critical Studies • Critical Studies • While much of the debate on international communication during the Cold War emphasized a structural analysis of its role in political and economic power relationships • There has been a shift in research emphasis in the 1990s. • There is a trend of depoliticition of politics towards the cultural dimension of communication

46. Critical Studies • The Birmingham School, led by Stuart Hall, did pioneering work on exploring the textual analysis of media • Hall’s model of “encoding-decoding media discourse” which theorized about how media texts are given “preferred reading” by producers and how they may be interpreted in different ways from accepting the domiantn meaning, negotiating with the encoded message, or taking an oppositional view

47. Critical Studies • The model was about the study of the ideological role of the mass media • The research focus of the BS was largely British • The global focus stems from the ethnographic studies of migrant populations • Their television viewing habits, consumption of music and other leisure activities

48. Critical Studies • It championed the “popular” has been a major achievement of this tradition • The cultural studies approach to communication has become increasingly important with its new-found interest in “global popular” • The trend is towards the internationalization of cultural studies

49. Theories of information Society • Theories of information Society • Marshall McLuhan, a Canadian media theorist, one of the first thinkers to analyze the impact of media technology on society • McLuhan argued that printing technology contributed to nationalism, industrialism and universal literacy • He foresaw the impact of international television in that it would help create what he called a “global village”

50. Theories of information Society • The term of information Society originated in japan 1960s, but it was in the USA where the concept received its most ardent intellectual support • Daniel Bell: The Coming of the Post Industrial Society 1973 • Manuell Castells, a sociologist • In his trilogy, the Information Age, gives an extensively researched and detailed analysis of the emerging trends in global condition • The first volume is about the rise of the network society • The second volume examines social and political processes within the context of such society • The third volume includes integration and infokamzion-based polaristaion in the international infomational economy in wwhci communciation become both global and custimized