Book review: Daya Kishan Thussu (ed.), Internationalizing Media Studies. Abingdon, Oxon and New York: Routledge, 2009. Xiii + 336 pp. US$35.95 (pbk)

Abstract

Internationalizing Media Studies presents an eclectic but useful mix of approaches to assessing the extent of international and transnational media studies. It is committed to complicating narratives of globalization and opening up a dialogue about the continued significance of the nation state within these narratives. The book presents a diversity of approaches to its subjects: while some chapters provide very specific empirically based contributions – such as Vega and Rodriguez’s study of community radio in Colombia and its role as a political subject, others – such as Mattelart’s chapter on globalization theories and media internationalization – draw on broad theoretical frameworks. Nevertheless, they all share an interest in de-centring received paradigms. Shared among most of these authors are beliefs and observations demonstrating (1) the Americanization of international media studies, and (2) the need for more internationalization and transnationalization. This, however, is articulated in radically different ways across the chapters featured in this collection.