Last update: Sept 27, 2007

Global Communications: Toward a Transcultural Political Economy (2008)

by Paula Chakravartty and Yuezhi Zhao

Global Communications: Toward a Transcultural Political EconomyThis provocative book takes a new approach toward understanding the uneven flows of global communications. Rather than guiding its discussion by geography, types of media, or traditional separations of power and resistance, Global Communications examines political economic power and communication in relation to historically specific encounters with modernity. It underscores lived experiences in its approach to globalization showing that the state and the market can both be sites of empowerment, just as civil society might also be a site of repression. Taking a political-economic analysis of communication and culture, this dynamic group of international authors looks beyond developments in the North American information and culture industries to map new forms of citizenship and exclusion. The chapters spotlight China, Ghana, India, Japan, Palestine, Russia, Singapore, and Venezuela, and foreground the transnational formations of the European Union, the pan-Arab and Spanish-speaking markets, and civil society actors in sub-Saharan African, the Middle East, and North America. Theoretically driven and empirically grounded, Global Communications defines communication broadly to include production, circulation, and consumption and addresses urgent questions about the inequalities of globalization and the possibilities of hybrid cultural forms and practices.

Read Introductory Chapter of the volume: Introduction: Toward a Transcultural Political Economy of Global Communications

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Media Policy and Globalization (2006)

by Paula Chakravartty and Katharine Sarikakis

Media Polilcy and GlobalizationVolumes in the Media Topics series critically examine the core subject areas within Media Studies. Each volume offers a critical overview as well as an original intervention into the subject. Volume topics include: media theory and practice, history, policy, ethics, politics, discourse, culture and audience. This volume takes a fresh look at media and communications policy and provides a comprehensive account of issues that are central to the study of the field. It moves beyond the 'specifics' of regulation, by examining policy areas that have proved to be of common concern for societies across different socio-economic realities. It also seeks to address profound gaps in the study of policy by demonstrating the centrality of historical, social and political context in debates that may appear solely technical or economistic. Media Policy and Globalization covers the institutional changes in the communications policy arena by examining the changing role of the state, technology and the market and the role of civil society. It discusses actual policy areas in broadcasting, telecommunications and the information society, and examines the often-overlooked normative dimensions of communications policy.

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