Introduction to the thematic section: Contexts and their consequences. Approaches, challenges and results of comparative communication and media research

Abstract

The most recent boom of comparative approaches in communication and media research is occurring in a time characterised by keywords such as globalisation, transnationalisation, Europeanisation, and Americanisation, which structure scientific as well as public discourses. Collectively, these phenomena refer to the growing tendency of political, social, economic, and cultural developments no longer taking place within clearly defined territorial borders. They also imply that communication processes evolve across cultural and political boundaries. To trace these changes and study the strength of their reciprocal effects requires us to take on a comparative perspective: only a comparative approach allows us to understand the extent to which flows of communication are shaped by transnational, national and subnational contexts. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scoms.2016.05.003