Abstract
A lot has changed in the field of international communication since the publication of the first and second editions of Daya Kishan Thussu’s book International Communication: Continuity and Change in 2000 and 2006, respectively. Thussu uses Fortner’s definition of international communication as ‘communication that occurs across international borders’ (as quoted on p. 6). As Thussu himself explains, when the first edition of his book was published only 4% of the world’s population had access to the Internet. This proportion went up to 16% when the second edition was published, and up to 52% at the time of publication of the third edition. Mobile communication has also grown significantly over the past few decades, including in the Global South. However, as the author of this book points out, alongside these striking changes, we have also observed striking continuities: despite a small but significant contraflow, much of media content circulating around the world is still largely emanating from a few selected countries and is owned by an even smaller number of hugely powerful multimedia corporations, mostly based in the United States. (p. xiv)
Thussu sees the advent of the new media conglomerates – Google, Facebook and Amazon – as evidence of the power of these continuities. He argues that ‘global media continue to be dominated by Hollywood and Hollywoodized content as it was during most of the twentieth century’ (p. xiv), and ‘the United States remains the largest exporter both of the world’s entertainment and information programmes and of the computer programming through which these are distributed across the increasingly interconnected and digitized globe’ (pp. xiv–xv). His book explores these continuities and changes and the dynamic between them by focusing on the economic and political dimensions of international communication as well as their relationship with technology and culture. The aim of the book is to ‘provide a critical overview of the profound changes in international media and communication at a time when the political, economic and technological contexts in which media and communication operate are increasingly global’ (p. xvi). The third edition includes changes to all chapters with new theoretical material and case studies such as Nollywood, Turkish telenovelas, RT, Facebook and the Korean Wave added to them. The conclusion has also been entirely rewritten. The book is split into seven chapters. Chapter 1 outlines the historical context of international communication. Chapter 2 then explores a range of theoretical approaches to the study of intercultural community such as ‘free flow of information’, modernization theory, dependency theory, structural imperialism, hegemony, critical theory, the public sphere, Cultural Studies and so on. Chapter 3 looks into the global communication infrastructure, while Chapter 4 focuses on the global media market. Chapter 5 then explores the relationship between the global and the local in media cultures, while Chapter 6 focuses on contraflow in global media. The final chapter then draws up relevant conclusions about intercultural communication in the digital age by looking at mobile, seamless and smart communication; digital capitalism; the Facebook effect, cyber-capitalism; Internet and political communication; the relationship between the web and journalism; infotainment and edutainment; global edutainment; regulation; surveillance; communication for development; the ‘Chindia’ effect and internationalising international communication studies. The book is a must read for all students and scholars of intercultural communication.