Chapters 1

UNIT 1 and 2
INTRODUCTION TO GLOBAL
COMMUNICATION
 Theme 1
Introduction to
Global
Communication
WHAT IS IN THE NAME?

What is in the name?

Many of us have experienced
the association of judgements
– pleasant or negative – with
names of things
Different names for the book‘s
concept:
 International Communication
 World Communication
 Transborder Communication (core
phenomenon of exploration in the
book)
 Global Communication
 WHAT IS IN THE NAME?
International Communication World Transborder Global Communication
Communication Communication

Process that occurs among states, like in Broader Form of com we Most fashionable term today
international relations (nation-state is the meaning than will investigate
key concept) international is a ‘glocal’ Global represents rather an
com process in aspiration than a reality. Com
State loses power today, but still powerful which globalises but it also remains
agent in facilitating, promoting, or Conjures up ‘messages’ flow local (what does that mean?)
hindering communication across borders romantic across national
association with borders. Attachment to the place
Increasingly involves interactions the ‘family of where you experience the
between both state and non-state actors man’ greatest cultural ‘comfort’.

Challenged by the development We are global and local

of diaspora communities (de-
territorialised ‘imagined’
communities)
Great variety of migrants that
keep moving back and forth
often with strong attachment
to their countries of origin
citizens and our com could
possibly best be termed
Actors: IGO (Intergovernmental ‘glocal’
Organisations) INGO (International non-
governmental organisations) BINGOs
(Transnational business coporations and
PINGOs (International public service
organisations)
 WHAT IS IN THE NAME?

Internet and global com go hand in hand

Internet as a network is not only a material

concept, it is also a psychological concept that
brings home to its user s the world as a ver y
diver sified whole

The network is decentralised, horizontally

structured, de-territorialised, but also localised

‘We’ does not include all the world’s people.

Global com has a normative connotation as it
suggests the existence of a global society in
which all the planet’s inhabitants par ticipate
and equally matter

In 2000s, many people continue to be excluded

from global connections
FLOWS

Definitions suck!

Best approach may be to begin

with the observation of human
behaviour: our society is
constructed around flows

Flow is a useful concept since it

suggests a multidirectionality of
movements: linear and circular,
top-down and bottom up,
engineered and spontaneous.
 STORIES

 Messages that human species transpor t

around the globe are stories

 We learn through stories, stories provide

patterns and structure, help us adapt to
environments

 Global com is a complex multi-layered

process in which dominant and counter
stories flow across the globe.

 YouTube has brought about new stor ytellers

 The global flows of ideas, opinions,

obser vations, knowledge, information, data,
sounds, images can be brought under the
umbrella concept of stor ytelling
 GLOBAL COMMUNICATION IS THE BASIC
FLOW

Flow of stories deserves special attention since it has

developed into the type of movement that is essential
to the other flows (supporting infrastructure to trading
across the world, to global financial transactions,
worldwide transport of people, goods, and money)

We perceive the world through the stories we are told

(Atilla the Hun)
 GLOBAL COMMUNICATION IS THE BASIC
FLOW

Through the agency of storytelling, our situation in the

political and cultural landscape is set out, maintained,
negotiated and adapted to new circumstances

The international political arena is largely dependent

upon stories that nations and their representatives tell
each other for diplomatic, propagandistic, public
relations or war-mongering purposes.
 GLOBAL COMMUNICATION THE FIELD

Watch the clip by Prof. Hamelink. (

h t t p s : / / s t u d y . s a g e p u b . c o m / n o d e / 2 4 6 6 2 / s t u d e n t - r e s o u r c e s / c h a p t e r - 1)

TASK
Create a 3 minute YouTube/TikTok clip in which you explain
global communication and its contexts of urbanisation,
institutionalisation, inequality and global risks as stipulated by
Hamelink. Do not concentrate on theory, but provide an
application-based explanation which can help future students
understand these concepts. A simple presentation is fine, but you
can add any multimedia content you wish to include. Remember
clickbait concepts, so make sure your video gets viewed.
 URBANISATION

 Human species is turning into an

urban species
 2009 half the global Population
lived in urban areas
 City will be the locality in which
people have to find ways to live
together and to deal with all the
conflicts that go with urban spaces
 Latin America, Asia, Africa showcase
very intense urbanisation
 Three connected cities: NY, London,
Hong Kong) drive the global
economy. Their shared economic
energy creates a powerful network
that both illustrates and explains
globalisation.
 URBANISATION

 Cultural production and

consumption have become Heterogeneity – town a
important elements of the place of differences and
economy of the world‘s permanent provocation
biggest cities
 A variety of cultural roles
merge, such as spectatorship,
tourism, per formance, and Speed – City dwellers
sales have to learn the art of
slowing down
 Mumbai – larger than the
total population of Norway
and Sweden combined
 Management of the physical, Mindlessness – without
economic and socio-cultural feelings of responsibility
environments will become a towards others
challenge due to three factors:
INSTITUTIONALISATION

 Human being searches for adequate

adaptive responses to complex
problems (e.g. desire to grow and learn)

 For adequate adaptive responses, a

wide range of institutions has been
developed (e.g. agro-business
conglomerates, mega meat-processing
institutions, education, health care,
public com)

 Institutionalisation is a social process

of embedding human needs, ideas,
values and desires in organisational
formats with objectives, structures, sets
of rules, and procedures for
assessment.
 INEQUALIT Y

 Access to resources, the

experience of recognition, and
the distribution of power

 1.2 billion people today have

no access to safe drinking
water

 People‘s dignity is respected

in highly unequal ways (think
of women, gays, the disabled,
old people)

 Power of decision making is

very unequally distributed
 GLOBAL RISKS

Human security is threatened by:

 War fare (nuclear, biological and chemical)
 Terrorism
 Organised crime
 Changes in the environment (radiation, temperatures rising, deforestation,
shor tage of drinking water etc.)
 Carginogenic ingredients
 Pollution by poisenous materials
 Natural disaster s
 Genetic experiments

Global communication adds to the risks through hate speech, adver tising,
news repor ts which do not help us under stand the world, developments in
information and com technology (ICT), privacy concerns, robotics and
ar tificial intelligence which may make humans unnecessar y and cyber war s.
THE GLOBALISATION OF COMMUNICATION

What do you think drove the

development of global
communication?
 THE GLOBALISATION OF COMMUNICATION
DRIVER: ORGS INSTEAD OF GOVS
1 8 t h and 19 t h centur y – telegraph and
wireless connections, as well as news
distribution

The expansion of global com has of ten been

documented as the histor y of the struggle of
imperial countries to control com
infrastructure

BUT

These infrastructures were not as closely

af filiated with national governments as was
of ten believed

The globalisation of CAPITALISM was

actually a stronger influence on the org and
control of global com than was imperialism
 THE GLOBALISATION OF COMMUNICATION

Com networks and info flows were

densest in areas where world
markets were most developed

Media firms provided the networks

and supplied informational and
news resources upon which
capitalism depended and thrived.

There was a shared hegemony

among empires
THE GLOBALISATION OF COMMUNICATION

Quick History:
 Early 20 t h century: international
propaganda through film industry and
export of Hollywood films
 Music began to globalise at the same
time
 1970s Satellites broke the principle of
national sovereignty of broadcasting
space and made it difficult to offer
effective resistance to television
transmissions from outside the
national territory
 Media products that could fairly easily
globalise are news, movies, music, T V
series (because they are rich media
products)
 TRANS-LOCALISATION

Global com takes place in a context that is commonly

described with the concept globalisation

When Marshal McLuhan launched the idea of the world

as a global village, he in fact revitalised not only the
thinking of ‘cosmic totality’, but also the old Christian
myth of the great human family.

Good to start with a description of globalisation as a

process in which the distribution of X across the globe
takes place. X can be anything, such as goods, cultural
artefacts, religious ideas, trends in fashion.
 TRANS-LOCALISATION
GLOBALISATION – A HISTORY
Migration, trade routes and the four great inventions in China
(compass, gunpowder, papermaking and printing) led to
globalisation (start 500 BC)
1500-1800 Mercantile and colonial
movements
Industrial revolution (steamboats and
electricity) gave rise to the modern
capitalised globalisation

20 t h cent: deep and durable global-

isation. (com and transport tech)

Corporate globalisation after WWII

including polarisation of industrial and non-industrial nations
 TRANS-LOCALISATION
GLOBALISATION – A HISTORY
Periphery -Centre Dynamic evident in five monopolistic spheres:
 Technology
 Finance
 Resources
 Weapons
 Communication

Two essential features of 20 t h cent. Global expansion

 Interdependence (e.g. in climate and health)
 Spread of modernity in politics (global parliamentary democracy,
economy (free markets) and culture.
 TRANS-LOCALISATION
GLOBALISATION – THE ANALY TICAL TOOL
Protagonists
Free Market Since 1980s more people
around the globe live in, or
are indirectly affected by
free market economies.
Today 90% capitalism.
Global Trading More than ever before
thanks to reduction of cost
and tech advances
Financial Markets Growth and rapid
proliferation of offshore
financial markets
Sceptics
Economy of a few rich countries is
more accurate description,
especially OECD countries (The Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development is an intergovernmental economic
organisation with 36 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate economic
progress and world trade.)
Argue that most world trading is not
global but takes place within
geographical regions
Yes, but capital flows refer mainly to
short-term speculative investments
and not productive capital. Rapid
money poses risk for 3rd world
countries
 TRANS-LOCALISATION
GLOBALISATION – THE ANALY TICAL TOOL
Protagonists
Global mobility Good for labour force,
refugees and migrants.
Social Process Intensification of global
consciousness
View on Inevitable consequence of
Globalisation modern technological
developments
Nation State Think that nation state has
lost its sovereign power
Protagonists and sceptics disagree about the appropriateness of
globalisation as an analytical tool.
Sceptics
Not as mobile as everyone thinks
See CNN-type global solidarity. More
about many global villages instead of
one. No cosmopolitan consciousness
Explanation based on technological
determinism is too limited
Nation state still in control. They help
many big corporations.
 TRANS-LOCALISATION
GLOBALISATION – THE POLITICAL PROGRAMME

Globalisation creates Neo-liberal political

worldwide, open, programe that primarily
Advocate
competitive markets which promotes the interests of
s
promote global prosperity the world‘s most powerful
players.

Critics
 TRANS-LOCALISATION
GLOBALISATION – THE POLITICAL PROGRAMME

 Although current globalisation suggests integration,

interdependence and homogenisation, locality and nationality
continue to play important roles in people’s lives

 Often described as a transfer from the West to the Rest,

however, this Euro- American centrism is increasingly contested
by the economic emergence of the new BRIC countries and by
proposals to break through conventional dichotomous schemes
that create divisions between modern and non-modern, or the
de-Westernizing of modern research