Thursday, June 28, 2007

Digital Divide

Digital Divide



I- Digital Divide

- Inequalities in Internet access and use are shaped by broader social inequalities.

- Most fundamentally, the digital divide is about physical access to the Internet and its related to hardware and software but access is not the whole story.

- There is nit a single divide, but several:
- The access divide
- The skills divide
- The economic opportunity divide
- The democratic divide



- Global division between developed, developing and least developed countries.

- Divide is about production of content, not just its consumption.

II- Does Digital Divide Matter?

No:

- Natural play of Market forces makes internet across available to all who want it.

- More pressing problems facing today's societies, like poverty, hunger, and disease.

- Computers and net are akin to other luxury commodities that will never be equally.

Yes:

- Internet is different (a ladder out of poverty).

- Global shift towards informationalism.

- Developed countries have gradually increased their exports of knowledge- intensive products and services which the poorer parts of the developing world such as Africa fall even further behind.

- Developing countries may find that they arrive in terms of industrial development only to find that the game has moved on to post industrialism and informationalism.
- Internet diffusion may have powerful effects in areas such as education, health care, labor productivity, democratization, citizenship, social cohesion and integration with the world economy.

III- The Global digital divide

- Economic development variables

- Technology infrastructure variables

- Relevant policy variables

- Human capital variables

- Political capital

IV- Simputer

- A low cost portable alternative to PCs by which benefit of IT can reach common people.

- It has a special role in the third world because it ensures that illiteracy is no longer a barrier to handling a computer.

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Chapter8, detailed outline

The Global Implications of the Internet: Challenges and Prospects



I- Convergence theory and cultural identity

- Communication can be defined as a process of sharing information in which two or more participants reach mutual understanding.

- Cultural convergence theory suggests that the variance between groups or national cultures would become smaller over time as a result of international communication.

- The global implications of the Internet based on the short and long-term effects:
- Cultural homogenization will be retarded in the near future by the increased use of advanced Internet-based communication technologies.
- The Long-term effect of the increased communication among the peoples of the world via the Internet will be that the differences among national cultures will diminish, resulting in the formation of a single global culture.

- One outcome of this process of cultural convergence is that separate cultural identities will also disappear, replaced by a single transnational identity, albeit with considerable variation.

II- Systems approach and social networks

A- Systems: Central to the systems perspective is holism , which implies that the interdependence and interrelationships of the parts of the system determine the whole.

- The whole is more than the sum of its parts.

- Holism is better characterized by organizational structure, when an entity consisting of two or more basic parts, or people, in communication with each other in which the outcome is something more or different than the sum of the parts.

B- Social networks: Social network perspectives focus on the structure of social systems and how the elements of a social system are put together.

- From the network perspective, the social environment can be expressed as patterns or regularities in relationship among interacting units. These patters are often called structure.

III- Convergence theory and communication networks

- Convergence theory envisions the flow of information through a communication network shared by those who participate in the process.

- This information has profound effects on the members of the network, which are indicated by changes in the belief systems of the members and the structure of their network.

- When communication is unrestricted, the process leads toward reduced within-groups variance among its members.

- The communication network is completely interconnected or dense.

- In this case, differences between its members are reduced through the iterative process of information exchange.

- The convergence model of communication predicts that all participants in the world system will converge over time on the average collective pattern of thought if communication is allowed to continue unrestricted.

- Unlimited and unrestricted communication between cultures would eventually lead to a reduction in the differences between cultures and toward a greater similarity beliefs and values.

IV- A structural model of intercultural communication

- The structural model of communication is adopted to help understand the impact of the Internet on Global culture.

- It represents the process of intercultural communication.

- Historically, linkages among different cultural groups have increased resulting in globalization; the process of strengthening the worldwide social relations that link distant localities in such a way that local events are shaped by circumstances at remote places in the world (Giddens 1990).

- Transborder communication has opened cultural boundaries and began the process of cultural convergence.

- The mass media and other communication technologies, especially the Internet compress time and space becoming a catalyst for globalization.

- As a result, Mcluhan's notion of the global village is becoming a reality.

V-The network structure of the international internet

- The Internet is one channel that directly connects people of different cultural and national groups from across the globe with one another.

- Information flows via the Internet may facilitate the convergence of national cultures, leading to a universal set of beliefs that includes a change from national to global identity.

- Internet formed a dense, completely interconnected network with a single group centered about the United States.

- National culture is strongly related to a country's position in the Internet network.
The more central a country is in the network, the greater its individualism.

- Some structural barriers in the infrastructure of the Internet could restrict communication among nations.

- United States encodes significantly more messages on the Internet more than any other nation, putting it at the center of these flows.

- This suggests that if the status quo were to continue, that universal culture is in the process of forming about the culture of the United States.

VII- Implications of the structural model for national identity: current trends

- Over time, with unlimited and unrestricted information exchange among people from different cultural groups, the potential consequence of the indigenous cultures of the world into a universal culture.

- However, in the short term, international communications will more likely first lead to the development of a number of regional civilizations composed of nations who are culturally similar.

- The process of globalization can be considered homogenization and hybridization.

- Global forms interplay with local, national, and regional patterns, producing a new pattern best characterized as a hybrid.

- Several factors may contribute to the slowing of the global convergence in the short term:
-Computer-mediated Communication (CMC) has been found to be sufficient for the maintenance of long-term meaningful relationships, allowing for the preservation of cultural connections at great distances.
- Content-specific online communities allow people to maintain contact with other individuals centered on mutual interests, such as cultural and social ties, providing a conduit for relationships to be formed and maintained.
- New Internet-based communication technologies allow for an outer action effect, where the communication connections surpass the traditional interaction abilities of communication media, offering an increased level of personal connectivity that extends beyond information exchange.

- Online communities provide the opportunity for people to access the cultural resources they need to feel as if they are still part of a cultural group, yet time and travel are reduced.
- These communities represent a shift to communities organized by shared interest.

- Internet technologies provide a mechanism for meaningful relationships to grow and flourish in content-specific online communities.

VII- Implications for national identity: the future

- The United States, the source for the plurality of Internet messages, is a product of cultural convergence. Its culture will be changing in the future due to changes in demographics and the dynamic patterns of international information flows resulting for the process of globalization.

- The structure if the Internet is dynamic, changing as non-Western countries increasingly come online.

- If we consider how the growth of Internet use in China will change the pattern of language use on the Internet, then the converged culture of the world system will have increasing Chinese elements, suggesting that global civilization will be some combination of Chinese and Anglo-American culture.

Monday, June 25, 2007

Reflection on the article The Battle on Dow Jones

I think that hat this is an excellent example of deregulation when it comes to the fierce competition between Rupert Murdoch and other people to buy Dow Jones. However, this is also a good illustration of the deregulation paradox where the market is only opened to big businesses and hegemonic agencies and people like Rupert Murdoch, so it doesn't serve its original purpose anymore, which is less competition and more competition. This also shows how media can be driven by impacts more than accuracy because there is no doubt that the Wall Street Journal and the news-wire services that Rupert Murdoch purchased are going to promote his ideas.

chapter 8,outline

The Global Implications of the Internet: Challenges and Prospects



I- Convergence theory and cultural identity

II- Systems approach and social networks

A- Systems

B- Social networks

III- Convergence theory and communication networks

IV- A structural model of intercultural communication

V-The network structure of the international internet

VII- Implications of the structural model for national identity: current trends

VII- Implications for national identity: the future

Friday, June 22, 2007

Assignment 3

Moroccan cultural industries can reach globality by:

- Adapting their products to the global market.

- Becoming more competitive.

- Meeting the high quality standards of the global market.

- Making the products in the global English language to be able to reach people worldwide.

- Trying to make a good use of the Internet for advertising those products because it is a cheap telecommunications means and it is affordable for a country like Morocco.

Thursday, June 21, 2007

chapter5, detailed outline

Communication and culture



I- What is culture?

- Culture defines what it means to be a human being.

- It is all out behavior summed up, out whole life experience.

- The study of culture as a way of life draws more on social history, anthropology, ad sociology and focuses on the structures of everyday life and its forms of interactions.

- Mass media are key components in any nation's culture.

II- Culture Industries

- The term cultural industries was coined by Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer.

- They developed an approach to scholarship called critical theory that was based on Marxist philosophy.

- They first coined the term Cultural Industries in their work Dialectic Enlightenment in 1947.

- It was used to refer to products which were tailored for consumption by masses, and which to a great extent determine the nature of that consumption by masses, are manufactured more or less according to a plan.

- They believed that the real purpose of mass media was to provide ideological justification for the capitalistic societies where these industries developed.

- Mass culture was developed as a tool of capitalism for the social control of society, according to Adorno and Horkheimer.

- The term culture industries carries a more positive meaning today.

-UNESCO describes culture industries as important national economic resources that allow expressions of creativity to be copied and boosted by industrial processes and worldwide distribution.

- UNESCO includes publishing, music audiovisual technology, electronics, video games, and the Internet in the category of cultural industries.

a- Other Cultural Groupings

- Businesses have cultures, and each business has its own set of cultural characteristics.

- Any organization to which we belong develops a culture if it manages to survive.
- An Organization's culture is the glue that keeps people attached to it and allows members to identify with it.
- It is the set of meanings the members of the group share.

- We all belong to multiple groups, each with its own characteristic culture. These include schools, religious organizations, and civic groups.

- Each family has a culture that distinguishes it from other families; a set of traditions, a way of living and interacting.

- Many animal groupings also have cultures.

III- Transmission of Culture

We must learn the culture of those groupings before we can become an integral part of them.

- The primary symbolic system used to transmit culture is that of language.

- While the written language increased the power to transmit one culture. Thereby bringing people together, it differentiated people and nations form other cultures, thereby separating them.

- This linguistic bond in contemporary society is achieved through television. Television helps perpetuate national cultures.

- The pervasiveness of English is believed to threaten many other cultures.


IV- How the west dominates in production of culture?

- The U.S is imperialistic when it comes to cultural products, especially when it comes to films and television programs.

- There are several factors besides the economy of a nation which influences the extent of inflow of TV material. The population size is naturally crucial importance, since it largely determines such marketing conditions as the size of the TV audience, the general dominance of a national culture, and usually also a common or unifying language.

- When a country allows news importation it is in effect importing a piece of another country's politics.

- And because the media also deal in ideas, their influence can be unpredictable in form and strength.

- Economic interdependence becomes a key to survival in the global system, while the strategies for preserving important elements of the cultures of the societies around the world have received much less attention.

- We don’t exactly know what the cultural impact of consuming American products might be.

- The European Audiovisual Observatory attributes this phenomenon to three factors in the European member countries: The effect of deregulation; the advance of digital technology; and the overcapacity of European satellite systems.

V- What cultures do to defend cultural autonomy?

A- Quotas: - The U.S has taken the position that cultural products should be treated like any other goods traded in the market.

- The U.S has opposed the setting of quotas on film and television imports viewing such quotas as trade barriers.

- However, other countries have been successful in obtaining a cultural exception for audiovisual products in the GATT, claiming that these are expressions of national identity and should be preserved.

b- Subsidies: - The U.S also opposes the use of government subsidies provided for development of films and television programs.

- Many countries take the position that without subsidies, their audiovisual sector will totally succumb to foreign imports.

- Feigenbaum believes that subsidies offer the most promise for boosting production of cultural products, and he argues that government aid to film and television production should not have to be justified on an economic basis, for him culture is its own reward.

c- Regional Alliances including co productions: Co produced films , usually ones that combine the talents and resources of two film production companies in two countries, have several advantages.

- They have a larger domestic market, that of two or more countries.

- They have appeal across cultures, not just within a particular culture.

- They usually have wider name recognition of principle actors, director, and so on.

e- Adaptations

- For countries with smaller markets or fewer resources, film and television program production is too expensive to release many new products.

- Audiences prefer local programs.

- The compromise that has been struck to address this dilemma is increasingly popular. It amounts to buying the rights to an imported television series or film and adapting it to the local culture and language.

F- Resistance

- Some cultural groups try to resist being deluged by products from abroad by producing more products about themselves.

VI- Not all pop culture is American

- Audiences around the world still prefer their local cultures and their local culture products to those imported.

-Current trends seem to show that local production is regaining dominance in television content.

-Much of the magazines and book publishing in the United States is also owned by foreign companies.

VII- Role of journalists in production of culture

-Culture is at the core of what journalists do.

- The concept of objectivity that has been under attack for most of this century does not exist.

- News culture is also revealed in news format.

VIII- Managing Cultural Conflict

- Cultures of the world do not always get along.

- Out concern is what role the media play in preventing conflicts internationally.

- We might think that it would be able to help smooth out the differences between various cultural groupings.

- The global media might encourage cultural conflict by sending the message that we are all alike, we are all consumers, and nothing makes us unique.

- The way cultures struggle to preserve a distinctive identity, they may create more conflict with other cultural groups, rather than creating a climate for mutual cultural understanding.


IX- Hybrid Cultures and the Media

- In a melting pot, none of the different groups ever became totally assimilated.

- However, while immigrants may hold onto their cultural roots when they settle in another society, they also modify their tradition and behaviors in what has been called variously a process of hybridity or glocalization.

- As national identities decline and local identities are strengthened through resistance to globalization, new identities or hybridity also take place of the old national identities.

- The dominant culture also takes on some characteristics and traditions from the migrants to that culture.

- Roberston writes that this process of glocalisation occurs in the world's media too, he challenges the notion of media imperialism arguing that cultural messages from the U.S to other cultures are interpreted according to the local culture context, and that that U.S produced movies and programs modify their products to a global market because they need the global market to be profitable. Furthermore, that national cultural products end up being interpreted and consumed in a local way and also ideas and cultural products flow from the periphery to the center far more often than we have thought.


X- What we can conclude


- Even though the U.S is very powerful in dominating the world's culture through its movies and programs , people in their own countries have been also powerful in preserving their own cultures .

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Chapter 5, outline

Communication and culture



I- What is culture?

II- Culture Industries

a- Other Cultural Groupings

III- Transmission of Culture

IV- How the west dominates in production of culture?

V- What cultures do to defend cultural autonomy?

A- Quotas

b- Subsidies

c- Regional Alliances including co productions

e- Adaptations

F- Resistance

VI- Not all pop culture is American

VII- Role of journalists in production of culture

VIII- Managing Cultural Conflict

IX- Hybrid Cultures and the Media

X- What we can conclude

Chapter 4, detailed outline

Global news and information flow in the internet age




I- Introduction

- The internet is universally characterized as a revolutionary medium because it has opened up an altogether new world pf information and communication.

- Apart from using the Internet as a speedy means of communication for personal and professional reason, users are turning to this multimedia, interactive medium to specify and obtain then news, information and entertainment they need from across the world.

- This need-based information consumption pattern facilitated by the Internet is radically different from the centuries-old model in which the consumer is at the end news and information selected and purveyed by traditional media gatekeepers
.
- News and information consumption patters of Internet Users are bound to show ever more reliance on this digital model as opposed to the traditional media.


II- Origin and early history of news agencies

- News and mercantile information needs of the mass market press that emerged in the first half of the 1800s provided the incentive for the creation of at least 3 of the major Western news agencies- the Associated Press, Reuters , and Agence France-Presse.

- By selling their products to many newspapers, news agencies could supply a large amount of news at less expense than a newspaper would.

- News agencies also had greater financial resources than the average news paper to invest in technical facilities such as the telegraph, to transmit the news as quickly as possible.

a- Agence France-presse

- The oldest of what were eventually to become the four major Western international news agencies.

- It was created by Frenchman Charles-Louis Havas in 1835.
- It grew out of a news distribution service, used mostly by merchants and government officials.

- Havas expanded his operations by hiring more correspondents and using the newly invented telegraph for faster delivery of news.

- In 1944, after liberation from occupying Nazi forces, the Havas Agency was given its present name, Agence France-Presse.

b- Associated press

- It grew out of the Harbor News Association, formed by 10 men representing six New York City newspapers in 1848 to pool efforts for collecting international news and to offset the prohibitive cost of transmitting news by telegraph.

-Two major changes have taken place in AP organization since 1945:

1- The U.S Supreme Court held illegal a clause in AP bylaws under which members could block the effort of a competitor in the same city to obtain AP news service by requiring election to membership, as a result AP membership was opened to all qualified U.S News papers.

2- In 1946, radio stations, for the first time, were granted associated membership in AP.

c- Reuters

- It opened 1851, by Paul Julius Reuter, a German-born immigrant.

- Reuters share ownership is now spread around the world , with the most significant holdings in Britain and the United States.

d- United press international

- It was established on July 21,1907, as the United Press Association because its founder believed there should be no restrictions on who could buy news from a news service.

- It was instrumental in freeing up news collection and dissemination worldwide by rejecting a cartel arrangement established by the other major Western news agencies in 1869.

e- ITAR-TASS

- Another of the world's largest news agencies is the Information Telegraph Agency of Russia.
- It has retained its status as the state central information agency.

III- International news agencies today

A- Associated press

-Today, it serves as source of news , photos, graphics, audio and video for more than 1 billion people every day.

- The AP news services are delivered in the form of state, national, and international wires.

- AP's international wire is available in four foreign languages: French, Spanish, German, and Dutch.

- It delivers top international and U.S news by explaining complex issues with simplicity.

b- United press international

- Leading supplier of knowledge-based products to the Internet.

- It provides up-to-date information for readers who are looking for news in a short, concise format pf 100 to 200 words.

- UPI perspectives provide readers with issue-focused reports required to make informed business or policy decisions.

- Reports are issued in the form of analysis, commentary, feature stories and special reports, and people in the news.

c- Reuters

- It dedicates the bulk of its resources to providing financial information to the global financial markets.

- Its information and news products include real-time financial data, collective investment data, numerical, textual, historical, and graphical databases, plus news services and broadcast media, websites, and consumers.

- It also uses the Internet extensively for wider distribution of information and news.

d- Agence France-presse

- AFP continues to provide a variety of services for the traditional media but has also developed a new line of services for the online sector.

- It is the only international agency to distribute in Arabic.

e- ITAR-TASS and Interfax

- ITAR-TASS is the state-owned successor to the soviet-era Tass news agency.

- It was a propaganda arm of the Soviet communist system, often providing its news service practically free to countries that were potential candidates for communism.

- ITAR-TASS's transition to an independent, objective, and reliable agency is still far from complete.

- ITAR-TASS is facing stiff competition from another Russian news agency called Interfax, which offers general and financial news services.

IV- Supplemental news agencies

- Newspapers needing more specialized fare, such as hard news exclusives, investigative reporting, political commentary, and concentrated business coverage, turn to supplemental wire services.

V- Broadcast news services

VI- Global newspapers, Magazines and Broadcasters

- Several international newspapers, magazines, and broadcasting organizations also play a significant role as purveyors of news globally.

- Three newspapers that are especially valued by opinion leaders around the world are the New York Times, The Times of London, and the Guardian, also from Britain.

VII- News flow patterns: offline and online

- The Internet offers the best hope to developing countries seeking a low-cost vehicle for news distribution and a more balanced flow of news globally.

- Although the distribution of news by a news agency to its clients via the Internet is much cheaper than via the traditional telecommunications system, a budding news agency must meet other costs and challenges before its acquires the necessary credibility as global news service.
- The financing required to hire the necessary staff and maintain news bureaus around the world is beyond the reach of most developing countries.
- There is also the issue of quality of information, for the information available on the Internet; credibility will be a source of power and influence.

- Therefore, the emerging news agencies will have a lot of catching up to do before they can compete with the established Western news agencies, and that will not be an easy task.

- The Internet has greater promise in serving as an equalizer in the skewed flow of news and information globally, another of the concerns raised by the developing world.

VIII- The outlook

- The mergence of democracy has considerably lessened the obstacles that news agencies and foreign correspondents encounter in covering news.

- Authoritarian governments in many countries continue to create several obstacles in the coverage of news, including restricted access, explicit or implicit censorship, and pressure against correspondents.

- Direct action against foreign correspondents is the most extreme and dangerous obstacle to free news coverage.

- Economic growth and the opportunities provided by the Internet should make it easier for many developing countries to expand their newsgathering and news dissemination operations.

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Chapter 4, outline

Global news and information flow in the internet age




I- Introduction

II- Origin and early history of news agencies

a- Agence France-presse
b- Associated press
c- Reuters
d- United press international
e- Itar-tass

III- International news agencies today

a- Associated press
b- United press international
c- Reuters
d- Agence France-presse
e- Itar-tass and Interfax


IV- Supplemental news agencies

V- Broadcast news services

VI- Global newspapers, Magazines and Broadcasters

VII- News flow patterns: offline and online

VIII- The outlook

Thursday, June 14, 2007

chapter3, detailed outline

Global Economy and International Telecommunications Networks



I-Introduction

- The global economy is not an abstraction; it affects our personal lives in several ways.
- The Global economy is closely related to global communication, because global economy requires global communication to control and coordinate global division of labor.
-Global division of labor has transformed the world and gave birth to both the global economy and global communication.

II-Premodern World

- The premodern world was different from the world today.

- The personal possessions of our predecessors were all made locally.

III-Division of Labor

-A big difference between the premodern and the modern world is the extent to which division of labor was used in the production process.

- With specialization the expertise increases.

- Division of labor crates independencies.

- The system based on division of labor requires coordination.

- Division of labor increases productivity via specialization, which in turns creates problems of coordination and control.

- The problems of created by division of labor were taken care of by managers who coordinated and controlled the activities of individual workers performing specialized tasks, however, these problems become more severe when division of labor occurs across geographical space as companies seek to capitalize on the location advantage of each place.

- Nowadays, division of labor transcends national borders.
- This would not have been possible without modern communication technologies. Therefore, global division of labor is intricately tied to modern communication technologies.

- Telecommunications technologies allow for global coordination and control, transportation technologies move raw materials and products form one corner of the world to another.

IV- Imperialism

- In the 13th century the world was multipolar, that is, they were multiple centers of power, such as China, India, and Italy , which dominated decentralized trading circuits.

- This changed during the 14th and 15th centuries during the emergence of Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, French and British empires. These western powers transformed the world into a monopolar world.
-The development of science gave them technologically superior weaponry that overwhelmed the people of Africa, America, Asia and Australia. Therefore, although they were small countries they could conquer nations with larger populations.
- This was called the era of imperialism.

- Theses new empires were different form earlier ones in history.
- They were disjointed.
- They hardly knew anything about the nations they conquered.
- The economic relationship was different. The imperial powers were interested to gain access to raw materials for their growing industries.
- After the raw materials were processed into finished goods, the empires used the colonies as captive markets for selling their factories' output.

- They maintained control over their colonies through different means.
- Brute military power played a critical role in the creation and maintenance of empires.
- Educating the native elite in Western ways and then giving them positions of privilege in the administrative hierarchy.
- The imperial administration also hampered collaboration among native groups to prevent the emergence of united opposition to colonial rule.


- The global telegraph network that the brutish used to manage their vast Empire:
- The network was totally London-centric
- Lateral lines were rare.

V-Electronic Imperialism

1- Global Media Flows

- After WWII the United States became the center of the world.

- The main source of power of the U.S is economic rather than military.
- The U.S projects its power through economic and cultural means.
- There is a relationship of dependency between the rich and the poor countries.

- Developing nations consider the import of the U.S culture such as movies to be a new kind of invasion.

- The flow of information from the south to the north and lateral flow of information between periphery countries is small.

- Many nations called for a new world information order that would change this asymmetrical pattern and make it more balanced. But this creates problems:
- It encourages regulation of information flows by governments.
- It is difficult as the technology becomes ever more subtle to control.

2- Transborder Data Flow:

-With the improvement in transportation technologies, international trade progressively moved beyond light items with a high value to heavier commodities, however, services remained local because they required an intense amount of interaction between the service provider and the consumer.

- Modern communication changed this.

- The trade in services assumes a great importance in the global economy.

- The perspectives and interests of the United States and the developed countries are different on issues related to global economy.

- The similarity between imperialism and electronic imperialism is that they both display a strong center-periphery relation.

- The difference between the two is that the center uses more delicate means to dominate the periphery rather that brutal ones.

VI- Emerging Network Structures

- There is a U.S centric nature of global Internet.
- Network investment patterns suggest that in the future we will see the emergence of regional networks in Europe and Asia.
- However, it seems that the U.S centered structure of the global Internet is going to remain for a long time.

Tentative outline for research paper

Global Communication and Moroccan culture




I- Introduction: We have to have a research question.

II- Make an outline for the research paper and define our keywords: Global, local, and communication.

III- We have to decide which theory of international communication we should use. In this case it will be Globalization theory. There are different theories of globalization but we should pick up just one.

IV- Case study: Moroccan Culture


- Define Moroccan culture; which segment of the Moroccan population we are going to study.
- Choose only one type of Global Communication, for example CNN and its impact on those Moroccans.

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Chapter 3, outline

Global Economy and International Telecommunications Networks



I-Introduction

II-Premodern World

III-Division of Labor

IV- Imperialism

V-Electronic Imperialism

1- Global Media Flows

2- Transborder Data Flow

VI- Emerging Network Structures

VII- Toward a New World System?

Assignment 2

I think that the point that Prime Minister Tony Bair was trying to make is that soft power is as important, not even more important, that military power for powerful nations to be able to maintain their power. Everyone is familiar with hard power. We know that military and economic might often get others to change their position. Hard power can rest on inducements ("carrots") or threats ("sticks"). But sometimes you can get the outcomes you want without tangible threats or payoffs. The indirect way to get what you want has sometimes been called "the second face of power." A country may obtain the outcomes it wants in world politics because other countries admire its values, emulate its example; aspire to its level of prosperity and openness. This soft power —getting others to want the outcomes that you want—co-opts people rather than coerces them. Soft power rests on the ability to shape the preferences of others. In the business world, smart executives know that leadership is not just a matter of issuing commands, but also involves leading by example and attracting others to do what you want.
Political leaders have long understood the power that comes from attraction. If I can get you to want to do what I want, then I do not have to use carrots or sticks to make you do it. Soft power is a staple of daily democratic politics. The ability to establish preferences tends to be associated with intangible assets such as an attractive personality, culture, political values and institutions, and policies that are seen as legitimate or having moral authority. If a leader represents values that others want to follow, it will cost less to lead.
Some skeptics object to the idea of Soft Power because they think of power narrowly in terms of commands or active control. In their view, imitation or attraction does not add up to power. The skeptics who want to define power only as deliberate acts of command and control are ignoring the second or "structural" face of power —the ability to get the outcomes you want without having to force people to change their behavior through threats or payments. Soft power is also likely to be more important when power is dispersed. A dictator cannot be totally indifferent to the views of the people under his rule, but he can often ignore popularity when he calculates his interests. In settings where opinions matter, leaders have less leeway to adopt tactics and strike deals.
The conditions for projecting soft power have transformed dramatically in recent years. The information revolution and globalization are transforming and shrinking the world. At the beginning of the 21st century, those two forces have enhanced American power. But with time, technology will spread to other countries and peoples, and America's relative preeminence will diminish. Even more important, the information revolution is creating virtual communities and networks that cut across national borders. Political leadership becomes in part a competition for attractiveness, legitimacy, and credibility. The ability to share information—and to be believed—becomes an important source of attraction and power. To achieve these goals, many leaders throughout history have used international media. Examples would be 'SAWT AL ARAB' during Nasserism. More recently another example would be 'AL HOURRA TV'.
Finally,this political game in a global information age suggests that the relative role of soft power to hard power will likely increase. The most likely gainers in an information age will have multiple channels of communication that help to frame issues, cultural customs and ideas that are close to prevailing global norms, and credibility that is enhanced by values and policies.

Chapter 2, Dtailed outline

Drawing a Bead on Global Communication Theories



I-Introduction

-Theorizing is a way of getting a phenomenon clearly in our sights.
-We need to attempt an explanation, a theory.
-Theorizing means careful focused thinking.
-A theory is not automatically right or mostly correct.
-Theorizing is a serious attempt to think connectedly and deeply about something.

II- Normative theories

1-Authoritarian theory; is designed to protect the established social order and its agents, setting clear and close limits to media freedom.

2- Libertarian; the press should be a free market place of ideas, in which the best will be recognized and the worst fail.

3-Soviet theory, assigned the media a role as collective agitator, propagandist and educator in the building of communism.

4-Socail responsibility theory; the media ownership and operation are a form of public trust or stewardship, rather than a unlimited private franchise.

5-Development media theory; limited resources available foe media can legitimately be allocated by government, and journalistic freedom can also be restricted.

6-Democratic participation media theory; supports the right to relevant local information, the right to answer back and the right to use the new means of communication for interaction and social action in small-scale settings of community , interest group or subculture.

III-A Different Approach I: Comparing and Contrasting Media

-At least four important issues must be considered –namely, how we understand the relation of mainstream media.

1) Political Power: Dictatorship (communism) equaled repression and censorship, in the name of justice.
- In dictatorships the state has control over the media
- The control over communication did not work at the end.
- A dual-level public real developed.

2) Economic Crisis: In dictatorships the media remains silent about the decline in the living standards and stagnation in productivity, and asserted that the capitalist countries were suffering from acute and irremediable economic problems.

3) Dramatic Social Transitions: It is wrong to assume that a media system is permanent or normal and that transition is inherent in media. Media transitions occur along with social transitions.

IV- A Different Approach II: Globalization and Media

-Different explanations of globalization;
1-Sometimes signifies structural economic changes.
2-It is also applied to cultural and media processes.
3-More or less, it means Americanization.
4- Hybridity: a merging of different perspectives and values to form a new blended culture.

V- A different Approach III: Small-scale Alternative Media

- Samizdat: The tern refers to the hand circulated pamphlets, poems, essays and plays.
- It began to emerge in Soviet Russia and later in other Soviet bloc Countries since the 60's.
- They contained widely varied messages, religious, nationalist, reformist, ecological and attacking Soviet politics.
- The term samizdat literally means self-published, in contradiction to state-published that is, approved by the Soviet regime as safe.

VI- Conclusions

-It is not only by studying media in just the United States or Britain, the currently dominant nations in media research publication, we can succeed in "drawing a bead" on media.

Assignment 1

3-Comment


Mapmaking was an integral part of communication in history. Humans have been making maps since the Stone Age. In fact, mapmaking predated written language by several millennia. Maps were widely considered to be valuable keys to unlocking unknown worlds and enabled exploration and discovery.
Maps are important in history for several reasons which include economic and religious reasons. The information on most ancient maps reflected the mapmaker's cultural and religious orientations. For example, religious belief systems were directly reflected in many medieval European maps. Furthermore, the fact that maps were closely guarded and considered to be state secrets showed that they held valuable information like, mapping military areas.
Maps served many purposes in ancient times, including maritime navigation, religious pilgrimages, and military and administrative uses. They were also used instead as intellectual tools. Nowadays, maps are still used for the same purposes; however the technology is far more advanced. These days, people make maps online using tools like Google Maps API, and Google Earth.
However, some Arab regimes have banned the website like in Bahrain, Jordan and Morocco. The Bahraini government banned the website Google Earth for 3 days last year during the run-up to parliamentary elections; when bogglers used it to highlight the vast palaces of the Sunni aristocracy versus the slums in which much of the Shiite majority resides. Furthermore, more recently Bahraini bogglers have been intensely following the 'Bandar Gate', a scandal driven by revelations of regime plans to fix the 2006 parliamentary elections, and have produced a map of the city using Google Earth revealing vast appropriations for the royal family. These instances of online activism led the Bahraini government to briefly ban Mahmood's Den blog within the city. As for the Moroccan case, in March 2006, Morocco had blocked access to many blogging sites, such as Live Journal. Reporters without borders says that Morocco now censors all political websites advocating Western Sahara 's independence and Google Earth has also been added to the list of censored websites in Morocco.

4-Discuss

From this quotes, I think that Allen Palmer is trying to say that there are several factors, the most important of which is the evolution of technology that contributed to the development of international communication. And that cultural and social transition is explained only in some degree by technology. However, he is trying to draw our attention to the fact that technology has not always been used with good intentions. In other words, transparency remains an important issue. Technology can sometimes serve the evil purposes of some people. It is not always used in the right way. Sometimes, it doesn't serve the welfare of the public as it was meant to be. For example, new technology is redefining what is possible in telecommunications. It is doing so with a speed that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. The telecommunication industry today offers options to customer and benefits to society beyond the scale of anything we have seen before. But an important question to ask is, whether communications technology delivers real progress for people around the world or not. Therefore, technology is only a tool to better reach people , if used badly it can permanently disconnect them. It is a double-edged sword. Finally, I think that what is our author, Allen Palmer, is trying to say here is that by putting in mind the past experience, the international community can organize global communication on an innovative foundation that is able to encounter the challenges of our times and that would be compatible with their nature.

Chapter 1, detailed outline

Following the Historical Path of Global Communication



I- Geographical Space: A Barrier to Communication

-There is a difference between International and National communication .While the National communication is limited in scope to the national level, the International communication is widespread.
-Information (communication) is everywhere but this type of communication is perspective.
-Moroccan case: even if the Moroccan Magazine TelQuel targets Moroccan abroad, it is still considered a national magazine.
-In order to target an International audience you should publish in English.
-Herald Tribune is an example of International Communication.
-Today, people are trying to change the flow of information form the South to North.


A)

a -Communication has evolved, transforming the world communication.

1 -With faster and more far-reaching communication, important social and political developments occurred because of technology, each interacting and expanding the potential outcome of the other.

b- Cultures created the conditions for communication across great distances.

1- Migrant populations turned to agriculture and commerce, with trade routes extending outward to distant and unfamiliar lands.
2-During the "age of discovery" explorers traveled to the edge of the known world.
3 -Military conquests and religious crusades often resulted in the intermingling of cultures and ideas.
4 -The printing press and telegraph challenged the barriers of space and time.

B-

a- Geography of space:

- Geography was a limitation to communication in the past.
- Nowadays there is no distance because of the flow of information.
-The idea of locality was destroyed by the idea of nationalization.
-The geography of space is destroyed.

b- Geography of experience
c- Spaces of flow.

II- Geography and the Mythical world

1 -Ancient people struggled to control the unexplained events of their lives.
2 -Until relatively recently in history, the vast world beyond one's immediate reach was grasped through magical or metaphysical images.
3 - As a product of fear and imagination, these mythical ideas among ancient cultures were richly symbolic and were accompanied by expression in art, science, language and ritual.


III-Ancient Encounters of Societies and Cultures

1-When Greek and Arab philosophers and mathematicians sought to rise above mythical beliefs and to construct rational models of knowledge; they saw the world as measurable, even suggesting the use of coordinates to divide geographical space.

IV- Global Explorers: Migrants, Holy people, Merchants

-Traders and travelers are informal networks of communication.
- Trade and culture are also means of communication.


V- Mapmakers in the Medieval World

–Mapmaking was an integral part of communication history.
-The information on ancient maps reflected the mapmaker's cultural and religious orientations.
-Maps served several purposes: maritime navigation, religious pilgrimages, and military and administrative uses.
-Maps are important in history for several reasons which include religious, economic reasons.
-Maps were widely considered to be valuable keys to unlocking unknown worlds.
-Maps are still used for the same purposes but the technology is different.

VI-Inventors: Signals and Semaphores

1-Most information technologies were solutions to tangible and immediate problems.
2-The earliest known communication use of a simple signal system over distances employed fires and beacons.
3- Interest in signaling systems among the Greeks was based on potential military purposes.
4- The French, Spanish, and Venetian navies used flag-signaling from their ships.

VII- The Printing Press, Literacy, and the Knowledge Explosion

1- The spread of literacy in Europe after the development of the printing press.
a) The printing press encouraged the practice of reading among common people and the reformation of medieval European institutions, religions, and governments.
b) Books and other printed material eventually sparked social and political changes that gave rise to popular political consciousness and public opinion.
C) New literacy introduced new kinds of social relationships and networks among both learned and common people.

VIII-Scientists and International networks

1- The changing role of international science brought changes in relations between nations.
a) They intermingled both their shared interests and differences through the means of technology.

IX-The International Electric Revolution

1-The scientific innovations of the 19th century launched the world on a path to electrification of industry and commerce.

X-Summary: Global Immediacy and Transparency

1- Communication as a catalyst for many changes in human relationships.

a) Redefinition of space and time.
b) Increasing immediacy and transparency.


XI- The Era of News Agencies

- They collect information and send then to consumers. Examples of consumers are Aljazeera and New York Times.
- Example of news agencies is Reuters and The French Agency.

XII- The Rise of Reuters

- Reuters Factors: The relationship Between Communication and Capital.
-There is a strong link between Information, communication, trade and the colonialism.
- There is strong link between information and industry.
-Printing was behind the social transitions in Europe.
-There is a link between the flow of information and the rise of power of Empires especial the British Empire.
- Businesses rely on pipelines of information.

Chapter 1, Outline

Following the Historical Path of Global Communication



I- Geographical Space: A Barrier to Communication

A-Communication has evolved, transforming the world communication.

1 -With faster and more far-reaching communication, important social and political developments occurred because of technology, each interacting and expanding the potential outcome of the other.

b- Cultures created the conditions for communication across great distances.

1- Migrant populations turned to agriculture and commerce, with trade routes extending outward to distant and unfamiliar lands.
2-During the "age of discovery" explorers traveled to the edge of the known world.
3 -Military conquests and religious crusades often resulted in the intermingling of cultures and ideas.
4 -The printing press and telegraph challenged the barriers of space and time.


II- Geography and the Mythical world

1 -Ancient people struggled to control the unexplained events of their lives.
2 -Until relatively recently in history, the vast world beyond one's immediate reach was grasped through magical or metaphysical images.
3 - As a product of fear and imagination, these mythical ideas among ancient cultures were richly symbolic and were accompanied by expression in art, science, language and ritual.


III-Ancient Encounters of Societies and Cultures

1-When Greek and Arab philosophers and mathematicians sought to rise above mythical beliefs and to construct rational models of knowledge; they saw the world as measurable, even suggesting the use of coordinates to divide geographical space.

IV- Global Explorers: Migrants, Holy people, Merchants


V- Mapmakers in the Medieval World

1 –Mapmaking was an integral part of communication history.
2-The information on ancient maps, reflected the mapmaker's cultural and religious orientations.
3-Maps served several purposes: maritime navigation, religious pilgrimages, and military and administrative uses.

VI-Inventors: Signals and Semaphores

1-Most information technologies were solutions to tangible and immediate problems.
2-The earliest known communication use of a simple signal system over distances employed fires and beacons.
3- Interest in signaling systems among the Greeks was based on potential military purposes.
4- The French, Spanish, and Venetian navies used flag-signaling from their ships.

VII- The Printing Press, Literacy, and the Knowledge Explosion

1- The spread of literacy in Europe after the development of the printing press.
a) The printing press encouraged the practice of reading among common people and the reformation of medieval European institutions, religions, and governments.
b) Books and other printed material eventually sparked social and political changes that gave rise to popular political consciousness and public opinion.
C) New literacy introduced new kinds of social relationships and networks among both learned and common people.

VIII-Scientists and International networks

1- The changing role of international science brought changes in relations between nations.
a) They intermingled both their shared interests and differences through the means of technology.

IX-The International Electric Revolution

1-The scientific innovations of the 19th century launched the world on a path to electrification of industry and commerce.

X-Summary: Global Immediacy and Transparency

1- Communication as a catalyst for many changes in human relationships.

a) Redefinition of space and time.
b) Increasing immediacy and transparency.