Mapping global media flow and

contra-flow
(Daya Kishan Thussu)
 to map media flows.
(1) mainstream commercial commodities to be
consumed by heterogeneous global audiences. (this
chapter is mainly about this flow)
(2) alternative messages and images from anti- and alter-
globalization activists to revisionist radicals.
Three kinds of media flows:
1. Global (commercially driven)
2. Transnational (commercially driven and state-
initiated)
3. Geo-cultural (commercially driven)
1. Global (commercially driven)
1. English-speaking or dubbed from English
2. From the U.S. and the U.K. to the rest of the world
3. The exception is Japanese animation.
2. Transnational (commercially driven and state-
initiated)
Bollywood
Telenovelas
Korean Wave
3. Geo-cultural (commercially driven)
Cultural-linguistics
Diasporas population.
Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, Hindi, Arabic, Turkish, and
French
p. 14
Two directions of flows:
1. Dominant (global North with U.S. being the core)
2. Contra-flows (peripheries to the Global North; but
also South-South flow).
Dominant, global media flows
U.S. leaders in global media export market.
U.K. the leader in selling TV formats
The Canadian Idol – a.
Contra-flows (transnational, geo-cultural)
Easternisation and south-south (e.g. Bollywood films
exported to Africa)
• Origins from China Japan, S. Korea, Brazil, and India
• Urban creative hubs: Cairo (Arabic TV dramas),
Hong Kong (films and music), Mumbai (films and
music)
• South to North flow: Telenovelas, Korean/Indian
films, Al Jazeera
The Iron Chef
Unbalanced flow: contra-flow is insignificant when
compared to dominant flows.