Certain renderings of media globalization posit a disappearing nation-state superseded by global corporate operations and global cultural practices and identities. Hybridity, glocalization, cultural imperialism, transnational media consolidation, and other concepts often dance with the role of nation, state, or culture, but seldom consider their complex, material interactions. We are left with important theoretical and practical questions: How have identifiable global media practices transformed specific national identities and social interests? What is the role of the state in regulating/deregulating media--and in whose interest does the nation-state function? Whose interests predominate in global media practices and how do these interests and practices represent the multiple nationalities, nations, and cultures of the world?

As we try to comprehend, explain, and develop real options for media and cultural practice in a changing world, the 2006 Global Fusion Conference gathered over 100 faculty, students, and media workers in an extended discussion on issues of nation, state, and culture in the age of globalization. Dozens of outstanding papers were presented at panels of scholars on diverse topics of globalization and culture, including: Marketing and its Effects in a Global World; Negotiating Democracy: Media Transformation & Political Agency in the Age of Globalization; Global Broadcasting, Film, and Latin America;

Media Globalization, News Framing and Political Environments; Middle East Media and Socio-political Transformations in the Age of Global Media Globalization; Commercialism, Regulations, and Balance: Corporations and Culture in a Global Age; Global Broadcasting and Cultural Ideologies, among others.

An important part of Global Fusion 2006 was the discussion concerning the new media institutions and structures that are emerging from the global South, including Al-Jazeera in the Middle East and Telesur in Latin America. We were fortunate to have as a guest, Aram Arahonian, President of TeleSUR (Television of the South). Arahonian was keynote speaker at 6th Global Fusion Conference. He related some of the history and discussed the political and cultural significance of TeleSUR, the 2005 launched pan-Latin America satellite network--a joint project of Venezuela, Argentina, Cuba, and Uruguay—which is communicating for the economic and cultural integration of the continent and broadcasting voices of workers, peasants, women, urban poor and the indigenous in documentary, news, and non-commercial popular entertainment. A transcript of his keynote is featured in this issue of Global Media Journal.

Refereed faculty and graduate student papers were evaluated by a double-blind, peer review process that rated and selected outstanding papers that fit the conference theme, offered new and compelling theoretical and practical insights, and moved the conversation on international communication and globalization forward. From those papers, we selected some of the best as representative of the engaged and challenging dialogue at the conference. Each of them addressed in some way the themes of culture, nation and state that organized the deliberations of the 2006 Global Fusion conference.

Orayb Najjar, Northern Illinois University, contributed a fine essay on the development of the pan-Latin American television satellite network, Telesur. Her paper, "New Trends in Global Broadcasting: "Nuestro Norte Es el Sur" (Our North Is the South)" provides a comparative analysis of Al-Jazeera, the well-known pan-Arab satellite network, and Telesur and suggests some of the contours of emerging media structures and practices from the global South. Yu-li Chang, formerly of Northern Illinois University but now with the University of Arkansas, contributed "The role of the nation-state: Evolution of STAR TV in China and India," an excellent case study of the changing relations between global and regional media.

A team of scholars from Pennsylvania State University tackled the question of cultural diversity in international communication and media practices. Professor Amit Schejter, with three Ph.D. students, Juraj Kittler, Ming Kuok Lim, and Aziz Douai, described the first renderings of a new conceptual model for understanding and explaining racially-based media segregation, in their essay, "Integration, Segregation or Self-Segregation: A Conceptual Model for Comparative Analysis and Normative Assessment of Minority Media Rights." Finally, Tim Havens, University of Iowa, analyzed some of the economic imperatives at work in the content of children’s media in his essay, "Universal Childhood: The Global Trade in Children’s Television and Changing Ideals of Childhood." Many other fine papers were presented and reviewed, and although electronic journals have no serious issues of space, we have found that limiting the number of essays per issue offers a journal of appropriate length for academic use and fits readers preferences more closely. At the same time, some of the other 2006 Global Fusion Conference papers may appear in future issues of Global Media Journal devoted to specific topics, others will find their way into other publications, and most importantly, all will continue to contribute to the rich and vibrant conversation among Global Fusion members by reappearing in other forms.

We hope you find these essays insightful and valuable for understanding international communication. We encourage you to send us comments on these and other issues and to contribute your work to Global Media Journal.

Lee Artz, Purdue University Calumet

Guest Editor