International Media Studies Research Articles

Internationalizing Media Studies: A Reconsideration

Considering the objectives of a 2006 conference on ‘Internationalizing Media ­Studies’ Global Media and Communication (2007) this contribution reflects on progress since–seeing more impediments in 2015 than new imperatives to this goal. The need to internationalize media ­studies beyond western perspectives is even more apparent with ever more ­globalized ­academia, scholarship and student cohorts. The scale and scope of change is ­profound but the field is still overly ­reliant on formulations from specific historical and cultural contexts with ­countries notably China, India and Iran requiring ­different approaches, having different traditions to observe. The contributor’s book chapter (Thussu, 2009) highlighted two areas to consider: media history and religion. So it is that careful consideration of history and religion and non-western traditions in all parts of the world is needed to avoid the dangers of focusing too much on immediate or ephemeral material in research.

Soft power: looking beyond American hegemony

Global flows of media and culture have grown not just in volume but also in complexity. While there are still striking imbalances in favor of the advanced industrial societies, it is hardly the case that Asian societies are merely passive recipients of Western ideas and cultural products. Among the scholars trying to make sense of these patterns, Daya Thussu has been a leading light. His many books include the edited volume, Internationalizing Media Studies (Routledge, 2009). He also wrote the first book-length study of India’s soft power, Communicating India’s Soft Power: Buddha to Bollywood. Originally published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2013, a South Asian edition has just been published in 2016 by Sage India. Media Asia editor Cherian George asked him about his research on soft power and the broader agenda of de-Westernizing media studies.

A Million Media Now! The Rise of India on the Global Scene

India's growing profile on the global scene owes much to the vibrancy of its cultural and creative industries, media and telecommunications. This article analyses India's media in terms of four ‘dividends' (and their corresponding deposits): democractic, diasporic, digital and demographic. Although the deficits produce considerable challenges, the dividends are stronger and the author is optimistic about India's capacity for development and ability to lead to globalisation with an Indian flavour. He reflects on India's potential contribution to international media studies, especially in relation to liberal pluralism, representation of Islam and discourses about development.

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

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.

The Logics of Globalization: Studies in International Communication - Edited by Anandam Kavoori�International Media Studies - Edited by Divya C. McMillin

The Logics of Globalization: Studies in International Communication - Edited by Anandam Kavoori�International Media Studies - Edited by Divya C. McMillin

Internationalizing media studies: A view from the Arab world

Internationalizing media studies: A view from the Arab world

Creative industries as policy and discourse outside the United Kingdom

Media, cultural and communication studies' critique of the concept of creative industries as policy discourse has been as consistent as it has been negative. The gap between the remarkable enthusiasm with which it has been taken up in policy circles across many parts of the world and at many levels (national, state, regional, supranational), and the depth of opposition to it academically, marks it out as a major contemporary instance of the gap between policy and critique (Cunningham, 1992). Interestingly, though, almost all of this critique has been focused on the British policy environment, and as such betrays a remarkably metropolitanist bias. This brief overview of policy situations elsewhere in the world offers an interesting case study in internationalizing media studies, comparing their 'problematics' with those identified by Garnham as foundational to the creative industries discourse.