Notice to authors: Please ask your publishers to send review copies of your books to Professor Shelton Gunaratne , JIC review editor, Mass Communications Department, Moorhead State University, Moorhead, MN 56563, U.S.A.
Alleyne, Mark D.
International Power and International Communication.
New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995. xii+181pp.
News Revolution: Political and Economic Decisions
about Global
Information. New York:
St. Martin's Press, 1997. xii+220pp.
Alleyne's two recent books introduce a substantial conceptual framework
that further helps scholars stitch together the disparate and seemingly
unrelated fragments of the field. The books employ the constructs
communication, information, and power to demonstrate how scholars
can
analyze distinct aspects of international communication--news,
policy,
regulation, diplomacy, and entertainment--through a coherent template.
The first book comprises seven chapters that deal with
regulation,
entertainment, news structures and flows, communication and diplomacy,
and
the New World Information and Communication Order. Chapter 1 gives
the
conceptual framework; it distinguishes between communication and
information, and explains the notion of power. It describes communication
as both a means and a process, and it conceptualizes information
as useful
and valuable factual matter that enables coordinated action in
economic and
political realms. Alleyne uses the term communication to refer
to the
international hardware of satellites, computers, phone lines, etc.,
and the
term information to content--movies, stock quotes, news, etc.
Alleyne approaches the concept of power from the interdisciplinary
scholarship of international relations--power as addressing the
ability to
exercise influence or control in a variety of environments. To
analyze the
dynamics of power, he develops the contrasting notions of relational
power
(overt interventions) and structural power (the hidden ability
to control
options and outcomes). Linking the two, Alleyne asserts that the
power of
communication--the ability to use a variety of channels--is quite
distinct
from the power of information--the ability to determine what content
will
be carried on those channels.
Alleyne has embedded these core ideas in five subsequent
chapters that
focus on major regulatory bodies and policy formation (Chapter
2), trade in
cultural products (Chapter 3), politics of global news (Chapter
4), use of
communication in cultural diplomacy and relations (Chapter 5),
and the New
World Information and Communication Order (Chapter 6). Alleyne's
treatment
of these topics is introductory and incomplete. Nevertheless, he
has deftly
linked the seemingly disparate strands of international communication
with
fundamental ideas.
Alleyne's central concepts and resulting analysis are
political. He
situates himself in the critical tradition of international communication
research that takes a stand for the development of theories that
draw
together the relationships between communication, peace, justice,
and
democracy. Such a stand results in a description and analysis that
explicitly labels some international communication policies and
practices
as capitalist, undemocratic, oppressive, and racist.
Although Alleyne's work is openly biased toward a structural
analysis,
oversimplification is not one of the flaws. His description and
analysis is
three-dimensional. The chapter on cultural products describes the
hegemony
of global media industries and analyzes their consequences in terms
of both
cultural imperialism hypotheses and the "pull factors" of social
preferences and government policies of peripheral countries. The
resulting
portrait of international power and international communication
is a fairly
dense network of at times competing, at times contradictory interests,
actions, and consequences in the global arena.
The second book builds upon the conceptual and substantive
framework
constructed in the first, but focuses more tightly on the political
economy
of news media in international relations. It begins with the premise
that
transnational news has been problematical historically in various
ways.
Technological innovations that hastened global social transformation
at the
end of this century have given a new dimension to those problems.
The introduction presents the book's major premises
and basic
definitions. Chapter 2, constituting theory, deals with the economics
of
international news. Alleyne says: "The international flow of news
has
always been directly related to transnational economic exchanges,
especially international trade and investment" (p. 17). Then he
introduces
the value dimension of news and uses the evolution of Reuters as
the
illustrative case to support his assertions. Chapter 3 defines
propaganda
and illustrates its relevance to news analysis. Chapter 4 deals
with the
call for a NWICO. The concept of "distributive justice" distinguishes
Alleyne's historical account of NWICO from other expositions on
the
subject. Chapter 5 examines censorship--from government suppression
to
market practices that eclipse certain realities to protect the
power and
privilege of limited social actors. Chapter 6 describes the physical
dangers faced by working journalists and explores the difficulty
of
enacting practical reforms to protect them.
Chapter 2 unpacks the term "globalization" in a way
that goes beyond the
benign and unifying definitions attached to popular parlance. Alleyne
concludes that "globalization is actually a misnomer, the label
is applied
to intensified transnational exchanges not across the entire world
necessarily, but in a few fractions of it" (p. 31). The chapter
on
propaganda redefines the term to both diminish the entirely negative
connotation associated with it and to enhance the structural aspects
involved in its production. Alleyne usefully synthesizes a range
of primary
and secondary sources to demonstrate that propaganda is not always
regarded
as a negative or damaging sort of information.
In the chapter describing the economics of international
news, Alleyne
provides a compelling rationale for scholars to consider the value
dimension of business and financial news in understanding the global
media
business. But he tends to boil down all decision-making to rational
cost-benefit analyses that leaves the study of global media mechanical,
bloodless, and cold. In the chapter that develops such a sophisticated
framework for thinking about propaganda, a convincing exemplar
should have
been more fully developed to demonstrate how the "objective," commercial
media sustain news campaigns that lionize and demonize international
political figures and events. The chapter on censorship contains
a related
disappointment. Although Alleyne does an outstanding job of conceptualizing
censorship, the examples he provides do not convincingly illustrate
and
sustain his theoretical claim.
The concluding chapter uses five general conclusions
to develop a news
revolution model, which describes two institutional spheres--the
news
system (production organizations) on the one hand and the political
and
economic groups (states, market structures, financial services)
on the
other--and traces the interactions, or "claims," that each places
on the
other.
Both books suffer from a significant drawback: the
downplaying of human
agency and culture while granting primacy to structural forces
in the
search for significance in the study of international communication.
This
flaw is a manifestation of the most significant and apparently
irreconcilable divide marking the communication field today.
Brants, Kees, Joke Hermes, and Liesbet van Zoonen,
eds.
The Media in Question: Popular Cultures and Public Interests.
London:
Sage. 1998. viii + 184 pp.
The contributions to this collection, mostly European based and
focused,
are in honor of Denis McQuail on his retirement from the University
of
Amsterdam. If they have a common concern, it is one that stems
from the
upheaval in European media as they emerge from a public-service,
public-interest model to a popular, fragmented, commercial-entertainment
model in which the old distinctions between public, information
and
citizenship, on the one hand, and popular, entertainment and consumers,
on
the other, are rapidly disintegrating in favor of the latter.
Whether this upheaval--this "deep crisis" as the book's
introduction calls
it--is more noticeable among media scholars than the media themselves
is a
moot point. However, it must be said that if the contributors are
in crisis
mode, they have managed to retain a sense of dignity and decorum
as they
calmly, perhaps a little too calmly, dissect, scrutinize and occasionally
pathologize the increasingly wayward and potentially dysfunctional
body of
the European media.
But it's not all forensic science. The word normative
is the book's mantra;
it crops up everywhere, although only one of the contributors half-way
through tries to explain what it all means and why it is important--which
is passing strange in a book that is "essential reading for students
in
mass communication" as the blurb would have it. Of course, we old
hands
know--or pretend we know--all about normative media theory: something
to do
with values, what should or ought to happen to, for and by way
of the
media. And on the whole the book makes a reasonable fist of applying
its
"normativity" to the new-look, new-age media without being blatantly
moralistic or proscriptive.
Nevertheless, the high-mindedness and seriousness do
get a bit stodgy at
times, and one gets the impression that even though the contributors
are
making valiant efforts to come to terms with and make sense of
the funky,
fragmented downmarket stuff, their hearts are not quite in it.
Most of
them, one feels, still prefer the solid citizen approach to media-not
necessarily conservative, tasteful, middle-class citizenship, but
activist
minority citizenship where all enjoy equal access to a diverse
media and
the democratic debates engendered therein. (Implicit in the call
for
minority citizenship is the normative (?) assumption that the deserving
minorities are those representing racial, ethnic and sexual differences.
Where the rising tide of right-wing extremist "citizen" minority
groups
fits into the democracy and diversity equation is not contemplated.)
Despite these quibbles, the book delivers on a number
of fronts. Although
not adding a great deal to the debate, Peter Golding provides yet
another
clear summary of the enduring issues surrounding media regulation
in
general and the new satellite and digital technology in particular.
Succeeding chapters take up the theme with diversity and convergence
thrown
in for good measure, although it's not always riveting: "Drawing
on our
longitudinal study of Flemish television supply...." Then three
pages
later: "The public broadcasting system in Flanders does still show
more
structural diversity than the commercial one, but there is a clear
reductionist trend." Right ... thanks for that.
Jan van Cuilenburg livens up the diversity debate marginally
by drawing
attention to the possibility, or probability, of the following
paradoxes:
More diversity is less diversity; more information is less information;
more communication is less communication. A nice topic, this, for
a
first-year undergraduate tutorial.
In the book's second section, "In search of the public
interest," Jay
Blumler decides to "wrestle" with the same public interest in "organized
communications," which, he says, is currently "under siege." Nevertheless,
cultural democracy and political democracy are values to be reckoned
with,
along with something called "social knitting," which I rather like
as a
friendly sounding, feminizing antidote to all that rough stuff.
Following a clarion-call by Cees J. Hamelink to all
communication scholars
to aspire to world communication rather than economic globalization,
we are
brought down to earth a little by Ien Ang's contribution. This
is, by far,
the most interesting and challenging chapter because it subtly
and
sensitively teases out some of the contradictions facing researchers
such
as McQuail-and other like-minded contributors-who, originally working
from
a basis in political economy and the social sciences, are now forced
to
take stock of postmodern media culture and to adopt or adapt postmodern
methodologies in order to pursue the new culture. Ang's piece is
daring in
the sense that it confronts McQuail with his dilemmas, if not demons,
but
it is also incredibly gracious and generous in giving recognition
to
McQuail's huge contribution to our understanding of media research
and
virtually giving him the last word on what media studies is and
should be
all about. If McQuail is to have a favorite, this will be the one.
The rest of this review is going to be something of an anti-climax
as,
indeed, is the book. However, worth mentioning are the following:
Peter
Dahlgren's digestible treatise on citizenship and civic television
journalism (they are not totally incompatible); Jan Wieten on reality
television; Liesbet van Zoonen on gossip and the popular media;
additional
chapters on sports reporting, popular fiction, professional ethics,
while
even George Gerbner gets a look-in with his oft-repeated work on
violence
profiles.
The penultimate word should go to van Zoonen: "As a result of case
law,
audience pressures and a new generation of journalists, Dutch gossip
magazines at least are increasingly aware of the necessity that
all of
their stories should contain the truth to begin with."
I always knew those Dutch were a damn normative lot.
Grahame Griffin, senior lecturer
School of Arts
Griffith University-Gold Coast
Carlsson, Ulla (ed.)
The XIII Nordic Conference on Mass Communication
Research,
Jyväskylä, 9-12 August 1997. Special Issue
of Nordicom Review
Vol. 19,
No. 1, 1998. 298pp.
How has the so-called new media landscape affected the choice of
object,
theory and methods in media studies in the Nordic countries? The
answer is
in the proceedings of the 1997 Nordic Conference on Mass Communication
Research that Carlsson has edited for her peer group.
The biannual conference is no small event. We learn this
from Carlsson's
foreword, which informs us that "nearly 300 researchers from all
five
Nordic countries" and "roughly a dozen colleagues from the Baltic
countries" presented nearly 150 papers in 20 different working
groups.
Carlsson has selected 18 papers for this report in English. Apart
from
these papers, the publication contains six keynote speeches for
two
plenary sessions, one on theory and methodology in media and communication
research, and the other on the media landscape in transition: research
on
new information technology.
The convergence in media networks (digitalization, technology
of
distribution), in media markets (sectors, branches, and ownership)
and in
media services (multimedia) seems to point toward one master-medium:
the
computer. Jens F. Jensen (Aalborg, Denmark) sets off from the provocative
statement by Michael Crichton, the author of Jurassic Park,
that
"today's media is tomorrow's fossil fuel." Jensen argues that media
research ("mediasaurus research") threatens to become an extinct
species
if it does not change the maps according to the new landscape.
The
traditional distinction between mass communication and communication
is
not valid any longer in the face of the new media. The interactive
media
are something in between, and the old concepts cannot grasp this
new
complexity. Jensen deals with the concept of interactivity
in a separate
paper in the last section of the issue. He says that central
concepts
such as 'sender,' 'medium,' 'receiver,' 'content,' 'feedback,'
'gatekeeper,' etc. , have to be redefined. How do we research media
content when there is no stable entity called 'a work'? The flow
character
of the television experience is just the beginning of the problem
of
corpus construction in textual analysis within media studies. Jensen's
timely address poses such questions, and many more, but provides
no
answers.
So then, is media research in crisis? Both Johan Fornäs
(Stockholm,
Sweden) and Eli Skobergo (Oslo, Norway) answers no. Fornäs
reminds us
that historically all new media have provoked utopian and dystopian
visions, and all new media stand on the shoulders of old media.
Interactivity as such is nothing new. From a cultural studies point
of
view, Fornäs argues, the new media focus research on dimensions
in the old
media that have been neglected, and make more obvious the discursive
character of culture. What's needed is a crossing of the
borderline
between communicative and cultural perspectives to grasp the new
media and
the social forces they mediate.
Skogerbö, who is researching national media policies
in Europe and the
limited space for national political action, is even more optimistic.
Media research has always been in crisis, but the interdisciplinary
character of the field makes it possible for media research to
contribute
with critical perspectives to a field that presently is dominated
by the
'inevitabilities' of market research and neo-liberal political
discourse.
The three remaining speakers all have a more remote connection
to the
new media, and they seem to be stuck with the classical dichotomies
in
media research, such as the social science approach versus a humanities
approach, critical versus administrative research, text versus
context,
etc. Jan Ekecrantz (Stockholm, Sweden) argues that media research
is
marginalized within the scientific community because of the 'ands'
of the
(false) dichotomies. Text and context is really text
or context, and
media studies can occupy the no-man's land between the humanities
and the
social sciences only if the two traditions meet "as equally elaborated
theoretical domains" (p. 18). At the same time, he calls for more
transnational research collaboration to transcend the parochialism
of
contemporary media research.
It is tempting to interpret this position as a new trend,
a
traditionalist one. The merger between the social sciences and
the
humanities in media studies was an institutional rather than a
scientific
thing; and, therefore, the slogan now seems to be "Back to basics."
And
this is precisely what Jostein Gripsrud (Bergen, Norway) is advocating
in
his contribution. "Misplaced sociologists" have harmed textual
analysis;
and to correct the situation, we must study the classics in aesthetics
and
philosophy, set up a canon of media texts and start studying texts
with an
ideographic approach instead of a nomothetic.
Ullamaija Kivikuru's (Helsinki, Finland) diagnosis is that
a crisis
exists. Conformity characterizes media studies in the Nordic
countries
now. The problems studied threaten to be irrelevant and trivial
because of
political correctness. Further, too much weight is placed on
methodological problems instead of fresh thinking and theoretical
reflection. The field is trendy and English and American publishing
houses
govern the reading; and researchers seem to avoid basic social
and moral
issues when asking the research questions. Finally, Kivikuru argues
that
the absence of discussion among media researchers leads to the
reinvention
of the wheel over and over again.
Finally, if we have a brief look at the collection of papers
for the
conference, is it not unfair to say that they represent 'business
as
usual'? Only one paper, already mentioned, deals with reconceptualization
in the face of the new media. Most are oriented toward national
media, and
international perspectives are absent. In that sense, the parochialism
that Ekecrantz mentions has some validity if these papers are
representative of current media studies in the Nordic countries.
The lack
of quality in textual analysis diagnosed by Gripsrud is difficult
to
verify. On the whole the papers present many interesting projects
and
results. If this judgment is correct, it also points to a certain
'schizophrenia' among the Nordic media researchers. The rapid
institutionalization of media research into the mass universities
leaves
little space for the free intellectual with the grand, critical
views. The
question is touched upon by all of the keynote speakers, but it
should be
studied systematically: What is the relation between the shrinking
autonomy of the mass university and the degree of social critique
in
contemporary (media) research?
Carlsson, Ulla, & Cecilia von Feilitzen,
eds.
Children and Media Violence.
Göteborg,
Sweden: The UNESCO International
Clearinghouse on Children and Violence on the Screen.
1998. 387 pp.
Children and Media Violence is a valuable contribution to
the
international debate on the impact of media violence on children
and the
role that media violence plays in children's lives. The goal of
this edited
volume, a product of the UNESCO International Clearinghouse on
Violence on
the Screen, is to promote knowledge of the relationship between
children
and media violence around the world.
The volume has 14 research articles, representing research
conducted in
nine different individual countries (United States, Japan, Australia,
New
Zealand, Israel, Argentina, China, South Africa, and Belgium),
two regional
studies (Europe, Asia) and two reports of global research.
It also has a
section on the U.N. and UNESCO agendas on children and the media,
and
worldwide examples of children's participation in the media, statistical
tables on children and media, and information on media regulations
in
different countries.
It is immediately striking to see how prevalent and
widespread research
on media violence is. U.S. scholars often get an insular
view of research
partly because they are often limited to studies published in English.
In
this volume, researchers from a variety of cultures and with a
variety of
native tongues communicate their ideas and findings in a common
tongue.
Although the quality of the writing is somewhat uneven because
of this,
this unevenness is a fair tradeoff for the value of having access
to
contributions from so many countries.
Two major themes permeate the book. One is how
the violence in
U.S.-made productions is a factor in children's lives around the
world. For
example, the preface by Nils Gunnar Nilsson, the representative
of Sweden
on the Executive Board of UNESCO, reports on a survey showing that
42
percent of 10- to 16-year-olds in Britain had seen the R-rated
super-violent American hit Pulp Fiction. And the reach
of American
violent media is not limited to English-speaking countries.
In another
chapter, Jo Groebel, who reports on a survey of 5,000 12-year-olds
from a
representative range of 23 countries, says that 93 percent of the
children
questioned have access to a TV set; that the average child spends
three
hours a day watching television; and that fully 88 percent of the
worldwide
respondents are familiar with Terminator star Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The
sheer volume of work done on media violence, as well as the number
of
countries making this issue a priority, is impressive.
The second theme that emerges is the existence of many
different ways of
looking at the media violence with the corollary that researchers
from all
nations can benefit from sharing not only their findings but also
their
methodological approaches. The research articles begin with
two
contributions from researchers for the U.S. National Television
Violence
Study. They summarize the major research findings and theories
of effects
now dominant in American social science discourse and report the
findings
of a content analysis of randomly selected composite weeks of programming
on 23 U.S. broadcast and cable channels. These articles not
only reveal
how much violence is on U.S. television, but also show that the
context in
which it is typically presented (e.g., attractive characters performing
unpunished violence that produces no pain) is destined to promote
children's imitation of aggression and the acquisition of violent
attitudes
and behaviors.
Sachiko Imaizumi Kodaira presents a particularly interesting
report on
content analyses that explains the often-cited anomaly that although
Japanese television is extremely violent, Japanese society is not.
These
analyses show that Japanese television places much more emphasis
on the
suffering of the victims of violence than Western productions do.
A
fascinating chapter by Dafna Lemish chronicles the sudden and alarming
effects of World Wrestling Federation wrestling programs on Israeli
school
children. (The chapter on Japan reports on a similar effect
of televised
wrestling in the 1950s.) What is astonishing about the Israeli
case study
is that the airing of WWF programs in Israel created a genuine
crisis of
injuries in the schools (at least 150 injuries requiring professional
medical care), and that it was necessary to mobilize a widespread
response
by the school system, ranging from stricter monitoring of children
on the
playground to large-scale media education efforts.
I am also struck by differences in the approach to
the question in the
different countries. Although many countries seem to consider
media
violence a serious problem, there is a vein of denial represented
by the
more cultural approach of some British researchers, and reflected
in the
chapter by Olga Linné on European research. Linné
reports that in the
earlier days of Scandinavian television, before commercial channels
were
prominent, there was little violence on television but much concern
among
researchers on the effects of violence. Today, on the other
hand, when
violence is such a prominent aspect of Scandinavian TV, researchers
have
rejected the media-effects model, along with it their concerns
about
effects on children. Linné says researchers today
are more concerned with
how young people use violent media than what it does to them.
Still, this
appears to be a minority view in the context of the entire volume.
The range of methods and theoretical approaches is
also striking -- from
the psychological, social scientific analyses of the National Television
Violence Study to the wide-ranging psychoanalytical approach of
Tatiana
Merlo-Flores from Argentina. Although I was not able to agree
with
Merlo-Flores' conclusions, I found her in-depth questionnaire about
children's reasons for liking different programs quite promising.
In all, the picture one gets about the state of research
on media
violence is diverse, and my guess is that this diversity reflects
a true
picture of how the problem of media violence is conceptualized
around the
world. The book represents a good first step in bringing
researchers and
ideas together, and it should indeed be valuable for teachers who
want to
broaden their perspective on the issue in their classes, researchers
who
want to benefit from experiences around the world, and policy makers
who
need to see how the this problem is conceived of and dealt with
in
different countries.
Joanne Cantor, professor
Department of Communication Arts
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Chaffee, Steven H., and Everett M. Rogers (eds.).
The Beginnings of Communication Study in America:
A Personal
Memoir by Wilbur Schramm.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1997. xii+206pp.
Chaffee and Rogers have produced a book from the memoirs of the
communication scholar Wilbur Schramm, who died in 1987. They kept
Schramm's title because "no one has ever been better qualified
than
Schramm to write on this subject" (p.ix) and because Schramm is
"the
founder of communication study, not only in America, but in the
world" (p.
127). Indeed they are well qualified to complete and edit
Schramm's
memoirs because they are both products of early Midwestern schools
of
journalism and mass communications whose development Schramm inspired
and
influenced. Part I of the book comprises the six original
Schramm
chapters as Chaffee and Rogers found them in his computer. Part
II
contains two new chapters: one on Schramm himself; the other
reconstructed from Schramm's outline in his table of contents.
Thus this book, which is of international interest,
combines the
writing and memories of three scholars. It demonstrates some of
the
European origins of American communication scholarship. However,
Schramm
begins with a discussion of the influences of three Americans-engineering
scholar Charles Horton Cooley (1864-1929), sociologist Robert Ezra
Park
(1964-1944) and anthropologist Edward Sapir (1884-1939)-on
the beginnings
of communication scholarship. He then devotes chapters to the four
men he
considers to be the forefathers: political scientist Harold Lasswell,
German psychologists Paul Lazarsfeld and Kurt Lewin, and American
psychologist Carl Hovland. Their emphasis on the empirical approach
to
communication studies is what singles them out of a large group
of
"fathers" (among them Cooley, Park, Sapir, Mead, Dewey, and Whorf).
These
chapters, which give the readers insight into what made these men
tick,
are the heart of the book. Schramm provides factual background
material
and his opinions on each of these men and their contributions to
empirical
social science.
Schramm discusses the emergence of schools of journalism
and mass
communication at U.S. universities. The first journalism school
devoted to
"professional activity" was established in 1908 (p.18). By 1950
there were
100 such schools. Communication research, including studies of
audiences,
effects and media content, was being conducted at social science
research
institutes. Soon these two strains-professional activity and social
science research-merged and journalism students began writing research
theses (p.18) giving birth to a new academic field.
The men in this book made major contributions to communication
studies.
This book helps understand why we study the past to understand
the
present. Schramm was one of those names I learned as a doctoral
student
at Iowa in the '80s. His role at the University of Iowa gave him
a place
in the pantheon, but Chaffee and Rogers have contextualized his
role, and
that of others, in a way that disparate communication courses have
not
done. Not everyone is aware that Schramm was also a fiction writer,
who
founded the Iowa Writer's Institute.
This book contains an interesting section on the U.S. government's
role
in the development of communication studies. In their chapter on
Schramm,
the editors detail his role in Washington, D.C., from 1941-1943
working
for the Office of Facts and Figures, the forerunner to the U.S.
Information Agency. Schramm's work with Lazarsfeld, Stoddard,
Likert,
Casey, Hilgard, Stouffer and Lasswell was seminal: "World War II
created
the conditions for the founding of the communication field" (p.135).
Schramm returned to Iowa as director of the school of journalism
where he
started the first doctoral program in mass communication. It became
a
model for communication studies.
Schramm went on to direct the institutes for communication
research at
Illinois and Stanford, where he was able to attract federal research
funds. He also became an adviser to foreign governments on
media,
communication and development topics. Schramm is associated with
nearly
all major communication research studies and theories, directly
or
indirectly. He taught or influenced the mentors of today's leading
communication scholars. His students conducted international
research,
which was of great interest to him. He worked for UNESCO, formed
European
scholarship links with the University of Paris, trained international
students at Stanford, helped found the Indian Institute for Mass
Communications in New Delhi, the East-West Communication Center
in Hawaii,
and taught international communication in Hong Kong.
The editors, however, have devoted little space to criticism
of Schramm.
This is the weakness of the book. These two authors belong to the
Schramm
camp of U.S. communication scholarship. Thus they use quotation
marks on
concepts such as media imperialism, U.S. domination of the Third
World,
top-down communication, and dependency, among others attributed
to
Schramm's work. They call Schramm's detractors "polemical critical
scholars" (p.150) whose criticism "took a toll on his spirit in
his
advancing age." In 1979, however, Schramm admitted that his 1964
book
Mass Media and National Development recommended unsuitable,
Western
models of change that failed in developing countries.1
The final chapter describes Schramm's philosophy of academic
development. Readers from countries without well-developed
university
programs of mass communication can benefit from a careful reading
of
Schramm's vision for communication study and its necessary components.
The
editors have remained faithful to their reading of Schramm and
his
existing body of work. Parts of this chapter describe recent history
such
as the origins of the International Communication Association (p.171)
and
the founding of the major journals (p.174).
Schramm predicted that communication would drive a consolidation
with
anthropology, psychology, sociology, economics and political science
to
form a science of human behavior (p.177). It should be interesting
to
observe this prediction in the future, because of Schramm's emphasis
on
the historical emergence of the discipline from those fields.
The book has a 12-page bibliography that in itself contains
the history
of communication study. It is fascinating reading for anyone involved
in
teaching journalism and mass communication, or researching in these
fields.
__________
1Schramm, W. Mass Media and National Development. International
Commission for the Study of Communication Problems, No. 42. Paris:
UNESCO,
1979.
Joy Morrison, associate professor
Department of Journalism and Broadcasting
University of Alaska at Fairbanks
Denton, Robert E., Jr., ed.
The 1996 Presidential Campaign: A Communication
Perspective.
Westport, CT: Praeger, 1998. ix+299pp.
Although the core theme on which this book is built is more than
two years
old, its elucidation of the increasing distrust and anger with
the
political process and politicians will strike a chord with many.
Denton's
work has appeared at an opportune time, given the continuing machinations
over the Clinton-Lewinsky affair.
Some themes in this edited collection will appeal to those
who have been
following the latest presidential scandal. Although the collection
has
tightly focussed on American politics, it will find favor with
scholars
worldwide as a research reference and an undergraduate text.
Denton's foreword brings out the symbiotic connection between
politics
and communication-a connection applicable in any political context,
anywhere in the world. Aristotle recognized more than 2,300 years
ago that
"politics and communication go hand in hand because they are essential
parts of human nature" (ix). The recent federal election Down Under
might
duly remind one of this connection, as well as the convergence
between the
American and Australian campaign styles. This convergence in campaign
styles is apparent in two areas: the politicians' rhetoric; and
the
stylistic elements associated with launches, press conference and
other
campaign events. Many Western democracies will continue to follow
this
trend. Certainly, the rhetoric of politicians across the globe
seems to be
increasingly similar, as much as the actual tactics they use in
manipulating media and advertising. The most common catchcry of
audience
analyzers and media commentators, however, is the widespread
dissatisfaction among the public with the political process and
the
emergence of style over content in many campaigns.
Denton's collection-with contributions from scholars, many
of whom
either hold or have held positions in political research-covers
a variety
of areas in political communication, including television, advertising,
political cartoons, campaign debates, political rhetoric, voting
patterns,
the role of women in the campaign and new technologies. All examine
the
phenomenon from a communication perspective.
The introduction and foreword provide a brief history of
the emergence
of communication as a field within the academic setting. This helps
situate the chapters that follow. Denton suggests the book tries
to "go
beyond the quantitative facts, electoral counts, and poll results
of the
election," and "each chapter focuses on a specific political campaign
communication"(xv). Using this statement as the basis for a critique
of
the work, the book certainly achieves what it sets out to do; more
importantly, it does so within the context of communication theory.
Most
contributors have worked the statistics they have introduced into
a
broader qualitative examination of campaigns. The combination
of
qualitative and quantitative approaches makes this book a valuable
collection.
Denton provides a communication model for political campaigns,
including
tools for analyzing and understanding presidential campaigns. One
could
easily transpose this model onto other political campaigns as a
worthwhile
analytical tool. He documents the elements of a campaign and their
functions from a communication perspective-as social processes,
not as
individual unconnected events. Denton's analytical tool treats
environment, organization, finance, public opinion polls, image
and public
communication as interconnecting elements in political campaigns,
examining them in relation to where and when they fall within the
life of
a campaign. This is a practical approach because the timing of
these
elements impacts on their individual functions and campaign outcomes.
The
strength of Denton's contribution is in its examination of all
stages of
political campaigns, while also situating the rhetorical functions
of the
specific campaign elements within that most important campaign:
the
presidential election.
A very valuable chapter is Rita Kirk Whillock's "Digital
democracy: The
'96 presidential campaign on-line". She provides a potted history
of the
use of on-line technology within U.S. political campaigns-an engaging
section of her chapter that needs further expansion. Whillock's
foray into
the use of the Internet in the 1996 presidential campaign sheds
some light
on the under utilization of this emerging communication tool. Her
application of traditional communication terms and concepts to
the
Internet is useful. For example, she expands the conventional concept
of a
public and applies it to an examination of the use of e-mail and
other
Internet-related communication devices during the elections. This
approach
assists the understanding of the essential differences between
traditional
and emerging forms of communication, particularly their use in
the context
of political campaigns. Hers is an insightful analysis of the use
of new
technology. It warns about the pitfalls of straight substitution
of one
form of communication with another.
Edward H. Sewell Jr.'s chapter "Torture-by-tedium or editorial
cartoons
during the 1996 presidential campaign" contains some valuable ethnographic
data in the form of interviews with cartoonists, as well as statistical
data comparing the coverage of presidential candidates by cartoonists.
Sewell's is a slightly disjointed chapter that he could have improved
by
providing a conclusion drawing some of the ethnographic and statistical
data together.
Craig Allen Smith's chapter "The rhetorical transformation
of political
coalitions: Bill Clinton, 1992 - 1996" explores the rhetorical
devices and
tactics adopted by Clinton and the transformation of these between
campaigns. Although this chapter would be improved with in-depth
comparisons of rhetorical devices used by Clinton and other candidates,
it
is not always possible to achieve such a huge task in one chapter.
The other chapter that deserves specific mention is Denise
M Bostdorff's
"Hillary Rodham Clinton and Elizabeth Dole as running 'mates' in
the 1996
campaign: Parallels in the rhetorical constraints of first ladies
and vice
presidents." This section would be of particular interest to Australian
campaign followers because of the lack of media and scholarly attention
paid to the 'running mates' of prime ministerial candidates. Bostdorff
argues that parallels exist between the roles of presidential wives
and
vice presidents, with both assuming subservient, feminized positions
during campaigns. She provides important insights into the public's
conflicting expectations over the role of presidential candidates'
wives,
with demands for first ladies to be feminine and subservient, while
exhibiting professional characteristics such as independence.
Had some of the authors located their work in a more global
context,
their chapters would have become more appealing to outsiders. Those
who
use the text, however, should have no trouble doing so. Although
edited
collections are sometimes disparate in nature, the central theme
given to
this book ensures that the disjuncture among chapters is minimal.
This
book could form the basis of a variety of units at undergraduate
level, or
part of selected reading units at postgraduate level in areas as
diverse
as political studies, communication, media, journalism, public
relations,
advertising and business.
Frith, Katherine Toland, ed.
Advertising in Asia: Communication, Culture
and Consumption.
Ames: Iowa State University. 1996. xii+313pp.
The dynamic economic growth in Asian countries--the "Asian miracle"--
over
the last few decades, especially in East Asia, has resulted in
a dramatic
increase in advertising. Frith notes that the region spent billions
on
mass media advertising, all aimed at enticing the burgeoning middle
class
to consume everything from perfumes to Pentiums (p. 3). Multinational
business activity has caused a transformation of consumer behaviors
in the
region--and a shift from a traditional to a mass market.
Advertising is
at the center of this change.
In this book, Frith and 12 other scholars set out to
examine
advertising practice in Asia, including issues related to political
systems, national development policies and the social, cultural
and
philosophical underpinnings that affect advertising regulations
in China,
Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines,
Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand.
Frith notes that even though many publications are
available on the
economic miracle of Asia, hardly any comprehensive work exists
on
advertising practice in the region except Anderson's 1984 book
Madison
Avenue in Asia (p. 3). However, one may cite several other
examples:
De La Torre (1988), Hashim (1994), Nawigamune (1988), and Singh
(1976).
Anderson viewed the situation in Asia through the lens
of Johan
Galtung's structural theory of imperialism to describe the impact
of
transnational advertising on the periphery nations of Asia. Anderson
had
concluded that under economic colonialism, "center" nations--particularly
the United States, Britain and Japan--to a large extent controlled
the
economies of the developing or "peripheral" nations (Frith, p.
4).
Frith argues the rise of the Four Dragons--Hong Kong,
Singapore,
South Korea, and Taiwan, which experienced the greatest sustained
economic
development in the world--may raise some challenging questions
about the
final outcome of the modernization process in Asia (p. 4).
Frith observes
that the most interesting aspects of economic growth in East Asia
has been
the connection between culture and economic growth--the "Cultural
China"
factor--not only in terms of the geographic region but also in
terms of
what Tu Wei-ming (1991) calls the Chinese Diaspora scattered as
an ethnic
minority throughout Asia. In addition to sharing cultural
values, this
group is also responsible for much of the economic growth in the
region.
A "myth" exists that multinational corporations are
always successful
in cracking the resistance of Asian culture and politics, despite
the
countless successes of multinational brands in Asia. However, Anderson
(1984) and Janus (1986) had noted that in the 1980s advertising
promoted
the consumption of nonessential products and concentrated economic
power
in the hands of a few large transnational corporations, which had
an
advantage in foreign markets.
Advertising has been held responsible for the spread
of consumer
culture. Advertising too has been charged with creating an increasing
gap
and disharmony of interest between the "haves" and the "have nots."
Advertising is also blamed for the destruction of indigenous culture
and
the promotion of foreign culture--pop music, jeans, etc.
Frith notes that
of all the criticisms of advertising this one is the most worrisome
because although it is hard to argue against positive benefits
of economic
growth, it is equally hard to argue for the destruction of indigenous
culture (p. 7).
As we move into the 21st century's new media--Information
Superhighway, Internet, etc.--a new model is emerging. The old
media--such
as radio, television and newspapers--promoted a one-way, top-down
transmission system that theoretically gave rise to a passive audience
and
a powerful media. Frith notes that much of the criticism of advertising
voiced in the past was rooted in the notion of a passive audience
and a
powerful medium. The new media--connected through telephone, satellite
and
computers--provide for interaction between sender and receiver.
As the new
media technologies move us to a more democratic and interactive
mode of
communication, the role of advertising will also change. Frith
envisages
that some of the power previously attributed to advertising may
give way
to new channels of discourse that are less dependent on external
factors
and more on what one thinks (p. 9).
Each country report in the book provides an in-depth
discussion of
the relevant country. Japan has a special place not only because
it is the
only developed country in Asia (as a member of G-7), but also because
it
is the second largest advertising market after the United States.
Osamu
Inoue points out that Japan has learned a great deal about modern
theories
and techniques from the United States (p. 37). However, Japan's
advertising industry is developing its own technologies and culture
following the trends toward globalization, deregulation and opening
up of
its markets.
Malaysia's multi-racial and multi-cultural setting
provides another
good example of how advertising develops its unique features. Teck
Hua Ngu
says the advertising industry in Malaysia faces complex challenges,
making
the practice of advertising more difficult than in some other Asian
countries (p. 255). Ngu adds that like other developing countries
in the
region, Malaysia realizes that advertising can be a powerful force
in
shaping national values; and that advertising needs to be harnessed
to
help construct a just society, not just a consumer society (p.
256).
The book preceded the economic and financial meltdown
in East and
Southeast Asia. Inoue, however, has forewarned the problem Japan
would
face when the "bubble economy collapse[d]" (p. 37). IMF has given
Korea a
US$60 billion loan, US$23 billion to Indonesia, and US$17 billion
to Thailand, the country where the financial debacle initially
surfaced.
This meltdown will definitely have an impact on advertising. The
changing
scenario of new media will also change the practice of advertising
and
probably the laws and policies pertaining to it.
References:
Anderson, M. E. (1984). Madison Avenue in Asia: Politics and
transnational advertising. Rutherford, NJ: Fairleigh
Dickinson
University Press.
De La Torre, V. R. (1989). Advertising in the Philippines: its
historical,
cultural, and social dimensions. Manila: Tower Book
House.
Hashim, A. (1994). Advertising in Malaysia.Petaling Jaya:
Pelanduk
Publications
Janus (1986). Transnational advertising: Some considerations of
its impact
on peripheral socieities. In Communication in Latin American
society:
Trends in critical research 1960-1985. (E. Atwood
& E. McAnany, eds.).
Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
Nawigamune, A. (1988). Advertising in Thailand. Kothomo [i.e.,
Krung
Thep Maha Nakhon]: Borisat Samnakphim Saengdaet.
Singh, D. R. (Ed.). (1976). Advertising in India: selected research
studies. Ludhiana : Dept. of Business Management,
Punjab Agricultural
University.
Tu Wei-ming. (1991). Cultural China: The periphery as the center.
Daedalus, 120 (2): 8.
Mohd Safar Hasim, associate professor
Department of Communication
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
Hudson, Heather E.
Global Connections:International Telecommunications
Infrastructure
and Policy. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.
1997. xvi+576pp.
Mody, Bella, Johannes M. Bauer, and Joseph D.
Straubhaar, eds.
Telecommunications Politics: Ownership and Control of theInformation
Highway
in Developing Countries. Mahwah, NJ:
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 1995.
xxviii+337 pp.
Hudson's compendium of telecommunications information and analysis
covers
the political, economic and technical essentials of what is going
on in
international telecommunications today. She sets out by laying
the
technological and regulatory context within which the telecommunications
sector has been evolving globally--an excellent summary of the
key
technological developments and organizational reforms underway
since the
late 1980s to the present. She describes how these developments
are
affecting service providers and users through a series of in-depth
regional analyses in the second and third sections of the book,
citing
uses and impacts among specific countries, industries and users.
In addition to the sector reforms in industrialized countries,
she
provides detailed analyses of the telecommunications sector in
Eastern
Europe and Russia, the developing countries generally, and Asia
and Latin
America,in particular. She illustrates these case studies
with numerous
tables comparing key telecommunications indicators among countries.
In the final section of the book, Hudson describes key international
organizations, global network builders and stakeholders. She analyzes
the
new roles of various policy-making bodies such as the International
Telecommunications Union and the World Trade Organization. Her
explications of the General Agreement on Trade in Services and
the
telecommunications accounting rates system make clear some of the
complicated negotiations that are ongoing. She points to the new
gaps that
are created as we close old ones, such as artificially high prices
for new
information technologies and services. Barriers of the market or
"benign
neglect" (lack of user support) are alive and well in many parts
of
Europe, as well as in developing countries.
Hudson has delivered a much-needed textbook for international
communication courses, as well as a primer for policy makers. Grounded
in
development communication literature, the book cites research
demonstrating the social and economic benefits of telecommunications.
It
is challenging, yet accessible, to upper division undergraduate
and
graduate students. It also delivers essential background for policy
makers. New opportunities, pitfalls and tradeoffs are continually
emerging
in this fast-paced technological environment. Private and public
sector
investors, such as governments, must be able to weigh alternatives
and
balance tradeoffs to plan sector development that minimizes risk
and
optimizes social and economic development. This book makes that
task a bit
easier. Especially valuable are the extensive bibliography, glossary
of
technical terms and an appendix of useful Internet sites.
Mody, Bauer & Straubhaar's book depicts telecommunications
policy
choices ranging from central planning to free market approaches
for the
development of the telecommunications sector in developing countries.
The editors converge from different disciplinary perspectives (economics,
international relations, psychology) to elaborate on the position
that
economics and technology present opportunities and risks, which
a
country's decision makers must weigh against political priorities.
To
understand a particular policy choice, they argue, one must understand
the
political struggle among different factions for control over scarce
resources.
Because the global economy is dependent on rapid and reliable
information flow, the authors point out that nations with primitive,
sub-optimal telecommunications infrastructure and services will
be
increasingly marginalized from growth opportunities through the
global
economy. Thus a need exists for sector reform. They reiterate that
it is
not the public versus private ownership per se that determines
improved
performance of the telecommunications entity, but rather the
organizational practices of that entity. They stress that
ownership
determines who controls the media in an era when media are capable
of
unprecedented surveillance and unprecedented freedom of expression
and
information access. The effectiveness of the regulation of private
telecommunications ownership depends on the ability and willingness
of the
state mechanisms to safeguard "the public interest."
Previous research has established that investment and liberalization
are
important to improving telecommunications service, which, in turn,
can
provide growth to other sectors. The authors analyze the options
and
tradeoffs made by decision-makers to stimulate investment and
liberalization.
Territory covered in the book ranges from an historical and
conceptual
introduction and changes in the organization of telecommunications
to an
analysis of major political forces influencing private sector
participation in telecommunications, including the role of domestic
capital and patterns of direct foreign investment.
The third section of the book presents comparative case studies
to
illustrate the arguments made in previous chapters. They seek to
demonstrate that liberalization, deregulation and/or privatization
of the
telecommunications sector can lead to, but do not guarantee, improvements
in organizational performance and sector development. Continued
public
sector supervision of the industry is required to assure open access
to
networks and services, fair competitive structures, and service
to
economically disadvantaged areas and populations. Lastly, they
provide
some practical advice to decision makers in developing countries.
Although the editors and contributors work hard to distinguish
their
message from that of several earlier scholars, (e.g., Wellenius,
inter
alia) they fail to move the debate beyond the qualifications and
caveats
that earlier proponents and critics of sector reform have presented.
Moreover, the lack of any mention of the social control of
the Internet
in these countries is disappointing, especially since the term
"information highway" appears in the title of the book. Apart from
an
early reference to the "present day gold-rush of investment capital"
and
"the potential advantages of telecommunications," there is no elaboration
of the new capabilities that "the information highway," which is
commonly
used to refer to the Internet, brings to the social, political
and
economic development process. Such an elaboration would point to
key
political players who have a stake in the diffusion of the computer
networks and services in developing countries. It would have been
a very
valuable contribution to the scholarly debate to have an analysis
of the
political struggle for control of Internet services in these countries.
Despite these disappointments, the book provides an excellent
presentation of the main arguments surrounding sector reform, and
rich
case studies illustrating these points. The bibliography contains
most of
the key works in this debate and offers a rich resource for additional
information. Several chapters include substantial, supporting economic
and
development data, illustrated in graphs and tables. The book documents
valuable points of reference for comparison as we continue the
investigation into the positive and negative effects of telecommunications
sector reform.
Andrea L.Kavanaugh,director of research
Blacksburg Electronic Village
Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University
Jandt, Fred E., & Paul B. Pedersen, eds.
Constructive Conflict Management : Asia-Pacific Cases.
Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. 1996. ix+288pp.
This book evolved from the international conference held in 1994
in
Penang, Malaysia, "Conflict Resolution in the Asia-Pacific Region:
Culture, Problem Solving, and Peacemaking." The conference
brought
together theorists and practitioners of mediation at both the micro
(interpersonal, local, or community based) and macro (national,
regional,
or international) levels. The conference organizers (Universiti
Sains
Malaysia, Penang; The Asia Foundation, and the Asia Pacific Peace
Research
Association) felt that it was not sufficient to bring together
a group of
academics but also to engage academics with practitioners in the
field.
The practicing mediators were asked to bring case studies of the
mediation
of multicultural conflicts. This collection reflects the wide range
of
styles used to deal with conflicts.
These case studies demonstrate a number of ways in
which families,
neighborhoods, interest groups, and indigenous peoples use diverse
cultural traditions to promote the peaceful resolution of disputes.
The
editors have grouped them together by the general areas of the
regional or
cultural context, nuclear family conflict, extended family conflict,
land
and environmental conflict, business conflicts, neighborhood disputes,
and
conflicts involving indigenous people.
The titles exemplify the diversity among the case--titles
such as
"The Moral Recovery Program as a Political Tool for Social Transformation
in the Philippines," "Rawshan Ara: The Victim of Polygamy," "The
Effects
of Tribal Wars on Personal and Family Disputes in Papua New Guinea,"
"Vendetta and Buddhist Mediator in Southern Thailand," "Han and
Hui and a
Shared Cooking Stove," and "Recent Attempt at Ethnic Conflict Resolution
in Sri Lanka." These case studies demonstrate a number of ways
in which
families, neighborhoods, interest groups, and indigenous peoples
use
diverse cultural traditions to promote the peaceful resolution
of
disputes.
Reflected in many of the case studies is the perspective
of culture
as something that is constantly being created and reshaped by every
human
being, family, neighborhood, community, and nation--an orientation
to
culture that is more empowering than interpreting culture as a
conservative force that is generally resistant to change.
A thread running through the case studies is a sense
of urgency that
existing mechanisms for dealing with disputes, whether within individual
nations or internationally, are simply not up to the task and needs
to
look at innovative ways to address the issues. A novel way
might be to
view that law itself, to be truly effective in many Asian cultural
contexts, must be as concerned with relationships as it is with
transactions and must emphasize the preservation of social harmony
as much
as abstract legal notions of rights or justice that are not grounded
in
the political, economic, and social reality of the dispute itself.
The editors have framed the cases with an introduction
and a
conclusion. The introduction, "Culturally Contextual Models for
Creative
Conflict Management," focuses on the characteristics of high-context
and
low-context cultures and their conflict management models.
Intrapersonal
and interpersonal cultural grids are depicted, as well as 17 hypotheses
about creative conflict management and mediation in the Asia-Pacific
region. The authors explain that many of the book chapters
seek to
understand constructive conflict management in context, even when
the
people in conflict operate from different high or low levels of
contextual
interpretation.
Twenty-four cases from 13 different countries have
demonstrated the
diversity within the Asia-Pacific region. Each case study
presents a
subjective and specific example of conflict management in its cultural
context. The cases can be used for analysis and study individually
or
collectively to develop models for dispute resolution in the Asia-Pacific
region and to demonstrate the interrelationships among culture,
conflict,
and dispute resolution.
The conclusion titled "The Cultural Context of Mediation
and
Constructive Conflict Management" stresses that conflict management
strategies that are insensitive to each culture's unique context
are not
likely to succeed.
The editors, scholar-consultants with East-West perspectives,
address
the concern they share with the conference organizers, i.e., to
spell out
the extent to which the theory and practice of contemporary conflict
resolution was bound to a Western cultural framework and what this
might
mean for professionals from non-Occidental cultural traditions.
The book is especially useful because it attempts to
look at conflict
from the bottom up, especially from the perspectives of those who
are
intimately involved in the conflict or are socially committed to
the
problem at hand. The book is well conceived, sound in substance
and
structure, and addresses the interests of both theorists and practitioners
of mediation.
Elizabeth N. Kunimoto, associate professor
Department of Communication
University of Hawai`i at Manoa
Latif, Asad, ed.
Walking the tightrope: Press freedom and professional standards
in Asia.
Singapore: Asian Media Information and
Communication Centre,
1998. x+259pp.
Walking the tightrope is primarily a journalistic product:
the outcome
of a 1996 AMIC seminar in Kuala Lumpur. Of the 28 contributors,
12 are
from Southeast Asia, 11 from South Asia, three from East Asia,
one from
Australia and one from Britain. Latif has organized the selected
contributions under five parts: introduction, overviews, national
perspectives, responsibilities, and the culture of the press. China,
Asia's Goliath, is inexplicably absent from the book.
AMIC has already published several books touching on press
freedom and
professional standards. These include Press systems in ASEAN
states
(1989), Press systems in SAARC (1994), Media monitors
in Asia (1996),
Asian values in journalism (1996), Asian Communication
Handbook
(1998), Communication ethics: A South Asian perspective
(1998), as well
as AMIC's excellent series on mass media laws and regulations in
several
Asian countries. Therefore, Walking the tightrope hardly
breaks any new
ground. Moreover, the quarterly Media Asia 23 (2),
1996, had carried
five of the contributions in the present collection-those by M.
Kirby, S.
K. Datta-Ray, E. S. Oon, B. G. Verghese and S. A. Idid.
In the foreword, V. Menon claims that Western-style press
freedom "is
often at variance with the Asian view" (p. ix). Referring to Indonesia's
Pancasila philosophy, Malaysia's Rukunegara ideology
and Singapore's
core values, Menon asserts that "senior journalists in ASEAN have
proposed
an Asian model of journalism in which the press works with the
government
to build a national consensus" (p. ix). He also refers to unnamed
observers who believe that the media need scrutiny. However, it's
hard to
see how Menon arrived at such an inference from the contributions
in
Walking the tightrope. Such a view of the press comes through only
in a
very few essays, including those by Singapore journalists Latif
and L. H.
Chua.
The four contributors from Malaysia -- Oon, Idid, S. Ramanathan
and B.
Bhatia -- make no such assertion. In fact, Oon asserts that a "free,
independent media reflecting diversity of opinions are a pre-condition
of
a democratic society" (p. 193). He also calls on the government
to
guarantee the citizens' right to freedom of information and the
right to
know. Idid objectively points out four factors contributing to
press
freedom in a plural society: system of government, societal make-up,
history of the press, and economic conditions. Idid asserts that
"information technology can open the channels to more information
and help
widen press freedom" (p. 125) but cautions "freedom also
means
responsibility" (p. 126). Bhatia agrees with Idid that censorship
will
shrink and "gatekeepers will vanish" with the new phenomenon
of media
convergence (p. 60). Ramanathan says that Malaysia has a long way
to go to
achieve a "really free" press even though he sees "signs of a more
liberal
attitude towards the mass media" (p. 132).
The sole contributor from Indonesia, journalist S. Pudjomartono,
paints
a gloomy picture of press freedom in his country. He points out
the
inconsistency between constitutional guarantees on freedom of expression
and assembly and actual practice. Although he seems to favor a
socially
responsible free press, he makes no mention of a peculiar Asian
press
model.
Latif uses the introduction, in his role as the book's editor,
to
present an abstract press model for Asia. His stand is not so clear
as
that of his colleague Chua, who simply endorses Singapore's official
press
philosophy. Latif's view is that an Asian journalist "must
respect,
embrace and voice the authenticity of Asia" (p. 14; and that an
Asian
journalist cannot be free until he or she repudiates "colonial
textuality"
(p. 11). The Asian press, he says, must recognize the rise of sectarian
politics as its enemy and keep in mind that "sectarian consensuses
are a
con job" (p. 12). Furthermore, he says that "shrill complaints
about
hegemony" serve little purpose until the Asian press can challenge
Western
dominance in the global media industry (p. 13). He concludes, "No
one can
be a free journalist among unfree people" (p. 15). However, if
this were
the "model" Latif wants Asian journalists to follow, he would have
been
more convincing had he given flesh to it with concrete facts and
figures.
That he prefers to proffer his ideas in relative abstraction weakens
his
case considerably. Is he saying, for instance, that the Barisan
Nasional, Malaysia's governing coalition, is a "con job"?
Is he agreeing
or disagreeing with the official press philosophies of Singapore,
Malaysia
and Indonesia? Is he saying that Article 19 of the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights lacks the "authenticity of Asia"?
Among the professional contributors from India -- Datta-Ray,
Verghese, T.
J. S. George and R. Srinivasan -- only George has some qualms
about a
universal concept of press freedom. His thesis is press freedom
and
professional standards are not objective realities that stand on
their
own; they are relative concepts that must be subject to various
constraints-some unhealthy, some not. He objects to the application
of
Western yardsticks to praise or decry countries, but his framework
ignores
the UDHR and the associated covenants. He fears the monopoly of
a few
corporations to control news, but not the governmental attempts
at thought
control through a docile media. Datta-Ray, in contrast, points
out the
lack of a common Asian identity and the inconsistency between historical
experience and press freedom as evident in Sri Lanka and Myanmar.
Verghese
is adamant that freedom of expression is properly a human right.
Bangladesh journalist M. Anam debunks the tendency of the
press to toe
the government line. In his view, freedom of the press and democracy
are
"organically linked" (p. 91). Pakistan journalist F. Qureshi also
stands
firmly on the side press freedom. Philippines journalist A. Doronila
argues that an investigative press is no hindrance to a country's
economic
growth. He blames governance, not the press, for endangering
democracy.
Thailand's P. Sricharatchanya says that the "freedom to report
and
criticize is more or less institutionalized" (p. 186) in his country.
Thus Menon's foreword to the book is misleading. The majority
of
contributors have not clamored either for "Asian values" or for
an Asian
model of press freedom.
Shelton Gunaratne, professor
Mass Communications Department
Moorhead (Minn.) State University
Nelson, Michael
War of the Black Heavens: The Battles of Western Broadcasting
in the Cold War.
Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1997.
xx+277pp.
Although the end of the Cold War has brought considerable change
(notably
budgetary constrictions) to international radio broadcasting, it
seems to
have had the opposite effect on scholarly and semi-scholarly attention
to
the field. Within the past three years, we have seen books by James
Critchlow (Radio Hole-in-the-Head -- Radio Liberty), Gary
Rawnsley
(Radio Diplomacy and Propaganda), Jacques Semelin (La
Liberte au Bout
des Ondes), and George Urban (Radio Free Europe and the
Pursuit of
Democracy), as well as Nelson's present study. Taken collectively,
they
provide ample raw material for subject comparison, especially the
role of
Western radio stations in the 1956 Hungarian uprising and the 1968
Czech
uprising.
Such a comparison makes the quality of Nelson's work readily
apparent.
As the general manager of Reuters from 1976 to 1989, Nelson followed
the role of the mass media in the Cold War. He combines a reporter's
eye
for precision with a scholar's penchant for depth and breadth of
knowledge. His stint as Reuters' general manager provided him with
media contacts who have become useful sources for this book. His
list of
interviewees is extensive, and his list of printed sources exhaustive.
His
prose is clear and to the point, his organization straightforwardly
chronological, most chapters representing mini-eras such as "The
Beginnings
of Detente (1956-1963)."
What he possesses that the other authors noted above do not
is two
virtues: a considerable degree of detachment (Critchlow and Urban
worked
for Radio Liberty and RFE, and it's often evident); and the experience
and
maturity to weave the various strands of history into a more-or-less
seamless robe (Rawnsley has made an impressive debut, but sometimes
doesn't convey the context of the moment, while Semelin sometimes
lacks a
sense of the nature of media activities within the Cold War setting).
The story that Nelson unfolds involves uncertainty, deception,
inappropriateness, resourcefulness, and a fair amount of plain
luck, both
good and bad. He describes two sorts of "actors" on the scene:
Western
radio stations representing their home countries (BBC, VOA, Deutsche
Welle, Radio France Internationale, and Radio Canada International);
and
stations attempting to serve as "the sort of station Russians,
Poles, etc.
would like to have if they had a choice in the matter" -- in other
words,
as surrogate stations (Radio Liberty, Radio Free Europe, RIAS Berlin).
Sometimes their objectives and methods were in harmony, sometimes
not.
Rarely was there coordination among them (a subject that receives
too
little of Nelson's attention, in my view). Audience research usually
was
an awkward combination of direct and indirect measures that might
help
the stations to determine the likely effectiveness of their programs
in
influencing the thinking of audience members with whom there was
very
little possibility of direct contact. (While Nelson doesn't note
this,
much of the research turned out in light of communist documents
available
post-cold war to have been quite accurate.)
That combination of elements should have virtually guaranteed
Western
radio's limited effectiveness as a persuasive instrument in the
Cold War.
Probably it would have been, if not for two things: general
ineptness
of Communist media in providing comprehensive coverage of domestic
and
foreign life; and absence of anything other than Western radio
to assist
listeners in overcoming that lack. Nelson provides little specific
detail
regarding the programming practices of Soviet and other communist
radio and
TV services, but they often were boring, clumsy, repetitious, and
severely
limited in terms of the subjects, music, etc. they would NOT present.
Because of this, listeners were willing to go to great lengths
to overcome
jamming and other obstacles placed in their way so as to prevent
listening
to the Western stations. Nelson suggests that listeners sometimes
attributed even more authority to the Western broadcasts than their
originators had intended, much in the manner that Franz Fanon observed
of
Algerian Arab listeners to National Liberation Front broadcasts
during the
struggle for Algerian independence: their curiosity was highly
aroused,
and when jamming nearly blotted out the signal, listeners filled
in the
gaps with even stronger messages.
Nelson is careful not to claim that the Western stations
were THE reason
that the West "won" the Cold War, but he does present circumstantial
evidence that they were very important in that regard. He could
have
mustered a certain amount of direct evidence, as well, in the form
of
specific changes in Communist government contracts with workers,
specific
retractions of claims and accusations appearing in Communist media,
etc.,
that can be directly linked to Western broadcasts. The accumulation
over
time of governmental ineptness and the occasional effectiveness
of citizen
protests was part of what brought about the eruptions of the late
1980s to
early 1990s; so, I feel, was the cumulative picture presented by
all of the
stations of a Western economic movement that was increasing the
already
huge gap between Western and Eastern (European) standards of living.
Nelson's treatment has one notable gap: He provides
little detail on the
organizational structures of the stations. Many readers won't miss
that;
some may even be happy that it's absent because it can be terribly
dry. But
there's a very good argument for including at least one aspect
of it:
mechanisms for supervision of program content. Nelson argues that,
after
1956 and Hungary, all of the stations were careful to caution listeners
not
to take actions that might place them at serious risk of being
jailed,
exiled, executed, etc. He's right. But at certain times there
were many
programs, more on Radio Liberty than elsewhere, that fanned old
ethnic and
religious hatreds. Station policies prohibited such material,
but it
reached listeners anyway, chiefly because screening either was
inadequate
(and the messages got through undetected) or was lightly regarded
by
station management (who didn't really want to become involved in
messy
factional disputes, or who deferred to powerful heads of language
services
with their own axes to grind).
Still, this is a most worthwhile book. It provides a compact
history of a
very large subject. It presents enough specific detail to furnish
an
understanding of what the Western stations did, but not so much
that the
"big picture" becomes blurred. And if readers want more, Nelson's
very
thorough bibliography stands ready to provide guidance.
Donald R. Browne, professor and chair
Department of Speech-Communication
University of Minnesota
Roloff, Michael E., ed.
Communication Yearbook 21.
Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 1998. xv+511 pp.
This is another of those volumes in which every communication scholar
will
find something worthwhile as well as quite a bit worth overlooking.
It all
depends on individual interests.
Communication Yearbook 21 continues a practice
instituted three years
ago with Vol. 19 offering "state-of-the art reviews" of communication
research. Thus, the volume makes no pretense of embracing
the spectrum of
communication research. The approach-a sensible one given
the expanding
nature of communication inquiry-has been to deal in depth and breadth
with
a few topics.
Editor Roloff tells us in his introduction that for this
volume 42
submissions were blind refereed. Criteria included: Was the
literature
worthy of review? Comprehensive? Coherent? Current?
Critical?
Suggestive of directions and issues for future research?
Roloff, a professor of communication studies at Northwestern
University,
writes that the review process was "rigorous" and that emphasis
was on
"quality" (as opposed to representing topic areas). He can
be proud of
this work on both counts. Ultimately 11 literature reviews survived,
each
becoming a chapter. The articles are diverse in approach
and subject
matter. All are highly interdisciplinary, drawing on several
bodies of
literature.
The opening chapter focuses on interpersonal communication:
"The
door-in-the-face influence strategy: A random-effects meta-analytic
review," the title referring to the strategy of asking for more
than you
expect in hopes of getting more than if you asked for less.
The next five chapters probe organizational communication.
Two deal with
social influences of communication within an organization: "Democracy,
participation, and communication at work: A multidisciplinary review"
and
"Reconceptualizing organizational change implementation as a communication
problem: A review of literature and research agenda." The
next three deal
with an organization's external communication: "The business of
business
negotiation: Intercultural perspectives," "Constructing a theoretical
framework for evaluating public relations programs and activities"
and
"Communication, organization, and crisis."
The final five chapters deal with professional communication.
The
titles: "Old wine in a new bottle: Public journalism, developmental
journalism, and social responsibility," "Programming theory under
stress:
The active industry and the active audience," "Quick communicators:
Editorial cartoonists in communication overdrive," "The rhetorical
presidency: Deepening vision, widening exchange" and "Attention,
resource
allocation, and communication research: What do secondary task
reaction
times measure, anyway?"
If you're interested in any of these topics, you'll find
something
worthwhile here-new references, other perspectives, fresh questions.
Here's a sampling:
"Reconceptualizing organizational change implementation as
a
communication problem" (Laurie K. Lewis and David R. Seibold) offers
promising avenues for research into implementing change from a
communication perspective, for example, information sharing, vision
and
motivation, social support, reward structures, participatory structures,
to
mention a few.
"Communication, organization, and crisis" (Matthew W. Seeger,
Timothy L.
Sellnow and Robert R. Ulmer) suggests a number of promising approaches
to
further study, for example, longitudinal investigation of crisis
developments, audience response to crisis messages, crisis decision
making
and "crisis-prone" vs. "crisis-proof" (perhaps the term should
be
"crisis-resistant") organizations.
"Programming theory under stress" (Susan Tyler Eastman) examines
the
potential impact of new technology (for example, on-line entertainment
services) in which the audience has more control over programming.
For a publication sponsored by the International Communication
Association, the volume offers embarrassingly little of an international
or
intercultural nature. In all, 25 different authors are represented.
Only
one appears to be affiliated with an institution outside the United
States--University of Ottawa scholar Sherry Devereaux Ferguson.
In her
article, "Constructing a theoretical framework for evaluating public
relations programs and activities," she argues convincingly for
an approach
to assess accountability that would involve all aspects of communication,
including social responsibility.
The only chapter explicitly intercultural is "The business
of business
negotiation" by Deborah A. Cai and Laura E. Drake. Drawing
on
intercultural communication, negotiation and international business
literature, the authors search for conceptual order. They
offer an
organizing model consisting of four quadrants created with a vertical
axis--ranging downward from applied research to theoretical
research--intersecting with a horizontal axis--ranging left to
right from
culture specific to culture general.
The quadrants become foci for thinking about intercultural
negotiation
literature: Descriptive Prescriptive (upper left), Guiding Principles
(upper right), Variable Analytic (lower left) and Global Theory
(lower
right). This is beneficial in making sense of the diverse
literature. The
authors correctly point toward a paucity of communication theory
in
considering intercultural negotiations, noting that much of the
research
reviewed deals with intra- rather than inter-cultural negotiation.
The
same may be said of intercultural communication research in general.
Intercultural communication scholars should enjoy excavating this
chapter
for ideas.
Several authors touch on the international realm, but few
do so
authentically. An exception is Shelton A. Gunaratne and his
"Old wine in a
new bottle." He offers a perceptive and critical analysis
of public (or
civic, communitarian, conversational, etc.) journalism against
an
historical and global framework. He relates public journalism,
which has
emerged almost fad-like in the United States, to other movements
or
near-movements such as the New World Information and Communication
Order
(NWICO), developmental journalism and social responsibility.
Another chapter, "Democracy, participation, and communication
at work" by
eight authors affiliated with four different institutions is a
full-course
serving. It is highly interdisciplinary, drawing from the
sociology of
organizations, political science and public administration, comparative
and
labor economics, management and organizational behavior, cultural
anthropology, feminist studies and, well, you get the picture.
Not much
has been overlooked. The breadth and synthesis are admirable.
It is an
ambitious assimilation of literature, which should stimulate dialogue
from
multiple disciplines. It also suggests book-length rather than
a chapter
treatment. The authors bring in findings from several other
countries
(Europe, Russia, Japan, Australia and New Zealand) but acknowledge
much
more needs to be done.
You can see that this volume is stimulating. It is
also user friendly.
Each chapter offers a useful outline and abstract. Author
and subject
indices are helpful too. This is a fine reference work that
should enjoy
good shelf life.
Kenneth Starck, professor
School of Journalism and Mass Communication
The University of Iowa
Weaver, David H., ed.
The Global Journalist: News People Around the
World.
Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, 1998.
xx+492pp.
The one conclusion most easily drawn from this collection of studies
of
journalists and journalism around the world is that there is no
such thing
as "the global journalist."
The title for this book resembles that of Weaver and Wilhoit's
well-known studies, which provided a composite of the "typical"
American
journalist. But the other, more important conclusion that emerges
from
this book explains why it is not possible to construct such a composite
of
the global journalist. That conclusion is that journalists and
journalism,
as well as media systems themselves, can vary in profoundly different
ways
from nation to nation and region to region because they are largely
shaped
and influenced by the forces of history, politics, geography and
economics, among others.
This book is one in a series by Hampton Press sponsored by
the
International Association for Media and Communication Research.
It grew
out of a paper session organized by editor Weaver for the 1994
IAMCR
conference in Seoul, Korea. Its major contribution is that
it brings
together in one valuable volume reports of systematic studies of
journalists around the world that previously were scattered in
various
papers, articles and reports.
The Global Journalist presents the results of
such surveys from 21
different countries and territories: Algeria, Australia, Brazil,
Britain,
Canada, Chile, China, Ecuador, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong,
Hungary, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, the Pacific Islands, Poland,
Spain,
Taiwan, and the United States. It groups these studies, based
on
interviews with more than 20,000 journalists, by six regions of
the world.
Readers who have an interest in the journalism of a particular
country
or region will likely begin with that chapter or section of the
book where
they will find detailed reports of findings organized generally
around the
categories of basic characteristics, education and training, working
conditions, professionalism, and other issues. Each chapter
also begins
with a description of methods, which is particularly important
because the
methodologies for data collection do vary from country to country.
Readers who are more interested in the general subject of
global
journalism will likely begin their reading at the end with the
concluding
chapter by the editor discussing the commonalties and differences
among
journalists around the world. This is a particularly fascinating
chapter
of the book where Weaver, who demonstrates his considerable ability
to
summarize and synthesize, provides a valuable discussion of the
similarities, differences and emerging trends in journalism from
a global
perspective.
Some of the similarities he finds include gender (more men
than women
journalists), age (journalism is a young person's occupation),
and
education (most journalists are not graduates of college-level
journalism
programs in this sample of countries and territories). Another
similarity
is that the one professional role that most journalists agree on
is the
need to get information to the public quickly.
However, Weaver finds differences in such things as the size
of the
journalistic workforce, working conditions, job satisfaction, perceived
autonomy, and professional values, although he concludes that "the
occupation seems to be moving from craft to profession" (p. 464).
An
important conclusion is that most of these differences "seem to
reflect
societal influences, especially political system differences, more
than
the influences of media organizations, journalism education and
professional norms" (p. 478).
The organization, quality of writing and presentation of
results between
chapters is surprisingly uniform for such a volume with 21 separate
reports written by 36 authors and co-authors representing different
countries, cultures and native languages. This uniformity
is due largely
to good initial planning, organization and instructions by an experienced
editor and perhaps, as Weaver explains, because the chapters are
written
by many good friends and former students and because many of the
studies
had borrowed questions from the original Weaver and Wilhoit
questionnaires.
A final comment has to do with what is labeled as a "major
assumption"
and repeated in the introductory and concluding chapters in the
book. That
assumption is that journalists' backgrounds and ideas have some
relationship to what is reported (and how it is covered) in the
various
news media around the world, in spite of various constraints, and
that
this news coverage matters in terms of world public opinion and
policies.
This seems obvious enough, and it is no doubt important, but it
seems to
be left there without comment or explanation, leaving the reader
to wonder
what exactly the author had in mind in relating it to the myriad
of
findings reported throughout the book.
The Global Journalist is a valuable contribution
to mass communication
studies. It is an important resource for students and scholars
alike,
whether they are interested in the background and formation of
journalists
in particular countries or regions or more generally in the comparative
study of journalists and journalism around the world.
Vernon A. Keel, professor
Elliott School of Communication
Wichita State University