Complexity Theory and the Multi-Layered Geographies of World Television

Timothy Havens
University of Iowa

World Television: From Global to Local, by Joseph Straubhaar. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2007.

World Television: From Global to Local exhibits in its very title much of the author’s treatment of contemporary television. By invoking the term “world television” as opposed to “global television,” Joseph Straubhaar signals his focus on television as a multi-spatial phenomenon encompassing local, regional, national, transnational, and global practices, at the same time that he pays attention to the intersection among these different levels. Perhaps best known for his theory of “cultural proximity,” which argues that, given the option, television broadcasters will import programming from the most culturally similar exporters, not the most powerful ones (Straubhaar, 1991), Straubhaar has significantly updated and nuanced his arguments in this new volume.

World Television is primarily aimed at readers in upper-level undergraduate or introductory graduate courses. As such, it provides a comprehensive overview of the history of television as a technology, an industry, and a cultural force, as well as a thorough review of the theoretical and political issues associated with the medium. In addition, Straubhaar provides a unique theoretical heuristic for thinking about television globalization, rooted in complexity theory and his idea of multi-layered identities. These are significant contributions to global media studies, though at times their specific applications to studying the processes of globalization are not completely clear.

The book begins with a theoretical chapter that sketches out the author’s main argument that television must be conceptualized as a complex and multi-layered phenomenon, with texts, audiences, industries, and regulations that encompass every level of human activity from the local to the global. Straubhaar posits this model of multi-layeredness against conventional definitions of hybridity, in order to stress the point that each level and identity retains a degree of autonomy from the others, as opposed to the integration of levels and identities that the term hybridity suggests. In addition, the author introduces complexity theory as a way to understand the processes of change associated with cultural and economic globalization. Complexity theory provides “a sense of complex possibilities, hard to predict exactly, but bounded by certain factors, such as technology and economics, and patterned by others, such as cultural formations like genres that flow among television systems” (p. 8). Much of the remainder of the book charts how these boundary processes and patterns lead to multi-layered televisual practices in terms of industry organizations, program flows, genres, and reception.

First, however, the book traces the long history of the development of culture and globalization back to pre-colonial times. Along with providing a compelling framework for understanding contemporary patterns of global television flow, this chapter also offers a nice corrective to epochal claims of sudden and profound cultural change due to recent globalization that too often run through global media theory. Instead, Straubhaar demonstrates, the patterns of cultural flow that mark contemporary television trade are often not substantially different than patterns that have existed for centuries. What is different, however, is the mixture of various levels of flow and complexity that range from the intensely local to the highly deterritorialized global level. While he privileges culture in this way, the author also recognizes the long-term impact of political-economic structures on culture and identity, suggesting throughout that cultural change is slow and messy, but nevertheless occurs. Political-economic structures can, in his model, reshape cultural identities, but only in the long-run.

Straubhaar pays close attention to the various geographies of television, addressing the ways in which global, transnational, national, regional, and local forces intersect in the production, distribution, and reception of television programming. However, against the grain of much global media scholarship, World Television insists upon the continuing power of the nation-state. The author shows convincingly that the nation remains a central organizing principle in regulatory decisions, industry organizations, and as an imagined community for audiences, at the same time that he recognizing the growing significance of other geographies.

Perhaps the most compelling chapters of the book address the authors’ ongoing reception research over the past three decades. Here, he demonstrates how his theory of multilayered identities plays out in terms of program preferences and audience readings of national, regional, and local texts. Moreover, the author uses these chapters to extend his well-known theory of “cultural proximity” to include “multiple proximities” that might exist between audiences and texts, including geographic, cultural, linguistic, generic, thematic, and value proximities. Together, these various levels of proximity help to determine what kinds of programs get imported, while shaping audience viewing preferences. Through grounded interviews with viewers in Brazil and Texas, Straubhaar traces how these various levels of identity and proximity play out in specific viewing choices and interpretations.

These audience-reception chapters provide the most nuanced analyses of the entire book, but they ultimately leave the reader wondering about the generalizability of the findings. In particular, although national identity continues to be of major importance to viewers in Brazil, I wonder about viewers for whom national identity has never been a powerful force. What levels and mixture of identities might viewers in countries such as Iraq, with short histories and weak national identities, exhibit in their viewing choices? How might these facts influence regulatory, programming, and industrial practices in Iraq and the region in general?

Likewise, I found myself wondering how, exactly, Straubhaar intends the insights of complexity theory to apply to televisual phenomena. After setting up the general framework, the book does not always give empirical examples of how various patterns and boundary forces work in specific instances. Nor does the framework gesture toward predictability—not even the limited predictability of complexity theory in general.

Despite these minor drawbacks, Straubhaar has written a book that does justice to the complex forces and issues at stake in the increasingly complex and interrelated worlds of contemporary television. In addition to providing a thorough introduction to the issues associated with television globalization, World Television offers a unique and lucid theoretical intervention in our understanding of the processes and importance of television today. The book would make a nice addition in courses addressing media globalization, television criticism, and contemporary media industries.

References

Straubhaar, J. (1991) ‘Asymmetrical Interdependence and Cultural Proximity’. Critical Studies in Mass Communication, 8: 39-59.