Global media as a tool for the soft power of states

Abstract

The article deals with the selected issues of global media as a means of statesґ soft power implementation. Prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall, the flow of information within the international domain was dominated mostly by the media of the Western world. The rest of the countries were within this domain on the margins. As for the topical events in those marginalised countries, little attention was paid to them and simultaneously it can be stated that those countries only minimally participated in the creation and spread of media information on the world-wide scale of importance. Taking into consideration the recent development within the media sphere and the global view on the international journalism accompanied mainly with the occurrence of the internet as well as of new power centres (political as well as economic) particularly in Asia, currently it is possible to witness an enormous effort of many countries to impact the international flow of information. The creation and spread of information are important not only owing to the formation of a countryґs reputation, but also from the perspective of gaining a better position of particular countries on the international scene as well as the enhancement of their political influence. Soft power is considered as a unique tool to be applied for the success of statesґ foreign policy. As such the current international system is more oriented on the so called soft methods in power implementation. This concept, as christened by Joseph Nye, is predominantly based on the positive perception of countries, but also on their ability to influence via achieved reputation the world political events. The article is aimed at three different approaches of countries toward the problem of the media in terms of the issue of defining foreign political interests. The first one is the US approach aimed at the spreading of universal values such as democracy, the freedom of information from the perspective of the United States, the second one is the French view which reflects changes on the international scene while reassessing its audiovisual policy. The third approach relates to the one of the most analysed approaches, the approach of China as the most rapidly rising major power of the world.