Global Communication PDF Fourth Edition

189mm 15.4mm 189mm “Global Communication provides an historical introduction to the communication issues McPhai...

189mm 15.4mm 189mm “Global Communication provides an historical introduction to the communication issues McPhail Fourth Edition dividing the global community in the information age from the theoretical perspective of world system theory. It is a must-read for anyone unfamiliar with this subject.” George Barnett, University of California, Davis, USA Global Communication is the most definitive text on multinational communication and media conglomerates, exploring how global media, particularly CNN, the BBC, AP, Fourth GLOBAL Reuters, Asia, Euronews, and Al Jazeera, influence audiences and policy makers alike. In outlining the major trends influencing global communication and media, including Edition the internet and mobile media, the book examines a number of structural issues through world system theory and electronic colonialism theory. The fourth edition of this major text has been systematically updated to reflect both GLOBAL COMMUNICATION global current events and the many fast-moving areas associated with this dynamic field. Special attention is given to the continuing development of Arab media, with new analysis of the Arab Spring uprisings and the expansion of Al Jazeera’s channels and influence, as well as fresh coverage of Latin American media, the Spanish TV surge, COMMUNICATION and the phone hacking scandal by News Corporation’s employees in the UK. This new edition also sees an update of McPhail’s Electronic Colonialism Theory, in light of changes in the geopolitical order and a loss of international coverage in the US media. As well as detailing important sectors such as UNESCO, ITU, the Internet, MTV, and the importance of global advertising, the book covers the expanding area of global communication and describes major multimedia conglomerates particularly in the USA. Theories, Stakeholders, and Trends Thomas L. McPhail 246mm Updated and enhanced online resources for instructors, including an instructor’s manual, test banks, and student activities, can be found at www.wiley.com/go/mcphail. Thomas L. McPhail is an international media critic and the Chair of Theatre, Dance, and Media Studies and Fellow in the Center for International Studies at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. He began his career with the eminent media scholar Marshall McLuhan. McPhail is author of Development Communication (Wiley Blackwell, 2009) and has served for over a decade on the Canadian National Commission for UNESCO. Global Communication  Thomas L. MCPhail Global Communication Theories, Stakeholders, and Trends Fourth Edition This fourth edition first published 2014 © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Inc Edition History: Allyn & Bacon (1e, 2002); Blackwell Publishing Ltd (2e, 2006 and 3e, 2010) Registered Office John Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK Editorial Offices 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148–5020, USA 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UK The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK For details of our global editorial offices, for customer services, and for information about how to apply for permission to reuse the copyright material in this book please see our website at www.wiley.com/wiley-blackwell. The right of Thomas L. McPhail to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. 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Cover design by Cyan Design Set in 10/12pt Minion by SPi Publisher Services, Pondicherry, India 1 2014 Contents Notes on Contributors vi Preface vii Acknowledgments x 1 Global Communication: Background 1 2 Development Research Traditions and Global Communication 31 3 The Message: The Role of International Organizations 47 4 Public Diplomacy: New Dimensions and Implications Nancy Snow 64 5 The Medium: Global Technologies and Organizations 80 6 The Internet: The Evolving Frontier 96 7 American Multimedia Conglomerates 117 8 Stakeholders of Multimedia Conglomerates Outside the United States 148 9 Euromedia: Integration and Cultural Diversity in a Changing Media Landscape Alexa Robertson 164 10 Global Issues, Music, and MTV 181 11 CNN: International Role, Impact, and Global Competitors 198 12 The Role of Global News Agencies 222 13 Arab Media and the Al Jazeera Effect Lawrence Pintak 235 14 Toward Globalization: The Approaches and Accomplishments of the Four Media Giants in Asia Junhao Hong 248 15 The Role of Global Advertising 275 16 Summary and Conclusions 287 Select Bibliography 304 Index 312 Contributors Junhao Hong received a PhD in communication from to IMS after many years at the Department of Political University of Texas at Austin in 1995. He is a professor Science, where she earned her PhD. Robertson does at the Department of Communication, State University research and teaches on the political role of the media of New York at Buffalo. He is also an associate in under globalization, and the role of culture in politics. research at the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, She recently completed a book entitled Media and Harvard University, and a senior fellow at the Politics in a Globalized World which, like her 2010 Communication for Sustainable Social Change Center book Mediated Cosmopolitanism: The World of at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He has Television News, will be published by Polity. In Global served as president of the Chinese Communication News: Reporting Conflicts and Cosmopolitanism (Peter Association (CCA) and president of the United Lang, forthcoming), she compares reporting on three Societies of Chinese Studies (USCS). His research channels often referred to as “counter-hegemonic” (Al areas include international communication, media Jazeera English, Russia Today, and Chinese CCTV) and society, and the impact of new communication/ with four “Western” channels (CNN International, information technology, with a focus on China and BBC World, Deutsche Welle, and Euronews) to see Asia. He has published and edited several books, and whether they do indeed report the world differently. has published more than 120 research articles in The thread running throughout is the question of how various journals and book volumes. media representation is conceived and effected in a world of diversity and transborder flows. Her studies Lawrence Pintak is Founding Dean of the Edward R. of media coverage of the Arab uprisings have been Murrow College of Communication at Washington published in the International Journal of Press/Politics State University. Previously, he was Director of the and New Global Studies. Kamal Adham Center for Journalism Training and Research at The American University in Cairo and Nancy Snow is Professor of Communications at publisher and co-editor of the online journal Arab California State University, Fullerton and Adjunct Media and Society. He is the author of The New Arab Professor of Public Diplomacy in the Annenberg Journalist: Mission and Identity in a Time of Change School at the University of Southern California. She is (I. B. Tauris, 2010), and several other books about the the author or co-editor of eight books, including the media and international affairs. A former CBS News Routledge Handbook of Public Diplomacy, Propaganda, Middle East correspondent, he has contributed to Inc., and Information War. She has taught public many of the world’s leading news organizations in his diplomacy at Tsinghua University in Beijing, Sophia 30-year career in journalism on four continents. His University in Tokyo, and the Interdisciplinary Center’s work regularly appears in in the New York Times, the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and International Herald Tribune, Columbia Journalism Strategy in Herzliya, Israel. A two-time Fulbright Review online, Daily Star (Beirut), Arab News, and a recipient (Germany, Japan) and Abe Fellow with the variety of publications around the world. Social Science Research Council, she holds lifetime Alexa Robertson is Associate Professor at the memberships with the Public Diplomacy Alumni Department of Media Studies (IMS), Stockholm Association, the Public Diplomacy Council at George University, Sweden. A historian by training, she moved Washington University, and the Fulbright Association. Preface After September 11, 2001 the peaceful satisfaction of revolution. This book traces the influence and roles of many nations that began with the end of the Cold major global communication technologies such as War and the demise of communism came to an early satellites, videophones, mobile devices, and personal and abrupt end, foreshadowing the rise of a new computers. Collectively, these and other technologies enemy – global terrorism. Along with this new have transformed the international communication elusive enemy came new wars and an increase in environment, making possible the advent of global global communication, primarily war coverage. media systems such as CNN (Cable News Network), From embedded journalists with videophones MTV (Music Television), the BBC (British Broadcasting covering the wars, to new media outlets, such as Al Corporation), and the Internet itself. Jazeera, Al-Arabiyya, and Al-Hurra, to photos being As part of the background needed to examine sent home and around the world on the Internet, the global media and related sectors, it is important to role and scope of international media shifted dra­ understand the history of the international matically. This fourth edition captures the major communication debate, which developed initially aspects of this new and in many cases disturbing era, within the halls of the United Nations Educational, updates the materials contained in earlier editions, and Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). contains updated information on the importance of This debate about the New World Information and global public diplomacy (Chapter 4), the European Communication Order (NWICO) is important scene (Chapter 9), the volatile Arabic media scene because it identified two significantly different (Chapter 13), and China/Asia (Chapter 14). philosophies, each supported by a different set of This book portrays international communication scholars and nations. Because the debate reflects from differing perspectives – it examines a number of much of the concern about the philosophical, cultural, major trends, stakeholders, and global activities, while and artistic threats that are of paramount concern to promoting no particular philosophical or ideological many nation-states, the phenomenon of “electronic school, whether of the left or the right. Rather, it seeks to colonialism” – the impact and influence of music, provide information about major international trends Hollywood feature films, and syndicated television of a theoretical, cultural, economic, public policy, or series, plus other media from industrial nations – is foreign relations nature. Moreover, in order to provide also detailed. One large and vocal group supports a a framework for understanding the interconnection free press perspective without regard to its economic between the international communication environ­ and cultural consequences; the other group supports a ment and the global economy, Global Communication more interventionist approach, calling on govern­ documents major historical events that connect the ments and other organizations to be concerned two. It also highlights communication industry mergers with essentially non-commercial dimensions of the and acquisitions which now frequently transcend international communication environment. Because national boundaries. of the roles each group played, the policy positions, Just as the printing press and the assembly line were agencies, and leaders on both sides of the debate are necessary events for the industrial revolution, so also examined extensively. Several new major global the Internet and modern communication technologies stakeholders, including the significant role of the are essential for the international communication global advertising industry, are also detailed. viii Preface A second major theme of the book concerns the background and perspectives. To a surprising extent, economic implications of international communi­ the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet cation. Although the economies of the international Union have shifted the debate in favor of the trade- communi­ cations industries cannot be separated focused parties. Only by detailing major themes and from govern­mental and cultural policy debates, it is examining their interrelationships can a student of important to recognize that most communication international communication come to understand organizations are independent, active, commercial, the complexities of the global communication scene and aggressive players in the international and the implications of the rapid change in the global communication arena. They have global influence communication landscape that continues on a daily and they affect the communication environment basis worldwide. both at home and abroad. As such, attention is also We should not underestimate the nature and given to communication enterprises such as the depth of the transformation taking place in global Hollywood feature film industry; media giants such communication. The era of the Enlightenment as Disney, Time Warner, Viacom, Bertelsmann, Sony, (c.1600–1800) contributed to the intellectual and News Corporation; as well as the Internet, transformation of Western societies, and so today we international wire services such as the Associated are going through a similarly profound alteration in Press and Thomson Reuters, and sev­eral multinational our societies, fueled by the major structural changes advertising agencies. As will be demonstrated, some in global communication, primarily the Internet. Just of these organizations appear to be oblivious to the as the major contributors to the Enlightenment era global policy debate and are willing to let the were Francis Bacon, John Locke, Adam Smith, Jean- marketplace alone determine the winners and losers, Jacques Rousseau, Isaac Newton, Catherine the whereas others are very concerned about the­­ Great, and others, so also today we have a critical non-economic aspects of “trade” emerging in the mass of change agents who are forming the international communication sector. intellectual nucleus to create a new type of society All major global multimedia conglomerates are with their profound insights and innovations. People based in the United States, Europe, and Japan. Most such as Marshall McLuhan, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, of the concern about cultural issues emanates from Charles Saatchi, Tim Berners-Lee, Margaret nations in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Therefore, Whitman, Carol Bartz, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry a world system theory (WST) perspective is outlined Page and Sergey Brin of Google, and others are in Chapter 1 to decipher some of the structural collectively providing the intellectual architecture cleavages in the international communication field. It and means to transform and create a new information approaches the nations of the world through an era. Hundreds more working in their homes, economic lens. In Chapter 1 electronic colonialism laboratories, or universities in various nations around theory (ECT) is outlined and it basically views the the world have contributed to the ongoing revolution world through a cultural lens. These two theories, in international communication. Yet few of these WST and ECT, help unify the various stakeholders as individuals responsible for creating a new media well as identify their collective impact on framework or paradigm have truly under­stood the globalization. long-run ramifications of their contributions on the Any book about international communication type of society we will have in 50 years’ time. In all would be deficient if it examined only one of these likelihood, our future society will be dramatically two major themes. A review focused solely on different from the industrial society of even a mere NWICO without mention of CNN or the BBC, 70 years ago at the end of World War II. for example, would ignore the contemporary reality It is important to keep in mind that this intellectual and economic aspects of global communication. transformation is not limited to economics, politics, Similarly, a book that emphasized the Internet and trade, or education; rather, it will affect all of these other new communication options and opportunities areas as well as transform our concept of self, to the exclusion of the philosophical debate would community, and nation-state. Yet one major problem fail to provide the necessary historical and cultural with this transformation is appearing already: this  Preface ix new society changed by the media is located only in we might also consider dichotomies created by the select parts of the globe, primarily in those core reality of a relatively small cluster of nations with full nations that have already benefited from the previous access to the Internet, digital television, and wireless industrial era. This overall intellectual transformation telephony, and at the other extreme billions of people is occurring at the same time as a large number of on the other side of the “digital divide” who have yet poor nations are still attempting to come to grips to make a phone call, read a newspaper, or use a PC with enormous social problems ranging from mouse. One cannot be certain how parts of a world illiteracy, poverty, subjugation, famine, civil wars, so intrinsically linked to media will interact with the and poor health, particularly HIV/AIDS. As we move vast numbers of individuals who so far have lived forward into a new era transformed by global media, without it; but we will be watching closely. Acknowledgments I would like to thank my friends who tested the media, blogging, YouTube, MTV, and the latest in materials and provided useful feedback and suggestions. technologies, like the iPod and tablets. Jason Fisher I also want to thank Brenda McPhail for her assistance, undertook several duties in excellent fashion relating to patience, and feedback; and Rebecca and Ryan McPhail this new edition. Finally, I want to thank my students, for keeping me abreast of the significance of new who survived earlier drafts of the new material. 1 Global Communication Background Introduction The world of international communication has changed rapidly in recent years. Following World War II, global communication was dominated by the tensions arising from the Cold War, pitting the old Soviet Union against the United States and its allies. Much of the rhetoric, news space, face time, and concern dealt with some aspect of government control of mass communication, or the impact of governments and other entities on free speech, or the free flow of information or data across international borders. Likewise, much of international coverage on both sides of the Atlantic had an East/West tone, reflecting a communism versus democracy wedge. With the demise of the former Soviet Union and communism as a major global force, the factors underpinning international communication shifted dramatically. No longer did crises around the globe create major confrontations between two superpowers. What’s more, the end of communism spelled the demise of the Soviets as enemies of the free press and the free flow of information. In many editors’ and producers’ opinions, it also spelled the end, ignoring, or at least downgrading the importance of foreign news coverage. That clearly changed for a while after September 11, 2001. Today, the United States stands alone as the world’s only superpower. While other economic entities, such as the European Union and parts of Asia, compete daily with the United States in the global marketplace, there is no large-scale foreign military threat to the United States. But today there are new enemies and threats out there. The Taliban, al-Qaeda, the Islamic jihad, suicide bombers, extremists, and a vast array of terrorist cells around the world have taken up new weapons to confront the Western nations. The new weapons are primarily low-tech: smartphones, netbooks, the Internet, social networking sites, video cameras, Twitter, Facebook, and other means. Improvised explosive devices (IEDs) have replaced the nuclear bomb scare of the Cold War era. This widespread terrorist phenomenon has again seen a modest editorial shift to greater coverage of international Global Communication: Theories, Stakeholders, and Trends, Fourth Edition. Thomas L. McPhail. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Published 2014 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2 Thomas L. McPhail affairs. The “good guys versus bad guys” mentality has returned. Terrorists of many stripes are replacing communism as the evil force. The Middle East and other nations harboring and training extremists are the new Evil Empire. International News Why is international news important? Essentially we are experiencing an expanding global economy where events in foreign lands impact us on a daily basis. Examples are everywhere. A volcano in a Nordic country spreads choking ash over most of Europe; a revolution in the Middle East impacts the price of gas around the globe; a banking disaster in the United States or Greece shakes the stock markets around the world. Yet the problem is that though we know the global economy is expanding, the amount of international news coverage overall, particularly in the United States, is declining. Consider that the United States still exerts substantial influence around the world via both hard and soft power. This in turn should translate into a citizenry that is well informed about both foreign events and foreign policy decisions. This decline is significant when viewed through the prism of how the media contribute to the promotion and expansion of the democratic process both here and abroad. Given this metric the overall decline seems to be accompanied by a parallel decline in support for both foreign aid as well as the promotion of transparent and open democracies around the globe. For example, the Nordic countries have a more internationally focused press and give the highest amount of foreign aid while the United States now ranks eighteenth in terms of per capita giving. Foreign aid for humanitarian efforts is not a major policy issue for the average American, and with decreasing foreign news coverage this downward trend is likely to continue. Looking back, the golden age of international news coverage lasted from the 1940s to the end of the 1980s. A major boost during this era was the introduction of satellite broadcasting. The three main reasons for the decline are: first, the end of the Cold War and the implosion of the old Soviet Union (editors lost their “good guys versus bad guys” frame); second, the decline of newspaper circulation and revenues (part of this was the result of alternative Internet-based information sources of all types, and the expensive costs of running foreign bureaus); and, third, the global economic crisis of the last decade. Collectively they forced almost all for-profit media outlets to lose enthusiasm for foreign stories, and foreign bureaus were reduced. Yet despite all of the compelling reasons for more, not less, international news, this coverage continues to decline: the reality is that the proportion of international news across the media is at an all-time low, down from 30 percent 30 or 40 years ago to about 14 percent today. It is as if the global interconnectivity has been cut in half, where the reality is that it has doubled. The interconnectivity has been driven by factors such as the expansion of the global economy, the spread of cable and satellites, along with growing access to the Internet. A paper presented at the 2012 annual conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication by Katherine Bradshaw, James Foust, Joseph Bernt, and Brian Krol entitled “Domestic, International, and Foreign News Content on ABC, CBS, and NBC Network News from 1971 to 2007” makes the point that “viewers saw far fewer stories about the rest of the world in the three most recent years sampled 1995, 2001, 2007.”1 All three years are in the post-Cold War era. But in their study, which included 1989 (the last year of the Cold War), there were 342 foreign stories on the three major networks compared to only 68 in 2007.2 Clearly editors and producers across the media spectrum are  Global Communication: Background 3 showing less interest in foreign news. They see foreign news as expensive in an era of cutbacks. In a lecture, Alisa Miller, head of Public Radio International, explained how in today’s media environment, international stories and news have declined: “From a decrease in foreign news bureaus to the prevalence of recycled stories, the news map of our current landscape is both dangerously one-sided and scandalously negligent in its management of the global village.”3 Miller documents the startling statistics about the state of international news coverage in the United States and the same is true in several other places. Part of the larger problem is the turmoil and uncertainty created by the online phenomena and opportunity for others to provide information, formally or informally. Consider a report in October 2012 by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism: even after more than a decade of often dramatic turmoil in the media sector, we are only at the beginning of a longer transitional period. Today, inherited forms of media, especially linear television, still dominate media use, attract a large proportion of advertising, and support the majority of content creation-especially when it comes to news. All of this is likely to change, with profound implications for media as we know them.4 During the 1990s, Time magazine, the New York Times, and network newscasts had been replacing their foreign bureaus and international coverage with a parochial domestic agenda. The terrorism and its followers have put international news back in prime time. In addition to the various government investigations into issues like weapons of mass destruction (WMD), the 9/11 Commission, the Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay prison scandals, war crimes, and public safety have led to a new global agenda and media focus. International communication refers to the cultural, economic, political, social, and technical analysis of communication and media patterns and effects across and between nation-states. International communication focuses more on global aspects of media and communication systems and technologies and, as a result, less on local or even national aspects or issues. Since the 1990s, this global focus or prism through which interactions are viewed or analyzed has been altered substantially by two related events. The first is the end of the Cold War and the sweeping changes this has brought; this includes political realignments across Europe. The second is increasing global interdependence, which is a fixture of the expanding global economy. The global economic recession demonstrated the interdependence of economies big (like the United States), and small (like Iceland). But this interdependence has more than an economic orientation; it also has a cultural dimension. This cultural dimension, in turn, has three important traits: 1 How much foreign content is contained, absorbed, or assimilated within the cultural domain? 2 How is this foreign content being transmitted (e.g., by books, movies, music, DVDs, television, commercials, mobile appliances, or the Internet)? 3 How are domestic or indigenous cultures, including language, being impacted by this foreign content? These aspects, issues, and questions are what this book is about. Global Communication highlights an international or global approach to the broad range of components that collectively make up the discipline of international communication. Because “we live in an era of new cultural conditions that are characterized by faster adoption and assimilation of foreign cultural products than ever before,”5 this book investigates in some detail who and 4 Thomas L. McPhail where these cultural products are coming from and why, and addresses issues and concerns about their impact in foreign lands and on foreign minds. Historically, the US government has orchestrated international communication policy and the many activities relating to transborder communication activities. During the 1950s and 1960s, the US State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the National Security Council, and the Pentagon played central roles within international organizations to promote policies to suit Cold War agendas and objectives. This behavior was evident at a number of international conferences, but it was particularly clear in the US position regarding the New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO). Ultimately, the hostile rhetoric became so intense that the United States (under President Reagan) withdrew from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in the 1980s. The United States remained outside UNESCO until 2004 and left again in 2012. The United Kingdom withdrew as well and has since returned. When the Soviet Union disintegrated in the early 1990s, the counterpoint to much of the US rhetoric and foreign policy, whether overt or covert, disappeared. The old rationales – Cold War rhetoric, concern about communism, and fear of nuclear destruction – became less prominent in the new environment of openness and cooperation with Eastern Europe, as well as Russia. Foreign trade replaced concern about foreign media initiatives. Latin American Media Latin American media are significantly different from media markets in America and Europe. Several countries in Latin America, such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Peru have experienced political, economic, and social turmoil since the end of World War II. Some other nations continue to be controlled by dictators with military backing. Given this environment, the radio and television industries in these nations tend to be either government-owned and government-controlled or heavily regulated. In a few cases powerful domestic media conglomerates are controlled by wealthy families, such as Televisa in Mexico or Grupo Globo in Brazil. In other Latin American nations, the independent print press frequently is allied with the political and religious elites. There is little investigative journalism since both the state-owned or commercial media do not favor it and several investigative reporters have wound up dead. Although Latin American markets are substantial in terms of population and growing consumer base, they are still relatively underdeveloped compared to their North American and European counterparts, but that is changing. Sallie Hughes and Chappell Lawson discuss the obstacles which Latin American media confront on a frequent basis. They identify five general barriers to the creation of independent, pluralistic, and assertive media systems in the region: (a) violence against journalists encouraged by a generalized weakness in the rule of law; (b) holdover authoritarian laws and policies that chill assertive reporting; (c) oligarchic ownership of television, the region’s dominant medium; (d) the spottiness of professional journalistic norms; (e) the limited reach of print media, community-based broadcasters, and new communication technologies.6 Despite these structural issues, the Latin American environment is changing in terms of governments and mass communication. Many governments moved to a more open and democratic way of attempting to improve overall social and economic conditions for the populace. In telecommunications and mass media systems, there was a noticeable  Global Communication: Background 5 liberalization, deregulation, and privatization as reform legislation was passed in many Latin American nations. The growing increases in literacy, access to the Internet, and cheaper satellite dishes have collectively moved the debate over media’s role in society. Several Latin American countries are clearly at a crossroads; they must decide whether they will follow this new neoliberal path, including broader ownership of the media, or revert to the historical tendency of military coups, government control and ownership, favoritism to elite families, and heavy censorship. Despite the uneasy balance between old and new, the Latin American market is characterized by two significant phenomena. First, by virtue of the domination of the Spanish language (with the exception of Brazil, where Portuguese is spoken), Latin America has not been as readily inundated with US television shows or films, which carry English- language soundtracks. In contrast, English-speaking nations such as Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom were easy international markets for, first, Hollywood feature films, and then US television programs, followed by music. This language difference led to a second important Latin American media phenomenon. Because these countries were forced to produce their own programming, they created an interesting and successful genre known as the telenovela. Telenovelas are Spanish soap operas that are extremely popular from Mexico to the tip of South America. They have been successful enough to be exported to Spain, Russia, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and many other non-English-speaking European countries, as well as Florida, Texas, and California. Many of the leading telenovela actors and actresses are national celebrities, like soccer stars, in the various regions of Latin America. The export market for telenovelas is expanding rapidly because they cost much less to produce than their Hollywood and New York counterparts. On the feature film front, the scene is not as encouraging. Over 60 percent of the theater screens across Latin America regularly show Hollywood films. In Latin America there are few film houses or even nations that can mount and finance blockbuster films to rival Hollywood. Another difference between North America and Latin America is the role and success of newspapers. In North America, many newspapers have folded over the last decade, and single-newspaper cities are the norm rather than the exception. By contrast, Latin American newspapers are still a substantially growing market, with over 1,000 newspapers in circulation and readership, on a daily basis, in excess of 100 million. Because of the high circulation figures, newspaper advertising is competitive with radio and television, making it a challenge for start-up private stations to succeed. Finally, because newspapers are privately owned, the publishers and editors generally support the movement toward greater democratization as well as government reforms to privatize the communication sector. Left-Wing Connection: Latin America In the postwar era, Latin America displayed a unique joint interest in labor unions, priests and nuns pursuing liberation theology as they sought Marxist or left-wing solutions to deal with corrupt regimes, many of which had military connections. Ideological fervor and rhetoric spread across Latin America as unions, clergy, and academics sought to tap the discontent of the peasants to mobilize support for economic and political change. For the most part, their efforts failed, the prime exceptions being Cuba, now Venezuela, and likely El Salvador and Chile. There were occasional major confrontations, such as the uprising in Chiapas, Mexico. In this revolt, the rebels went so far as to exclude the major Mexican broadcaster, Televisa, from their various press conferences. Latin American academics were 6 Thomas L. McPhail particularly critical of North American models, such as open markets, free enterprise, private ownership, and advertising-supported media. They frequently attacked the violence of Hollywood feature films or the wasteland of television shows ranging from The Simpsons, to Baywatch, to reality shows, to MTV videos. They regarded American junk culture with the same disdain as they did American junk food. With the demise of Marxism and the end of the Cold War, these same Latin American groups have lost steam and credibility. Labor unions are becoming isolated as democra­ tization begins to take hold in several nations, along with greater economic prosperity. Leftist academics are finding fewer opportunities to promote anti-US media criticism as liberalization, privatization, and deregulation take hold across the communication sectors. Latin American academics tend to write flourishing and lengthy essays critical of American culture with little, if any, empirical data to support their assertions. Today, change is bringing greater media choice, more advertising, less government ownership, and reduced regulatory control of electronic media across Latin America. The roles of media and culture, together with their impact on economic growth in Latin America, have been demonstrated in the literature. Cultural change and economic change are linked, but as David Holman points out, “the ‘McDonaldisation’ of all societies is possibly inevitable, but it is possible to eat McDonald burgers, and to wear jeans, without losing any of the most cherished aspects of the national culture.”7 Yet historically Latin American communication scholars have been among the most critical of the United States, even anti-United States, in their writings. The vast majority work from a Marxist platform, which is now stale and suspect with the end of the Cold War. Yet some continue their diatribes, not appreciating how substantially the global communication scene has changed. What follows is a dramatic example of how the Cold War atmosphere framed media activities in relation to Washington and a Latin American nation, in this case Chile. Chile–US Government Media Interaction The 1973 military coup in Chile during the Cold War provides an example of the US government’s concern, influence, and backstage role in the US media in dealing with foreign events. In this case, as in others, it is important to realize that frequently the US press corps has little background knowledge, local information or sources, cultural awareness, or even native language skills in preparation for breaking foreign stories. In the past, this weakness was frequently addressed by willing and well-trained US embassy staffers who provided background briefings to visiting US journalists in order to furnish them with “off the record” information and to help them establish meetings and interviews. The information generally was selected to frame, support, and promote US position and foreign policy objectives abroad. Although there is nothing intrinsically wrong with this practice, problems develop when journalists write their stories or file their video clips without acknowledging the substantial influence or assistance of US embassy personnel. From 1970 to 1973, the US government sought to assist in the overthrow of Chile’s democratically elected leftist government. The United States was hostile to Chilean president Salvador Allende, whom US President Richard Nixon had labeled a communist threat. According to the US State Department, Allende had to be removed or he might set an example, and communism spread across South America. When the Chilean military seized power in September 1973, the US government supported General Augusto Pinochet, despite the fact that he had been associated with many nefarious crimes, including supporting Chilean death squads. Pinochet subsequently ruled Chile for 17 years.  Global Communication: Background 7 The specific role of the CIA cannot be detailed, but it is instructive to examine its relationship with the US media in Chile. Prior to and during the revolution, the CIA directed its Chilean station chief to engage in propaganda. He was to spread misinformation when it suited US objectives. According to the New York Times: The CIA’s propaganda efforts included special intelligence and “inside” briefings given to the US journalist … Particularly noteworthy in this connection is the Time cover story which owed a great deal to written materials provided by the CIA. [Moreover,] CIA briefings in Washington changed the basic thrust of the story in the final stages, according to another Time correspondent.8 The result of this cosy relationship between US foreign affairs officials and foreign correspondents was a Time magazine cover story openly calling for an invasion of Chile to thwart the Marxist president and to stop the spread of communism throughout South America. During this era Time was a cheerleader for stopping leftists by any means. The point of this example is not to debate the role of the CIA in ultimately assisting in the overthrow of a democratically elected leader, but rather to focus on the role of foreign correspondents during the height of the Cold War. The US State Department, Department of Defense, and CIA all actively courted US foreign correspondents. The foreign correspondents in turn were to varying degrees willing to accept advice, leads, and in some cases copy from US embassies around the world. This situation was particularly true in countries where English-speaking US journalists did not speak the native language. In these cases, embassy staff and CIA operatives had enormous clout and access. They knew which locals spoke English and were sympathetic to the US position. American embassies set up media interviews and assisted journalists with logistics and acquisition of compatible equipment and other necessities for gathering pro-United States news in foreign venues. For over a decade, without the raison d’être of the Cold War and the anti-communist fervor that once dominated the agenda and mindset at the US State Department and its network of foreign embassies, CIA operatives have been marginalized and replaced by trade representatives. US ambassadors and their staffs courted economists, investors, and the business community. Journalists no longer received priority access or assistance. Indeed, unless journalists are reporting on successful business ventures by US investors or corporations, they have difficulty getting their phone calls returned. In the post-Cold War era, US embassies focused on trade and the provision of the organizational and logistical work necessary for US corporations to expand exports in these countries or regions. Senior embassy personnel spent the majority of their time seeking out investment opportunities, organizing trade fairs, or identifying new export markets while nurturing existing ones. Within the new reality of US embassy culture and foreign policy there is now a shared emphasis. The business press now shares media attention with security, terror, or war issues. Some US journalists abroad deal with foreign policy and terrorism while others still look at foreign profits, mergers, and acquisitions in the post-Cold War environment. This book looks at global media; global communication technologies such as the Internet; global advertising; multimedia organizations; European, Middle Eastern, and Asian media; and global events from post-Cold War and 9/11 vantage points. But some historical themes of concern continue to shape the scope and impact of global communication. These themes are best understood by examining where, why, and in what context NWICO emerged. But before we discuss NWICO, we need to note that, from a historical perspective, the role and invention of the telegraph in the mid-nineteenth century 8 Thomas L. McPhail had profound consequences for international communication. This new technology resulted in a paradigm shift from national to international communication.9 It resulted in information becoming a commodity, particularly for the expanding print press and telegraph traffic. Finally, it also fostered a new breed of journalists – the war correspondent. History of the War Correspondent Prior to the Crimean War (1853–6) there had been many wars. What separates the Crimean War from the others is the impressive fact that it was the first to be covered by a foreign correspondent. For example an earlier war of 1812, fought by Canada and Great Britain against the United States, ended in 1815 with the Treaty of Ghent, with Canada and Great Britain as the victors. The treaty was signed in Europe in December 1814, but this agreement did not reach North America until February 1815. During the Crimean War, however, with the newly invented telegraph, it was possible for reporters to send daily dispatches. The new technology of the telegraph had been patented in Europe by Charles Wheatstone in 1838. The background to the war was a dispute between Russia and France, under Napoleon, over control of the Middle East. The British also had a vested interest in the conflict since they controlled the seas and trade routes, and aspired to continue their colonial expansion in the Middle East. The Russians lost the Crimean War under the Treaty of Paris. Following this, they pulled back from their global expansionist goals. They soon sold Alaska in 1867 to the United States for $7.2 million. William Harold Russell was the first foreign war correspondent for the London-based Times, which was founded in 1785 and is now controlled by News Corp. Three interesting factors emerged from his coverage. First, Florence Nightingale, the legendary nursing pioneer, complained to the British press about how poorly British war casualties were being treated, and about the horrific medical conditions compared to the excellent French facilities. The coverage in the Times eventually led to the dismissal of the cabinet minister responsible for the conduct of the war. Second, Queen Victoria of Britain called for a Royal Commission on Health and War (1856–7), but Nightingale was not appointed to the commission because only males were eligible. Third, the impact of the Times coverage was so important and explosive that the number of journalists assigned to cover the US Civil War (1861–5) skyrocketed. The London Times circulation nearly doubled. In the United States, with over half a million deaths, the pictures and accounts were major copy for the infant print press across both North and South. Several foreign correspondents from Europe also covered the Civil War. For example, British reporters supported the slavery-afflicted South to protect the cheap source of cotton for British factories. Finally, the massive circulation increases also fueled the demand for greater literacy so that many more people could read the war coverage in the newspapers. New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO) The foregoing examples are indicative of some of the major issues in international communication. In the past, much of this debate focused on the New World Information and Communication Order. NWICO dominated the international communication agenda for decades. It represents:  Global Communication: Background 9 1 an evolutionary process seeking a more just and equitable balance in the flow and con- tent of information; 2 a right to national self-determination of domestic communication policies; and 3 at the international level, a two-way information flow reflecting more accurately the aspirations and activities of less developed countries (LDCs).10 Despite the fact that some proponents still champion this vision, many believe that NWICO can no longer be taken seriously. Even UNESCO, where much of the debate took place, has abandoned it. Yet NWICO may be born again because of the deep divisions which emerged from the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). WSIS is covered in more detail later in this book. An appreciation of its basic premises and of the issues that divided nations remains an important and relevant element in a full understanding of the different views about international communication. Not everyone views the global media flows and control over aspects of the communication scene the same way. NWICO’s ultimate goal was a restructured system of media and telecommunication priorities in order for LDCs to obtain greater influence over their media, information, economic, cultural, and political systems. For LDCs, or peripheral nations, the current world communication system is an outgrowth of prior colonial patterns reflecting commercial and market imperatives.11 NWICO was promoted as a way to remove this vestige of colonial control. However, Western governments and news organizations vigorously opposed any such plan, fearing it would bring increased government interference with the press, thus ultimately reducing market share and profitability. In seeking to gain a more balanced flow of information, peripheral regions postulate potential mechanisms that clash with strongly held journalistic traditions and practices in the West. From time to time they called for government control of the media, limited reporter access to events, journalistic codes of ethics, licensing of reporters, and taxation of the broadcast spectrum – all ideas that Western journalists, media owners, and policymakers abhor. Even the call for a “balanced flow” of information, which was approved by UNESCO in the 1970s, was criticized as interference with free press, free flow, and free market mechanisms. Only an open and free flow of information is viewed as being fully consistent with the goals of a truly free press. Yet the critics maintain that the free flow is really a one- way flow – from core nations to other regions of the world, with little or no reciprocity. Many critics attack the Western press as if it were a monolithic, rational system. They fail to realize that what eventually winds up in Western newspapers, on radio, or on television is determined by a complex, and not entirely consistent, process of decision-making. As Mort Rosenblum explains: Correspondents play an important part in selection by determining what to cover in the first place. But most of the process is in the hands of editors at different stages. These are the gatekeepers. Each medium and each type of correspondent operates in a different fashion, but the principle is the same. A correspondent’s dispatch first goes to one gatekeeper and then what emerges – if anything – goes on to others. All along the way; the original dispatch may be shortened, lengthened, rewritten, or thrown away entirely. This series of editors determines what is to be eventually shared with the public; and they decide what the American people may never know.12 This is an important point. What people in Western or core societies learn about peripheral regions is meager and the result of several gatekeepers. What makes this 10 Thomas L. McPhail successive diminution of information about poor nations so paradoxical is that, both technically and theoretically, there is more international information available today than ever before. The Internet, satellites, fax machines, video discs, portable computers, radio, smartphones, and direct long-distance dialing have collectively replaced the slow and cumbersome dispatches of the past. But practically, the story is quite different. There are several contributing factors. The major one is simply the high cost of international reporting. The estimated cost to place and equip a single foreign correspondent abroad for one year is $300,000. This has led to a net reduction in the number of reporters that wire services, networks, or individual papers that are willing to post abroad. Second, restrictions ranging from censorship and outright bans to withholding critical interviews past filing time, threats of physical abuse unless proper slants are evident, jailing, or even death all serve to reduce or limit the amount of available copy. Third, the high turnover of foreign correspondents and the pack journalism phenomenon make editors and publishers reluctant to spend time and money to significantly increase foreign coverage. Fourth, the trend toward “parachute journalism,” in which large numbers of foreign correspondents, assorted paparazzi, and belligerent camera crews descend by the planeload on international scenes of conflict or natural disasters, tends to trivialize or sensationalize events that are far more complex than a 30-second clip or a few paragraphs can capture. Finally, the lack of public concern, as reflected in the trend toward light, fluffy, gossipy, and trendy journalism, focusing on celebrities or trivia, reduces the incentive for editors to provide in-depth and continuous coverage of a broad range of foreign issues and conflicts. On the print side, in the United States the New Yorker magazine, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Economist, and the Washington Post are clear exceptions. The reason for this shift in newspapers has been a mix of accounting and fiscal concerns related directly to declining circulation numbers, a movement toward local community journalism, and the Internet taking away readers and advertisers as well. The policies of the media are increasingly governed by marketing experts, who make news decisions to reflect focus-group results, rather than by editors. Clearly, the exceptional and unusual still dominate what is reported. In-depth front-page pieces on population, education, health care, environment, and other development successes are still rare. Rosenblum, in talking about “the System,” makes this point: Foreign correspondents do often seem to be mad as loons, waiting on some source for hours in the rain so they can write a dispatch which might well end up blotting spilled coffee on an editorial desk back home. Editors seem madder still, suffering hypertension over whether their own man reached some obscure capital in time to duplicate stories available to them by other means. And their combined effort, when it reaches breakfast tables and living rooms across the United States, often appears to be supercilious and sloppy.13 This system is geared as much to amuse and divert as it is to inform, and it responds inadequately when it is suddenly called upon to explain something as complex and menacing as a dollar collapse or a war in Asia. Yet it is the American citizen’s only alternative to ignorance about the world. Because of the system – and in spite of it – most Americans are out of touch with events that directly affect their lives. When crisis impends, they are not warned. When it strikes, they are not prepared. They know little about decisions taken on their behalf which lessen their earnings, restrict their freedoms and threaten their security.14  Global Communication: Background 11 Why is this the case? What are the implications? In an era of so much information, why is there so little useful information? As this book describes in detail, international news coverage is going to change. The question is whether it will improve in accuracy, quantity, and quality, or whether gatekeepers will restrict or heavily censor news. That is why awareness of global media issues and positions is central to understanding international communication. That is also why this book has specific chapters on the Middle East and China, since they are important players in what Marshall McLuhan labeled the “global village.” Two major theoretical outlooks or theories will assist in organizing and understanding the events, trends, and major stakeholders in the rapidly changing field of international communication. They are electronic colonialism and world system theories. Both are described in the following section, and then their interrelationships are outlined. In addition, throughout Global Communication certain examples of the media scene or global operations as they reflect and apply to these underlying two theories are commented on. Electronic Colonialism Theory Traditionally, mass media research looks either at select micro issues, such as agenda- setting, ownership, or violence, or at a specific medium, such as print, radio, television, or the Internet. Only occasionally do scholars examine the macro aspects of the overall mass communication system. Harold Innis, Marshall McLuhan, Armand Mattelart, Jacques Ellul, Ben Bagdikian, and George Barnett are representative of the macro research school. Electronic colonialism theory reflects much of the current global concerns, particularly with reference to culture, and is a good theoretical concept with which to begin. It provides a theoretical frame for examining the stakeholders and transnational issues. Global Colonialism Over the course of history, there have been only a few major successful trends in empire- building. The first era was characterized by military conquests. These occurred during the Greco-Roman period and witnessed the expansion of the Roman Empire throughout most of what is modern Europe, including North Africa. This early era is labeled military colonialism. The militant Christianity of the Crusades during the Middle Ages represented the second era. The Crusades, with the Catholic pope as patron, sought to control territory from Europe, across northern Africa, to the Middle East. Beginning around 1095, a series of crusades over 200 years resulted in eastern expansion and the establishment of new European colonies promoting Christianity in the Middle East and across Africa. The territories were seized from Muslims, as Western civilization became the dominant international force or hegemony. Relics and treasures from various nations, as well as the Greek Orthodox Church, were plundered and returned to the Vatican as gifts. For example, in 1204 the Crusaders sacked and desecrated Constantinople’s holiest cathedrals and shrines. To this day much of the history and treasures of the eastern Greek Orthodox Church are locked in the Vatican’s basement. In 2004 Pope John Paul II made a token gesture and returned the bones of two early Greek theologians, but many Greeks are still waiting for the plundered gold, silver, and artworks from this era. This era is labeled Christian colonialism. 12 Thomas L. McPhail Beginning with the invention of significant mechanical advances in the seventeenth century, the third era – of mercantile colonialism – continued until the mid-twentieth century. Spawned by a desire for cheap labor, the importation of raw materials, and ready export markets – created by the colonies – for finished products, the industrial revolution created mercantile colonialism. Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, and the Americas became objects of conquest by European powers. France, Great Britain, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, and the Nordic nations systematically set about extending their commercial and political influence. These expanding empires of Europe sought markets, raw materials, and other goods unavailable at home. In return, they sent administrators, immigrants, a foreign language (usually English), and their educational system, religion, philosophy, high culture, laws, and lifestyle which were frequently inappropriate for the invaded country. None of this concerned the conquerors, such as the vast British Commonwealth, who thought they were doing the conquered a favor. In the 1700s and 1800s international status was a function of the number and location of one’s foreign colonies. During the latter part of this era, industrialized nations sought to extend their influence through transnational corporations that supplemented and extended more traditional means of control. But the common denominator remained a desire for economic advantage – plentiful raw materials, cheap labor, and expanding markets. Mercantile colonialism also included other commercial imperatives such as advertising, government regulation, and laws, including contract and intellectual property rights, which better suited the larger and more powerful industrialized nations than the weaker foreign colonies or regions. These collective actions began the global economy which the United States would master and dominate following World War II. A key element in the success of mercantile colonialism was the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg. In the early 1450s Gutenberg produced 200 copies of the Bible. Despite their high cost, the Bibles completely sold out, ushering in a new era of communication. Although he was forced into bankruptcy and eventually died a poor man, Gutenberg provided the means for others to amass incredible wealth and power. Initially, the presses were used to mass-produce religious materials in the vernacular, but soon “penny press” newspapers appeared. Over time the printing press undermined the absolute authority and control of the Roman Catholic Church and European monarchies alike. Also, the demand grew for a literate workforce capable of operating the increasingly sophisticated technology of factory production. The demand for public education and the evolution of mass societies created nations with greater literacy and some disposable factory wages. These phenomena permitted the purchase of newspapers, movie tickets, telegrams, books, and eventually radios. World Wars I and II brought an end to major military expansion and positioned the industrialized nations of the West in command of international organizations, vital trade routes, and global commercial practices. During the 1950s, the business and economic climate encouraged transnational corporations to grow and to consolidate domestic and foreign markets based on the production of mass-produced goods, from breakfast cereals to cars. As the industrial revolution ran its course, two major changes occurred during the late 1950s and early 1960s that set the stage for the fourth and current era of empire expansion. The two major changes were the rise of nationalism and decolonization, centered mainly in developing nations, and the shift to a service-based information economy among core nations. The service economy relies substantially on satellites, telecommunications, and computer technology to analyze, transfer, and communicate information. It renders obsolete traditional national borders and technological barriers to communication. This  Global Communication: Background 13 Table 1.1 The four eras of global colonialism Military colonialism 1000 bce–1000 ce Christian colonialism 1000–1600 Mercantile colonialism 1600–1950 Electronic colonialism 1950–Present fact has significant implications for industrial and non-industrial nations alike as the military, religious, and mercantile colonialism of the past was replaced by the “electronic colonialism” of today and tomorrow (see Table 1.1). Electronic colonialism represents the dependent relationship of poorer regions on the post-industrial nations which is caused and established by the importation of communication hardware and foreign-produced software, along with engineers, technicians, and related information protocols. These establish a set of foreign norms, values, and expectations that, to varying degrees, alter domestic cultures, languages, habits, values, and the socialization process itself. From comic books to satellites; computers to fax machines; CDs, DVDs, and smartphones to the Internet, a wide range of information technologies make it easy to send and thus receive information. The issue of how much imported material the receiver retains is critical. The concern is that this new foreign information, frequently favoring the English language, will cause the displacement, rejection, alteration, or forgetting of native or indigenous customs, domestic messages, or cultural history. Now poorer regions fear electronic colonialism as much as, perhaps even more than, they feared the mercantile colonialism of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Whereas mercantile colonialism sought to control cheap labor and the hands of laborers, electronic colonialism seeks to influence and control the mind. It is aimed at influencing attitudes, desires, beliefs, lifestyles, and consumer behavior. As the citizens of peripheral nations are increasingly viewed through the prism of consumerism, influencing and controlling their values, habits, and purchasing patterns becomes increasingly important to multinational firms.15 When viewers watch the television show Baywatch, they learn about Western society and mores vicariously. Baywatch, which began in 1989, hit a peak in the mid-1990s when more than one billion people a week in nearly 150 countries viewed it. With shows like this, along with Dallas, The Cosby Show, All in the Family, Friends, and Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, foreign viewers began to develop a different mental set and impression of the United States. Another example is The Simpsons, the longest-running prime-time animated cartoon ever developed. The show has now surpassed 300 episodes and is widely distributed around the globe. It has a leading cartoon character, Homer Simpson, who generally behaves as a moron and places his family and friends in bizarre situations. The show and characters thrive on portraying distasteful aspects of US life, culture, education, and community. Yet the program has been so successful that not only does it continue, but it has also spawned other weekly animation shows such as South Park. Likewise, movies such as Basic Instinct, Rambo, Scarface, Silence of the Lambs, Natural Born Killers, and Texas Chainsaw Massacre deliver the trappings of an alternative lifestyle, culture, language, economy, or political system that go far beyond the momentary images flickering on the screen. Electronic colonialism theory details the possible long-term consequences of exposure to these media images and messages to extend the powerful multinational media empires’ markets, power, and influence. 14 Thomas L. McPhail Not surprisingly, the recent rise of nationalism in many areas of the world seeks to counter these neocolonialist effects. Many of these newer nations are former colonies of European powers. Their goal is to maintain political, economic, and cultural control of their own history, images, and national destiny. It is within these cultural issues that students of journalism, cultural studies, communication, and telecommunications find theoretical, policy, and research interest. For example, issues that concern both developing nations and the industrial ones, and frequently find them on opposing sides, are the performance and role of international wire services, global television networks, advertising agencies, and the Internet.16 History of Electronic Colonialism Theory Prior to World War I, when international communication consisted primarily of mail, some newspapers were crossing national borders, as was limited electronic communication, which was a mixture of wireless and telegraph systems using Morse code. There was no international communication theory.17 Also, the feature film industry was in its infancy, but there were examples of movies created in one nation being shown in another nation. For example, Hollywood exported to both Canada and Mexico some of its major films, even at this early stage. Likewise some European films were exhibited in movie houses in other nations. This early communication era was dominated by the systematic exploitation by powerful European nations of foreign colonies that were to be a source of cheap labor and raw materials. In turn, these resources were manufactured into finished goods and sent back to the various colonies. Many of the onsite colonial leaders were either government officials or wealthy European families who dispatched many locals to rural or remote areas. Examples of this phenomenon are the Maori tribes in Australia and New Zealand, Native Indians across North America, Zapatistas in Mexico, French Canadians in Quebec, and many tribes across Africa. Given the pervasiveness of Great Britain’s colonial empire, the non-commercial British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), which was founded in 1922, was also exported as the operating model for many new radio systems that were being started across the globe. Reuters, then a British wire service, covered British expeditions for English-language newspapers. During the late 1920s and 1930s, there did emerge an alternative workers’ culture which promoted a grassroots orientation to art, culture, and some local media. Labor organizations sought to promote folk art, decentralize the bourgeoisie orientation of the elite cultural industries, like opera, and promote local media with a non-commercial orientation. During this phase there emerged a European group of critical scholars, now referred to in the literature as the Frankfurt School. A group of philosophers which included Herbert Marcuse, Jürgen Habermas, Max Horkheimer, and Theodor Adorno developed a body of theory critical of power elites. To some extent they planted the seeds of electronic colonialism theory by focusing academic attention on ownership and power issues. Many labor-based and critical initiatives became mute for two major structural reasons: the Great Depression and World War II. It was only after the end of World War II in 1945 that there were substantial international expansion of the mass media and transborder activities involving communication as well as cultural products. Global advertising also became a growth area. In addition, many of the academics associated with the Frankfurt School relocated to North American universities and some American critical scholars would take up the cultural imperialism track or viewpoint over time.  Global Communication: Background 15 On December 10, 1948 the United Nations recognized the growing importance of the interaction of culture and the arts within the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 27 of the 30-article proclamation states: 1 Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits. 2 Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is author.18 National government media services, such as the BBC, the United States’ Voice of America, and Canada’s Radio Canada International, along with many others, began to expand their activities to multiple languages, with a strong desire to promote the fundamental concepts of free speech, free press, and democracy, particularly in light of a campaign to thwart, counter, or indeed stop the growing global threat and rise of communism. Most short-wave, government-backed radio services promoted a Cold War agenda in their broadcasts. In the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s, the debate about international communication moved to the halls of UNESCO in Paris, France. Certain constituencies, such as the old Soviet Union countries, academics in Nordic and Latin America countries, and some social democratic party forces across Europe, began to express early concern about the negative impact of Western culture and the global economy. Although there was significant support for non-commercial media systems, there was also concern expressed about the global syndication of Hollywood films and television shows, along with the impact of music, particularly that emanating from the United Kingdom and the United States, under the banner of rock and roll. This debate about the importation of junk culture, much like junk food, hit a responsive chord at UNESCO. During the 1980s, under the philosophical mantra of US President Ronald Reagan, a new era of privatization, liberalization, and deregulation not only took hold in North America, but also across Europe, strongly promoted by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the United Kingdom. There was a significant emphasis on market forces, free enterprise, and entrepreneurship, and a strong reversal of any type of sympathy or support for non-commercial media, government regulation, or public ownership of telecommunication systems. Market forces also led to a flurry of mergers and acquisitions across the communication sector. Consolidation created global giants and this trend continues. In 2004 WPP, a British-based advertising firm, purchased the US-based Grey Global and Sony of Japan bought MGM. One new global player deserves to be singled out – Ted Turner created a satellite-delivered all news network, Cable News Network (CNN), in 1980, which would come to alter global news, as well as other broadcasting practices, significantly. Finally, during this period, there were three seminal documents that formed the basis for a school of cultural imperialism. To some extent these were forerunners to the eventual development of electronic colonialism theory. In particular, Herbert Schiller’s 1969 work entitled Mass Communication and American Empire, Tapio Varis’s work for UNESCO and his 1974 article entitled “Global Traffic in Television,” and Jeremy Tunstall’s 1977 book, The Media Are American, served as a new catalyst and basis for promoting critical research in terms of analyzing international communication flows, impact, and imbalances.19 Critical scholars such as Dan Schiller and Bob McChesney, along with others, are still carrying on some of the research. Yet it was not until the 1990s that a major new group finally emerged as a global non-governmental organization (NGO). 16 Thomas L. McPhail The International Network for Cultural Development (INCD) was established in 1998 to defend cultural expression and cultural diversity, and to promote national and multilingual cultural expression. It sought to promote genuine authentic media rather than, or indeed to counter the impact of, the dominance of English-language mass media which controlled the flow of cultural products across national boundaries. INCD took up the debate on international communication with new vigor and sought out new global participants, including senior government officials. They were opposed to multinational communication corporations promoting a homogenized global culture. INCD, along with UNESCO and several academics, sought to align itself with government officials to promote an alternative to the market-based, free enterprise capitalist system, which was clearly dominating global communication and served the interests of mainly American, Japanese, and European media conglomerates. A major goal of INCD is to promote through the auspices of UNESCO an international convention that now defines and aims to protect cultural and linguistic diversity along with support for open artistic expression. Much of the dominance that occurred since the middle of the twentieth century has been documented in my 1981 work entitled Electronic Colonialism: The Future of International Broadcasting and Communication.20 This early work, along with the first edition of Global Communication, documented and expanded the literature about international communication. Collectively these works laid the groundwork and further amplified the theory of electronic colonialism. It is this theory to which we now turn and add additional details. What is Electronic Colonialism Theory? Just as mercantile colonialism focused on empires seeking the toil and soil of others, frequently as colonies, so now electronic colonialism theory (ECT) looks at how to capture the minds and, to some extent, the consumer habits of others. ECT focuses on how global media, including advertising, influence how people look, think, and act. The aim of ECT is to account for how the mass media influence the mind. Just as the era of the industrial revolution focused on manual labor, raw materials, and then finished products, so also the information revolution now seeks to focus on the role and consequences concerning the mind and global consumer behavior. Consider how culture is conveyed in a multimedia world. Historically grandparents and tribal elders played a central role in recreating, transmitting, and transferring culture. They relied on oral communication along with family, community, or tribal connections. Culture is basically an attitude; it is also learned. It is the learning of shared language and perceptions that are incorporated in the mind through education, repetition, ritual, history, media, or mimicking. The media’s expanding role becomes a shared media culture which influences perceptions and values. Examples of media systems that attract heavy users are Hollywood movies, MTV, ESPN, soap operas, CNN, the Internet, and video games. These systems tend to be the output of global communication giants, such as Time Warner, Disney, Viacom, Sony, and News Corp. Collectively they have the real potential to displace or alter previous cultural values, language, lifestyles or habits, activities, and family rituals. This is particularly true for heavy users of one or two external media. Over time, ECT states that these changes can and usually do impact friends, family, and community ties. A virtual community or new friends who replace former community ties share two things: first, a preoccupation with identical media, such as MTV, talk radio, Facebook, or Al Jazeera; and,  Global Communication: Background 17 second, the embedded media culture that involves new or different messages, perception, learning, and habits. An example of this is the new subculture of black slang. It is at the core of the new media-induced culture for this group. Rap music, movies, concerts, dress, and playgrounds repeat and reinforce this niche linguistic trend. A way to look at ECT is to think about it as though we go through life wearing various masks. We learn how to play out the appropriate roles, such as child, parent, spouse, student, immigrant, minority, athlete, or boss.21 But with ECT the masks become somewhat invisible because we begin to think and feel differently, as we become what we watch, do, or listen to. The media become a veil of collective new images, which we absorb into our minds and eventually, even if subtly, we begin to act out, dress, or speak differently as we consume input from the mass media rather than from family, community, or former friends. The socialization process is hijacked by the media empires rather than the colonial empires of days gone by. It is as if we have moved with modernization from a tribal state where culture was located in a fixed territory, region, or nation to a mediated state of mind where we might have more in common with someone or some group halfway around the world via social media or MTV rather than in our own house, school, or neighborhood. Now with ECT a new culture has emerged that is a global phenomenon driven primarily by large multimedia conglomerates. They control, reproduce, and spread the global flow of words, images, and sounds. They seek to impact the audiences’ minds without regard to geography.22 Their audiovisual products become sold and standardized without regard to time or space. They are marketed to international consumers who come to view their world outlook and buying habits as the logical outcome of a new media culture, as outlined and identified by ECT. For example, many Hollywood films and DVD sales now make more revenue outside the United States than at home, while MTV, Disney, Apple, Microsoft, and Google have more aggressive expansion plans outside the United States than within it. IBM is a good example. Over 70 percent of all IBM employees work and live outside the United States. For many conglomerates the US domestic market is saturated, and thus off-shore sales, audiences, consumers – that is, expansion – is a logical trend that is enabled and explained by the phenomenon of ECT. The leading American communication giants describe themselves as global companies and not US companies. Their corporate strategic plans all focus on expanding global markets and on developing products and services for international consumption. They position themselves as stakeholders, beneficiaries, and advocates of the global economy. They are the foot-soldiers of electronic colonialism. Another example of the growing focus on international trends and consumers who cannot seem to get enough of audiovisual, mainly American, material is to be found in the movie industry. It is interesting that the international audiences for American movies continue to grow at a rapid rate while domestic movie-goers are declining slightly. This phenomenon appears to apply even to movies which are duds at home but are attractive abroad. Consider two examples. In 2012 the movie Battleship made only $65 million in the United States but $238 million globally, and in the same year John Carter took in $73 million domestically but $210 million off-shore. This trend also applies to domestic hits that become huge successes internationally. Two prime examples are Pirates of the Caribbean, which grossed $241 at home but a staggering $803 million overseas, and The Croods, which grossed $143 million at home and $243 overseas. Clearly major American movies companies are aware of this growing trend and it will likely influence what does get produced in the future. Finally, it is additional evidence that the electronic colonizing of the minds abroad will continue unabated. 18 Thomas L. McPhail World System Theory World system theory (WST) provides the concepts, ideas, and language for structuring international communication. It was proposed and developed by Immanuel Wallerstein.23 The theory has also been linked to dependency theory24 in that some of the criticisms are similar to the rhetoric and writings of the critical school of media scholars. Others have applied world system theory to specific sectors, as Thomas Clayton did to comparative education, and George Barnett and Young Choi did to telecommunications.25 This chapter develops world system theory as it applies to international communication. The previously explained theory of electronic colonialism applies directly to the actions and reactions in the semiperipheral and peripheral zones, as developed by Wallerstein and others. These zones constitute prime export markets for multimedia firms. World system theory states that global economic expansion takes place from a relatively small group of core-zone nation-states out to two other zones of nation-states, these being in the semiperipheral and peripheral zones. These three groupings or sectors of nation- states have varying degrees of interaction on economic, political, cultural, media, technical, labor, capital, and social levels. The contemporary world structure follows the logic of economic determinism in which market forces rule in order to place as well as determine the winners and losers, whether they are individuals, corporations, or nation-states.26 It is assumed that the zones exhibit unequal and uneven economic relations, with the core nations being the dominant and controlling economic entity. The core nations have the power and are essentially the major Western industrialized nations. The semiperipheral and peripheral nations are in a subordinate position when interacting with core nations. Core nations exert control to their benefit and define the nature and extent of interactions with the other two zones. Core nations define the relations between the core and the semiperiphery as well as between the core and the periphery. The core provides technology, software, capital, knowledge, finished goods, and services to the other zones, which function as consumers and markets. The core nations also force a neoliberal approach concerning free markets and deregulation with the two weaker zones. The semiperipheral and peripheral zones engage in the relationship with core nations primarily through providing low-cost labor, raw materials, mass markets, or low-cost venues for feature films. Mass media technology (hardware) or products (software) represent the finished goods or services that reinforce and frequently dominate relations between the three sectors. World system theory is useful in examining the cultural industries, mass media systems, audiovisual industries, technology transfer, knowledge, regulatory regimes, and activities of the biggest global stakeholders, which pursue interrelated strategies to maximize corporate growth, market share, revenues, and profits. Thomas Shannon describes the economic, labor, technology, and other processes among the three zones, as shown in Figure 1.1.27 Central to these relationships is the learning of appropriate economic values that facilitate modernization. Some of these values are conveyed through advertising as well as in the content of Western core- produced mass media exports. Also central to the relationships among the sectors is a mass communication system that allows the transfer of media materials to create either a broadly based popular culture for a mass market or audience, or alternative cultures for a niche market large enough to encourage imports of select media products or services. The essential point is that, despite criticisms of modernization theory and goals, there are nevertheless clear stages and goals that peripheral nations need to learn, pass through, adopt, or clear as a precondition for advancing to the next zone, the semiperiphery. The nations in the semiperiphery engage in both core-like and periphery-like