Course Content & Schedule
MC300 International Communication
Professor Shelton Gunaratne
Minnesota State University Moorhead
This semester, the course will examine
more than a dozen issues or aspects relating to international communication. Imagine
the sort of issues and aspects that Cosmo Kramer, the amusing TV
character in "Seinfeld," might want to know if he were to take this
course. So let Kramer raise all the right questions in his own jargon
to make this course fun.
Week 1 (Aug. 29)
1. Just a
smidgen of geography in the age of globalization
Kramer: Where on earth is Timbuktu?
Do I have to know about that sort of exotic place to dig this course? I
didn't bother about geography at high school.
If we are already globalized, why bother about geography?
Gunaratne: Kramer, it's hard
to dig international communication without knowing the world's regions
and countries. The authors of two recent textbooks identified the South
as countries located south of the equator. Had they checked that in a world
atlas, they would have spared some embarrassment. The CIA, the only superpower's
snooping agency, has put on the Web a summary of political, social and
economic conditions of countries. You can look up Timbuktu or Tuticorin
or whatever. Do some snooping yourself and expand your horizons on countries
and peoples. (By the way, both Timbouctou, on the Niger River in Mali,
and Tuticorin, on the southern tip of India, appear on the two country's
pop-up maps in the World Fact Book.)
Opinions differ on the concept of globalization. Some contend that
globalization has been going on ever since the formation of Earth 4.5
billion years ago. Eastern philosophies subscribe to this view. They assert
that everything in the universe, including human beings as one of the
million species on Earth, is interdependent. In comparison, the
Western worldview takes an anthropocentric view of globalization
Mandatory reading:
Gunaratne, S. A. (in press).
Globalization, Interdependence, and
Anthropocentrism [On-line]
Other:
CIA (2005)
World
Fact Book
(On-line)
U.N.
member states
(On-line)
How many
countries?
(On-line)
Discussion (for grading):
1. Look up the above Web sites and determine the
number of countries in the world. Copy the list of countries to Column A of an
Excel spreadsheet. On Column B identify the continent--Africa, the Americas,
Asia, Europe, and the Oceania--to which each country belongs.
Over the week, look up the Web site
GeoHive-Regional Data to figure out how these countries can be further
subdivided into sub-continental regions. (This is also a good opportunity to
learn the
capital cities of the countries unfamiliar to you.)
On Column C of the spreadsheet, identify the sub-continental region to which
each country belongs. (Submit for grading.)
2. Some scholars (Merrill, 1995) categorize
countries on the basis of geo-political and geo-cultural properties as shown
in the following table. If you are a geography buff, make an attempt to
place your list of countries under the sub-regions listed in the table where
these sub-regions differ from the sub-continental regions in the Geo-Hive
site. If you decide to throw up your hands in despair, help is on the way.
Answer
is here. (Not for grading.)
I.
Asia &
the Pacific |
II.
Sub Saharan Africa |
III.
North
Africa & the Middle East |
IV.
Western Europe |
V.
Eastern Europe, Russia & NIS |
VI.
Latin America & the Caribbean |
VII.
North America |
|
East Asia
Southeast
Asia
South
Asia
Oceania |
West
Africa
East Africa
Southern
Africa |
North
Africa
Middle East |
Big Five
Scandinavia
Smaller
Countries |
Europe
a. The Baltic
b. Eastern
c. East Central
d.Southeastern
Eurasia
The Caucasus
Central Asia |
Central
America
The Caribbean
South
America |
|
Week 2 (Sept. 5)
2. Right to
communicate and democracy
Kramer: Do we really need a right to
communicate? Don't we always communicate whether we live in a democracy or
an autocracy or somewhere in between?
Gunaratne: The right to
communicate has a special meaning. It was first proposed by a French public
servant, Jean d'Arcy, in 1969. He wrote:
The time
will come when the Universal Declaration of Human Rights will have to encompass
a more extensive right than man's right to information, first laid down 21 years
ago in Article 19. This is the right of man to communicate.
For Jean d'Arcy, the right to communicate encompasses
the specific communication rights found in the Universal
Declaration including, for example, participation and privacy and, of course,
information.
If the right to communicate is a human right, it should prevail in all
countries irrespective of the system of governance--from democracies to
autocracies. However, it may come as a surprise to you to learn that
democracy appears in diverse garbs and its origins go beyond Greece to Egypt
and Mesopotamia. Democracy was practiced in ancient India as well.
Mandatory reading:
Harms, L. S. (2003).
Some essentials of the right to communicate. (On-line)
Gunaratne, S. A.(2005) Dao of the Press, Ch. 1: What is democracy?
Other:
Right to communicate (On-line): (Read the invited papers in the
Collections)
Article 19
Web site critiques the
draft Declaration on the Right to Communicate
Charter
of the United Nations
Universal Declaration of
Human Rights
International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
Discussion (for grading):
1. How does
Harms define the right to communicate? Why do you agree or disagree with it?
OR
2. Explain the meaning of cosmopolitan democracy?
Critique it.
Week 3 (Sept. 12)
3. A look at press freedom worldwide
Kramer: Did I hear you mention Marshall
Islands and Nauru? Are they exotic dancers who dangle their wigs?
Gunaratne: It's not I but the
Freedom House that mentioned them. They are tiny republics in the Pacific.
They, along with a dozen others, have more press freedom than the United
States on the basis of four criteria—laws and regulations, political pressures
and controls, economic influences, and repressive action—the Freedom House
used. (By the way, Majuro is the capital of Marshall Islands,
which has a population of 68,126. Nauru, with a population of 11,845,
has no capital city.) The International Press Institute, the Committee
to Protect Journalists, and Reporters sans Frontieres also monitor
worldwide press freedom .
Mandatory reading:
Gunaratne, S. A. (2005), Dao of the Press, Ch. 7:
Democracy-Journalism Connection
Gunaratne, S. A. (2005).
Asian philosophies and authoritarian
press practice: A remarkable contradiction.
Javnost--The Public, 12
(2), 23-38 (On-line)
Other:
Committee to Protect Journalists (2005).
Press
Freedom Database and country reports (On-line)
Freedom House (2006).
Press Freedom Survey
(On-line).
Gunaratne, S. (2002).
Freedom of the press: A world-system perspective.
Gazette, 64 (4), pp. 343-369 (On-line)
International Press Institute (2006),
World
Press Freedom Review (On-line)
IPI Global Journalist (On-line)
Reporters sans Frontieres (2006).
2006 Annual Report.
(On-line)
World Association of Newspapers [FIEJ],
WAN Press Freedom
Review 2006. (On-line)
Discussion (for grading):1. Critique
the democracy-journalism connection
OR
2. Critique the criteria used by Freedom House
to determine press freedom worldwide OR
Week 4 (Sept. 19)
4. The press theories
Kramer: Elaine once feigned to be
a media buff. She got a kick out of asking her guru, "Are the Four Theories
of the Press in tatters?" Do you have the expert answer?
Gunaratne: Scholars are saying
that the original four theories—libertarian, social responsibility,
authoritarian
and Communist—are inadequate to explain the media scene in the Information
Age. Some have introduced new press concepts such as developmental,
revolutionary,
etc. A reviewer of Nerone’s Last Rights: Revisiting Four Theories of
the Press (1995) says that the book "convincingly argues that massive
reconfigurations in our conceptual maps are necessary if we are to deal
adequately with the fast changing relationships among mass media, society
and the notion of rights." Meanwhile, yours truly has just published an
alternative humanocentric theory of the press combining Eastern
onto-cosmology and Western epistemology.
Mandatory reading:
Gunaratne, S. A. (2005). Dao of the Press, Ch. 4: West-Centrism and
Classical Press Theories
Hachten & Scotton (2007). World News Prism,
Ch. 2: Changing Ideologies of Press Control (pp.15-34)
Documentary:
Edward Herman & Noam Chomsky, The myth of the liberal media (60 min.)
Other:
Communication theories (slide presentation)
Lecture
notes on press theories (On-line)
McQuail, D. (2005). Normative Theory of Media and
Society (Ch. 7). In D. McQuail, McQuail's Mass Communication Theory
(5th ed.). London: Sage. (On reserve in main library. Highly recommended.)
Roat, R. (1998).
Four theories of the press:
(On-line).
Shah, H. (1996).
Review: Last rights—Revisiting
Four Theories of the Press (edited by J. C. Nerone). The Journal of
International Communication, 3 (2), 132-134.
(On-line)
Skjerdal, T. S.
(1993).
Siebert's Four Theories of the Press: A Critique
(On-line)
Discussion (for grading):
1. Evaluate the main criticisms of the Four
Theories
OR
2. Evaluate the merits and demerits of the alternative press theories
OR
3. How do Herman and Chomsky demolish the myth of the liberal media? What are
your points of disagreement?
Week 5 (Sept. 26)
5. The digital revolution
Kramer: Hey, man, what gobbledygook
is "glocalization," Third Wave, new media and all
that sort of thing?
Gunaratne: Some claim that
a Third Communication Revolution is transforming the globe into a highly
interdependent economic and cultural entity while changing the way we access
news and information. Others have expressed fears that the Western media,
which have rapidly established global dominance, might cause the homogenization
of cultures. Robertson, however, says that globalization could lead
to heterogenization as well—what he calls glocalization. Toffler
sees the current tension between the rich and the poor countries as the
outcome of the collision or overlapping of the first (agricultural),
second
(industrial) and third (information-intensive) waves of human
progress. The traditional mass media might coexist with the new media—the
products of the convergence of computers, digitization and telecommunications—within
the three waves.
Mandatory reading:
Gunaratne, S. A. (2001). Convergence: Informatization, world system, and developing
countries, Communication Yearbook 25 (pp. 153-199 (On-line)
Hachten & Scotton (2007). World News Prism, Ch. 4 Internet, Comsats, and
Bloggers (pp. 47-62)
The impact of the digital
revolution--Notes (On-line)
Other:
Australia, Radio National (1998). An
interview with Alvin Toffler (by N. Swan). (On-line)
Hamada, B. (2004).
The information revolution: Major trends and development. (On-line
Power Point)
Minges,
M. (July 2000).
Counting the Net: Internet Access Indicators. Presented at INET 2000, The Internet Global Summit, Yokohama, Japan
(On-line).
Discussion: (for grading)
1. What is the connection between the Digital Revolution and globalization?
OR
2. What power shift has the Digital Revolution effected?
OR
3. What are the economic, ecological, and social implications of the "new
economy" (based on global capitalism and network society)?
Week 6 (Oct. 3)
6.The global
language
Kramer: Why do you say English is
miles ahead of Chinese, Arabic, Hindi, Spanish or French as the No. 1 global
language? My mom once told me Esperanto was the world language.
Gunaratne: A New World Language
Order is unlikely to replace the existing order because only English can
provide access to the vast deposits of knowledge embedded in the emerging
Information Superhighway. I
was in China just a few years ago--and I noticed how desperately enthusiastic
the students were to learn English. At Tianjin University, where I taught
for a semester, students were taping the Voice of America to learn the
American accent! You mentioned Esperanto, a planned language with 16 simple
rules. Even though Esperanto has been around for more than a century, not
many have bothered to learn it. La viroj vendis kukojn In Esperanto
means Men sold cakes.
Mandatory reading:
Gunaratne, S. A. (2001).
Proto-Indo-European expansion, rise of English, and the international language
order On-line)
History
of the International Language Order (on-line)
Hachten & Scotton (2007). World
News Prism, Ch. 6 Globalization of media (pp.
77-93)
Documentary:
The story of English: Next year's words--A look into the future (60
min.)
Other:
Ch'ien, Evelyn N-M. (2004). Weird English. Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press.
Crystal, D. (1997).
English as a global
language. Cambridge University Press.
EURODICAUTOM:
multilingual
terminology databank of the European Commission
Phillipson, R. (1992).
English,
the dominant language (Notes from Linguistic Imperialism)
Raley, R. (2000).
What is Global English?
Stevenson, R. L. (1994). Ch. 4 English:
The global language. In Global communication in the twenty-first century
(pp. 81-102). New York: Longman.
York,
L. B. (1999).
A
history of the English language
Discussion (for grading):
1. What factors determine the international language order?
OR
2. How does Gunaratne use Eastern philosophical concepts to explain the rise,
fall, and rebirth of languages?
OR
3. What is the future of English as the global language from the world-systems
perspective?
Week 7 (Oct. 10)
7. The global media
Kramer: Globally speaking, can you
explain to me who says what to whom through what medium with what effect?
I know that some famous egghead used the exact words, which have a sort
of rhythm. It intrigues me no end. I might get something out of your course
if you can talk about it without the jargon.
Gunaratne: Lasswell gets
the credit for formulating that question, which explains the components
of the classical communication model--source, message,
medium.
receiver
and impact. Clearly, the Western mass media--both broadcasting (e.g.,
CNN, BBC) and print (newspapers like Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and
International Herald Tribune; and newsmagazine like Time, Newsweek, and
The Economist) have a global audience. Some people say that kind of dominance
has a big impact on global behavior--the bullet theory. Some scholars,
like Ravault, take the minority view that the mighty media of the West
might, in fact, be causing a boomerang effect--the active recipient
theory.
-
Mandatory reading:
Gunaratne, S. A. (2000).
Impact of global media
(On-line lecture outline)
Hachten & Scotton (2007). World News Prism,
Ch. 5 The impact of
great news events (pp. 63-76).
Other:
Ravault, R. J. (1996). International information:
Bullet or boomerang? In O. L. Paletz (Ed.). Political communication
research: approaches, studies and assessments (pp. 253-276). Norwood,
NJ: Ablex.
Ravault, R. J. (1992).
Down to earth communication
..., Canadian Journal of Communication, 17 (4)
Underwood, M. (n.d.).
The Lasswell formula
...
(On-line)
Global dailies:
Financial Times (London)
http://www.ft.com/
The International Herald
Tribune (Paris) http://www.iht.com/
USA Today (Alexandria,
Va.) http://www.usatoday.com/
Wall Street Journal
(New York) http://www.wsj.com/
Global weekly newsmagazines
The Economist (London)
http://www.economist.com/
Newsweek (New York)
http://www.newsweek.com/
Time (New York) http://cgi.pathfinder.com/time/
US News & World
Report (New York) http://www.usnews.com/usnews/home.htm
Regional weekly newsmagazines
Far Eastern Economic
Review (Hong Kong) http://www.feer.com/
Discussion (not for grading)
:
Read the current
week's issue/s of two of the above publication--one U.S. and one foreign.
Discuss the similarities and differences in the reporting of a major event by
both. Hypothesize about the effect of the story on (a) a Western audience and
(b) a non-Western audience.
Week 8 (Oct. 17)
8. Wire services in the
Information Age
Kramer: When I asked my old man
about global wire services, he said he didn’t care about wiring our home.
He rarely read even the local rag. Reuters, AP, AFP and that sort of thing
didn’t mean anything to him. Is it true that these big-time agencies have
less global clout now because every Tom, Dick and Harry can send news,
views or anything else through the Information Superhighway?
Gunaratne: Cyberspace accommodates
media from all corners of the globe. These media provide a variety of points
of view. However, economic and language factors, as well as sheer clutter,
limit access to the Information Superhighway by the world's majority. Editors
will continue to filter news for the news consumers. So the answer is the
wire services continue to have global clout.
Mandatory reading:
Hachten & Scotton. (2007). World News Prism, Ch. 3
International news system (pp. 35-46)
.
Web cast
Western media and
their "global" stereotypes (2007, Oct. 13). A panel comprising Robert J.
Thomson (London Times), Marcus Brauchli (WSJ) and Nik Gowing (BBC) at The
Hindustan Times Leadership Conference in New Delhi.
Other:
Matloff, J. (2003, July/August).
Can Reuters recover? The venerable agency
needs a new strategy for success. Columbia Journalism Review
The global wire services
Agence France Presse (Paris) http://www.afp.com/english/
Associated Press (New York) http://www.ap.org/
Reuters (London) http://www.reuters.com/
United Press International http://www.upi.com/
(Site providing daily AFP and Reuters wire feed
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/world/index.html)
Development-news-oriented wire services
Inter Press Service (Rome)
http://www.ipsnews.net/
Gemini
News Service (London) http://www.oneworld.org/gemini/
OneWorld
http://www.oneworld.net
Non-Aligned
Movement http://www.nam.gov.za/
NAM News Network
http://www.namnewsnetwork.org/
all-Africa.com
(Africa News Online) http://allafrica.com/
Discussion (not for grading):
1. Read
the
wire feed from AP (American), Reuters (British) and AFP (French) on a specific
topic. Compare and contrast the content presentation of each in terms of story
angle, national biases, reader interests, etc.
2. Read the wire feed of a development-news-oriented service (e.g., IPS, Gemini,
etc.) and comment on how different its stories are from the wire feed of AP,
Reuters or AFP.
Week 9 (Oct. 24)
9a. The world's press
systems
Kramer: Jeez, what's this talk about
upmarket broadsheets and downmarket tabloids? Have you seen the blokes
on the London tube glued to The Sun?
Gunaratne: Yes, I have seen
them glued to the Page 3 topless photo. The British tabloid press carries
the salacious material that sells newspapers. Murdoch's News of the
World, the Sunday paper with the highest circulation of any British
newspaper, is famous for that. But Murdoch also publishes the The Times,
the venerable British broadsheet that was once known as "The Thunderer."
The British press and the American press are different though they both
use English. The English-language press in Canada, Australia, New Zealand,
South Africa and other former British colonies have their own peculiarities.
The press in Scandinavia has its own distinct peculiarities. So has the
press in Japan, "Communist" China, Latin America and elsewhere.
Mandatory reading:
Gunaratne, S. A. (2005). Dao of the Press, Ch.6:Theory of
Communication-Outlets and Free Expression
Hachten & Scotton (2007), World News Prism, Ch. 12 Western
media to world media (pp.179-194).
Documentary:
Robert McChesney, Rich media, poor democracy (44 min.)
Other:
Ferraro, V. (2001).
Asian Values Debate
(Bibliography)
Gunaratne, S. A. (2000).
The media in Asia:
An overview. In S. Gunaratne (Ed.), Handbook of the media in Asia
(pp. 1-29). New Delhi: Sage (On-line)
Gunaratne, S. A. (2000).
Sri Lanka. In S. A.
Gunaratne (Ed.), Handbook of the media in Asia (pp. 182-213). New
Delhi: SAGE.
Sparks, C. (Ed.). (1998).
Tablodization
and the media. Javnost--The Public, 5 (3)
Yu, H., Hao, X., & Zhang, K. (1997).
Challenges to government control of information in China. Media Development,
44 (2), 17-22.
Discussion (for grading):
1. What are the main variables of the Theory of Communication-Outlets and
Free Expression? How does it accommodate Asian values and all other values?
Identify the weaknesses of the theory.
OR
2. Argue
the case for and against the government-press adversarial model of the
United States in the light of "tablodization" of the press.
The Daoist sages advocated wuwei (action through
nonaction) as the best way to avoid the adversarial model. Assess the merits
and demerits of the adversarial and the wuwei approaches.
Week 10 (Oct. 31)
Deadline for submitting midsemester paper
9b. The world
of broadcasting
Kramer: I've heard that blokes everywhere
believe the BBC more so than our Voice of America, Deutsche Welle or that
sort of thing. Aren't they all trying to win friends and influence people
as Dale Carnegie said?
Gunaratne: The VOA and other
U.S.-funded broadcasting services, such as Radio Free Europe, claim they
are engaged in "public diplomacy." Globally, however, the BBC has established
a reputation for credibility that no other foreign broadcasting service
has been able to match.
Mandatory reading:
Gunaratne, S. A. (in press).
Public diplomacy, global
communication, and world order: An analysis based on theory of living systems (2005). Current Sociology, 53 (5), 749-772.
Hachten & Scotton (2007). World News
Prism, Ch. 11 Public diplomacy and propaganda (pp.163-178).
Other:
Digital TV in Britain
Public broadcasting services of Western
countries
Australian Broadcasting
Corporation http://www.abc.net.au/
British Broadcasting
Corporation http://www.bbc.co.uk/home/today/
Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation http://www.cbc.ca/
Voice of America
http://www.voa.gov/
World Net TV
http://www.ibb.gov/worldnet/
Radio Marti gopher://gopher.voa.gov:70/11/marti
Radio Free Asia http://www.rfa.org/
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty http://www.rferl.org/
The International Broadcasting Web Directory
http://www.ilgradio.com/ibwd/
Link to the clandestine Services
http://www.ilgradio.com/ibwd/ilgwdcla.htm
Clandestine radio.com
http://www.clandestineradio.com/sounds/index.html
Discussion (Not for grading):
1. Listen to a
clandestine/opposition short-wave radio station and try to assess the merits
and demerits of the messages they broadcast for their audience in a particular
region or country. Find out who funds the station you selected.
2. Listen to a news broadcast of the Voice of
America and the BBC. Compare and contrast their content.
Week 11 (Nov.
7)
10. Foreign
correspondents
Kramer: Man, can I be a foreign
correspondent? What does such a creature do? What kind of problems does
he or she face?
Gunaratne: Stationing a correspondent
overseas is a costly investment for most media. Accessing information in
authoritarian countries requires skill. A good foreign correspondent should
have a knowledge of the culture and language of the area he or she covers.
Much criticism has focused on "parachute journalism." The celebrities include
C. Amanpour, P. Arnett, H. Bigart, D. Halberstam, E. R. Murrow and H. E.
Salisbury. Should we also include the likes of R. D. Kaplan, who wrote
The
Ends of the Earth, in this category?
Mandatory reading:
Hachten & Scotton (2007). World News Prism, Ch. 2 War on terrorism challenges news media; and
Ch. 10 War reporting under fire (pp. 143-162).
Documentary:
Edward Said, The myth of the clash of civilizations (55 min.)
Other:
Lecture notes:
Master
correspondents (On-line)Gunaratne, S. (1997). Review:
The ends
of the earth: A journey to the frontiers of anarchy (by R. D. Kaplan).
The
Journal of International Communication, 4 (1), 130-132.
Hess, S. (1996).
International news
and foreign correspondents (blurb). Washington, DC: Brookings.
Davis, C. (1996). Review:
International
news and foreign correspondents (by S. Hess). The Journal of International
Communication, 3 (2), 128-130.
Hickey, N. (1996, Nov./Dec.). Review:
International
news and foreign correspondents (by S. Hess). Columbia Journalism Review
Starck, K. (1996). Review:
On the front
lines: Following America's foreign correspondents across the Twentieth
Century (by M. Emery). The Journal of International Communication, 3
(2), 126-128.
Discussion (for grading):
1. a. What makes a good
foreign correspondent?
b. How are contemporary war reporters different from those profiled in the
documentary?
c. Identify and comment on today's star foreign
correspondents in both broadcast and print
OR2. Has the war on terrorism
curtailed freedom of the press? Document your answer.
OR
3. Is there evidence of a "clash of civilizations"? Is
Huntington's view reflected in the Western media? Who is more convincing--Said
or Huntington?
Week 12 (Nov.
14)
11. Foreign
news in the U.S. media
Kramer: Does it really matter how
much international news American networks or newspapers carry? Why should
I worry about the Third World and that sort of thing, anyway? But I wonder
how that guy Ali Baba from Baluchistan or some godforsaken place learn
about what's happening over there?
Gunaratne: The American mass
media are focusing more on what's local than international. That's happening
despite increasing globalization. These media are paying hardly any attention
to developing countries. Hoge says the reasons for this phenomenon
include the end of the Cold War, media concentration, and shorter public
attention spans. Online newspapers have become important news sources for
people like Ali Baba—those who look for news on Third World countries.
Documentary:
Reporting the World (57 min.)
featuring
Robert MacNeil of MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour, Anne Garrels of National Public
Radio, Tony Day from the Los Angeles Times, and John Hughes of The Christian
Science Monitor, this video highlights concerns for reporters delivering
stories from across the globe. (1997)
Other:
American Society of Newspaper Editors
(1998).
Bringing the world home
(On-line)
Arnett, P. (1998, November).
The state of
the American newspaper: Goodbye world. American Journalism Review.
pp. 51-67. [On-line].
Cassara, C. (1996). Review:
Who stole the
news? Why we cannot keep up with what happens in the world and what we
can do about it (by M. Rosenblum). The Journal of International Communication,
3 (2), 130-132.
Ginsberg, T. (2002, Jan./Feb.).
Rediscovering the
world, American Journalism Review [On-line].
Hoge, J. R. (1997, Nov./Dec.).
Foreign news:
Who gives a damn? Columbia Journalism Review
Moisy, C. (1996, November). The foreign news
flow in the information age. The Joan Shorenstein Center discussion paper
[On-line].
Seaton, E. (1998).
The diminishing use
of foreign news reporting. Address to the International Press Institute,
Moscow, May 26.
Shaw, D. (2001, Sept. 27). Foreign news shrinks in era of
globalization. Los Angeles Times [On-line].
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines01/0927-03.htm
Discussion (for grading):
1. What do experts
say are the reasons for the decline in foreign news? Are these reasons
based on solid research or mere opinion? (Read the ASNE report and the Hoge
article for background.)
OR
2. In the Age of Information, there is no
dearth of foreign news. Global conglomerates distribute news worldwide in
abundance. Then, why do some complain about the decline in foreign news in
national newscasts and local newspapers?
Week 13 (Nov. 21)
Recess: No class
Week 14 (Nov. 28)
12. Asian philosophy
and the New
World information and Communication Order
Kramer: What are these acronyms,
NWICO, NIEO and so forth? Didn’t Uncle Sam and friends split hair with
their old colonies about these thingamajigs in the ‘70s and the ‘80s?
I cannot figure out what all these have to do with Asian
philosophy.
Gunaratne: The United Nations’
call for a New International Economic Order in the mid-‘70s resonated in
UNESCO’s call for a New World Information and Communication Order in the
early ‘80s. The 1980 MacBride Report presented 82 recommendations in support
of a NWICO. These developments led to the withdrawal of the United States
and the United Kingdom from UNESCO in 1984 and 1985 respectively. Although
the United Kingdom re-joined UNESCO in 1997, the United States has not.
Mandatory reading:
Gunaratne, S. A. (2005) Dao of the Press,
Ch. 2: Eastern Philosophy: Congruence with Quantum Physics.
Hachten & Scotton (2002). World News Prism, Ch. 7: China: Caged
media in a free economy (pp. 94-115); and
Ch.
8. The evolving media of the Arabs and Africa (pp. 116-127).
Other:
Campaign on Communication Rights for the Information Society (CRIS)
Gunaratne, S., & Conteh, A. (1988).
Global
Communication and Dependency: Links between the NIEO and NWICO demands
and the withdrawals from UNESCO. Moorhead State University.
Gunaratne, S. (1995).
Books on global communication
become a philosophical tussle between the right and the left, (1995). Media
Development, 42 (2), 44-47 (On-line).
Lecture
notes on NWICO
(On-line).
The MacBride Roundtable on communication
(On-line).
Right to Communicate
(On-line).
Discussion
(for grading):
1. What are the main
reasons behind the clamor for a NWICO by the Non-Aligned Movement? Briefly
critique the merits and demerits of these reasons?
OR
2. Can the onto-cosmology of Eastern philosophy provide the way to enrich
the epistemology of Western science to produce more universally applicable
communication theories? Give examples.
Week 15 (Dec. 5)
Take-home part of final examination
13. United Nations
System
Kramer: Don't get me wrong. I didn’t
learn much about the United Nations and whatnot at high school or anywhere
else. Tell me, what does it do?
Gunaratne: International communication
at a global level takes place at the United Nations. This is where the
East and the West meet to resolve world problems. Therefore, it's pertinent
to study the structure and the role of this organization.
Reading:
Lecture
Notes
Documentary:
Reporting the World: The United
Nations
(57 min) explores the challenges and difficulties in
reporting on the United Nations. It features a panel discussion with John Hughes
of The Christian Science Monitor, Barbara Crossette of The New York Times, and
Shashi Tharoor of the United Nations. (1997).
Other:
United Nations http://www.un.org/
U.N. in
brief http://www.un.org/Overview/brief.html
U.N. secretaries-general http://www.un.org/Overview/SG/index.html
Deputy U.N. secretary-general http://www.un.org/aboutun/DSG/
Principal organs of the U.N. http://www.un.org/Overview/Organs/index.html
U.N. Charter http://www.un.org/aboutun/charter/
U.N. member states http://www.un.org/Overview/unmember.html
Statute of the International Court of
Justice http://www.un.org/Overview/Statute/contents.html>
Facts about
the United Nations http://www.un.org/News/facts/
Universal
Declaration of Human Rights http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html
Image and
reality http://www.un.org/geninfo/ir/
U.N. history
History of the U.N. http://www.un.org/Overview/origin.html
Milestones http://www.un.org/Overview/milesto4.htm
Major achievements http://www.un.org/Overview/achieve.html
Reform at the U.N. http://www.un.org/reform/
Databases http://www.un.org/databases/
Week 16 (Dec. 12)
Study Day
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Examination Week (Dec.
19)
In-class part of final examination
The following topics are excluded this semester because of intervening holidays.
14a. UNESCO
Kramer: My old man thought UNESCO
was a vessel. Never mind. Can you tell me what it does? Why hasn't Uncle
Sam rejoined it if it's helluva agency?
b. International
Telecommunication Union and ICANN
Kramer: Tell me, why do they say
that the ITU has become much more important than it used to be? What gave
it such a boost?
Gunaratne: The 1984 Maitland
Report concluded that telecommunication development had a high correlation
with economic growth in the Information Age. Thus the stature of ITU rose
as its responsibilities increased with the PTT public monopolies transforming
themselves into competitive public and/or private enterprises.:
International Telecommunication Union http://www.itu.int/
Radiocommunication
Sector http://www.itu.int/ITU-R/index.html
Telecommunication Standardization
Sector http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/index.html
Telecommunications
Development Sector http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/index.html
ITU telecommunication indicators http://www.itu.int/ti/
c. World Trade
Organization
Kramer: I've learned a few things
from this discussion. Now, one for the road--What's all this commotion
about the WTO takeover of cultural commodities?
Gunaratne: The WTO agreements
cover goods, services and intellectual property. They spell out the principles
of liberalization, and the permitted exceptions. Some
have alleged that the United States maneuvered to disempower UNESCO after
the 1984 disagreement and got the WTO to takeover some of the original
responsibilities of UNESCO. (By the way, WTO is not an agency of the United
Nations.)
Murphy, P. M. (1996). Negotiating international
communications: Structure and infrastructure. Canadian Journal of Communication,
21 (2), 229-241. http://hoshi.cic.sfu.ca/calj/cjc/BackIssues/21.2/murphy.html
Ruggiero, R. (1997). Leading into
the next millennium. Address to the Brookings Institution, Nov. 18.
http://www.wto.org/wto/speeches/washing.htm
Ruggiero, R. (1998). A borderless
world. Address by WTO director-general to the OECD Ministerial Conference,
Ottawa, Oct. 7. http://www.wto.org/wto/speeches/ott.htm
World Trade Organization http://www.wto.org/
About the
WTO http://www.wto.org/htbin/htimage/wto/map.map?91,39
Focus (WTO
Newsletter) http://www.wto.org/wto/focus/focus.htm
Intellectual
property http://www.wto.org/wto/intellec/intellec.htm
TRIPS (Trade-Related aspects of Intellectual Property Rights)
http://www.wto.org/wto/intellec/intell2.htm
GATS (General
Agreement on Trade in Services) http://www.wto.org/wto/about/agmnts5.htm
©1999-2007 Shelton
Gunaratne