International Communication: Continuity and Change

Chin-Chung Chao (Joy) and Dexin Tian

Bowling Green State University

Based on the success of the first edition, which was published in 2000, the second edition of Daya Kishan Thussu’s book, International Communication: Continuity and Change explicates the continued patterns of dominance and dependency and the emerging changes within the context of global economic liberalization, deregulation and privatization since the turn of the millennium. He also discusses the impact of these trends on different audiences from various cultural backgrounds and with different international perspectives, by following the well-accepted format of general commentary with typical and new cases to exemplify the main concepts and arguments.

The book has seven chapters. Chapter One provides a comprehensive overview of the historical development of communication. Specifically, the roles of communication have been explicated in the making of colonial empires and the spreading of capitalism, which are illustrated by the rise of Reuters in the parallel growth of the British Empire. Propaganda in international communication during the Cold War is also discussed in detail in the contexts of the ideological confrontation between Marxism-Leninism and free market democracy. Another debate elaborated in this chapter concerns the relationship between international communication and development. While the Southern countries complained about the existing model of dependence and demanded a New World Information and Communication Order, the US-led Northern countries argued that the proposed new order was in conflict with fundamental Western values and the principle of the free flow of information.

In Chapter Two, Thussu carefully examines some of the most influential and competing theories as frameworks for approaching the subject of international communication, and he also critically assesses the application of these theories in understanding the nature of international communication. He categorizes the theories into the political-economy approach and the cultural studies approach. The former is concerned with the underlying structure of economic and political power relations, which includes theories of the free flow of information, modernization, dependency, structural imperialism, hegemony, and the public sphere. The latter is mainly concerned with the creation of meanings in media texts within various cultural contexts, including critical theory, cultural studies perspectives on international communication, theories of the information society, as well as discourses of globalization. Each theory is concisely summarized and critically interpreted.

Chapter Three examines the real nature of global communication infrastructure and the basic characteristics of transnational corporations (TNCs). As a result of various agreements and regulations brokered by the World Trade Organization and the International Telecommunication Union, TNCs have been the beneficiaries of the deregulation, privatization, and commercialization of the communications industries in the South. To this end, they coordinate and control the stages of production within and between nations and take advantage of geographical differences in the distribution of products, and switch resources and operations on a global scale.

The focus of Chapter Four is on the global media market. For the ultimate purpose of business profits through exploiting economies of scope and scale, a few large TNCs have gradually controlled global media via a huge wave of mergers and acquisitions. Surveying the global growth of the communication industries in daily newspapers, weekly magazines, radio, TV, and the Internet, Thussu highlights the process of convergence of some major media and communication companies. While contextualizing the discussion of the chapter with case studies of Disney’s Entertainment and Sports Network (ESPN) and Cable News Network (CNN), the author also shows his concern about the concentration of the global media into the hands of a few large TNCs, which might undermine media plurality and democratic discourse.

Thussu addresses two questions in Chapter Five. The first question concerns the effect of the one-way flow of international communication on national and regional media cultures. Some contraflow from non-Western countries has been observed, but international communication is generally one-way traffic mainly from the major Western countries to the rest of the world. The second question is about the debate over whether this one-way flow in international communication is leading to the homogenization of cultures or bringing about a more complex pattern of global/national/local interactions. While some suggest that existing international communication leads to the homogenization of cultures, Thussu argues that homogenization has been counterbalanced by a hybrid form of global/national/local interaction, well demonstrated via the case study of Zee TV, the biggest Indian private multimedia network.

Chapter Six focuses on the contraflow in international communication between countries in the South and from the South to the North. With a careful analysis of the complex process of international communication flow Thussu notices that the flow is not purely one-way traffic. It is observable that regional trans-border TV networks like the pan-Arab Channel Middle East Broadcasting Center and China’s Phoenix TV channel have been squeezing from the periphery into the metropolitan centers of global media and communication industries. Besides regional media, the presence of the international media from the global South such as the Latin American telenovelas and Indian feature movies has been increasingly common in many parts of the world including the Northern countries.

The last chapter wraps up the positive and negative impact of information and technological innovation on international communication. Positively, advancement in the technologies of fiber optics, satellites, and the Internet has enabled instant flow of information across the globe. Negatively, however, it is the small number of countries and TNCs that have been gaining the most benefits. Despite its unprecedented expansion, the Internet and the dominant language used on the Internet have actually created the global digital divide, excluding the majority of the world’s population from the global information revolution. It is true that technologies such as satellites have greatly cut down the cost of access to information and entertainment, but they have effectively put everybody and everybody’s business under constant surveillance, and there has been rampant online infringement of intellectual property rights together with the booming trade on the Internet.

The main objectives of this book are to provide a thorough and comprehensive overview and critical analysis of the salient developments in international communication under one cover and in an accessible style. Thussu has achieved these purposes and more. First, the book is well organized and highly readable throughout. Second, each chapter in the second edition has been thoroughly updated to reflect prominent emerging trends in global media and international communication as well as the latest research and case studies in the field. More importantly, Thussu presents the content of each chapter in the format of general commentary with brief summaries, insightful interpretations, and appropriate criticism. Finally, the book has already established itself as a key text for students of all communication and media studies. It has been adopted for courses across the world not only in the original English version but also translated into Chinese and Korean for classroom use and academic research.

Nevertheless, one major limitation of the book lies in Thussu’s overly idealistic solutions to the dominance and dependency syndrome. Though he admits that two-way communication on equal footing actually does not exist in international communication, he stakes his hopes for the future on the idea that "sharing is central to the idea of communication." Further, when we take the recurring themes of the whole book into consideration, his call at the very end of the book for harnessing the new global communication infrastructure to "develop and sustain a people-centric capitalism" (Thussu, 2006, p. 294) also seems too idealistic for the time being.

Reference

Thussu, D. K. (2006). International communication: Continuity and change, (2^nd ed.). London and New York: Oxford University Press.

Reviewers

Chin-Chung Chao is a doctoral candidate in the School of Communication Studies at Bowling Green State University. Dexin Tian is a doctoral student in the School of Communication Studies at Bowling Green State University.