Global Media ― A Critical Introduction

The authors take as their starting point the assumption that media can only be analyzed in the context of the political, economic, cultural and technological conjunctures in which they develop, are produced, distributed and consumed. Therefore the focus of this book is on ownership, regulation, production, distribution and consumption of different electronic media – radio, television, film, the Internet – at the global level, including the various sub-levels – transnational, cultural-linguistic, regional, national and local – which constitute the global.

The critical textbook:

• develops a new theory of media globalization
• investigates the often very different paths and degrees of globalization of the four main extant forms of electronic mass media – film, radio, television and the Internet
• analyzes how media globalization plays out in the BRIC countries – Brazil, Russia, India and China – to assess local, national and regional characteristics of media globalization within the broader theoretical and political economic, cultural and technological contexts introduced in parts I to III of the book.

While the authors believe that on one level the dominance of the global media system embedded in the power of Hollywood, and the US military, industrial entertainment complex must be recognized as a reality today, they also see that a multi-polar world is developing and that more attention must be played to developing countries if the emerging trajectory in media globalization is to be recognized, tracked and understood. Thus this text pays special attention to the BRIC countries because, despite a great deal of economic analysis of their potential to change or perhaps even dominate the future global media landscape, little has been written about them as a group in media studies.

Aimed at upper level undergraduate and beginning postgraduate students, this text will offer a sophisticated, wide ranging introduction to global media in the twenty first century.

John Jirik, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Journalism & Communication and a member of the Globalization & Social Change Initiative at Lehigh University. His work focuses on the way power operates in and through media. Prior to joining the academy, Jirik was a television news producer at Reuters, with extensive international experience in the former Soviet Union, Greater China and South-East Asia.

Joseph Straubhaar, Ph.D., is the Amon G. Carter, Sr. Centennial Professor of Communication in the Radio-TV-Film Department and a former Director of Brazilian Studies in the Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies at the University of Texas. His work focuses on the political economy and cultural geography of television and new media, form global to local. Prior to joining the academy, Straubhaar was a U.S. Foreign Service officer with extensive international experience in Latin America, particularly Brazil.

Shanti Kumar is Associate Professor in the Department of Radio-Television-Film at the University of Texas, Austin. His work focuses on the globalization of television and film industries and cultures in India. Prior to joining the academy, Kumar worked as a journalist and a multimedia designer and scriptwriter in India.