THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES OF INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION

Introduction:

Theories have their own history and reflect the concerns of the time in which they are developed.

Theories of communication began to emerge in parallel with the rapid social and economic changes of the industrial Revolution in Europe, reflecting the significance of the role of communications in the growth of capitalism and empire.

In the twentieth century theories of international communication evolved into discrete discipline within the new social sciences and in each era have changes and their impact on society and culture.

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION

After Second world War and the establishment of a bipolar world, theories of IC become part of new cold war discourse.

For supporters of capitalism The primary function of IC was to promote democracy ,freedom of expression and markets while for Marxists argued for greater state regulation on communication and media outlets.

The concept of ‘free flow of information’ reflected western , and specifically US hatred to state regulation and censorship of the media and its use for propaganda by its communist opponents.

Theories

Modernization Theory by Daniel Lerner Dependency Theory by Schiller Structural Imperialism by Galtung Hegemony by Gramsci Critical Theory by

Horkheimer ,Adorno Public Sphere by Habermas Cultural studies by Hall

Modernization Theory

Mass Media helps to transform societies. Complementary to the doctrine of the

free flow in the post war years the view that international communication was the key to the process of modernization and development for the so called third world.

Modernization theory arose from the notion that international mass communication could be used to spread the message of modernity and transfer the economic and political models of the west to the newly independent countries of south.

Modernization or development theory was based on the belief that mass media would help transform societies.

Exposure to the media argued Lerner made traditional societies bound by traditions and made them aspire to a new and modern way of life.

Cont…

Another key modernization theorist Wilbur Schramm saw the mass media as a ‘bridge to a wider world’.

Dependency theory

Multinational corporations result in cultural imperialism.

A situation in which the economy of a certain group of a countries is conditioned by the development and expansion of another economy to which their own subjected.

Dependency Theory developed in the late 1960s and 1970s under the guidance of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America.

Dependency theory was the view that transnational corporations most based in the North exercise control, with the support of their respective governments, over the developing countries by setting the terms for global trade-dominating markets, resources, production and labor.

Important points

Dependency is the source of underdevelopment

Dependency is the result of the imposition of a set of external conditions on the third world development.

Cont..

Unilever, McDonald, KFC, Pizza hut

Underdevelopment formula

Loss of economic control, wealth and distribution to foreign powers.

Underdevelopment and economic stagnation.

Political , Economic, cultural and administrative dependence.

Hegemony

Dominant social group within society dominates media.

Dominant social group in society has the capacity to exercise intellectual and moral direction over society at large and to build a new system of social alliances to support its aim.

In IC notion of hegemony is widely used to conceptualize political function of mass media as a key player in propagating and maintaining the dominant ideology and also to explain the process of media and communication production, with dominant ideology shaping production of news and entertainment.

Cont..

Ultimately ideas of the ruling class become ruling ideas in the society.

Critical Theory

Mass culture is a commodity to be sold resulting in standardization.

The industrial production of cultural goods-films, radio programmes, music and magazines etc as a global movement they argued that in capitalist societies the trend was toward producing culture as commodity.

Public sphere

Capitalism has reduced access of information to the public.

Structural imperialism

Center and periphery states; core and less developed.

The world consists of developed ‘center’ states and underdeveloped ‘periphery’ states.

Structural imperialism is sophisticated type of dominance relation which the center of center states establishes with the center of periphery states for the joint benefit of both.

Example

Pakistan and America .

Galtung defines five types of imperialism that depend upon the type of exchange between centre and periphery nations.

Economic Political Military Communication Cultural

Cultural studies

Different cultures interpret media messages differently.