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Hamid Mowlana
 GLOBAL INFORMATION
AND WORLD COMMUNICATION

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Copyrighted Material
 Global Information
and Wodd Communication

New Frontiers in International Relations

Hamid Mowlana

SAGE Publications
London· Thousand Oaks· New Delhi

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© Hamid Mowlana 1997

First edition 1986

Second edition 1 997

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,

stored in a retrieval system, transmitted or utilized in any form or by
any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or
otherwise, without permission in writing from the Publishers.

SAGE Publications Ltd

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London EC2A 4PU

SAGE Publications Inc.

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication data

A catalogue record for this book is available

from the British Library.

ISBN 0 761 9 5256 X

ISBN 0 7619 5257 8 (pbk)

Library of Congress catalog record available

Typeset by Mayhew Typesetting, Rhayader, Powys

Printed in Great Britain by Biddies Ltd, Guildford, Surrey

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To the memory of my parents,
who first taught me the importance of
communication and its meaning

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Copyrighted Material
 Contents

Preface to the Revised Edition Xl

World Politics in Transition: New Frontiers in International

Relations 1
• International Communication as a Field of Study 5
• Approaches to International Communication 6
• International Political Communication 8
• International Strategic Communication 12
• International Economic Communication 14
• Intercultural Communication and Conflict 17

2 International Flow of Information: A Framework of

Analysis 23
• What is Information? 25
• Perspectives on the Study of Flow 27
• Problems of Measurement 29
• A Framework for the Study of Flow 30
• Factors in the Flow 33

3 News and Views: Designing the World's Symbolic

Environment 40
• Emerging Issues 41
• Current Lines of Inquiry 43
• News Agencies and News Exchange 47
• The Direction of Flow 55

4 Broadcasting the World: National and International

Images 66
• Perspectives in Television Flow 66
• Impact and Effects of Television Flows 69
• International Radio Broadcasting 76
• Direct Broadcasting by Satellite 80

5 Cultural Industry: From Books to Computers 90

• Books, Journals, and Educational Texts 90
• Film and Sound Recordings 96
• International Advertising 97

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Vlll Global information and world communication

• Video, Computer, and Related Technologies 1 00

• The Internet Elite 1 02
• Conclusion 105

6 Political Economy of Information: Transnational Data Flows 1 07

• From Transborder to Transnational 108
• Diversity of Data Flow 1 10
• From Privacy to Sovereignty 1 13
• Trade and Information Services 1 19
• Planetary Resource Information Flow 1 23

7 International Interactions: Travel and Tourism 131

• Foreign Relations of the Public 131
• International Tourism as a Mode of Communication 1 32
• Tourism as an Integrated Industry 1 36
• Telecommunications and the Tourism Industry 1 37
• Tourism in a Global Context 141
• Impact and Effects 1 43

8 Human Flow Across National Boundaries: Intercultural

Communication 1 46
• International Conferences 1 48
• International Educational Exchanges 151
• Effects of Intercultural Communication 1 57
• Traditional Communication 1 63

9 Information Technology: Developing Communication

Systems and Policies 1 68
• The Communication Revolution 1 69
• Technology versus Tradition 171
• Communication Technology and National Development 1 74
• A Conceptual Framework for Theory and Policy 1 77
• Implications for National and International
Communication Policy 1 82
• Conclusion 1 83

10 Communication and Development: The Emerging Orders 1 85

• Theoretical and Methodological Problems and Prospects 1 86
• From Modernization to Postmodernity and Beyond 1 89
• Knowledge Affluence and Information Hunger 1 97
• Networking as Communication 198

11 International Communication Research: From Functionalism

to Postmodernism and Beyond 207
• Communication Research in Transition 208
• Challenge to Theoretical Orthodoxy 210

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 Contents ix

• What We Have Learned 215

• What Needs to be Learned 223
• Research Questions for the Twenty-First Century 229

12 The Unfinished Revolution: The Crisis Of Our Age 234

• Communication as Cultural Ecology 235
• Communication and the Human Potential 238
• Toward a New Perspective of Global Communication 239
• An Ethical Framework 242

Bibliography 247

Index 261

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 Preface to the Revised Edition

The view infonning this book is that the world society in general and
international relations in particular can only be understood through a study
of the messages and communication facilities that belong to it. It is also a
thesis of this book that the new international relations is more than the
political and economic relations among its components. Culture and
communication are the fundamental aspects of the process and must be
included in the foci of the analysis.
This study, therefore, takes a broader view of the international flow of
infonnation than the traditional analysis of mass media messages and
communication technologies. It takes an integrative approach to inter­
national communication by examining both the human and technological
dimensions of global infonnation. In addition to reviewing the works
undertaken by communication researchers, it draws considerably on the
studies conducted in such areas as economics, political science, sociology,
cultural anthropology, and international relations. It is my hope that this
enlarged vision will stimulate research in the less conventional areas of
international studies and will encourage integration of the diverse aspects of
the study of global infonnation flow.
The purpose of the revised edition is to present major areas of
international communication in its broadest sense and to explore the vast
territories of global infonnation. The revolution in communication and
transportation technologies has altered how government, citizens,
business, and industry must perfonn in an international environment.
Today international communications is not merely concerned with state
actors or transnational corporations. Individual and group flows across
national boundaries are equally relevant, especially since the activities
involving transborder human flow has grown exponentially since World
War II.
Besides the intrinsic growth of international communication as a field of
study, drastic world events have also affected its organizational, educa­
tional, and practical issues. During the last decade since the publication of
the first edition of this volume, we have witnessed the continual upheaval of
world politics. Events including the end of the Cold War bi-polar system,
the collapse of the Soviet Union and its allied regimes in Eastern Europe,
the impact of ethnicity in many parts of the world, and the revival of
Islamic movements elsewhere have all challenged basic assumptions and
theories of international relations.

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xii Global information and world communication

For these reasons, it has become necessary to recast the substance and
forms of a number of chapters for this edition. In preparing this edition, I
have taken into account the many suggestions from teachers and students
who have used the book and were kind enough to write to me about its
shortcomings and its strengths. Although the same issues and themes are
addressed, the sequence of chapters has changed. Additionally, the revised
edition is considerably larger than the original. As every teacher of
international communication knows from extensive experience in the
classroom, it is challenging to begin to formulate such a course. The word
"communication" has no universal and unique meaning in its everyday
usage. It varies from culture to culture and is defined and perceived
differently based on the individuals' experience and understanding of it.
The order in which the chapters are arranged is not binding for instructors
or general readers, nor does it reflect the priority of issues. Through my
own teaching experience, I have found this order to possess special merits,
but, like most teachers of international communication, I frequently vary
the sequence. The way this book is used as a text will undoubtedly depend
on the standards and background of the students.
In short, the continual acceptance and generous reception accorded to
the previous four hardcover reprints of this book have encouraged publi­
cation of this newly revised edition. The first edition of this book presented
an integrated notion of international communication and a new con­
ceptualization of power, thus providing readers with important tools for
thinking about issues such as consolidation and mergers in world com­
munication systems, the erosion of state power and national sovereignty.
Today, the problems of development and participation, the questions of
cultural identity, and the scores of other subjects related to the myths and
realities of the "information revolution" have moved to the top of the
global agenda. The book anticipated the collapse of the Soviet system and
the many political and social debates currently facing Western indus­
trialized nations. Moreover, cutting-edge issues, ranging from the emerging
superhighways to human rights, that now resound in a rapidly changing
international environment were raised in this volume more than a decade
ago.
In the closing decades of the twentieth century the cultural dimensions of
world politics have reached their greatest prominence. It now seems more
imperative than ever to discuss global issues, not only in explicit economic,
geopolitical, and military terms, but equally in the context of cultural
communication and information struggle. This revised edition is a step in
that direction.

Segments of the following articles have been incorporated in this new

edition with the kind permission of the publishers: Hamid Mowlana and
Ginger Smith, "Trends in Telecommunications and the Tourism Industry:
Coalition, Regionalism, and International Welfare Systems," in J.R. Brent
Ritchie and Donald E. Hawkins, Frank Go, Douglas Frechtling, eds,

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 Preface to the revised edition Xlll

World Travel and Tourism Review: Indicators, Trends and Issues, Vol. 2,
(New York: c.A.B. International, 1 992), pp. 1 63-67; Hamid Mowlana,
"The Communications Paradox," The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, 5 1 : 4
(July/August 1 995), pp. 40-46; Hamid Mow1ana and Ginger Smith,
"Tourism in a Global Context: The Case of Frequent Traveler Programs,"
Journal of Travel Research, Winter 1 993, pp. 20-27.
This space does not permit a description of the help and advice that I
received from my many friends and colleagues who looked over and
commented on this book throughout the last decade. My greatest debt,
however, goes to my graduate assistants Kathleen Lewis-Workman, who
kept a close hand on this project from its beginning, and Caroline Hayashi
- together they made important and valuable contributions without which
this edition would not have been feasible.
I would like to thank my production editor at Sage Publications, Pascale
Carrington, and my copy editor, Justin Dyer, for their fine work. Addi­
tional thanks go to Sophie Craze for her encouragement and to Amitabh
Dabla and Stefanie Leighton for their helpful assistance during the last
stages of this project.

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 1

World Politics in Transition: New

Frontiers in International Relations

Only tribes held together by group feeling can live in the desert.

Ibn Khaldun ( l 332-l406)

The Mugaddimah (An Introduction to History)

It was Ibn Khaldun, the great Islamic scholar and social philosopher, who
centuries ago stressed that the individual human being cannot secure all the
things necessary for his livelihood without cooperation with someone else.
Thus, in his theory of social organization and in his discussion of cultural
identity and intercultural relations, he pointed out that "proper order
among men cooperating in such organization" as world society "can exist
only when they are governed by justice in the form of restraining influence
that keeps them from devouring each other.'"
The center of Ibn Khaldun's world was man. His own monumental work
was a "modest" contribution to the unfinished, and perhaps unfinishable,
search to understand human society. Later developments and assumptions,
however, colored the vocabulary of texts as well as methods of inter­
national and intercultural studies. An emergent field of knowledge in
modem history is the study of "international relations." Three decades or
so ago it was generally a peripheral subject because it was, in essence,
descriptive of diplomatic history. In the last few decades it has become
analytical, with new models based on systems, games, bargaining, decision
making procedures, and multifarious other methods of approach. 2
As the complexities of the modem world grew, it became fashionable in
the literature to apply a variety of terms to the world stage as a whole, with
such phrases as "international community" and "international system." It
is, however, doubtful whether the aggregation of states alone possesses
these common values and assumptions, which are by definition the essential
conditions of the community, and whether or not the working of world
society is in some way analogous to that of a mechanical system. The result
has been to emphasize the tangible, the formal, and the measurable.
Consequently, in the area of international and intercultural communication,
the cultural and human components of international and societal relations
have been overshadowed by technical, political, and economic aspects
of the field. Today the field of international relations is in a stage of
self-examination, participants searching for new directions and novel
approaches. If the past is indicative, the passing traditional approaches to

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2 Global information and world communication

international relations, as well as some of the contemporary theorizing in

the field, will be adequate guides to inquiry.
In the West, especially in the Anglo-Saxon tradition of liberalism, the
"idealist" phase of international relations studies began immediately after
World War I and was dominant for nearly a decade. It saw Western
democratic theory as the cause of peace and forms of dictatorship as the
cause of war. These ideas were embodied in the intellectual thinking of
Woodrow Wilson, in the origin of the League of Nations, and in the
institution of the Permanent Court of International Justice. The "idealist"
phase took an historical and legalistic approach to the study of inter­
national relations phenomenon.
A second major approach to international relations study and theory
found its roots in the works of Karl Marx, 3 and in Lenin's theory of
imperialism.4 It explained political power, the causes of war and conflict,
and the entire phenomenon of international relations in terms of underlying
economic forces. Its methods of inquiry rested on dialectical materialism
and economic determinism. A product of Western philosophy and culture,
this approach was, until recently, ironically ignored in the traditional liter­
ature of international relations produced in the United States and Britain.
This "paradigm," however, remained the major intellectual formulation of
international relations in the former Soviet Union and socialist countries,
and among some people in less industrialized regions. Some derivations of
this theory also became the guiding principles for the Left elsewhere who
wished to analyze the phenomenon of international relations in terms of
international political economy.
A third major approach to international relations, known popularly as
the "realist" tradition, was, in major part, a direct outcome of World War
II. Criticizing the idealism and utopianism of the early decades, it
attempted to draw a clear line between "aspiration" and "reality." The
major contributors were American and European scholars, among them
E.H. Carr, s Harold Nicolson,6 Hans J. Morgenthau/ and George F.
Kennan. 8 Their fundamental proposition was the consideration of power
in international relations. Drawing a distinction between domestic and
international politics, they viewed nation-states or their decision makers as
the most important actors in international relations. International relations
was seen as struggle for power. Although new variations of realist as well
as radical political economy paradigms have been identified under such
terms as neorealism, interdependency, and dependency in an effort to
demonstrate the existing complexities of international systems, these new
perspectives are still based upon the power-oriented economic and political
models.
Whereas the realist tradition has remained the most influential among
policy makers and the students of international relations, it has not escaped
the harsh criticism of many writers and scholars who were trained under
the tutelage of those who shaped it. Mathematical, communication, socio­
psychological, linguistic, and other behavioral science models and theories

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 World politics in transition 3

were developed to test or reject some aspects of the realist approach, and to
bring about scientific understanding of international relations. The empha­
sis was on the "is" and not on the "ought." The behavioral movement of
the 1 950s and 1 960s was largely responsible for generating a good number
of models and data in the form of events analysis, interaction and
information flow, decision-making analysis, game theory and deterrence
strategy, and the linkage of domestic policy to international politics.
A recent analysis of international research, however, supports the
controversial claim that "the realist paradigm has dominated the field of
international relations since the early fifties, and that this paradigm has not
,,
been very successful in explaining behavior. 9 It further states "that most
scholars in the field share a fundamental view of the world that was
promulgated by the realist scholars." lo If this is the case, it simply means
that new basic assumptions or paradigms must be introduced into the study
of international relations phenomena. Although there have been some
attempts during the last decade to introduce new direction into the field, in
terms of issue areas, world order studies, and the like, there seems to be no
adequate theoretical or conceptual framework which could replace the
dominant paradigm of current scholarship and policy formulation. The
research of the last few years has been more successful in showing the
inadequacies of the three major approaches just mentioned than creating or
presenting a new one that could stand the test of time. Yet it is clear that
the economic determinism school of thought, the political power-oriented
tradition of the realist phase, and the post-realist and behavioralist
approach all have certain commonalities:
1 . they share a power-driven notion of international relations which IS
either political or economic or both;
2. they believe in the notion of nation-state as a "political" state;
3. they make communication and cultural factors subservient to political,
economic, and technological superstructures;
4. they tend to classify international relations with natural and biological
science; and
5. they tend to measure what is measurable, observable, and tangible.
These fundamental assumptions make it impossible to separate some of the
world's most distinguished activities which are not in a simple freeback
relationship to politics, work, and production.
It might be profitable, for example, to look at the notion of power as less
a problem of governing and more a problem of cooperation, learning, and
growth. Here, by applying a more general notion of power, a unified
strategy of research can be explained as shown in Figure 1 . 1 . Thus, the
dimensions of power in both national and international systems can be
viewed in two distinct but integrated, as well as related, categories of
tangible and intangible resources available to the actors. The concept of
power is defined in Figure 1 . 1 in terms of control over the particular base
values as well as in terms of the flow of interchanges between the main

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4 Global information and world communication

! Actors
!

(A) Tangible resources and their allocation, i.e.:

1. Economics
2. Technology
3. Politics
4. Cultural products
5. Educational products
6. Military

(8) Intangible resources and their allocation, i.e.:

1. Belief and value systems
2. Ideology
3. Knowledge
4. Religion

! Issues to be addressed I
(A) and (B) are interrelated, and might be conceived in the following way:

Actors and
issues

(B)

Figure 1.1 Power unified strategy of research

sectors of society reflecting the ability to act and to affect something. It is

comprised of two dimensions: the access to necessary resources to act, and
the ability and will to act. Here, central recognition is given to belief and
value systems, or world views, which help determine the nature and
parameters of action within and by each system. With such a framework
one could specify what kinds of actors possessed what kinds of resources
for defining, comprehending, and acting upon certain important issues of

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 World politics in transition 5

the day. Thus, power in national and international systems involves more
than just the reallocation of economic, political, and technological values
and bases. It involves multidimensional factors with authority, legitimacy,
and will playing crucial roles. Only in this context can we hope that the real
process of international relations and information flow will be adequately
understood.

International Communication as a Field of Study

International communication as a field of study grew out of the traditions

of international relations theories and policies described earlier. Today's
impressive body of highly relevant and methodologically diverse research
on international communication was shaped by both the human and the
technological activities that took place during the last half century. With
the spread of modem technology, especially in the field of communications,
the last decade or so has witnessed countless books and articles on such
topics as "the age of information," "information society," or "informatic
society" - separating them neatly from the old categories of "agrarian
society," "industrial society," and "post-industrial society" and assigning
them functional paradigms. The trouble is that these categories do not fit
the realities of many societies, including some of the ones that have been
experimental laboratories for such functions. Cultural components of
societies and human psychology are leading to such rapid changes in the
process itself that scholars may well be falling behind in their analytical
efforts.
A distinction must be made between the process of intercultural and
international communication and the description and analysis of that pro­
cess as a field of study. International and intercultural communication as a
field of study is more easily defined than the process itself: a definition
might adequately be obtained through a careful examination of the breadth
and depth of the literature of the field. Definition of the process of inter­
national communication, on the other hand, has been complex and often
rather ambiguous, as shown by the state of the field itself. 1 1 As in the
general field of international relations, the central task in this area has been
to describe, categorize, analyze, and theorize about the process. Meanwhile,
these underlying assumptions about international relations in general and
international communication in particular have generated an interesting
and challenging debate on the role of communication with regard to
cultural identity and intercultural communication.
The field of intercultural communication as an area of research and
study, which has been growing during the last several decades and has now
become a legitimate area of inquiry, cannot be separated from the broader
perspective of international communication outlined in this book. The
assumption that intercultural communication under different categories
can be studied and analyzed without taking into account the political,

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6 Global information and world communication

economic, and technological boundaries is both naive and unrealistic.

Intercultural communication in the modem global context cannot take
place in a vacuum as much as the international communication in its
narrow and orthodox sense cannot be understood without taking into
account the cultural and linguistic context.

Approaches to International Communication

From our analysis, we can thus conclude that four basic assumptions or
approaches have characterized the activities of scholars, governments, media
practitioners, and individual citizens in the field of international com­
munication over the last half century. The idealistic-humanistic approach
characterizes international communication as a means of bringing nations
and peoples together and as a power to assist international organizations in
the exercise of their services to the world community. As such, it strives
toward increasing understanding among nations and peoples and toward the
attainment of world peace. The process of communication here is seen in its
most idealistic form.
A second approach, sometimes called political proselytization, sees inter­
national communication as propaganda, ideological confrontation, adver­
tising, and the creation of myths and cliches. These are usually one-way
communications and they all require central organizing authorities of some
kind. They are thus imbued with a certain authoritarian, totalitarian char­
acter that makes it possible to manipulate human beings. This approach to
international communication has dominated relations between and among
states for the last several decades.
A third, increasingly visible approach is to view information in the
international context as economic power. Here, its operation is more subtle,
the message more subliminal. Overtly respectable international develop­
ment projects, business ventures, marketing, trade, and technology transfer
have characterized this approach and have usually resulted in the domi­
nation of weaker, peripheral nations. "Modernization" of less developed
countries has in fact resulted in their conversion to Western ways and has
made them more amenable to control by Western centers. This process,
sometimes referred to as "Westoxification," by encouraging its converts to
adopt non-indigenous forms of behaviors could result in a certain schizo­
phrenic paralysis of creative power.
The fourth approach to international communication is to view informa­
tion as political power. Here, information, in the form of news and data, is
treated as a neutral, value-free commodity. A study of international mass
media, the wire services, the production of literature, and cinema and
television programs reveals a concentration of means in a few countries.
When information is conveyed from one country to another, the cultural
content of the source is conveyed, and that may not always be in the best
interests of the recipient.

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 World politics in transition 7

These four orientations characterize how states, scholars, and media

practitioners have described the increasing capacities of international
communication over the last five decades. Needless to say, the division is
not mutually exclusive. The four approaches, especially the latter three, are
interrelated in varying degrees. For example, student exchange may serve
the idealistic-humanistic, political proselytization, or economic power
aspects of international communication.
None of these four approaches has escaped criticism. The idealistic­
humanistic approach in particular suffers from certain problems. First, it is
impossible to achieve the objective transfer of information and values.
Every person's knowledge and value system is unique and reflects the
accumulated image of all the messages he or she has received. There are no
facts, only a changeable value system and images that are malleable and
open to socializing influences. As a result, an individual's objectivity is
mercurial, unstable, and subjective. Second, whose ideal of international
peace and world community are we talking about? Interpretations vary,
and unless there is a consensus of an ideal world, it is impossible for the
currently dominant ideas to escape the opposing camp's accusations of
ideological imperialism. Third, there is a certain inherent defect in equating
universal agreement with universal good. Human progress springs from
individuals who disagree with the norm, who initiate new lines of thought -
creative ideas that are tangential to prevailing opinions. All great truths
begin as heresy. When a particular world view or ideological system is
proposed as an ideal system, it becomes fossilized as the status quo and
resists progressive innovations. This can ultimately result in war, for war is
not the extension of dispute, but a refusal to dispute. Fourth, the rational
pursuit of human good that idealism demands is an unrealistic expectation
from beings whose rational faculty is often overwhelmed by irrationalism
and emotion.
If the benign approach of idealism/humanism has been criticized, so too
have the three relatively malevolent approaches. International political
proselytization has led to a distrust of international media, whose purpose
is assumed, sometimes incorrectly, to be manipulative. The "war of ideas"
has been charged by ideological rivalry and fueled by intolerance among
nations and hatred among peoples. International communication has been
guilty of aiding and abetting international tensions, if not intentionally,
then at least by not promoting peaceful solutions and not conferring
legitimacy on the peacemakers.
In the arena of economic and political power, the last two approaches in
this model, information has assumed its place beside petroleum, strategic
metals, and uranium as an international resource to be bartered, boycotted,
and blackmailed. Megabyte streams of digitalized data have become the
source of power in our information-based society. Information means
power and its manipulation can have far-reaching effects on economic,
social, and political development. For example, broadcasting a television
program provides an unparalleled ability to manipulate the collective

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8 Global information and world communication

human psyche. The ability of dominant providers to reach around the

world has grown by leaps and bounds. The opportunities of the individual
to communicate with others have perhaps increased a hundredfold - if he
or she lives in a country rich enough to afford a communications structure,
and is rich enough to take advantage of it. But the ability of the truly elite
to affect the world has been multiplied a millionfold. Few are wealthy
enough to go head-to-head with Ted Turner's Cable News Network
(CNN). In short, "global" is not "universal," and "global communication"
does not mean "universal communication." More frightening is that the
trend toward communications oligarchy is growing.
The call for equal access to information and resources has been replaced
by a worldwide movement toward a market economy and capitalism,
headed by the United States and the European Union. The disintegration
of the Third World as a political force and the collapse of the Soviet Union
as a major competitive power in the international system have accelerated
the process of the globalization of goods and commodities and, with that,
the emergence of a new global information infrastructure.

International Political Communication

The diplomatic flow of information has been one of the most traditional
forms of international communication. Historically, it can be traced back
to the emergence of modem nation-states and the international political
system. The traditional style of diplomacy was characterized in the early
years by a small group of national elites, using interpersonal forms of
communication. But with the advent of modem communication technology
and the emergence of nongovernmental actors, a new style of diplomacy
arose, one more oriented toward the masses and the public. Researchers
have recognized this new flow of information as "political persuasive
,,
communication, propaganda," and more recently as "public diplomacy. 1 2
One important feature of this new form of communication was the
importance placed on public opinion. 1 3 Technological advancement in
communication allowed governments to direct their messages to large
national, as well as international, audiences. For example, the development
of radio, and more recently television and satellite systems, led to the
implementation of international broadcasting. National boundaries were no
longer barriers to international political and diplomatic messages. This was
only the beginning. Almost all governments around the world set up
"information" and "propaganda" agencies, hired public relations firms, and
organized regular and systematic "briefing" meetings and lavish diplomatic
parties in order to influence their foreign and domestic audiences.
The impact of propaganda during World War I and the development of
new techniques in persuasive communication dominated the earlier studies
of international political communication. As propaganda and psychological
warfare played an important role in World War II, the study of

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 World politics in transition 9

international political communication became a well-established field of

inquiry in many universities and institutions around the world. In the post­
World War II period, research in this area was greatly influenced by the
continuation of the Cold War. 14 The ideological struggle between the
United States and the Soviet Union produced yet another round of
research. This "war of ideas" was influenced later by several factors, among
them the development of sophisticated atomic weaponry, the rise of the
new nation-state and the non-aligned movement in the Third World, and
the increase of international economic and commercial flow and the
resulting exportation of culture. The major focus was now directed towards
a "global elite," and the growing number of technocratic intelligentsia,
increasing numbers of whom were linked by many common factors
transcending national, cultural, or regional differences.
The major strategy of international political communication in the early
decades of this century was the blatant use of propaganda. In the years
following World War I and continuing to the end of World War II, a new
communication strategy was developed. Encouraged by the potential
applications of future propaganda, governments enlisted the cooperation of
communication and political scientists. The goal was now to develop
analytical frameworks. Strategic warfare was now aimed at destroying a
country's infrastructural basis as well as the morale of the population for
carrying on the war, as was clearly shown during the Persian Gulf War.
The more recent strategy, dating back about three decades and continuing
until the present, is a structural and sociological strategy. Its purpose is
multidimensional - political, economic, and cultural. Now, the process has
been well recognized and commented upon by philosophers, sociologists,
and scientists alike.
"There is no nonsense so arrant that it cannot be made the creed of the
vast majority by adequate governmental action," the British philosopher
Bertrand Russell wrote about the nightmarish possibilities of propaganda. 1 5
In the chilling view of French sociologist Jacques Ellul, this is probably a
fait accompli in modem societies. 16 Here, propaganda comes across as a
sociological phenomenon rather than as something created by certain
people for certain purposes. The aim of propaganda is no longer to change
adherence to a doctrine. It does not normally address the individual's
intelligence, for intellectual persuasion is long and uncertain, and the
transition to action more so. Rather, it tries to make the individual cling
irrationally to a process of action because action makes propaganda's effect
irreversible. Through the process of rationalization, previous obedience
to propaganda obliges future obedience. Thus pre-propaganda, which
prepares one for action, becomes active propaganda, after the individual
has been converted to action.
Propaganda's internal characteristics are its knowledge of the individual's
psychological terrain, and its aim, which seeks not to elevate but to make
one subservient. It must express the fundamental currents of modem
technological society that humanity's goal in life is happiness, that human

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10 Global information and world communication

nature is naturally good, that history develops in endless progression, and

that everything is matter. The collective myth of Science, History, Work,
Happiness, Nation, Youth, and Hero is an inter-supporting network, and
must be used.
Ellul has listed several categories of propaganda: political and socio­
logical, agitation and integration, vertical and horizontal, rational and
irrational. On all of these levels, propaganda is a condition in which the
existing political, economic, and sociological factors allow an ideology to
penetrate individuals or masses. It produces a progressive adaptation to a
certain order of things, a certain concept of human relations, which sub­
liminally molds individuals and makes them conform to society. This
propaganda has profound effects: not only are the propagandees' attitudes
and opinions modified, but so are their impulses and mental and emotional
structures. It causes psychological crystallization; a refusal to listen to new
ideas; an alienated and artificial life of obedience to someone outside
oneself; alternate exaltation and depression; and mithridatism, which is a
tendency to react to the smallest dose of propaganda.
The sociopolitical effects are similarly deep: once used as a means of
spreading ideology externally or fortifying it internally, propaganda then
obeys its own laws and becomes autonomous. In this context, ideology not
used by propaganda - like humanism - becomes ineffective. The state must
become a propagandist because of the need to dispense information, the
need for an all-embracing truth, and myths of democratic participation that
hide intolerance and minority suppression - ethnocentric attempts to
preserve the state's "way of life."
Ellul must be regarded as a Cassandra by British communication scien­
tist Colin Cherry, who states that the fear of propaganda is a gross over­
estimation of the power of television, radio, and the press. To Cherry, even
a harmless statement of one's view is propaganda, and its connotations are
not necessarily negative. He goes so far as to state that "propaganda can be
a vital factor in human emancipation." 1 7
It would be unfair to compare Cherry's view, which makes only a
passing mention of propaganda, to the complex and holistic analysis pro­
vided by Ellul. However, Ellul seems to stop short of suggesting alterna­
tives and solutions, leaving us intelligently unhappy. This is partly justified
by Ellul's theological existentialism, which leaves the onus of choice and
salvation on the individual. The only escape is individual transcendence. 18
Yet the importance and crucial significance of international political
communication, propaganda, and the new role that the ideological symbols
play in international relations have been acknowledged by all the schools of
international relations regardless of their political orientation. During the
Cold War, Georgi Arbatov, a writer from the former Soviet Union whose
work on this subject was mainly linked "with the world division into two
socio-political systems" along the line of Marxist-Leninist theory, saw the
"war of ideas in contemporary international relations" as "a feature
characterizing precisely our epoch," which he said "has no precedent in

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 World politics in transition 11

history because the international relations in the transitional periods (i.e. in

the period of transition from one socioeconomic formation to another) of
the past had always developed under conditions in which world-wide social
systems comparable with those in existence today did not and could not
,,
take shape. )9
In the United States a generation ago, Harold Lasswell advocated the
study of the international flow of information in determining the climate of
international action. 2o Since part of the manipulative strategy of politics
calls for mood control by the use of both communication and noncom­
munication, Lasswell focused his interest on analysis of the content of elite­
to-elite and elite-to-nonelite media of communication in determining the
distribution of common moods as well as the distribution of deviations.
During the last two decades, communication models and terminologies
have been used in the study of integration at the international level by such
scholars as Karl Deutsch, Richard Merritt, and Carl Clark. 21 International
relations as a communication process has been discussed by Charles
McClelland, Davis Bobrow, and others?2 Communication models and
information flow data have been used by lohan Galtung and his associates
in the study of imperialism and world systems. 23 As a result, there has been
a shift toward a much more extensive and careful use of communication
and information data in international political research.
New theoretical interests have stimulated researchers to use data about
communication, mass media, public opinion, and attitude change. There
have been attempts to borrow paradigms - mainly those of mediated
stimulus, cognitive balance, and cybernetics - from psychology and related
fields. 24 Some have gone still further by introducing ideas concerning the
role of information in psychiatry and biology and its relation to inter­
national relations. 25 An important contribution has been made in the area
of communication and foreign policy during the last three decades and the
conception of how public opinion and national and international images
are formed and held has been significantly changed by such scholars as
Herbert Kelman, Kenneth Boulding, Bernard Cohen, Gabriel Almond, and
Ralph White. 26
In general, there seem to be three kinds of communication theory
underpinning international relations research: mathematical, sociopsycho­
logical, and linguistic. Mathematical theory appears to be a growing field in
the United States - the low level mathematical theories coming from
empirical and theoretical research done on military strategy and national­
ism. For example, Lewis Richardson, Anatol Rappaport, and Thomas
Schelling have been as concerned with developing theories of conflict
strategy as Karl Deutsch and David Easton have been with politics and
international relations. 27 The sociopsychological tradition has had a tre­
mendous influence on politics and mass media research, and the linguistic
tradition has led to such areas as symbol analysis and content analysis. 28
Information flow has been the essential ingredient in the evolution of
international political economy, since information and institutional

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12 Global information and world communication

characteristics of any system are interdependent and thus cannot be

separated. This information analysis as both a relevant aspect of conceptual
models and a substantive area of inquiry in the fields of international
political economy and comparative economics has been growing. For
example, while Kenneth Boulding and Kenneth Arrow have written on the
economics of knowledge and the knowledge of economics, Jan Tinbergen
has explored the role of information in the modem international economic
order. 29 Joseph Hirshleifer, Fritz Machlup, Egon Neuberger, and William
Duffy are among those who have included information flow in their
analysis of comparative economic systems as well as the decision-making
process. 30 Dallas Smythe and Herbert Schiller are among those political
economists who have written extensively on information technology and
international communication. 3 l Immanuel Wallerstein's world system
perspective of political economy has stimulated a number of studies on
the role of telecommunications and mass media in the political economy of
cultural industry. 32

International Strategic Communication

A less explored area in the literature of international relations is the

strategic aspect of information flow. Space age technology, to a consider­
able degree, has changed the traditional strategy and notion of land, sea,
and air battlefields. The US government's plans to develop a space-based
weapons system that used satellites to identify the former Soviet inter­
continental ballistic missiles as they emerged from their silos is a case in
point. The Agency (DARPA) at the US Department of Defense was given
the mission to identify, create, and develop new technologies that could
alter the balance of power between the two superpowers. The "Star Wars"
project, as the media labeled it, was supposed to be a deterrent. Robert
Cooper, director of DARPA, explained it this way:
I personally feel that there is a role for military systems in space, a demonstrated
role so far, certainly in communications, navigation and surveillance,
meteorology. But as far as placing destructive devices in space, it's not clear
yet whether it's ever going to be desirable to do that. 33

Further, during the Cold War the Pentagon completed a strategic master
plan to give the United States the capability of winning a protracted
nuclear war with the former Soviet Union. According to the press report,
"One consequence of this planning has been a commitment of $ 1 8 billion
to provide a communication system that could endure such protracted
,,
nuclear warfare. 34 In short, increasingly accurate missile technology and
sophisticated means of communications, coupled with military satellites
now in orbit, gave confidence and support to these projected or planned
strategies. The Soviet Union, of course, had its own military-oriented space
projects that had not yet been publicized.

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 World politics in transition l3

Indeed, as the collapse of the Soviet Union and the emergence of the so­
called "post-Cold War era" demonstrated, these technologies have now
become alternative security systems. The ability of the United States and its
allies to use modem communication technologies as a major strategic
advantage in the Persian Gulf War is indeed a case in point. Yet, the fact
remains that non-weapon, sensory communication and computer technol­
ogy are challenging the strategic balance of power, making the nation-state
system less secure and in many ways precipitating a new round in the arms
race, especially in such strategic areas as the Persian Gulf.
A monograph discussing the transparency revolution - sensory, com­
munication, and computing - concludes that "effective control of space by
,,
one state would lead to planet-wide hegemony. 3 5 This transparency
revolution, which has "created a rudimentary planetary nervous system,
fragments of a planetary cybernetic, has militarized yet another natural
feature of the planet lying beyond the effective sovereignty of the nation
,,
state - the electromagnetic spectrum. 36 In ancient times, Persia's extensive
transportation and postal services were the indispensable nerve system in its
war with Greece. During the nineteenth century, Britain's control of the
underseas cable network was responsible for its naval hegemony in the
world. In the twentieth century, the first ocean-spanning satellites enabled
the American president to pick up bombing targets in Vietnam in the
morning and see photo reconnaissance images of the results in the evening.
The strategic importance of space communication technology has
obvious economic dimensions as well. For example,
INTELSAT provides a system on which about a quarter of the communication
traffic either originates or terminates in the United States, a system consisting of
billions of dollars worth of satellites manufactured by US firms and a system
which provides homes and businesses across America with inexpensive and
7
efficient access to virtually every place on Earth. 3

At the same time, the globalization of national economies and the fact that
a quarter of worldwide economic activities are now involved with inter­
national trade and services give further incentives for a country to have a
leading edge in communication technology.
The privatization and proliferation of international satellite systems were
opposed by many, including Third World countries, because, as was
reported by the director of INTELSAT, Richard Colino, in 1 986, they were
likely to serve only the most lucrative heavier routes of United States­
European communication, and doubly harm the Third World.
A reduction in use of the system by the USA and other North Atlantic countries
would correspondingly reduce their investment shares and thus increase the
investment shares of the rest of the membership. Consequently, Third World
countries would be required to increase their capital contributions as well as pay
8
higher utilization charges if mainstream traffic were lost. 3

Privatization and commercialization of the communication satellite systems

were thus completed by the mid-1 990s.

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14 Global information and world communication

International Economic Communication

Information technologies and information-based products and services have

become central to the economy as a whole. Today, telecommunications is a
vital component of any national economy, and, indeed, of the nations' way
of life. Rapid and efficient communication - initially by telegraph, and
later by telephone and transportation systems such as railroad - was
important in the nineteenth century in the development of national,
regional, and imperial powers. As economic markets become more and
more internationalized and globalized, many nations' domestic commu­
nication systems are important in permitting the domestic-based firms and
companies to operate globally and transnationally. It is not surprising,
therefore, that many nations are currently exploring the use of telecom­
munications, and more recently the integrated versions of telecommunica­
tions technologies under such terms as National Information Infrastructure
(NIl) - as in the case of the United States - to overcome some of the most
important social, economic, and cultural problems and as a tool to promote
the existing national and global economic systems. In the international
context, the current US effort to develop the so-called information super­
highway under NIl has been expanded and developed into the Global
Information Infrastructure (GIl) by the European Union as well as the
Asia-Pacific region and has been endorsed by the International
Telecommunications Union (ITU).
Information as a form of wealth and national resource has now brought
about new definitions of "property" and considerable modifications of
existing antitrust regulations and telecommunications laws as demonstrated
in the United States and elsewhere in Europe and many other countries.
Multinational and transnational firms now require different types of infor­
mation and information technology to operate and manipulate markets
around the world than those utilized conventionally by domestic firms.
Today data banks are all multinational in structure and content: decision
models involve many sets of national and regional legal frameworks and
communication channels cross international boundaries.
Indeed information and communication technologies now provide an
important segment of transnational businesses. As hardware and communi­
cations markets continue to develop globally, there is corresponding
opportunity to develop software markets. The latter should be thought of
in broader terms than merely computer programs for hardware service.
They include management systems, data for data banks, and technological
know-how. The intermingling of the hardware and software components of
communication systems as well as the prominence given to the distribution
aspects of communication is well illustrated in a number of major
consolidations, mergers, and takeovers in the worldwide communication
and information industries. For example, IBM has a huge distribution
network through which it sells everything from mainstream computers to
business consulting services. Yet the problem is that IBM for years lacked

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 World politics in transition 15

exciting software, thus alienating many potential customers, especially in

the personal computer market. It was precisely on this point that IBM
stunned its competitors as well as its prey when it made an offer of $3.3
billion in a bid to acquire the Lotus Development Corporation, a large
software company. Lotus of course could not re-create IBM's distribution
network, but it could create something even better - a computer network.
The same phenomenon of software and hardware marriage can be observed
when one views the numerous consolidations and mergers between the
cable and telephone companies and the television and film industries.
Over the last half a century, much of the modern information and
communication technologies such as computers, satellites, space and
aviation know-how were developed and used by the military-industrial
complex. Today the real pay-off would be the ability to transfer these
technologies to new products and services required by society in terms of its
domestic and social needs. The world is clearly divided into "have" and
"have-not" peoples as the geographically unequal distribution of physical
resources becomes further sharpened by a corresponding inequitable
distribution of information and knowledge.
Domestic and foreign intellectual property laws - principally the laws
covering patents, copyrights and trademarks - are now becoming altered as
a result of the development of modern technologies and expansion of
global products. To understand the legal and political pressures that new
technologies place on the intellectual property systems, we must understand
their unique capabilities. The economic stakes of the new technologies are
particularly high for the copyright industries - publishing and other indus­
tries that rely on the legal protection provided by copyright laws. Infor­
mation is also a dominant force in our lives, socially, financially, and
economically. In the United States and many of the world's industrial and
information-oriented societies an enormous amount of information is
communicated and commercialized in the form of words through electronic
media. In the 1 970s, for example, it was estimated that the American
population was exposed to about 8.7 trillion words each day through
electronic media such as radio, television, newspaper, books, and maga­
zines. This figure has been rising as a result of new computer-related
networks at the average rate of 1 .2 percent per year. The US government's
budget for information technology alone has risen from $9.2 billion in fiscal
year 1 982 to $ 1 5.2 billion in 1 986 to an estimated $30 billion in 1 996.
The global economy is now truly developing into an information-based
economy. Such development and its effects include: the increasing flow of
information and information-based products and services among nations;
the growing economic importance of information and related products and
services within and between nations; the increasing cultural and political
significance of information and related products and services; the
emergence of new information-based products and services that do not
correspond to traditional categories; the increasing difficulty of enforcing
intellectual property rights on the international level; and the growing

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16 Global information and world communication

convergence of international intellectual property issues with other inter­

national issues. Although the economic implications of modern communi­
cation technologies are often discussed within the context of modern urban
settings, their impact on rural areas should not be ignored. Economic
development in rural areas will not only affect national economic perform­
ance, it will also help determine how well a nation fares in an increasingly
competitive global economy. Indeed, the economic and social effects of a
nation's communication infrastructure are determined not only by its
overall technical capabilities but by their availability to the public as a
whole and their pattern and directions of use.
The 1 993 study by the US Department of Commerce on Globalization of
the Mass Media acknowledged that modern information technologies are
"vehicles through which ideas, images, and information are disbursed
across the United States and throughout the world" and are therefore
"powerful agent[s] for political and social change." The data, compiled by
the US Department of Commerce Bureau for Economic Analysis,
indicated that US exports of motion pictures and television programming
exceeded inputs by $2. 1 billion in 1 99 1 . According to data collected by the
Motion Pictures Association of America, which uses the firm-based
approach rather than the country-based approach, the US motion pictures
and television programming industry exported, on a worldwide basis, over
$7 billion of motion picture and television programming in 1 99 1 . It is
estimated that these figures will increase by the end of the 1 990s as US
cultural industry products continue to expand around the world. The world
is being engulfed in a tide of American culture-inspired secularism. For
example, in the last 20 years as Latin American countries have adopted
free market economic policies, American consumerism has pervaded these
countries as never before with much more force than was feared in the
1 960s. 39 An even more extreme example of the spread of American
consumerism is in Canada, which has struggled with the American culture
"invasion" for almost all of its history, without success. In Canada,
approximately 95 percent of the films and the revenue generated from
those films are American; 66 percent of all the books and 80 percent of
magazines are also non-Canadian.4o The extent of this cultural penetration
exists despite a number of protections and subsidies designed to guard and
preserve Canadian culture.41
Today, electronic communication is defined not only as the traditional,
centralized, broadcast media - radio and television - but also by computer
networks, fax machines, tape recorders, image recorders, and desktop
publishing. Modern communication is developing along two fronts, each
creating its own parallel and yet contradictory phenomena. On the one
hand, there is the promise of the globalization of personal communications,
with its potential to empower individuals. On the other hand, there is
the reality of globalization: continuing centralization of mass communica­
tions, with fewer players (often international corporations) controlling the
choke-points, leaving the overwhelming majority of the world's people

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 World politics in transition 17

increasingly marginalized on the periphery. The increasing concentration of

the world's communication and information systems in the hands of a few
leads to the domination of the world's networks by a handful of powerful
conglomerates which become the lords of the global village and constitute
vast communication empires that totally eliminate national boundaries. It is
important to note that the increasing concentration of wealth in the hands
of a few is hurting not only developing nations but developed countries as
well. The impact of growing competition on the incomes of Americans is a
"winner-take-all" economy which is widening the gap between rich and
poor and concentrating incomes and wealth in fewer hands.42 Another
important aspect of the shrinking global village and the dense concen­
tration of wealth and poverty is the question of human rights, which
include collective and individual rights as well as public and private rights.
Nevertheless, the newest communication technologies can be molded into
their users' images. Rather than replacing indigenous communications and
culture, they can exist side by side with them. The same local information
that was not economical to broadcast to an entire country suddenly
becomes valuable and pertinent when the medium of dissemination is a
computer bulletin board. These new communication technologies can
encourage increased participation and equality. By creating an alternative
to the temporarily dominant mass media channels, these forms of com­
munication offer the promise of preserving indigenous culture in a new
form, rather than simply replacing it with an inappropriate new Western
paradigm. Of course, such progress is limited. While it may be far cheaper
to run an electronic bulletin board with a $2,000 computer rather than to
run a multimillion-dollar broadcast network, $2,000 is still more than a
year's pay for most people. Moreover, many of the necessary electronic
infrastructures for decentralized communications, such as telephone lines,
are centered in the richest handful of nations. But at least there is hope -
and that is something that no one could have said a decade ago.

Intercultural Communication and Conflict

One characteristic of our age is that small nations, more than ever, are now
challenging the world political and economic structures. The experience in
Vietnam and the Islamic revolution in Iran during the 1 970s were only two
dramatic examples of both political and ideological conflict between the
superpowers on the one hand and smaller countries on the other. The post­
Cold War surge in so-called "ethnic conflict" is the continuation of a trend
that began in the 1 960s. The end of the Cold War contributed to the long­
term trend of state conflict by increasing the number of nation-states
experiencing such a power transition. It can be argued that because the
great powers have a high stake in international system maintenance, and
because they must maintain a posture to satisfy their domestic political,
military, and economic elites, they have little interest under the existing

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18 Global information and world communication

Domestic elite communication

z �-------,
o
�u
Z
::J Superpowers' diplomacy and communication
2 �____________________________________ �
2
o
u
u
::J
OJ
::J
Transnational elite communication
� �------�

Figure 1.2 Inter-elite communication and the public

international system to make any revolutionary and fundamental changes

in the international communication structure as we now know it.
Thus the present international communication and information flow may
be described as the E phenomenon (see Figure 1 .2). Here, information flow
and communication usually occur horizontally among and between the elite
structure in three distinct and somewhat international levels: ( 1 ) domestic
elite communication, socialization, and policy debate; (2) great powers' elite
diplomacy and "cooperation," "detente," or acquiescence; and (3) inter­
national and transnational elites, socialization, and activities.
This somewhat global intra-elite communication and information flow
tends to take a vertical and downward direction to the public. This is not to
say, by any means, that there is no intra-elite competition, but simply to
indicate that the growing conservative and system-maintenance orientation
of these three levels of elite activities in international communication and
international relations tend to generate a highly similar vertical line of
messages, which seem to grow more in the direction of a global vertical line
if we view the present international system as a whole. There are, of course,
certain exceptions to this on a specific functional level, but generally this
has been a major characteristic of international relations since the mid-
1 960s.
Until the fall of the Soviet Union, competition and conflict between the
superpowers took different forms and contents. Since a war between
the major powers would have meant global destruction, and because of the
development of sophisticated atomic weapons a total victory was no longer
possible for either power, two important poles of international military,
diplomatic, technological, and intellectual communications emerged, each
trying to maintain, protect, and, if possible, advance its dominance over the
global society by controlling and manipulating information and symbols.
Access to domestic and international communication channels became the
major goal for advancing the perceptions of military, economic, and
cultural superiority. In short, communications hardware and software
became instruments in globalizing the Cold War and "detente" systems,
often with correlation of the middle-level powers or even the small powers,

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 World politics in transition 19

who either had no front o r unity o f their own independent from the
superpowers, or were in such a state of flux that they tended to ally
themselves with one camp or the other on a number of issues and fronts. In
such a system of international relations, agenda setting is the main source
of power. In the last two decades, as a result of nationalism, revolution,
ethnicity, and religio-political movements around the world, the monopoly
of the great powers' agenda setting systems has been constantly challenged
and in some cases even reduced.
Because the control over the means of international communication is
expensive and subject to economies of scale, there is little room for smaller
countries to inject themselves into the increasing global communications
markets. Today, the world's seven richest nations - the United States,
Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan - control not only the
bulk of the world's wealth, but also the bulk of its future. But even within
these rich countries there is concentration of wealth, and smaller countries
such as France and Canada fear that their own cultures will be overtaken
by the American cult of commercialism. In the global society, those who
hold mastery of information and ready capital, rather than military might,
dictate the course of the world. This so-called globalization of the mass
media combined with the globalization of the economy has resulted in the
production and the distribution of television, video, and other cultural
industry products that have led not only to the homogeneity of the
products but also to the reproduction of violent programs across national
boundaries just because they are simply inexpensive and have the ability to
cross cultural barriers.
We have entered a period of challenging and chaotic digital trans­
formation. The result will be a redefinition of international politics in terms
of communication and cultural activities. The unpredictability of inter­
national events and the insecurity of the major powers, are no longer
necessarily masters of their own fates, are included in this unsettling reality,
as are the erosion of the legitimacy of the nation-state system and the
increasing demands for change from smaller nations and groups. It is
neither an "end of ideology," as American sociologist Daniel Bell predicted
some year ago, nor the "end of history" that one conservative commen­
tator, Francis Fukuyama, more recently noted. Simply put, history clearly
is open; quests for new ideologies and a new world order have begun.
The agenda setting of the day - what to table and what to think about -
becomes more important than what position one must take about the issues
that are confronting the world community. The conflict is just as much
about the priority and primacy of the issues as about the nature of the
issues themselves. Thus control over information flow and communication
must accompany access to material and natural resources. It is only under
a powerful communication and information system that one can determine
the parameters of international security debates. In short, conceptualization
of world, regional, and national problems is the basis for political, econ­
omic, and military mobilization.

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20 Global information and world communication

Notes

I . Ibn Khaldun, The Mugaddimah: An Introduction to History, translated from Arabic by

Franz Rosenthal (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1967), pp. x, 97.
2. For a sample of works in the field of international relations see: E.H. Carr,
International Relations Between the Two World Wars, 1919-1939 (New York: Harper and
Row, 1 966); Inis L. Claude, Power and International Relations (New York: Random House,
1 962); Ernest B. Haas, Beyond the Nation State (Standford, CA: Standford University Press,
1968); John W. Burton, International Relations: A General Theory (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1965); and his Conflict and Communication (London: Macmillan, 1 969);
Stanley Hoffman, Contemporary Theory in International Politics (Englewood Cliffs, NJ:
Prentice Hall, 1 960); K.J. Holsti, International Politics: A Framework of Analysis (Englewood
Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1977); Morton A. Kaplan, Systems and Process in International
Politics (New York: Wiley, 1957); James Rosenau and Sidney Verba, eds, The International
System (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1 96 1 ); Joyce Kolko and Gabriel Kolko,
The Limits of Powers (New York: Harper and Row, 1 972); Charles A. McClelland, Theory
and the International System (New York: Macmillan, 1 966); Hans J. Morgenthau, Politics
Among Nations (New York: Knopf, 1973); Anatol Rappaport, Strategy and Conscience (New
York: Schocken Books, 1 964); Richard N. Rosecrance, Actions and Reactions in World Politics
(Boston: Little, Brown, 1963); J. David Singer, ed., Quantitative International Politics (New
York: Free Press, 1968); Glen H. Snyder and Paul Diesing, Conflict Among Nations:
Bargaining, Decision-Making, and System Structure in International Crisis (princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press, 1977); Kenneth N. Waltz, A Theory of International Politics
(Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1979); and Dina A. Zinnes, Contemporary Research in
International Relations: A Perspective and a Critical Appraisal (New York: Free Press, 1 976).
3. Karl Marx, Capital, 3 volumes (Moscow: Foreign Language Publishing House, 1 959).
4. V.l. Lenin, Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism (New York: International
Publishers Company, 1 939).
5. E.H. Carr, The Twenty Years' Crisis, 1919-1939: An Introduction to the Study of
International Relations (New York: Harper and Row, 1 939).
6. Harold Nicolson, Diplomacy (London: Oxford University Press, 1 939).
7. Hans J. Morgenthau, Scientific Man vs. Power Politics (Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 1 946) and his Politics Among Nations (New York: Knopf, 1 948).
8. George F. Kennan, American Diplomacy (New York: Mentor, 1952).
9. John A. Vasquez, The Power of Power Politics (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers
University Press, 1983), p. xi.
10. Ibid., p. xii.
I I . Hamid Mowlana, "The Communication Dimension of International Studies in the
United States: A Quantitative Assessment," International Journal of Communication Research
(University of Cologne), 1 : I (Winter, 1 974), pp. 3-22; also Hamid Mowlana, "Trends in
Research on International Communication in the United States," Gazette, XIX: 2 ( 1973), pp.
79-90.
12. For example, Richard L. Merritt, ed., Communication in International Politics (Urbana,
IL: University of Illinois Press, 1972); W. Phillips Davison, International Political
Communication (New York: Praeger, 1 965); and Glen H. Fisher, Public Dplomacy i and the
Behavioral Sciences (Bloomington, IN: University of Indiana Press, 1972).
1 3. See Walter Lippman, Public Opinion (New York: Free Press, 1 922); Daniel Katz,
Dorwin Cartwright, Samuel Eldersveld, and Alfred McClung Lee, eds, Public Opinion and
Propaganda (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1 954); and Bernard Berelson and
Morris Janowitz, eds, Public Opinion and Communication (Glencoe, IL: Free Press, 1 950).
14. Harold D. Lasswell, Daniel Lerner, and Hans Speier, eds, Propaganda and
Communication in World History, Vol. III, A Pluralizing World in Formation (Honolulu:
University of Hawaii Press, 1980); George N. Gordon and Irving A. Falk, The War of Ideas
(New York: Hastings House, 1973); Georgi Arbatov, The War of Ideas in Contemporary

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 World politics in transition 21

International Relations (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1 973); and Ralph K . White, "Images in
the Context of International Conflict: Soviet Perceptions of the U.S. and USSR," in Herbert
C. Kelman, ed., International Behavior: A Socio-Psychological Analysis (New York: Holt,
Rinehart and Winston, 1 965), pp. 238-76.
1 5. Bertrand Russell, Unpopular Essays (London: Penguin Books, 1950).
16. Jacques Ellul, Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes (New York: Alfred A.
Knopf, 1965).
1 7 . Colin Cherry, World Communication: Threat or Promise? (London: John Wiley-
Interscience, 1971), p. 1 2 1 .
18. Ellul, Propaganda, p . 257.
19. Arbatov, The War of Ideas, pp. 33-34.
20. Harold D . Lasswell, "The Climate of International Action," in Kelman, ed.,
International Behavior, pp. 337-353.
2 1 . See Karl W. Deutsch, Political Community and the North Atlantic Area and his
International Political Communities: An Anthology (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1966);
Richard L. Merritt, The Growth of American Community: 1 735-1 775 (New Haven, CT: Yale
University Press, 1964); Carl Clark and Richard L. Merritt, "European Community and Intra­
European Communications: The Evidence of Mail Flows," International Studies Association
Conference, Atlanta, Georgia, March 1 8-3 1 , 1 984.
22. Charles A. McClelland, Theory and the International System (New York: Macmillan,
1966); Davis Bobrow, "Transfer of Meaning Across National Boundaries," in Merritt, ed.,
Communication in International Politics, pp. 33-62.
23. Johan Ga1tung, "A Structural Theory of Imperialism," Journal of Peace Research, 8: 2
(1971), pp. 8 1 - 1 1 8 .
24. Karl W . Deutsch, The Nerves of Government: Models of Political Communication and
Control (New York: Free Press, 1963); and Bobrow, "Transfer of Meaning Across National
Boundaries," pp. 33-62.
25. Howard Rome, "Psychiatry and Foreign Affairs," and Bryant Wedge, "Training for
Psychiatry in International Relations," American Journal of Psychiatry, 1 25 (1968); and Ralph
Pettman, Human Behavior and World Politics (New York: St Martin's Press, 1975).
26. Kelman, International Behavior; Kenneth Boulding, The Image (Ann Arbor, MI:
University of Michigan Press, 1965); Bernard Cohen, The Press and Foreign Policy (princeton,
NJ: Princeton University Press, 1963); Gabriel Almond, The American People and Foreign
Policy (New York: Macmillan, 1961); Ralph K. White, Nobody Wanted War (New York:
Doubleday Anchor Books, 1970).
27. Lewis Richardson, Arms and Insecurity (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1960);
Anatol Rappaport, Fights, Games, and Debates (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan
Press, 1 960); Thomas Schelling, The Strategy of Conflict (New York: Macmillan, 1 963); Karl
W. Deutsch, Nationalism and Social Communication (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1953); and
David Easton, A Frameworkfor Political Analysis (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1965).
28. Harold Lasswell, Nathan Leites and Harold Dwight, Language of Politics (Cambridge:
MA: MIT Press, 1949), and Lasswell's Comparative Study of Symbols (Stanford, CA: Stanford
University Press, 1952), as well as his World Politics and Personal Insecurity (New York:
World Publishing, 1935).
29. Kenneth Boulding, "The Economics of Knowledge and the Knowledge of Economics,"
American Economic Review, 56 (May 1966), p. 5; K.J. Arrow, "Limited Knowledge and
Economic Analysis," American Economic Review, 64 (March 1 974), pp. 1 -1 0; Jan Tinbergen,
Shaping the World Economy (New York: Twentieth Century Fund, 1 962), and his Toward a
New World Economy (Rotterdam: Rotterdam University Press, 1972); Richard I. Savage and
Karl W. Deutsch, "A Statistical Model of the Gross Analysis of Transaction Flows,"
Econometrica, 28: 3 (July 1960), pp. 551-572; D.M. Lamberton, ed., Economics of Information
and Knowledge (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1971); George Stegler, "The Economics of
Information," Journal of Political Economy, 69 (June 1 96 1 ), pp. 52-65.
30. Joseph Hirshleifer, "Where Are We in the Theory of Information?" American Economic
Review, 63 (May 1973), pp. 3 1 -39; Egon Neuberger and William Duffy, Comparative

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22 Global information and world communication

Economic Systems: A Decision-Making Approach (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, Inc., 1976); and
Fritz Machlup, The Production and Distribution of Knowledge (Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press, 1 972).
3 1 . Dallas Smythe, Dependency Road: Communication, Capitalism, Consciousness, and
Canada (Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing Corporation, 1981); Herbert U. Schiller, Who
Knows: Information in the Age of the Fortune 500 (Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing
Corporation, 1981).
32. Immanuel Wallerstein, The Modern World-System, Vols I and II (New York: Academic
Press, 1 974, 1 980); Herbert 1. Schiller, Communication and Cultural Domination (White Plains,
NY: International Arts and Sciences Press, 1976).
33. Quoted in Michael Schrage, "The Sword of Science," The Washington Post Magazine,
October 9, 1983, p. 22.
34. Robert Scheer, "Nuclear 'Win' Strategy Developed for Reagan," The Miami Herald,
August 1 5, 1 982.
35. Daniel Deudney, "Whole Earth Security: A Geopolitics of Peace," Worldwatch Paper
55 (Washington, DC: Worldwatch Institute, July 1 983), p. 1 3 .
3 6 . Ibid., p. 20.
37. Statement of Richard R. Colino, director general-designate, International Telecommu­
nications Satellite Organization (INTELSAT), before the Subcommittee on Arms Control,
Oceans, International Operations and Environment, Senate Foreign Relations Committee,
October 19, 1983, p. 3 .
3 8 . Ibid., p. 1 5 .
3 9 . "From Language t o Literature, a New Guiding Lite," The Washington Post, September
5, 1995, Sec. A I .
40. Ibid.
4 1 . Ibid.
42. The Washington Post, November 12, 1 995, Sec. A, pp. 1, 14.

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 2

International Flow of Information:

A Framework of Analysis

Research and writing on the international flow of infonnation have had an

astonishing growth in the field of international communication during the
last two decades. Among the factors responsible for the increased study and
research in the international flow of infonnation are:

1 . the development of modern infonnation and communication tech­

nologies, and their use and impact on the nature, volume, and content
of infonnation and communication;
2. the increased awareness of nation-states, institutions, groups and indi­
viduals in the importance of infonnation flow, the existing imbalances,
and their consequences and impact on the national and international
decision-making processes as well as on the individual and private lives
of people around the world;
3. the increasing number of international and transnational actors in
almost all aspects of the international flow of infonnation with political,
social, and economic ramifications, particularly in respect to such areas
as trade, marketing, education, and culture;
4. the growing interest in comparative cross-cultural as well as public
opinion and image studies, accompanied by the sharpening of our
research and investigatory tools and improved means of collecting,
sorting, retrieving, and sharing data;
5. and more specifically, the debate generated and articulated over the
New International Economic Order and the New World Infonnationl
Communication Order in the 1 970s, particularly the UNESCO declara­
tions and activities on infonnation flow and communication policies
and the ensuing discussions over the relationship between the economic
and communication aspects of the world's resources.

As the supply of infonnation is increasing at an extraordinary rate, both

internationally and domestically, infonnation and equal access to it are
seen as vehicles for reducing dependency in economic, political, and
cultural relations. In a broad sense, the study of the international flow of
infonnation is another approach to the study of international relations.
Consequently, it should not only include the flow of infonnation and
messages through technological channels and the conventional media, but it
must take into account the totality and the diversity of both channels and

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24 Global information and world communication

TEC H N O LOG ICAL ORI ENTATION

Newspapers,
magazines, books, Radio and television
technical and and direct broadcast
scientific journals satellite
and news agencies

Satellite and planetary

resources - including Film, recording and
transborder data flow, video, marketing,
computers and related advertising and public
technologies opinion polls
International flow of
information
Educational, artistic Mail, telecommunications,
and cultural exchanges electronic and digital
(persons and exhibits, networks and
etc.), including communication channels
conferences and
sports events

Diplomatic and
political channels, Tourism, travel and
including military migration, including
and related religious and other
conferences and personal contacts
organizations

H U MAN ORI ENTATION

Figure 2.1 Channels and types of international flow of information. The

technological orientation and human orientation should be thought of as
being complementary, interrelated, and adaptive

messages transferring information across national boundaries. This would

include the study of messages flowing through channels that are oriented
toward human movements as well as scientific and artistic pursuits.
Therefore, a more realistic and comprehensive analysis of the inter­
national flow of information should include the examination of a variety of
economic, political, and cultural activities, as shown in Figure 2.1.
However, no study has been performed that includes or integrates all of
these dimensions toward a more rigorous analysis of the international flow
of information. Historically, the study of the international flow was under­
taken to examine the international political, as well as news, aspects of
flow, moving in the last three decades to include technological, cultural,
and economic aspects. In light of this, we should broaden our concept of
the international flow of information beyond the narrow scope of the mass

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 International flow of information 25

media and the growing technological channels to include and integrate all
the fundamental areas of information flow.
The task is, of course, not an easy one, and the prospects for its total
accomplishment may not be that promising at present. The primary
emphasis must be placed on an introduction to the activities focused on the
phenomenon of the international flow of information, with the hope that
the enlarged vision will stimulate research in the less conventional areas
and will encourage integration of the diverse aspects of the study of infor­
mation flow.

What is Information?

The divergent opinions about information can be related to different con­

ceptions of the phenomenon. In medieval Latin, informatio had the sense of
image, instruction, and formation, while in classic French the word infor­
mation was used in the singular term une information to mean processing
and collecting facts in legal investigation. In its common and everyday
usage, information is associated with a human situation, with a communi­
cation medium, with something that can be added and accumulated, with
something factual, valuable, useful, useless, or with knowledge. Thus it is
said that information is good, and more information is better, that infor­
mation is power, information is lost; that a book, a letter, a newspaper, or
a conference contains information.
The term "information" is used in this study in its semantic and prag­
matic context and not on the syntactic level alone, which is commonly used
in the statistical and mathematical theory of information. Information is
defined here as a patterned distribution or patterned relationship between
events, objects, and signs. It is about something other than the "things" and
signs themselves. Furthermore, it involves activators (i.e., creators, users)
and it is not limited to a structural property such as the diversity of
material things and processes. The question whether information is material
or ideal has been discussed elsewhere; suffice it to say that this question is
related to the "nature of information" and has been elaborated by others in
the realm of philosophy and epistemology. i
The purpose here i s to synthesize the relevant research already under­
taken by different institutions and organizations in all aspects of the
international flow of information - both in its human and technological
dimensions. However, attempts have been made to draw the attention of
the reader to the existing research and literature in such diverse areas of the
international flow of information as tourism, international conferences and
exchanges of scientific information, and the flow of educational, political,
and economic materials and personnel across national boundaries.
The study will reflect the current situation with regard to the inter­
national flow of information. A further goal of the study is to analyze
political, cultural, economic, technological, legal, and professional practices
affecting the international flow of information. It will identify, in particular,

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26 Global information and world communication

the nature of obstacles involved during the different stages of production

and dissemination.
International flow of information is defined here as the movement of
messages across national boundaries among two or more national and
cultural systems. A definition of international flow of information should
combine both a national and international dimension. It is a term used to
describe a field of inquiry and research that consists of the transfer of
messages in the form of information and data through individuals, groups,
governments, and technologies, as well as the study of the institutions
responsible for promoting and inhibiting such messages among nations,
peoples, and cultures. It entails an analysis of the channels and institutions
of communication, but, more importantly, it involves examination of the
mutually shared meanings which make communication possible. Therefore,
the examination of the international flow of information should include
both the content, volume, and direction of information as well as the
economic, political, cultural, legal and technological factors responsible for
its initiation and diffusion.
To date, the efforts in studying international flow of information have
been far from systematic. The diversity of sectors (public, private, and aca­
demic) interested in flow and the myriad reasons and purposes motivating
study have precluded meaningful coordination. This same barrier to
coordination, however, is a powerful justification for combining efforts to
produce a maximum amount of quality data. The recent efforts to encourage
and facilitate research cooperation in this area are significant in that they
show recognition of the need to coordinate research with the hope of
building a body of knowledge in this vital and demanding area.
There have been several major barriers to coordination of research effort
in flow studies. First, the arenas or sectors in which flow studies are spon­
sored are highly diverse. Studies are undertaken in education, private
industry, government, and even in international arenas. Each sector has
specific motivations for the study of flow and these motivations may be
different from those of other sectors. Additionally, those interested in flow in
any one sector may be unaware of the interests and efforts of those in other
sectors.
Second, the diversity of the types of international information flow has
been a factor in the somewhat fragmented nature of flow studies. Studies
have concentrated on such widely different topics as the flow of broadcast
news, the structure of news agencies, distribution of educational material,
transborder and planetary data, and also in such specialized areas as
tourism, international law, and international education. At first glance the
topics may seem unrelated, but if considered within the larger framework
of information flow, the interrelationships become apparent. Such relation­
ships and convergence could have significant impact on the assumptions,
conduct, and conclusions of further research.
Third, even within specific topic areas of flow, there has been little
coordination of research on the variables involved in the entire process.

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 International flow of information 27

Consequently, in any given area, examination of one variable may exclude

other important variables. For example, few studies have ever considered
both the intra- and extra-media variables in the flow of news, although the
interrelationship of these two sets of variables may seem obvious.
The fourth barrier to cooperation is the polarity of the two dimensions of
flow - human and technological - which has, in part, precluded coordina­
tion of research between them. The modem and technical aspects of com­
munication have received predominant attention at the expense of the
human dimension. In short, technological variables, at times, have domi­
nated research efforts where cultural and social variables, which should be
considered concurrently, have been neglected. Human and social utilities
have not been given as much attention as the technological and economic
utilities, nor have they been integrated to show a more realistic picture of
the international flow of information.
Finally, the absence of a clear and comprehensive definition of the
phenomena of flow has made it difficult to identify scholars whose works
are applicable. Often, researchers may not recognize they are orchestrating
"flow studies" because boundaries in the form of definition of component
parts, aspects, and processes have not been set.

Perspectives on the Study of Flow

The study of the international flow of information, like any other area of
inquiry in social science and policy studies, has been the object of debate of a
scholarly and professional nature for its epistemological orientation. It is not
the purpose of this study to discuss in any thorough manner the criticisms
leveled at the "objective/subjective dimension" of the conduct of inquiry; this
type of question has generated an interesting debate within the international
communication community and several essays have appeared covering
precisely this question. Nevertheless, it is important to underline that the
literature on international flow of information also exhibits different epis­
temological and methodological approaches, ranging from "positivisrnlanti­
positivism," "determinisrnlvoluntarism," and "nomothetic/idiographic," to
the assumptive frameworks about the nature of society, ranging from "status
quolradical change," "consensus/domination," "solidarity/emancipation,"
,,
and "actuality/potentiality. 2 Given the nature and sociology of inter­
national flow of information research over the past two decades, however,
the consensus is that the previously hegemonic positivist/empiricist research
has been supplemented by a good deal of critical theory and critical analysis
of all kinds. Consequently, the approaches to the conduct of inquiry in this
field have become comparatively more diverse, multidimensional and,
indeed, varied.
Under these varied epistemological orientations, several important per­
spectives have been developed examining the international flow of infor­
mation. It must be noted that none of these perspectives to be discussed is
necessarily identified with a particular epistemological point of view; rather,

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28 Global information and world communication

the careful scrutiny of the literature shows that a given perspective might be
shared by different philosophical schools of thought but may differ as to
methods of investigation and analysis.
International communication in general and information flow in par­
ticular, like other branches of social science, acquire their legitimacy and
consistency largely from the perspectives and methods of inquiry used by
those who study the subject. Following are the major perspectives covering
the broad area of the international flow of information. It should be noted
that the perspectives identified here are by no means mutually exclusive,
but may overlap in the attempt to be exhaustive. 3

I . International relations and systems perspective. A number of information

flow studies are designed to test some aspect of international relations
theories and phenomena. Within this category we may find the studies
dealing with theories of imperialism, integration, conflict and coopera­
tion, and the general hypotheses aiming at image and perception among
nations. For example, international flow of news has been analyzed in
the discussion of imperialism and center-periphery dimensions of inter­
national relations, as has the flow of telecommunications data, such as
the mail and telephone, in testing the level of regional and international
integration.
2. Communication and development perspective. This approach undertakes
the study of international information flow from the perspective of
developmental policies and theories - national and international -
examining both a nation's internal and external communication systems
and its political, economic, social, and cultural development in a
national, regional, and international context. This category also includes
studies on the balance and imbalance of information flow, the direction
and pattern of flow, and at times relates them to such factors as
ideology, ethnocentricity, commercialism, or proximity. Here the
emphasis has been to study the content, volume, and frequencies of
communication in general and the message in particular. This has been
a growing perspective since the 1 960s.
3. Institutional and commercial perspective. A large group of flow studies
examines international actors and the impact of political and persuasive
messages on the behavior of individuals and nations. This perspective
includes propaganda and policy studies for a variety of purposes such as
conflict management, domination, and commercial promotion, as well
as stereotyping or image manipulation and control. Additionally,
research regarding the effectiveness of the role of actors and institutions
- governmental and nongovernmental - and its importance and impact
on the international flow of information are included in this perspective.
The major emphasis is on content analysis, audience analysis, reader­
ship survey, and public opinion poll. This perspective, which flourished
during the 1 940s and the 1 950s, continues to influence many flow
studies at present.

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 International flow of information 29

4. Political economy and structural perspective. This perspective

approaches the study of international information flow from the
aspect of national and international communication structures, as well
as the political economy of information. Such research would be
concerned with the elements of and factors influencing the process of
international flow, including gatekeepers and gate producers, as well as
examining the technological and human dimensions and formal and
informal institutional structures of both production and distribution
aspects of the process of international information flow. This has been a
growing line of inquiry since the 1 970s.
5. Technical and legal perspective. This approach is a combination of the
very new and the very old in that these aspects, which have been
concerns of scholars for decades, are rapidly revolutionizing the inter­
national information system. Studies in this area include the technology
as well as the techniques of international information gathering and
processing, national and international regulations and standards of
information industries as well as of flow, and the resulting issues; and
the technical aspects of transferring data, information, and messages
across national boundaries or from point to point. Studies have
increased in recent years as a result of the rapid development of satel­
lites and computers, the growing power and importance of transnational
organizations, and the greater attention of regional and international
organizations to the complex problems of technology, information, and
servIces.

Problems of Measurement

Most studies on information flow have consisted simply of the measure­

ment of repetitive events, wherein the researchers have been concerned at
the outset with statistical analyses of messages rather than the individual
message itself. Quantitative measurement of information flow has been
made either as volume or frequency per unit time, as proportion of some
total volume or messages, or as a proportion of the time or facilities
involved in dealing with messages. Other dimensions of volume might
include the speed at which messages are transmitted as well as the fidelity
with which their format and content are preserved in the transmission
process. They could also include media units as well as the number of both
senders and recipients of communication.
Taking the process of information flow to the international communica­
tion level, we should be interested in the simplest ratio of output to intake
of communication among countries and peoples. This would imply that we
should measure not only how much and what kind of information a
country or an organization or system is transmitting, but also how much
and what kind of information - both quantitatively and qualitatively - it is
receiving from other countries and systems.4

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30 Global information and world communication

When hard data are available, the intake-output ratio can tell us a good
deal about the two-way flow of information. For example, the number of
US foreign correspondence around the world fell from 563 in 1 969 to 435
in 1 975, 5 while the number of foreign correspondents representing other
countries in the United States had increased from about 200 in 1 954 to 835
in 1 975. 6
The ratio of intraboundary processes in a given country to cross­
boundary processes among several countries, originating or terminating in
that same country, would be another basic operational measure. Local to
nonlocal news or mail, nonlocal to foreign news or mail, and domestic
versus foreign news or mail are examples of measurement ratios in this
category. Inside-outside ratios of information flows can explain the
"national" and "international" dimensions of such activities as science,
education, and student exchanges, and the directions in which they might
be changing.
It must be noted that these measurements are quantitative in nature;
qualitative measurements are more difficult in the context of the inter­
national flow of information. Although several attempts have been made in
this direction, the result has been far from satisfactory due to its methodo­
logical and cultural diversity.
Until recently, the studies on the flow of information were concerned
primarily with the examination of channels and content, leaving either end
of the process - the source and the destination - untouched. There are now
some serious efforts to examine the source of the process, to discover the
new actors, and to analyze the gate producers as well as the message
producers. Similar attempts are being made to study precisely who makes
what use of which kind of information, and how the information is finally
delivered and absorbed by the audience. For example, there is growing
research awareness that the global diffusion of news and information
involves factors beyond those that are usually inferred from its distribution.
Because of these, and due to the lack of systematic research, the present state
of knowledge in the international flow of information is so fragmented that
no full-scale investigation has shown the possible effects of international
information systems on international policies, politics, and economics.

A Framework for the Study of Flow

Elsewhere, I have emphasized a need for a shift in emphasis in the analysis

of communication systems from an exclusive concern with the source and
content of messages to analysis of the message distribution process. 7
Control of the distribution process is the most important index of the way
in which power is distributed in a communication system, which may be
the global community, a country, or some smaller political unit. The flow
of information in the international system, when the above distinction is
made, may then be represented in rudimentary terms as in Figure 2.2.

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 International flow of information 31

PRODUCTION STAGE DISTR I B UTION STAGE

Intra- and extra-media variables Intra- and extra-media variables

Ownership Ownership
Control Control
Economic resources Economic resources
Disposition of income Disposition of income
Bureaucracy and proximity Bureaucracy and proximity
Perceived purpose Perceived purpose
Media units and technology Number of exposures and technology
Types of content Types of content

Figure 2.2 The two stages of information flow

The growth of communication technology, the expanding national and

international market, and the creation of institutional policies and regula­
tions all have made the distribution stage the most important sequence in
the chains of communication systems. Emphasis upon the distribution stage
affords an immediate advantage in analyzing the message-sending activities
of national actors. Unless a nation has control over the entire distribution
process, its messages may be ineffectual. Certainly, the most ingeniously
designed message, if it goes nowhere, will have no effect.
A further elaboration of the process of information distribution in the
international system is provided in Figure 2.3, wherein a technology axis is
added to the communication axis. Figure 2.3, representing the international
flow of information, now properly depicts the pivotal role played by
communication technology in the international communication process.
Between the formation and distribution of messages stands the means of
distribution - communication technology - itself divisible into two com­
ponents. These components are the communication hardware, which is the
actual physical carrier of messages (such as satellites, broadcasting and
receiving equipment, and microwave relay stations), and the communica­
tion software, which is, in the broadest sense, the know-how and means to
utilize the hardware (such as program production, content, manpower
skills, and education).
The distinction between the two components of communication tech­
nology - hardware and software - to which Figure 2.3 draws attention is
an important one, but one that is frequently ignored. Even when the
importance of control over the technology is recognized, it is often assumed

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 v.>
TECHNOLOGY AXIS tv
- - - - - - - --,

1 Communication 1
1 hardware and 1
1 associated
1
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�
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PRODUCTION STAGE 1 DISTRIBUTION STAGE 1 �
�
'"
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t2::r-. �
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Figure 2.3 International flow of information model

 International flow of information 33

that ownership of the actual physical components of the system is sufficient

to provide control over it. But just as the ability to form messages affords
no guarantee in itself that those messages will be disseminated, neither is
control of communication hardware alone sufficient to assure the distribu­
tion of one's intended message. Absolute sovereignty in the formation and
distribution of messages is assured only when a nation controls both the
hardware channels through which the messages are sent and the necessary
know-how to program its messages for effective distribution.
Thus, the entire process of international flow of information can be
illustrated by looking at the quadrants created by the communication and
technology axes. The implications of this model become clear when the
diagram is seen as representing the components of control and autonomy in
a communication system, and when intra-media and extra-media variables
are added to the stages of production and distribution separately. 8 In the
absence of a single actor controlling all four components, effective control
of a system will fall to the possessors of certain of the components before
others. For example, a country may have the most sophisticated television
broadcasting apparatus imaginable and the technical know-how to
disseminate messages through it, but unless this country is also producing
its own messages in terms of programs, contents, marketing, and research
and development (the lower right and left portions of the communication­
technology cycle), its dependency on the outsider system increases. In terms
of flow studies and investigation, clearer national, regional, international,
and global pictures will emerge if a given process of flow is examined in
terms of each quadrant against the variables indicated.

Factors in the Flow

A few examples can illustrate the utility of this framework of analysis

employing the variables that are listed under both production and distribu­
tion stages of information (Figure 2.2). The variables, once elaborated and
further developed to fit the specific criteria of a given type of information
flow and communication system, can account for political, economic, cul­
tural, and technical factors in impeding or facilitating the flow of informa­
tion. These variables can also be used to compile data for comparative and
international analysis of different communication systems. 9

Ownership. In the search for non-culture-bound concepts and operational

definitions, each stage of production (or formation) and distribution of a
communication and information system can be divided into three broad
areas of public, private, and mixed sectors, with further suitable categories
for data gathering.

Control. In the production and distribution stages of a given international

flow, the aspect of control is by far one of the most significant variables in

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34 Global information and world communication

its complexity and measurement. Control over the system can take many
forms; it comes from outside the structure of a given communication or
media system as well as being exerted from within. Some controls are
actual (i.e., formal, legal, technical), others are perceived (i.e., informal and
based on unwritten but understood rules and regulations that can be
understood only within the cultural and ideological orientation of the
system under investigation). Thus, the variable of control can be further
subdivided into four distinct categories: (1) Internal actual controls. These
are specific rules and regulations such as education, professional qualifi­
cation, internal rules, and hierarchy created and institutionalized formally
by the system itself, to which members in a communication system subject
themselves. (2) Internal perceived control. Social control within a communi­
cation system, peer-group pressure, perceived gatekeeping functions, and
unwritten but understood rules of the internal conditions of the system are
examples of perceived control. These are the "rules of the game," and
consist of all the arrangements that regulate the way members of the system
behave within the perceived institutional boundaries of the unit in which
they work. (3) External actual control. Direct censorship, licensing, and any
other external legal, professional, governmental, or institutional factors
form this category. Further subcategories can be established here to divide
external actual control into such areas as constitutional, legal, economic,
social, and political sectors. (4) External perceived control. In every society
we have such systems as culture, personality, social structure, and economic
and political elites. Each of these constitutes a major set of variables in the
process of demands entering a communication system. Not all demands
and influencing factors have their major locus inside the institutional
system of communication. Important factors in determining the outcome of
both the production and distribution stages of a communication system
stem from constraints and unwritten rules of the environment. Predis­
position and wants of readers and audiences and participants, reactions to
perceived political and cultural preferences and idiosyncrasies, and
pressures exercised by elites and organizations in the society are examples
of this type of control. Strong arguments have been made to include culture
as an important factor - and in the opinion of some writers as the ultimate
factor - influencing the relationship between objective and SUbjective social
indicators.

Economic resources. Primarily an index of the information system's

dependence upon capital and income, this variable is at times inversely
proportional to the size of a given communication system or a mass media
system as a whole. It has been shown that "such politico-economic factors as
size of population, GNP and international data can explain between one and
two thirds of variations in international political news." l 0 For example, in
the case of mass media, such categories as sales, advertising, public subsidy,
private subsidy, and licensing can be described here to accommodate the
variety of income sources in different systems and media under study.

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 International flow of information 35

Disposition of income. Fiscal policies and priorities as they affect the ways
in which income and capital are spent and invested are influencing factors
in both the production and distribution stages of the message. The fierce
competition among the communication systems and the high cost of
technology and labor make it almost imperative to invest in the continuing
improvement of the product. For example, as applied to telecommunica­
tions and the media systems, this variable can be subdivided into such areas
as facilities, profit s, and others. The facilities category here could refer to
all technical and personal matters in a given system with further sub­
divisions such as technical, personnel, or administrative. In the technical
subcategory, we can gather data on machinery and hardware, and the
personnel category can account for salaries in creative work (writers,
artists, editors, etc.), while the administrative and production categories
include such areas as labor, managerial, and administrative personnel.

Bureaucracy and proximity. A bureaucracy of a communication system

can be defined as a hierarchy of nonhereditary positions subject to the
authority of the executive. In organizations in which dependence upon the
government is rather extensive, a study of the bureaucracy is required for
proper evaluation of the degree of autonomy or even reliability of message­
gathering and distribution levels of the institution. The network of the
organization of the communication system as a whole, its subsidiaries, its
sister organizations, its organizational chart and the concentration of
ownership, the capacity of the system to adopt itself to internal and
external environments, and such items as job mobility, the degree of
turnover, promotional policies, and the movement of information in the
system itself - in short, the infrastructure of bureaucracy - are important
elements to ensure efficient and timely output in the formation and
distribution of messages.

Perceived purpose. In different countries and in different political econ­

omies, a newspaper, a broadcasting system, or any information and
communication system as a whole may define and perceive its role and
purpose in different ways. Here we are concerned with the perceived
purpose of a communication and information system as a large unit in both
the production and distribution stages.

Media units and technology. This variable deals with the technology of the
media. By media units we mean the number of media and technologies in
the system under analysis and comparison. For example, units per medium
in the production stage of a press system stands for such things as the
number of newspapers and publications, and, in the case of broadcasting,
for the number of radio and television stations. Further subdivision can be
created. For example, in the production stages of the message this is
indicated by redundancy. Here the researcher can gather data on such
aspects of the media system as uniformity and group reading and

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36 Global information and world communication

readership and audience data. In short, in the distribution stage this

variable should indicate the number of exposures to the message as well as
the circulation of the content and the recipients of the message.

Types of content. This last category is an obvious variable and has been
the most widely used category in the flow studies. In fact, content analysis
has been the most popular method in determining the process of infor­
mation flow by the students of mass communication. The suggestion here is
that any further subcategories of this variable must be broad enough to
provide some guidelines for cross-national comparison. The tendency in the
past has been to start from specific categories with a definite cultural bias.
For example, what may be considered "entertainment" in one system can
be "educational" and/or cultural and "informational" in another.

The framework of analysis proposed here is a modest attempt to examine

all kinds of international flow of information - both human and techno­
logical - and it is designed to direct the attention of the researcher to some
of the most critical factors in international and comparative studies. It is
realized that the type of taxonomic research schema discussed here poses
some restrictions on the user and necessitates the exploration of a rather
exhaustive set of categories. However, our understanding of the nature and
the process of information flow will be incomplete if we continue with the
general and heuristic notions of the past and consider those factors that are
easily available and statistically measurable.
The proposed framework of analysis demands different types of data,
some of which may be readily available, while a substantial portion may
require various research techniques to obtain. However, the sociocultural,
economic, political, and technological categories of variables suggested in
the framework can be summarized under four kinds of data. The first are
aggregative data - the kind of statistical data on ownership, number of
media, budget, and economics of production and distribution. The second
type are sample survey data giving the researcher evidence on aspects of
control and such factors as audience analysis and readership. The third
type of data stems from a careful content analysis describing the message.
Finally there are the cultural data that cultural anthropologists and other
scholars can uncover, and which can be a major tool for closing the gaps in
the aggregate and survey data.
Recognizing the delineation of three major types of potential actors in
the process of international flow of information (Figure 2.4), each section
of this study has been organized around the following themes:

1. Types of international flow of information.

2. Actors in the international flow of information.
3. Factors influencing the flow.
4. Directions and patterns of the flow.

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 International flow of information 37

ACTORS (RECIPI ENTS)

CiJ
u
a:: Governrnental Transnational Individual
::::>
0 Governrnental G to G G to T G to I
�
en
a:: Transnational T to G T to T T to I
0
r- Individual I to G I to T I to I
u
«

I Information flow
I

Change in nature Change in nature Change in values Change in national

of power of resources and perceptions and international
of individuals systerns

I MPACT

Individual:
Modes of thought, education, work, leisure, etc.
Institution:
Politics, business, religion, mil itary, etc.
Inter-group:
Law, regulation, traditional channels, etc.
Ethnics and m inorities:
Participation, mobilization, identity
Nation-State:
Security, sovereignty, developrnent, etc.
Global:
Cooperation/conflict, resources, transnationals

Issues:
Political, communication, economic, social, etc.
Policies:
Political, communication, econornic, social, military, etc.
Feedback

Figure 2.4 Types and impacts of international flow of information

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38 Global information and world communication

5. Impact and effects of the flow.

6. Assumptions and theories underlying flow research and the flow itself.
7. Content of the flow.
8. Case studies and research contributions.

It is also important to emphasize that some of the graphics and tables

presented in this study are not intended to provide an overview or synthesis
of a global nature. Data of this kind and scope are simply not available.
Rather, country and regional illustrations are presented (based on the best
and latest data available) in an attempt to show a selective mapping, which
endeavors to approach some of the key topics from different angles and
perspectives in a manner that might assist the reader in a more compre­
hensive and interrelated assessment. To that end, various other sources
external to the study have been drawn upon also, where they may help to
illuminate and clarify the discussion of major themes.

Notes

I . See Norbert Wiener, Cybernetics, or Control and Communication in the Animal and the
Machine, new edn (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1961), and his The Human Use of Human
Beings: Cybernetics and Society (New York: Avon Books, 1 967); Colin Cherry, On Human
Communication (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1961); Karl W. Deutsch, The Nerves of
Government: Models of Political Communication and Control (New York: Free Press, 1963);
and Peter Paul Kirschenmann, Information and Reflection: On Some Problems of Cybernetics
and How Contemporary Dialectical Materialism Copes With Them (Dordrecht: D. Reidel
Publishing Company, 1970).
2. Karl Erik Rosengren, "Communication Research: One Paradigm, or Four?," Journal of
Communication, 33: 3 (Summer 1983), pp. 186- 1 87. Also published in E.M. Rogers and F.
Balle, eds, Mass Communication Research in the United States and Europe (Norwood, NJ:
Ablex Publishing Corporation, 1983).
3 . Research and bibliographical references for these perspectives are provided in the
following chapters. For studies dealing with international flow of news see Hamid Mowlana,
ed., International Flow of News: An Annotated Bibliography (paris: UNESCO, 1983).
4. Karl W. Deutsch, "Shifts in the Balance of Communication Flows: A Problem of
Measurement in International Relations," Public Opinion Quarterly, XX: 1 (Spring 1956),
p. 146.
5. Ralph Kliesch, "A Vanishing Species: The American Newsmen Abroad," Overseas Press
Club Directory (New York: Overseas Press Club of America, 1975), p. 17.
6. Hamid Mowlana, "Who Covers America?," Journal of Communication, 25: 3 (Summer
1975), pp. 86-9 1 . According to Karl W. Deutsch, "All foreign newspapers and news agencies
together maintained in 1954 only about two hundred regular fUll-time correspondence in the
United States." "Shifts in the Balance," p. 147.
7. Hamid Mowlana, "A Paradigm for Source Analysis in Events Data Research: Mass
Media and the Problems of Validity," International Interactions, 2: I ( 1 975), pp. 33-44; and
Hamid Mowlana, "A Paradigm for Comparative Mass Media Analysis," in Heinz-Dietrich
Fischer and John C. Merrill, eds, International and Intercultural Communication (New York:
Hastings House, 1 976), pp. 471 -484.
8. Hamid Mowlana, "Political and Social Implications of Communication Satellite
Applications in Developed and Developing Countries," in Joseph N. Pelton and Marcellus S.

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 International flow of information 39

Snow, eds, Economic and Policy Problems in Satellite Communications (New York: Praeger,
1 977), pp. 124-142; also in Brent D. Ruben, ed., Communication Yearbook, Vol. I (New
Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books, 1977), pp. 427-438
9. Control and other variables have been elaborated in Hamid Mowlana, "A Paradigm
for Source Analysis."
10. Rosengren, "Communication Research," p. 11.

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 3

News and Views: Designing

the World's Symbolic Environment

There has been a nearly geometric progression in the study of news flow
across national boundaries during the 1 970s, the 1 980s, and the early
1 990s. 1 In the 25 years since the first appearance of my bibliography on
international communication, major changes have occurred in the field.
At the end of the 1 960s there were only a handful of studies dealing with
the actual flow of international news. Research in the broad category of the
international flow of information totaled no more than 3 1 8 publications
between 1 850 and 1 969? Whereas the early studies dealt with a single
communication system or a single country, the recent trend is toward
comparative studies of geographical, regional, and international systems. 3
For the purpose of this study, current research and studies on inter­
national flow of news, including bibliographical collections by UNESCO,
were analyzed. Over 440 different materials dealing with the flow of news
were examined which also included computer listings of sources in the US
Library of Congress, various papers presented at international and regional
conferences, and books and journal articles covering the period from 1 973
through the early part of 1 993. Additionally, a few earlier studies were
included due to their methodological, geographical, and topical contribu­
tions. Of the total works examined for this report, 22 1 were published in 84
different journals, 80 are unpublished materials presented at conferences
and meetings, 1 1 0 are books, and 36 studies published as monographs or
occasional papers. A good number of these studies were dated 1 978, the
year of the UNESCO Twentieth General Conference in Paris at which the
Declaration of Mass Media was adopted.
Looking at the distribution of studies regionally, the regions that were
most often the focus of research and analysis were Asia, Latin America,
and North America. This was due in part to the work of several institutions
involved in communication studies, mainly the Asian Mass Communication
Research and Information Center in Singapore, the Latin American
Institution for Transnational Studies in Mexico City, and the East-West
Communication Institute in Honolulu, Hawaii. For the first time in the
history of international communication, a substantial number of these
studies were carried out by the "Third World" scholars. Whereas the
previous studies concerning the flow of news were conducted by North
American and European individuals and institutions, the great bulk of
inquiries at present are associated with the scholars from Latin America,

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 News and views 41

Asia, and the Middle East. This promises to be the beginning o f a major
breakthrough in international communication, for if it continues, it will
help to correct the imbalance in communication research.

Emerging Issues

The primary sources of information on the pattern of international news

flow are content analyses of mass media and sample surveys, which provide
data on the amount of foreign news and the circulation of domestic news
outside national boundaries based on the characteristics of the units
sampled. Until recently, data of this type were available for only a few
industrialized nations, and generalizations about patterns of distribution of
news were therefore based on very limited information. The situation has
changed considerably during the last three decades, especially since the
New World Information/Communication Order became a major item of
debate in UNESCO and other international, regional, and national forums.
Since then, large numbers of surveys, reports, and articles have been
published in both the developed and the developing countries and are
increasingly being used in discussions and analyses of international com­
munication issues.
Unfortunately, the increase in data availability has not been accom­
panied by an adequate improvement in theoretical, methodological, or even
statistical quality. In many cases, the growing interest in the subject has
simply led to the proliferation of crude estimates of news distribution and
dissemination for various regions and countries around the world based on
data sources that may be "the best available" but are simply not good
enough. A comprehensive review of these problems is beyond the scope of
this chapter, but some indication of their importance can be obtained by
considering the following major sources of problems.
First, for obvious reasons, the definition of news used in many studies
falls short of a comprehensive and universally accepted definition. In fact,
there is doubt whether there can be a definition of what constitutes news
which will be acceptable to all.
Second, even if the news concept is "properly" defined, it may be difficult
to measure in practice. Very different problems arise at the two ends of the
communication process - the source and the destination; the process of
news diffusion is a complex one. For example, the simple measurement of
news originating in a given international or national news agency, or the
simple measurement of the content of news in a given newspaper or
magazine, might not be an accurate description of the flow of news in a
country, a system, and/or among the population or decision makers at
large. Assuming that the social structure of a given system or country acts
to impede or facilitate the rate of news diffusion, then the study of norms,
social status, and patterns of reading or listening or information seeking
becomes imperative. Additionally, it is imperative that the hierarchy of the

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42 Global information and world communication

political, social, economic, and cultural systems influencing the decision

and behavior of individual recipients and groups be studied as well.
Clearly, in addition to power elites, a score of other social, cultural, and
economic forces serve as gatekeepers in controlling the flow of news in all
stages of formation, production, distribution, and diffusion.
Related to this is the problem of accuracy in estimating the distribution
of news among the population from the observed distribution in sample
surveys or content analyses. The accuracy of sample estimates depends on a
number of factors relating to the size of the sample and its represen­
tativeness. Many available news flow studies are derived from samples that
are statistically inadequate in these respects, with the result that sample
estimates are both biased and have a substantial variance.
Third, there is the problem of quantity versus quality in news reporting
and dissemination. Unless some criteria are defined to design a study to
investigate the nature and quality of what is being reported and distributed,
the studies of flow of international news will be measured only on quantity
and volume levels, with less or no attention paid to the qualitative and
relevant nature of what is being measured. Of course, this is a difficult task
indeed and requires a totally different method of analysis and measure­
ment. These limitations present a familiar dilemma in empirical and critical
analysis.
Most often the definitions of news fail to make an important distinction
- that between news and reported news. The tendency seems to be to talk
of news as a finished product: thus the old cliche that news "is the account
of an event, not the event itself," and that "what the reporter writes is
news."
Furthermore, there are limitations within the concepts employed in the
measurement of flow of news. A classic example is the concept of gate­
keeping. We know that in any flow process an item does not move through
a channel by itself, but is moved directly or indirectly by an individual, an
institution, and a set of social, political, economic, and cultural factors.
Therefore, gatekeeping analyses of the flow of world news are directed
toward those forces which initiate the flow. However, before we examine
the factors affecting the gatekeeper's function, fundamental questions arise:
Who are the gatemakers or gate producers? What are the characteristics
and nature of the news channels? What are the roles of individuals,
institutions, nation-states, and technologies in producing and creating news
communication channels in the first place? The traditional gatekeeping
studies have not addressed themselves to these basic questions.
Since the concept of gatekeeping was taken from the work of Kurt Lewin
in psychology, the tradition of communication research in the past
employed the concept to test social norms and social controls in media
channels without asking the basic structural questions to determine the
political, economic, cultural, and technological forces creating the gates
themselves. After all, Lewin was a psychologist interested in small group
interactions and not a political economist analyzing the structural changes

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 News and views 43

of the system. It is interesting to note that Lewin's concept as applied in

communication research has been a dominant factor for so long without its
limitations being challenged.

Current Lines of Inquiry

As research on the international flow of news has expanded during the last
20 years with most dramatic growth at the beginning of the 1 980s, it has
been accompanied by several new lines of inquiry which can be grouped
according to two main categories: (1) studies dealing with the actual flow
and content of news, and (2) studies concerning factors determining the
flow of news.
The first category - actual flow and content of news - can be divided
into four distinct lines of investigation. The first line of investigation
examines the flow and content of news from one country to another, or, in
a comparative way, it examines the direction and the amount of flow in a
region or at the international level. Many of the early studies of news flow
by scholars in the United States, and many of the studies currently being
undertaken in other parts of the world, are of this kind.4 In the early days,
this line of inquiry dealt with the flow of news between the East and
the West, shifting to the North-South examination after the New World
Information/Communication debate became the focus of analysis. The
primary purposes of this tradition have been to assess the balances and
imbalances in the flow of news, the different categories and the nature of
news content, and the emphasis given to the coverage of various events.
The second line of analysis is characterized by many studies on the role
of "center-periphery" and "dominance-dependency" in news flow studies.
It has formed a core of analysis for many European and Latin American
scholars, and is used as a framework for many other flow researchers.
Foundations for these types of dependency studies have developed separ­
ately in the United States, in the Scandinavian countries, and in the Middle
East. For example, one researcher has explicitly linked communication and
culture concepts in his analysis of the "structure of imperialism." s
A third line of inquiry focuses on the meaning and the qualitative nature
of news by examining the images and perceptions contained in the content. 6
The UNESCO "Foreign Images" content study, for example, is in this
tradition and offers important insights into the flow of news.
The final approach, which has been used through a major cross-section
of scholars studying foreign policy and international systems, is commonly
called "events-interaction analysis." The aim of this method is to interpret
the "interaction" of nations or actors as reflected by the analysis of
"events" or news data. In many of these analyses The New York Times and
The Times of London have been used as the sources of data, and their
pattern of international news reporting has been the basis of "cooperation
and conflict" analysis. 7

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44 Global information and world communication

Almost all of the research in the above four lines of inquiry is conducted
in the traditional style of content analysis of news: what is printed or
broadcast, what is carried by the news agencies, who is supplying the news,
what countries are reported, and the pattern thereof.
The second category of studies - factors determining the news flow -
is of two lines of investigation: studies dealing with the media factors
influencing the flow of news,s and those examining extra-media factors
determining the content and news flow.9 These two lines of inquiry,
concentrating on structure, political economy, cultural, social, and
ideological factors, have grown tremendously during the last 1 5 years.
Many studies have tried to research the flow of news in such areas as
"news bias," "accuracy," and time as a factor in flow research. Others have
concentrated on the structural analysis of institutions, actors, and bureau­
cracies involved in the production and distribution of news. Examples of
such studies are numerous and include the role of transnational actors in
the flow of news, the location and movement of foreign correspondents
around the world, and the cultural, ideological, legal, and technological
factors determining the flow of news and its content. Although some
content analysis techniques have been employed in these studies, the
researchers have used multiple sources of data of an aggregate nature and
survey analysis.
Studies investigating in the direction of news flow have hypothesized
three distinct patterns. First is the "center-periphery" pattern exemplified
in the work of lohan Galtung in his analysis of the structural theory of
imperialism. Here the world is divided into two parts: the "center," or
dominant communities, and the "periphery," or dependent areas (see
Figure 3 . 1). Galtung relates these theoretical constructs to communication
and cultural interaction and points to vertical interaction as the major
factor in the inequality of nations, a division reinforced by "feudal net­
works of international communication" dominated by nations in the
"center."
Galtung's hypothesis can be summarized in four statements characteriz­
ing international news:
1 . There is a preponderance of "center" news events reported in the world
press systems.
2. There is a much larger discrepancy in the news exchange ratios of
"center" and "periphery" nations than in the exchange ratios of
"center" nations.
3. "Center" news occupies a larger proportion of the foreign news content
in the media of "periphery" nations than the "periphery" news occupies
in the "center" nations.
4. There is relatively little or no flow of news among "periphery" nations,
especially across colonial-based bloc borders. 10
Several research efforts have been undertaken to test Galtung's "center­
periphery" hypothesis, concluding that the pattern is indeed a feudal

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 News and views 45

Periphery

Figure 3.1 Center-periphery flow

one. The "periphery" nations, however, while contributing to diplomatic

entropy, have not moved significantly toward class confrontation
patterns. I I Robert Buijtenhuijs and Rene Baesjou concluded from their
study of two African newspapers that, contrary to Galtung's assertion,
there is a news flow across bloc borders in Africa; however, they reaffirmed
the dominance of "center" news agencies in the news of the two African
countries served by the newspapers examined. 1 2 Further affirmation of
Galtung's hypothesis is the content analysis study of Australian mass media
performed by Bruce McKenzie and Derek Overton in 1 98 1 , where it was
concluded that the pattern of international news flow to and from Australia
largely remained colonial with traditional news sources prevailing. \ 3
The second pattern is based on the hypothesis that news flow is vertical
from developed countries (North) to developing countries (South), with
supplemental horizontal flows within the North and within the South,
although flow within the latter is substantially lesser in volume (see Figure
3.2). While there exists a good deal of news flow from South to North, it
tends to be significantly less in volume in comparison with the flow from
North to South. Further, within the North-South pattern, a direction
termed "round flow" can be identified, in which news gathered in the South
by Northern correspondents is transmitted to the North for processing and
editing before its eventual return to the media in the South.
Several researchers have targeted North-South flow patterns, among
them Reyes Matta, whose 1 975 study of Latin American newspapers
revealed that the flow from the North dominated foreign news in Latin
America, although its proportion was somewhat less than had been shown
by a 1 960 study conducted by CIESPAL. 1 4 A 1 974 study had concluded

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46 Global information and world communication

"-
/ "
I \
I

" /
;-

Figure 3.2 North-South flow

Figure 3.3 Triangular flow

that news from Latin America and Africa was poorly represented in
Australian newspapers, although Shelton A. Gunaratne's 1 979 study of the
two major Australian dailies showed a marked difference in their coverages
of Third World news, one with decreasing coverage of development news
and the other with an increase of such coverage. 1 5 However, the study of
news flow in nine Arab Nations as late as 1 978 demonstrated the dominant
presence of South-North flow within that region. 1 6
Frank Kaplan's study of the US media noted an insufficiency in the
amount, scope, and type of news disseminated, particularly in the coverage
of the developing world. 1 7 The major news agencies of the developed world
(AP, UPI, AFP, Reuters) cover the news that they perceive as interesting to
their home publics. In the case of the US newspapers, this interest was
correlated with wealth, elitism, and the political potency of the readers. 1 8
The third pattern is a triangular flow that divides the North into East
and West, connecting each to the South (see Figure 3.3). In one of the most
geographically comprehensive studies, George Gerbner and George
Marvanyi concluded that in foreign news, East and West first cover their
respective geopolitical areas as well as East-West relations, whereas Third
World media in general devote the greatest proportion of foreign news
coverage to the North - meaning both the East and the West. Additionally,
Gerbner and Marvanyi found that Western Europe was the most frequently
reported region around the globe, and that the socialist nations received
little coverage in the Western press. Two-thirds of the content in the US
press system, for example, concerned Western Europe, South Asia, the Far
East, North America, and the Middle East. The Soviet press covered
Eastern Europe the most, and North America second. Eastern Europe

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 News and views 47

ranked their own region and Western Europe high as far as coverage, and
reported on the Soviet Union relatively less than the other press systems. In
the Third World press, the Soviet Union received the greatest coverage -
an exception to low coverage it received from other press systems in the
study. The authors suggested that "the process of reciprocal information
,,
may be out of joint. 1 9
More recently, a study by Robert L. Stevenson and Richard R. Cole
concluded that "regional proximity is clearly the dominant characteristic of
foreign news" and that Western Europe and North America were the most
visible areas in the world media while Eastern Europe and developing
regions received the least visibility ?O

News Agencies and News Exchange

A major aspect of the international flow of news is the functioning of wire

services or news agencies, which received little attention from researchers in
communication until the 1 960s, as a result, perhaps, of the relative invisi­
bility of their functioning. In the late 1 960s and especially during the 1 970s,
however, research on the news agencies and their role in the international
flow of information experienced a tremendous growth in the writings of
communication scholars. Studies based on the ownership and the organiza­
tion of the "big four" agencies - Agence France Press (France), Associated
Press (USA), Reuters (UK), and United Press International (USA) - had
also experienced significant growth by this time. These studies represented
the majority of the research in the preceding decade.
At the end of the 1 970s and the beginning of the 1 980s, the euphoria of
the initial flourish of research was calmed, and scholars began to be more
involved in detailed quantitative studies and less analytical essays. Conse­
quently, the scope of the new agencies' research was broadened and the
scenario now tends to be focused on three main actors in the field: (l)
world agencies (the "big four") and the multinational enterprises collecting
and disseminating news all over the world; (2) national agencies under­
taking the circulation of news inside a country and domestic news abroad;
and (3) regional agencies and their arrangements for cooperation in
information exchange to increase the role of the Third World in the inter­
national flow of news.
Studies on news agencies indicate little or no change in the total
production of the "big four" agencies since the late 1 970s. Compared with
major transnational news agencies, the amount of news distributed by
national or regional news agencies is still low, though there is evidence that
the quantity of news input-output of national and some regional agencies
is steadily increasing.
The most significant alternative to the transnational news agencies has
been the News Pool of the non-aligned nation's news agencies. This News
Pool was established at the New Delhi Conference of Information

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Ministers and representatives of the news agencies of the non-aligned

nations in 1 976. From the beginning the Pool was seen as an arrangement
for exchange of news between non-aligned countries that was unavailable
from the Western transnational news agencies.
The Pool's policy is to handle and treat news as a valuable resource for
development and public welfare, instead of just as a commodity. The
entertainment aspect of news is de-emphasized in favor of information that
editors believe to be valuable for the liberation and development of the
people. Background is strongly emphasized, so that news items can be
understood in context.
In Western journalistic terms, the Pool looks more like a "features
syndicate" than a "news agency," which it claims to be, but the termi­
nology used to describe the Pool is immaterial. What the Pool's advocates
find most important is that the reports prepared by the Pool originate in
the non-aligned countries themselves, and therefore represent those
countries as they are seen by their own people, rather than by outsiders,
who are typically on the scene only in times of crisis.
The Non-Aligned News Pool, therefore, has not really entered directly
into competition with the Western agencies, since it does not attempt to
supply fast, spot news. What is important is that the over one hundred
countries that now participate in the Pool's news exchange system have a
channel through which they can express themselves in their own way. 2 1
The extent of media dependency on the world agencies has been docu­
mented in several academic and professional studies over the past 30 years.
This dependency takes a variety of forms, the most visible being the
quantitative extent to which media around the world depend on world
agencies, not only for general world news, but for news of their own
geopolitical regions as well.
As early as the 1 960s, an analysis of coverage of three international crises
in four Norwegian newspapers showed that 87 percent of the analyzed
news items came from the "big four" agencies. 22 A content analysis of the
most important papers in India, Kenya, Lebanon, Japan, and Norway, in
monthly periods of 1 96 1 and 1 968, showed that at least half of the inter­
national news items were from the same four news agencies ?3 Over a
decade later, an analysis of the Third World news coverage of 1 4 Asian
newspapers in 1 977 concluded that more than three-quarters of all nonlocal
Third World news came from the big world agencies. 24 One year later, in
1 978, a study of reciprocal coverage of the United States and Canada
showed that the world agencies accounted for over 70 percent of US news
in Canadian newspapers. 25 A similar pattern was discerned in Latin
America, where Fernando Reyes Matta's analysis of 1 6 dailies in 14 Latin
American countries found that 80 percent of foreign news came from the
"big four" news agencies.26
The major agencies not only supply conventional news and features but
also broadcast television material to their clients as well. For example, UPI
and Reuters, through their involvement in UPITN and VISNEWS, provide

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international news film for television. Thus the potential total dependency
of some countries on print and film from these agencies is even higher.
Although there are few empirical data to document worldwide dependency
of this nature, a study by Peter Golding and Phillip Elliot analyzing
Nigerian broadcast media in 1 977 showed that the combined input of
Reuters, AP, AFP, and VISNEWS as sources of foreign stories amounted
to 85 percent of total foreign news. 27
However, in this area, the following two studies are more interesting in
terms both of the sampling and of the somewhat contradictory conclusions.
The first study, conducted by Wilbur Schramm and Erwin L. Atwood,
traces the flow of Third World news from its origin to the items reprinted
by newspapers and then to the readers themselves. In the study, which was
conducted in December 1 977 but published in 1 98 1 , Schramm and Atwood
have analyzed news content of 1 9 Asian daily newspapers in eight different
languages, four international news agencies (AP, UPI, Reuters, and Agence
France Presse), and the New China News Agency wire services delivered to
Asian clients. The major conclusion of this study is that the circulation of
news in the Third World cannot be understood entirely in terms of the
international news agencies, that international news agencies are probably
doing a better job quantitatively than qualitatively, and that the quality
and quantity of news in the Third World are very much related to each
country's own national agencies. 28
Three weaknesses in this study make the conclusion tentative. The first is
that the readership survey in the Schramm-Atwood study is limited to only
one newspaper - in the Philippines. The second weakness is that in many
of the Third World countries, due to limited resources as well as the lack of
telecommunications infrastructure, the governments are very much involved
in the process of news flow into and out of the country. Schramm and
Atwood's conclusion does not account for this fact. The third point is the
very definition of news and the utility of applying Western news values to
judge the flow and content of news in Asian newspapers. The authors,
aware of this last weakness, suggest that such a detailed analysis of content
be undertaken jointly by Asian and Western journalists, admitting the
difficulties observed in qualitative measurement.
The second study, by G. Cleveland Wilhoit and David Weaver, pub­
lished in 1 983 updating their 1 979 study, examines foreign news coverage
and two US wire services, tracing the flow of foreign news from these two
wires into a random sample of 1 1 small dailies in Indiana. The major focus
of this study is comparative. The baseline wire service data compiled in the
authors' earlier study is compared to similar samples gathered two years
later. This study replicates the earlier content analysis that was based on a
coding protocol developed by the UNESCO/International Association for
Media and Communication Research research group. Separate measures of
conflict news, developed in a doctoral research seminar, and an intensive
study of newspaper use of wire news add important new dimension to this
work, according to the authors. 29

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The study concludes that

the frequency of coverage of major world hemispheres of geo-political-economic
similarity - in this case, North and South divisions of more or less developed
nations - appears to shift from year to year, with relative parity of coverage
likely over the long term. News from "official" sources of government and
military dominates news from all world areas.

The authors observe that

one begins with a relatively rich mixture of news . . . even including news that
may be classified as development coverage . . . and ends with a very scanty,
violence- and conflict-laced portrayal of the world in smaller newspapers . . . . The
tendency of wire services to give more frequent coverage to news of conflict in
developing nations was enhanced by the even greater proportionate use of such
3
dispatches by the newspapers. 0

Thus their findings suggest an intensifying focus on Third World violent

conflict. Their concluding remarks take on the news values where the
Schramm-Atwood study left off:
Regardless of the reasons for the differential treatment of less developed and
more developing countries as one moves down the news "funnel," the results
reported here strongly emphasize the need to reassess basic news values if US
newspaper readers in small-to-medium-size communities are to get a picture of
3
the world that is less incomplete and distorted. 1

National agencies have been studied and considered an important

intermediary factor in the control and distribution of news, supplementing
,,
the recognized function of the "big four. 32 In spite of their acknowledged
role as significant actors, few data have been collected, just as very little
research has been done in the importance of regional agencies as an
alternative mode for sharing information among regions and countries of
developing areas. Nevertheless, it is apparent that national and regional
agencies will be subjects of future research since such inquiry is necessary to
measure the effect and impact of news agencies at those levels on the
content and direction of international news flow.
The studies that have been conducted on the national news agencies
between the mid- 1 950s and the late 1 970s show three basic results: (1) their
remarkable dependence on world news agencies for foreign news; (2) their
direct and integral role in the dissemination of local news within a country;
and (3) their increasing participation in the output of "Third World news"
by the world news agencies.
National agencies have their own qualitative and quantitative selection
practices in domestic markets, and it is through the national agencies that
the world news services are distributed to the media. A study of the
Canadian national agency (Canadian Press) showed that the influence
exerted by world agencies was not as great as Canadian Press's influence in
setting the international discussion agenda of its customers. Further,
although the world news agencies dominate the world inputs, they have no
direct control over the selective or quantitative gatekeeping practices

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employed by national agencies to fashion the world picture. According to

this study, world agencies do not dominate world image-making because
selective and quantitative control is firmly in the hands of national news
agencies. 33
At the end of the 1 970s and the beginning of the 1 980s, more attention
was given to the study of the national news agencies. Most of the research
undertaken at this point deals with organization and ownership systems.
There are three types of ownership systems within the existing national
news agencies: ( 1 ) government owned and subsidized, representing about 43
percent of the total national news agencies in the world; (2) media or
cooperatively owned, accounting for 3 1 percent of the total; and (3) mixed
enterprises (government and media owned); comprising 27 percent.
According to statistics, governments have shared in about 73 percent of
the total national news agencies around the world.
Few systematic studies are available on the flow of news by regional
agencies. Apart from the papers prepared for the International Commission
for the Study of Communication Problems (MacBride Report) on the
subject in the late 1 970s, the works published by Oliver Boyd-Barrett and
Gertrude Robinson in the early 1 980s, and a few monographs issued by the
Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung on television news exchange in 1 979 and 1 98 1 ,
there are no major writings on regional news agencies. 34 Most publications
in this area tend to be descriptive in nature and include workshop reports,
resolutions, and recommendations. Boyd-Barrett's work treats regional
agencies in the context of international news agencies, their forms of
organization and their positions in their respective countries, and their role
in agenda setting and gatekeeping functions. Robinson's analysis examines
news flow from its theoretical and methodological aspects, with particular
attention paid to Canada, the United States, and the former Yugoslavia.
She argues for the value of an organizational, systems-level perspective in
gatekeeping studies and for the value of an institutional systems perspective
in understanding international news flow.
An important development in the area of regional news agencies and
news exchange occurred between 1 979 and 1 983 in two areas: the first was
the actual development of regional news agencies and the second was
improved technical and professional cooperation between and among the
various news and broadcasting associations and unions in Asia, Africa, and
Latin America. Such arrangements were made according to geographical,
economic, political, and even religious bases. They included improving
cooperation between Arab and Asian television news services, new projects
by the Asian Pacific Broadcasting Union for the exchange of television
news in various regions in Asia, and inauguration of the Asian-Pacific
News Network (ANN) by the Organization of Asian News Agencies
(OANA) for the distribution of news from Tokyo, Manila, Jakarta, New
Delhi, and Moscow. Inter Press Service, which was founded in 1 964 by a
group of Latin American and European journalists and represents a
specifically Third World perspective, has established several cooperative

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arrangements from its bases in Rome and Panama, including an exchange

of material with a US-based Interlink Press Service, which uses IPS infor­
mation for distribution in the United States. 35
Other important efforts have been the establishment of the Caribbean
news agency CANA, the Pan African News Agency (PANA), the Latin
American Regional Agency (LATIN), and the very recent creation of an
OPEC news agency in Vienna by its member nations.
Although several studies have targeted the content aspect of international
news, few have focused specifically on it, and those that have generally
present qualitative rather than quantitative assessments of content. The
studies on this aspect of news flow attempt to show the imperfections of
current world news flows and demonstrate five shortcomings of world news.
The first is that international news is "Western-centric" since the sources
of news, even in most of the Third World, are Western news agencies and
wire services. The second point, as illustrated by several studies, is that the
Third World coverage that does exist focuses on negative or "bad" news -
catastrophes, violence, and corruption - rather than "developmental" news
or education information. Further, the research conducted by Stevenson
and Cole36 revealed that negative news is not only predominant in Western
media, but in the Third World media as well, a conclusion also drawn by
Ume-Nwagbo in his 1 982 study of African newspapers. 37 Third, inter­
national news tends to be shallow and oversimplified in that it concentrates
on political leanings of governments rather than accurate and comprehen­
sive coverage of conflicts affecting nations and people. Fourth, international
news covers elites rather than the masses. And finally, the research shows
that the emphasis of international news is on events rather than on factors
leading to and causing events.
Another tier of research studies to be discussed here is image studies.
These works are usually done in conjunction with content analyses that
attempt to analyze the type of images portrayed in the flow of news and
editorial material through newspapers, magazines, and in some cases radio
and television. They also pay implicit and explicit attention to the probable
impact and effect of the quality and quantity of flow on national and
international images.
One of the studies relating the flow of news to national and international
images was the joint IAMCRIUNESCO project. This project was premised
on the assumed importance of the news media in determining public images
of, and attitudes toward, "foreign" nations and peoples. Although this
unique international comparative research project was able to provide an
updated inventory of international news presentation, it was less successful
in measuring the images portrayed in international news reporting. The
project examined news presentation in both the press and broadcast media
and included national media systems from all regions of the world. The
quantitative data were gathered by 1 3 participating teams using a formal
coding instrument designed to measure rough volume and present the
overall structure of international news reporting. The news itself and a

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straight forward-frequency count were the units of analysis. The results

showed the dominance of political news in international news reporting and
the prominence of regionalism. 38
While some studies analyze the non-advertising content of the media as
the source of their data, others concentrate on specific editorial content
such as "editorial page" material, which refers to the editorials that take a
position or stand on behalf of the medium under examination or on behalf
of a given individual, institution, or country. Still others concentrate on
such special contents as "comics," "letters to the editor," sports, or financial
and economic items.
For example, a study designed by Peter M. Clark and myself, examining
specific editorial material in the press, demonstrated how the world view of
a nation's political elite - in this case Iran's pre-revolutionary political elite
and their view of Western Europe - can in turn determine their own self­
image. Our contention was that a study of policy articulation and images
through the media can provide a valuable framework for understanding
national development. The study was conducted four years before the
Iranian revolution and was carried out on the basis of the observation that
policy articulation under the Shah occurred through a limited number of
communication channels - one of which was the national newspaper
Kayhan. Editorials and policy statements were divided into two time
periods - pre- and post-OPEC oil price escalation - and then keyed to 1 8
selected variables, ranging from power to revolution and culture, regarding
Iran's perception of five countries in Western Europe and of Iranian­
European relations. By comparing the dominant perceptions and images of
both time periods, we hoped to show how changes in perceptions and
policy objectives correlate with a changing self-image reflected in the media.
The most important trend in the two periods under consideration (1 970 and
1 974) was Iran's admiration of technological expertise and its downplay of
cultural, religious, and nationalistic elements at home. The study concluded
that the political elites of the time viewed "the importance of technology as
inherently good because it can be naturalized into the developmental
,,
scheme in a way that ideological and political institutions cannot. 39
Contrasting and checking such images against the background of news
and symbols generated by the mosque, the bazaar, and other traditional
channels of communication in Iran, in another analysis in 1 974 - five years
prior to the Iranian revolution - I concluded that religious and theological
discourse still may be used to foster revolution in Iran and force unpopular
government out of power.40 Indeed, in contrast to the conventional big
media channels such as newspapers and television, through a combination
of traditional channels of news and modern small media - such as tape
recorders and cassettes - the Iranian masses obtained their information and
accomplished the 1 978-9 Iranian revolution. 4 1
Ever since the Iranian revolution, a considerable number of articles,
essays, and in some cases empirical data have appeared, examining the flow
of news and images across national boundaries and the role played by the

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media in the subsequent US-Iranian conflict. Thus far, evidence has been
gathered in the following areas: the crucial role played by the transnational
media in the process of legitimization; the weakness of the media in
interpreting the events in light of cultural and religious factors;42 the
importance of prior patterns of information in understanding the current
development of the world; the importance of geopolitical and economic
interests in dissemination of news and information; the role of international
telecommunication in conflict and crisis reporting; and the commercial and
political nature of the media.43 Furthermore, research on the flow of
information about the Iranian revolution and other international and
national crises demonstrates that a distinction must be made between the
volume and effectiveness of information flow, since information can flow at
a high volume and at the same time suffer reduction in quality through
physical and cultural distortion.44
The study of the content and images contained in newspapers, maga­
zines, and news agency files is far from being systematic. While the earlier
studies dealt with political and ideological coverage of news and editorials,
the relationship between content and the ideological orientation of the
audience and the editors, and the proportionate allocation of space
dedicated to different subjects and the images held by national and
international political leaders,45 the current trend is toward the study of
specific issues and the images of particular segments of the population, such
as the portrayal of minorities and women in the media.
One category of content studies that holds particular promise for future
research endeavors is concerned with the much debated issue of cultural
identity. It is also the least scrutinized thus far of the kinds of studies
examined for this volume. Unlike studies of news or editorial page
material, those that fall into this category are not preoccupied with the
political underpinnings contained in the content of news and editorials.
Rather, they analytically explore non-news material that is more culture­
bound and that, therefore, can provide evidence of the distinction between
cultures and of the need to retain the uniqueness of separate cultures in a
particular atmosphere.
An example is a study of Japanese and US graphics as a reflection of a
newspaper's social role, conducted by James R. Beniger and Eleanor
Westney. A comparison between the uses and style of the graphics of The
New York Times and Asahi Shimbun led the authors to conclude that
organizational, cultural, and social factors are responsible for the difference
between them. For instance, the social role of The New York Times as a
reporter versus Asahi's traditional role as educator is aptly displayed in the
visual and contextual differences in the graphics of each. The New York
Times's graphics tend to be of a statistical nature and are relegated to the
economics and business sections. To the contrary, Asahi responds to the
Japanese people's familiarity with the visual conveyance of meaning and to
their relatively sophisticated eye with a graphic style that contains flowing
lines and less formalized construction.46

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Reasons why there are so few studies dealing with specific content of
newspapers and magazines in contrast with general overall studies of non­
advertising material of the press and wire services is a matter of conjecture.
In electronic and audio-visual media, especially those which reach large
proportions of the audience such as television and radio, there appear to be
two divergent strains of research - one dealing with "news" and the other
with "cultural" or "entertainment" programming. Perhaps this is the result
of the myopic assumptions of some researchers; print media are recognized
as the dominant news sources while other media are seen as having more
important cultural implications. Thus empirical studies concerned with
what is termed "non-news" do not abound in the study of newspapers and
magazines.

The Direction of Flow

There are approximately 38,000 magazines published around the world.

Newsmagazines as a group have the largest international distribution and
American newsmagazines, in particular, enjoy the largest international
circulation. Consequently, a great bulk of writings and studies done on the
flow, content, and operations of magazines have dealt with primarily
American periodicals that have worldwide circulation and are transnational
in nature.
Reader's Digest, as the magazine with the highest worldwide circulation
(27 million copies a month in 1 8 different languages),47 is discussed by
several authors, including Armand Mattelart, who reports that the local
content of this magazine in the less developed countries is only between 1 0
and 2 0 percent while in the more developed countries the local content can
reach as high as 50 percent.48 National Geographic also has enjoyed a fair
amount of attention from the media scholars, among them Tom Buckley
and Herbert Schiller.49 Both authors conclude that the coverage of this
magazine is one of concealment and omission. The magazine is con­
servative, "pro-status quo," and "militaristic." It is claimed that it appeals
to Middle America and its illusions, but does not help to gain a true
understanding of the Third World. Time and Newsweek operations, as well
as their editorial policy vis-iI-vis their international editions, have also been
the subject of several analytical studies. 50 Since 1 973, Time has engaged in
a limited decentralization of its content in Europe but maintains vertical
control in the United States. Newsweek's international edition, on the other
hand, can have content that differs up to 50 percent from its American
edition. 5 1
Specialized business, political, and economic magazines such as The
Economist and Business Week are extremely important to the international
flow of information, especially among the decision makers and elites. 52
Although there are some early descriptive studies of their activities inter­
nationally, no systematic or comprehensive studies are available on their

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contents, operations, and utilization beyond the traditional readership

survey and readers' interest. Another thriving international magazine
market comprises the "entertainment," "consumer," and popular science
magazines. Recent writings on the influx of foreign, especially US, maga­
zines in Japan and Mexico, indicate a growing demand for editorial and
financial control over imported publications. 53 For example, Japanese
publishers may not only press for greater financial control of the imported
US popular science magazines, but insist that only 50 percent of the
content of such magazines be of original US copy. 54 Similarly, a study of
the Mexican edition of Cosmopolitan shows relatively more traditional
coverage compatible with local cultures and tastes. 55
While most studies have examined American magazines, a few have
looked at other magazines with international distribution. One such article,
by Karen F. Dajani, discusses Howa, a magazine for Arab women. 56 Howa
has an international market in the Middle East and an approximate
circulation of 200,000. The magazine focuses on problems of working
women and homemakers. Efforts are made to preserve Howa's cultural
identity: Westernization is avoided. Studies also show a good deal of
concentration of newly published ethnic magazines in such metropolitan
centers as London, Paris, New York, and Washington. These magazines,
often published by immigrant or exiled groups, focus on political, social,
and economic affairs - some with a wide regional or international
circulation.
In an expanding worldwide market not only are the industrialized
countries of the North searching for readership and joint ventures in the
South among the less industrialized regions of the world, but they are also
engaged in fierce competition among themselves in Europe and North
America. The 1 990s have seen major mergers and consolidations taking
place within the mass media. Particularly in the press and television
industries these mergers and consolidations have successfully joined the
mass media in the hands of a few multinational firms and corporations.
Additionally, several studies have examined the state of the domestic
magazine industries in various countries such as Italy, Germany, and the
Philippines. In many cases, the domestics are heavily influenced by their
American counterparts and in some cases are affiliated with them. 57
Research into the content and coverage of magazines with regional and
international circulation is spotty and, at times, scarce. 58 Such content
analyses have ranged from examining the image of Latin America and the
Soviet Union in 1 0 US magazines in the 1 960s to the coverage of Asia by
leading US newsmagazines in the early 1 970s and similar studies dealing
with Africa in the early 1 980s . . In the rapidly changing environment of the
market, readership, and international affairs the findings of these studies
tend to be partial, tentative, and inconclusive. However, a few general
observations can be made: the tone of most of these magazines often tends
to be patronizing; the emphasis is frequently on negative elements such as
conflict and violence; there is a general neglect of domestic development in

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various countries unless it has some implications for the foreign policy of
the country in which the magazine is published; and international coverage
tends to focus on politicaVgovernmental topics and crisis/trivia stories.
One of the most intriguing studies of content is C.B. Pratt's analysis of
the differences between images projected of Africa by US "news" (Time,
Newsweek, u. s. News and World Report) and "opinion" (The Nation , The
New Republic, National Review) magazines. However, Pratt's study shows
more similarities than differences between the two categories of publi­
cations and even between "opinion" magazines on different ends of the
political spectrum. The "opinion" magazines have a slightly higher number
of stories on Africa than do "news" magazines, but both are under 4
percent of the total editorial space. All the magazines portrayed Africa as
"politically gullible, naive and immature but also as a continent whose
course of action is precariously dependent on the Big Powers." The image
of the conflict-ridden continent is clear: while coverage of geography and
topology is virtually ignored, coverage of coups, public executions, and of
countries in trouble spots was highlighted. 59
In another study of coverage of foreign affairs by American "elite and
mass periodicals," Robert L. Bledsoe and his colleagues reported that
Europe receives the most coverage, although Asia was important in the
early 1 970s. South America is virtually ignored and emphasis is on trouble
spots rather than overview stories. They conclude that there is a "general
orientation toward political events and actors to the virtual exclusion of
,,
more fundamental problems. 6o Other studies show how in the cases of
consumer and general magazines, advertising and editorial content work on
each other to form a mutually reinforcing cycle. Thus magazine contents
are affected by editorial economic decisions.
Research on concentration of media ownership is currently in a period of
confusion and transition. The introduction of new technologies and the
smooth integration of the media industries have made the old "clear-cut"
formulas of encouraging diversity in the press, broadcasting, and film
obsolete or contradictory. Media industries face a multitude of great new
opportunities for investment and great economic risks and they are going
against the old forms of regulatory compromise that were often more of a
form of protecting media interests than an incentive to diversify. Most
importantly, the traditional consensus among researchers and policy groups
in liberal democracies, which were usually concerned with and focused on
improving and fine-tuning the existing mechanisms for avoiding the worst
abuses of media concentration, has broken down. For researchers today
there are a variety of positions, but in place of the unstable consensus there
are emerging two very different and conflicting approaches to the issue of
concentration of economic power in media. The first group advocates
letting the free market and technology decide, while the second group calls
for a greater need for more democratic social structure. Both groups may
be committed to diversity in the media, but they differ greatly in what is
meant by diversity and how it is to be achieved. 6 1

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Four major conclusions can be drawn from the research on the direction
of international news flow. The first is that the majority of international
news flows from the "center," the "North," or the "West" by way of their
dominant news agencies; that is, the flow is vertical from the developed to
the developing nations. Second, proximity - physical, psychocultural, and
political - is a major factor in determining news coverage in that
indigenous media tend to select items regarding their own geographical
region. A third conclusion is that Western Europe and the United States
receive the greater amount of coverage in the media while the former
socialist countries and Third World receive the least. Finally, although
horizontal flows do exist within the developing as well as the developed
world, this type of flow constitutes a substantially smaller portion of the
overall coverage than does vertical flow or "round" flow.
In summary, it is difficult to depict adequately the current state of
research on content in international news, since most authors, although
presenting assumptions on this aspect, have not undertaken comprehensive
research in this area. Another major problem is disagreement and con­
flicting results as evidenced in studies conducted by Schramm, Stevenson
and Cole, Al Hester, Wilhoit and Weaver, and several others. However,
one conclusion is manifest in nearly all of the studies: although there has
been some improvement over the quantity of international news, largely
provided by recently established agencies as well as national and regional
efforts, the quality of international flow of news remains poor, with
intensifying focus on Third World violent conflict and crisis as one moves
down the news "funnel." Conflicting news values are indeed crucial factors
contributing to the way the world and its problems are portrayed in the
media. Thus qualitative evaluation remains a definite weakness in the
current research on the content of news flow.
The review of the literature clearly shows a large gap in our knowledge
about the flow of international news. For example, we know more about
the quantity and quality of the "Third World" coverage by the "West" but
less about the "Third World" coverage of the "West" - and still less about
the flow of news between and among the less industrialized or "Third
World" countries around the world.
Additionally, one of the aspects of news imbalance is the uneven
distribution of communication resources, and, at least in one instance, the
foreign correspondence. My 1 975 survey showed a total of 865 foreign
correspondents reporting foreign news media in the United States. Wide
variance was noted in stationing of correspondents - none from Black
Africa, 23 from Israel, I from Pakistan, 23 from Taiwan. Western Europe
accounted for more than half of the correspondents, with few from Latin
America, the Middle East, or Asia. There was a total absence of foreign
correspondents from several countries. 62 However, my 1 9 8 1 update shows
that there were 1 ,262 foreign correspondents covering the United States -
an increase of over 45 percent in six years. Twelve new countries have
joined the list, all of which are Third World members. On a regional level,

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there are still no reporters from Black Africa. 63 What bearing does this
increase in correspondents have on the flow of news? It seems clear that a
flow and content analysis of those countries increasing their correspondents
or installing them in the United States for the first time might tell us
something about the volume and quality of international news reporting. In
short, to measure the actual two-day flow we need more of the intake­
output ratio, a research strategy that is often neglected.
There are several factors that have been found to influence the global
flow of news. One of the most frequently examined factors in news gather­
ing and dissemination, and one that is influential on an individual,
organizational, regional, and global level, is economics. Economics affects
the quality, quantity, availability, and distribution of news in a number of
ways. Among these are the number of foreign correspondents, the ability of
regions to establish their own infrastructures for news gathering and trans­
mission, the ability to produce news media that can compete successfully
with transnational media in advertising, news quality, and journalist
compensation; telecommunication tariffs, and the ability of the masses to
purchase the news product. 64
Political factors have an effect on both news content and the actual flow
of news. 65 The political climate of a state clearly affects the international
news value of events associated with that state as well as having other direct
effects such as censorship, controlling the entry and exit of journalists, and
controlling the importation and marketing of news products. Additionally,
official and unofficial perceptions of news value, and of the function and role
of news and information within a given political system, and between
systems, directly influence the content and flow of news within that system.
One of the most complicated factors influencing the global flow of news
is sociocultural differences. 66 Here cultural, religious, and traditional beliefs
that differ significantly from one region or country to another create serious
barriers to a smooth flow of news and information. Language, translation
difficulties, and ethnic biases are perhaps the most common sources of such
problems.
One of the most obvious factors affecting the content and flow of news
internationally is the development of technology and the infrastructure
associated with it. 67 In developing areas where infrastructural development
is primitive, rare, or nonexistent, it is difficult to gather and disseminate
news in a timely fashion. The solution has been news importation, which
has stirred concern over the issues involved in the economic, political, and
sociocultural factors of global news flow.
Associated with the above factors are others referred to as "extra-media"
factors, such as literacy level, population, and trade. 68 Among these would
be included physical, cultural, and psychological proximity that affects
the group's view of the outside world. These factors, intertwined with the
broader economic, political, and cultural elements, directly affect the con­
tent and dissemination of news in any given area, and can enhance the
global flow of news as well as impede it.

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60 Global information and world communication

Research regarding the possible effects - positive and negative - of the

international flow of news has concentrated on such issues as content,
stereotypes, cultural domination, and expectations. News stereotyping and
its effect on the audience have been studied in Africa, Latin America, Asia,
and the Middle East. A good number of writers and researchers view the
Northern-dominated (meaning both East and West) flow as distorting
information on cultural, political, and economic progress in the developing
world. Others carrying this a step further conclude that such domination
has led to a massive consumer culture eroding national identity and
sovereignty in different parts of the world. Still, a few analyses observe the
dysfunctioning processes of such imbalances on international conflict,
national discontent, and the New International Economic Order. Similarly,
several studies conclude that the news media reinforce the status quo, which
is a division of the world between high- and low-status nations, and present
the world as more conflict-laden than it really is, to emphasize the use of
force rather than peaceful solutions. Yet, there are those analyses which
caution that the world news media are incapable of assembling an accurate,
complete, and current picture of objective reality in every corner of the
globe, and that news should be considered only one source of information
and not a physical map of the world.

Notes

1 . Hamid Mowlana, ed., International Flow of News: An Annotated Bibliography (paris:

UNESCO, 1983).
2. Hamid Mowlana, International Communication: A Selected Bibliography (Dobuque, IA:
KendalllHunt Publishing Company, 1971). See also Hamid Mowlana, "Trends in Research on
International Communication in the United States," Gazette XIX: 2 ( 1 973), pp. 79-90, and my
more extensive review, "The Communication Dimension of International Studies in the United
States: A Quantitative Assessment," International Journal of Communication Research
(University of Cologne), I : I (Winter 1 974), pp. 3-22. For earlier bibliographical publication
in international communication see Harold Lasswell, Ralph Casey, and Bruce L. Smith,
Propaganda and Promotional Activities: An Annotated Bibliography (Minneapolis, MN:
University of Minnesota Press, 1 953).
3. Alexander Szalai's study (with Margaret Croke and Associates) The United Nations and
the News Media (New York: United Nations Institute for Training and Research [UNITAR],
1 972), is the most extensive international comparative study in the field under scrutiny.
Prominent in the entire field has been UNESCO's effort to encourage and sponsor com­
parative research during the last twenty years. See UNESCO's publications, Reports and
Papers on Mass Communication, especially nos 65, 69, 70, 74, 75, 76, 77, 79, 8 1 , 83, 85, 87, 90,
and 92.
4. See: Jacques Kayser, One Week's News: Comparative Study of 1 7 Major Dailies for a
Seven Day Period (paris: UNESCO, 1 953); Wilbur Schramm, One Day in the World's Press
(Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1 960); International Press Institute, The Flow of
News (Zurich: International Press Institute, 1963); George Gerbner and George Marvanyi,
"The Many Worlds of the World's Press," Journal of Communication, 27: I (Winter 1 977), pp.
52-66; AI Hester, "Five Years of Foreign News on U.S. Television Evening Newscasts,"
Gazette, 24: I ( 1 978), pp. 86-95; Robert L. Stevenson and Richard Cole, "Foreign News in
Selected Countries," Research Reports, International Communication Agency, US Govern-

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 News and views 61

ment, Washington, D C (July 1 980); and Wilbur Schramm and Erwin L. Atwood, Circulation
of News in the Third World: A Study of Asia (Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 1981).
5. Johan Galtung, "A Structural Theory of Imperialism," Journal of Peace Research, 8: 2
(1971), pp. 8 1 - 1 1 8; Johan Galtung and Mari H. Ruge, "The Structure of Foreign News: The
Presentation of the Congo, Cuba and Cyprus in Four Norwegian Newspapers," Journal of
Peace Research, 2 (1 965), pp. 64-91 ; Rafael Roncagliolo, "Flow of News and Freedom of the
Press," The Democratic Journalist, March 1979, pp. 7- 1 1 ; Fernando Reyes Matta, "The
Information Bedazzlement of Latin America," Development Dialogue, 2 ( 1 976), pp. 29-42; and
Herbert 1. Schiller, "Freedom from the 'Free Flow,'" Journal of Communication, 24: I (Winter
1 974), pp. 1 1 0- 1 1 7.
6. Peter M. Clark and Hamid Mowlana, "Iran's Perception of Western Europe: A Study in
National and Foreign Policy Articulation," International Interactions, 4: 2 ( 1 978), pp. 99-123;
International Association for Mass Communication ResearchlUNESCO, "The World of the
News: The News of the World," Final Report of the " Foreign Images" study undertaken by
IAMCR for UNESCO (LondonlParis, 1 980); Edward Said, Covering Islam: How the Media
and the Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the World (New York: Pantheon, 1 9 81 ;
James D. Halloran and Virginia Nightingale, "Young TV Viewers and Their Images of
Foreigners: A Summary and Interpretation of a Four Nation Study," Centre for Mass
Communication Research, University of Leicester, 1983; UNESCO, Mass Media: The Image,
Role and Social Condition of Women, Reports and Papers on Mass Communication, No. 84,
Paris, 1979; and C.B. Pratt, "The Reportage and Image of Africa in Six U.S. News and
Opinion Magazines: A Comparative Study," Gazette, 26: I ( 1 980), pp. 3 1 -45. These are
examples of the studies using news stories and editorials as the base of data. Studies dealing
with perceptions and images using survey research and other sources are not considered in this
study.
7. For examples of this method see Charles A. McClelland, "Answers to Common
Questions About the World News Index and International Event Analysis," Los Angeles,
University of Southern California, July 1976; Philip M. Burgess and Raymond W. Lawton,
Indicators of International Behavior: An Assessment of Events Data Research, (International
Studies Series) (Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications, 1 972); Hamid Mowlana, "A Paradigm
for Source Analysis in Events Data Research: Mass Media and the Problems of Validity,"
International Interactions, 2: I (Summer 1 975), pp. 33-44; and Robert Burrowes, Gary D.
Hoggard, Russell J. Long, Hamid Mowlana, Sophia Peterson, Warren R. Phillips, and Alvin
Richman, "Events-Interaction Analysis: Selected Bibliography of Recent Research," American
Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, September 1971 .
8. For illustrations see UNESCO's series, Reports and Papers on Mass Communication:
News Dependence, No. 93 ( 1 980); Transnational Communication and Mass Cultural Industries,
No. 92 (1 982); Mass Media: Codes of Ethics and Councils, No. 86 (1 979); News Values and
Principles of Cross-Cultural Communication, No. 85 ( 1979). See also Jim Richstad and Michael
H. Anderson, eds, Crisis in the International News: Policies and Prospects (New York:
Columbia University Press, 1981); Oliver Boyd-Barrett, The International News Agencies
(Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications, 1 980); Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Mass Media Manual:
Television News in a North-South Perspective (Bonn, 1 98 1 ); and Thomas Szecsko, Recent
Studies (on Radio and Television) 1976-77 (Budapest: Mass Communication Research Centre,
1978).
9. For a discussion of extra-media data in flow of international news see Karl Erik
Rosengren, "International News: Methods, Data and Theory," Journal of Peace Research, 1 1 :
2 ( 1 974), pp. 145-1 56; and Hamid Mowlana, " A Paradigm for Comparative Mass Media
International and Intercultural
Analysis," in Heinz-Dietrich Fischer and John C. Merrill, eds,
Communication (New York: Hastings House, 1 976), pp. 474-484. My paradigm integrates the
extra-media variables with intra-media variables as well as making a distinction between
production and distribution of the message in the flow. Rosengren directly challenges the
approach by Galtung and offers the extra-media approach as an alternative. For a follow-up
and a specification of Rosengren's extra-media data notion see his "Bias in News: Methods

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62 Global information and world communication

and Concepts," in Cleveland Wilhoit, ed., Mass Communication Review Yearbook I (Beverly
Hills, CA: Sage Publications, 1 980), pp. 249-264.
1 0. Galtung, "A Structural Theory of Imperialism. "
1 1 . Herb Addo, "Structural Bases of International Communication," Peace, Science,
Society, 23 (1 974), pp. 8 1 - 100.
12. Robert Buijtenhuijs and Rene Baesjou, "Center and Periphery in Two African
Newspapers: Testing Some Hypothesis on Cultural Dominance," Kroniek Van Africa, 33: 3
(1 974), pp. 243-27 1 .
1 3 . Bruce McKenzie and Derek Overton, "International News Via Tasmanian/Australian
News Media Outlets: An Analysis of Sources, Flow Biases, Weaknesses and Consequences,"
paper for the ANZAAS Congress, Brisbane, Australia, May 1 98 1 . See also Jim Richstad and
Tony Mnaemeka, "Information Regions: Context for International News Flow Research,"
paper prepared for Association for Education in Journalism Convention, Boston, MA. August
1980.
14. Reyes Matta, "The Information Bedazzlement of Latin America."
15. Shelton A. Gunaratne, "Reporting the Third World in the 1970s: A Longitudinal
Content Analysis of Two Australian Dailies," Gazette, 29 ( 1982), pp. 1 5 -29.
1 6. Gehan Rachty, "Foreign News in Nine Arab Countries," Communication and
Development Review, 2: 2 (Summer 1978), pp. 23-25.
17. Frank Kaplan, "The Plight of Foreign News in the U.S. Mass Media," Gazette, 25: 4
(1 979), pp. 233-243.
18. Andrew K. Semmel, "The Elite Press, the Global System, and Foreign News
Attention," International Interactions, 3: 4 ( 1 977), pp. 3 1 7-328.
19. Gerbner and Marvanyi, "The Many Worlds of the World's Press."
20. Robert L. Stevenson and Richard R. Cole, "Foreign News and the 'New World
Information Order' Debate," Foreign News in Selected Countries, Part II, International
Communication Agency, US Government, July 1980.
2 1 . D.R. Mankekar and J.S. Yadava, "News Agencies Pool of Non-Aligned Countries,"
Communication Research Trends: A Quarterly Information Service from the Center for the
Study of Communication and Culture, 10: 4, (1 982) pp. 1 2- 1 3.
22. Galtung and Ruge, "The Structure of Foreign News."
23. Barbara A. Salamore, "Reporting of External Behaviors in the World's Press: A
Comparison of Regional Sources," paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the International
Studies Association, Washington, DC, February 1 975.
24. Wilbur Schramm, "International News Wires and Third World News in Asia: A
Preliminary Report," Center of Communication Studies, Chinese University of Hong Kong,
1978.
25. Vernon M. Sparkes, "The Flow of News Between Canada and the United States,"
Gazette, 55: 2 ( 1 978), pp. 260-268.
26. Fernando Reyes Matta, "EI Encandilamiento Informativo de America Latina," La
Circulation de Noticias en America Latina (Mexico: Federaci6n Latinoamericana de
Periodistas, 1978), pp. 1 1 5- 1 39.
27. See Peter Golding and Phillip Elliot, Making the News (London: Longman, 1979).
28. Schramm and Atwood, Circulation of News in the Third World.
29. G. Cleveland Wilhoit and David Weaver, " Foreign News Coverage in Two U.S. Wire
Services: An Update," Journal of Communication, 33: 2 (Spring 1 983), pp. 1 32-147.
30. Wilhoit and Weaver, "Foreign News Coverage in Major U.S. Wire Services and Small
Daily Newspapers," paper read at the International Association for Mass Communication
Research, 1 3th Scientific Conference, Paris, September 1982, p. 1 6.
3 1 . Wilhoit and Weaver, "Foreign News Coverage in Two U.S. Wire Services: An
Update," p. 147. For their earlier study see "Foreign News Coverage in Two U.S. Wire
Services," Journal of Communication, 3 1 : 2 (Spring 1 98 1 ), pp. 55-63.
32. See monographs I, II, and III on news agencies published by the International
Commission for the Study of Communication Problems, Paris, UNESCO, 1 979-80; also
Boyd-Barrett, The International News Agencies; and Sophia Peterson, "International News

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 News and views 63

Public Opinion Quarterly, 45: 2 (1981), pp. 143-

Selection by the Elite Press: A Case Study,"
News Agencies and World News in Canada and the United
1 63 . Also Gertrude Joch Robinson,
States and Yugoslavia: Methods and Data (Fribourg: University Press of Fribourg, 1981).
33. Robinson, News Agencies and World News in Canada, the United States and Yugoslavia,
pp. 206-210.
34. Ibid. See also references to monographs published by the International Commission for
the Study of Communication Problems, Many Voices, One World (paris: UNESCO, 1 980), pp.
297-298; Boyd-Barrett, The International News Agencies; and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Report
of the URTNA Study Mission 1979 for the Feasibility for TV News Exchange in the URTNA
Region (Bonn: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, 1979); and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Mass Media
Manual. For references to other regions of the world see Mowlana, ed., International Flow of
News.
35. Cees J. Hamelink, Cultural Autonomy in Global Communications (White Plains, NY:
Longman, 1983), pp. 72-78.
36. Stevenson and Cole, "Foreign News and the 'New World Information Order' Debate."
37. Ebele N. Ume-Nwagbo, "Foreign News Flow in Africa: A Content Analytical Study
on a Regional Basis," Gazette, 29 (1 982), pp. 41 -56.
38. For a summary of this report see Annabelle Sreberny-Mohammadi, "The World of the
News: The News of the World," in New Structures of International Communication?: The Role
of Research, Main Papers from the IAMCR Caracas Conference ( 1 980): Leicester,
International Association for Mass Communication Research, 1982, pp. 1 83 - 1 93; for the
complete version see IAMCRlUNESCO, "The World of News: The News of the World."
39. Clark and Mowlana, "Iran's Perception of Western Europe: A Study in National and
Foreign Policy Articulation," p. 123.
40. Hamid Mowlana, "Mass Communication, Elites and National Systems in the Middle
East," inDer Anteil der Massenmedien bei der Herausbildung des Bewusstseins in der sich
wandelnden Welt (proceedings of the International Association for Mass Communication
Scientific Conference), Leipzig, September 1974, Karl-Marx-Universitiit, pp. 55-7 1 .
4 1 . Hamid Mowlana, "Technology versus Tradition: Communication in the Iranian
Revolution," Journal of Communication, 29: 3 (Summer 1 979), pp. 107- 1 12. The study of the
Iranian revolution and the flow of news and political messages between the West and Iran
prior to the revolution underlined the importance of an appreciation of the total com­
munication system in a given culture. In this article I discuss the conflict between the official
culture of the government that I believed was dominated by the Western media systems, and
the traditional culture of the masses rooted in the Iranian national and religious traditions.
42. Said, Covering Islam. Also see William C. Adams, ed., Television Coverage of the
Middle East (Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing Corporation, 1981).
43. Hamid Mowlana, "The Role of the Media in the U.S.-Iranian Conflict," in A. Arnow
and W. Dissanayakea, eds, The Role of News Media in National and International Conflict
(Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1 984), pp. 7 1 -99.
44. Hamid Mowlana, "Communication for Political Change: The Iranian Revolution," in
George Gerbner and Marsha Siefert, eds, World Communications: A Handbook (White Plains,
NY: Longman, 1 984).
45. For example of these earlier studies see: W.W. Waymack, "Editorial Pages in Wartime.
Their Technique and Ideology," Journalism Quarterly (March 1 942), pp. 34-38; J. Zvi
Namenwirth and Richard C. Bibbee, "National Distinctions: Mass and Prestige Editorials in
American and British Newspapers," paper presented at the International Studies Association
meeting, New York, March 1 6, 1973; Wayne Wolfe, "Images of the U.S. in Latin American
Press," Journalism Quarterly, 41 (1964), pp. 75-79; C.A. Oliphant, "The Image of the United
States as Projected by the Peking Review," Journalism Quarterly, 41 (1 964), pp. 460-469; and
Ithiel de Sola Pool, The Prestige Papers: A Study of Their Editorials (Stanford, CA: Stanford
University Press, 1952). See Godwin C. Chu and Leonard Chu, "Parties in Conflict: Letters to
the Editors of the People's Daily," Journal of Communication (Autumn, 1981), pp. 90-96.
46. James R. Beninger and Eleanor Westney, "Japanese and U.S. Media: Graphics as a
Reflection of Newspapers' Social Role," Journal of Communication, 3 1 : 2 (Spring 1981), p. 27;

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64 Global information and world communication

see also Alan Shuttleworth, "People and Culture," in Peter Dauson, Rolfe Mayersohn, and
Edward Shils, eds, Literary Taste, Culture and Mass Communication, Vol. 1 4 (Teaneck, NJ:
Somerest House, 1 980), p. 1 53.
47. The Reader's Digest 1 995 circulation figure was obtained from its headquarters i n New
York City, November 1995.
48. Armand Mattelart, Multinational Corporations and the Control of Culture (Brighton:
Harvester Press, 1 979), p. 22 1 .
49. Herbert I . Schiller, The Mind Managers (Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1973), pp. 86-94;
and Tom Buckley, "With the National Geographic on its Endless, Cloudless, Voyage," New
York Times Magazine, 1970, p. 1 3 .
5 0 . L. John Martin, "American Newsmagazines and the European Scene," Gazette, 2: 6
(1 960), p. 209.
5 1 . Mattelart, Multinational Corporations, pp. 21 3-220.
52. In connection with newsmagazines see Henryka Schabowska and Ulf Himmelstrand,
Africa Reports on the Nigerian Crisis: News, Attitudes and Background Information
(Scandinavian Institute of African Studies), (Uppsala: Holmes and Meier, 1979). See also
Derry Eynon, "U.S. Business Periodicals for Overseas Readers," Journalism Quarterly, 48
(Autumn 1971), p. 548.
53. Anna Lucia Zornosa, "Collaboration and Modernization: Case Study of Transnational
Magazine," paper presented at the Workshop on Sex-Roles in the Mass Media, International
Association for Mass Communication Research Conference, Paris, September 1982.
54. "U.S. Science Magazines Become Popular in Japan," Business Week, June 28, 1982,
p. 44 .
55. Zornosa, "Collaboration and Modernization," p. 6.
56. Karen Finlon Dajani, "Magazine for Arab Women: Howa," Journalism Quarterly, 59:
I (Spring 1 982), p. 1 1 7.
57. J.H. Schacht, "Italian Weekly Magazines Bloom Wildly but Need Pruning," Journalism
Quarterly, 47: I (Spring 1 970), p. 140.
58. See John R. Whitaker, The Image of Latin America in Us. Magazines (New York
Magazine Publishers Association, 1 960); Sharif al Mujahid, "Coverage of Pakistan in Three
U.S. Newsmagazines," Journalism Quarterly, 47: 1 (1 970), pp. 126-130, 1 56; John Lent and
Shanti Rao, "A Content Analysis of National Media Coverage of Asian News and
Information," Gazette, 1 : 25 (1 979), pp. 1 6-22; Daniel J. Leab, "Canned Crisis: U.S.
Magazines, Quemoy and the Matsus," Journalism Quarterly, 44: 2 (Summer 1 967), p. 34 1 ;
Anita M. Dasbach, "U.S.-Soviet Magazine Propaganda: America Illustrated and USSR,"
Journalism Quarterly, 43: 1 (Spring 1966), pp. 73-84; and Eugene J. Rosi, "How 50
Periodicals and the Times Interpreted the Test Ban Controversy," Journalism Quarterly, 41: 3
(Autumn 1964), p. 547.
59. Pratt, "The Reportage and Images of Africa in Six U.S. News and Opinion
Magazines," p. 35.
60. Robert L. Bledsoe, Robert Handberg, William S. Maddox, David R. Lennox, and
Dennis A. Long, "Foreign Affairs Coverage in Elite and Mass Periodicals," Journalism
Quarterly, 59: 3 (1 982), pp. 471 -474.
6 1 . Robert A. White (Issue Editor), "Perspectives in Communication Research: What Kind
of Media Diversity? Let the Free Market and Technology Decide," Communication Research
Trends: A Quarterly Information Service from the Center for the Study of Communication and
Culture, 4: I (1 983), p. 7.
62. Hamid Mowlana, "Who Covers America?," Journal of Communication, 25: 3 (Summer
1 975), pp. 86-9 1 .
63. Hamid Mowlana, "Who Covers America: An Update," School of International Service,
American University, Washington, DC, 1983.
64. For economic factors affecting the flow of news see sections on Asia, Latin America
and Africa in Mowlana, ed., International Flow of News: An Annotated Bibliography, pp. 1 04-
202, and 251 -306.
65. Political factors have been discussed in a number of works, among them Anthony

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 News and views 65

Smith's The Geopolitics of Information: How Western Culture Dominates the World (New
York: Oxford University Press, 1980).
66. For illustration of sociocultural factors see Edward Said, Orientalism (New York:
Vintage Books. 1989), and his Covering Islam.
67. For examples see "Structural Issues in Global Communications," A Report Based
Upon a Meeting at Leeds Castle, Kent, England, 1982, The Tobin Foundation, Washington,
DC, 1982; Edward W. Ploman, "The International Flow of Information: Legal Aspects," in
Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Mass Media Annual (Bonn: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, 1981); see also
such technical reports as ITU, INTELSAT, etc.
68. Karl E. Rosengren, "International News: Methods, Data and Theory," Journal of
Peace Research, I I : 2 (1 974), pp. 145-156; and his "Bias in News: Methods and Concepts. "

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 4

Broadcasting the WorId:

National and International Images

An important part of the international flow of information occurs through

the technology and methods of broadcasting. In this respect, three areas of
inquiry occupy a major position in international communication: television,
international radio broadcasting, and the most recent technology and
phenomenon in international relations, the Internet.

Perspectives in Television Flow

The early studies on the international flow of information were concerned

with print media and news agencies, but it was not long before television
was singled out from the diversity of media by national planners as well as
communication scholars as a primary area of importance. The rapid tech­
nological advances of this medium contributed to its growth and the degree
of interest generated. For example, in 1 950 only five countries had regular
television service, but by the late 1 970s, there were 400 million television
receivers in 1 3 8 countries. ' Additionally, it is estimated that the number of
television sets worldwide has increased at least 60 percent in the last two
decades.
The character of international television flows may be viewed from two
historical perspectives. The first is a review of the progression of scholarly
research and inquiry conducted in the field, represented by the early
empirical work of Kaarle Nordenstreng and Tapio Varis in a 1 974 report
prepared for UNESCO, which provided the first empirical documentation
of worldwide flows of television programming. 2 Through data compiled via
questionnaires administered in over 50 countries covering topics such as
general content and percentages of imported versus domestic programming,
Nordenstreng and Varis were able to identify two predominant trends in
global television programming: one-way flow from big exporters to the rest
of the world and the predominance of entertainment programming. On the
basis of average hours of television programming exported per year, the
leading producers and distributors at that time were the United States
( 1 50,000 hours per year), the United Kingdom and France (both 20,000
hours per year), and the Federal Republic of Germany (6,000 hours per
year). 3
Nordenstreng and Varis were aware that the scope of their study was
limited to clarifying actual general patterns of international flows of all

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 Broadcasting the world 67

kinds of television programming. This narrow scope permitted omission of

relevant issues such as ownership, historical analysis of flows, and in-depth
investigation of the cultural, economic, and political implications of one­
way global television traffic. In spite of these limitations, their findings
served as a springboard for a flurry of discussion and highlighted the
urgency for further research in this area.
A second historical approach to reviewing global television flows is to
examine the growth of television as it interfaces with the production and
distribution of news within a nation. A number of studies have been con­
ducted to examine the significance of television news and other pro­
grammed material. Among these studies are those of Elihu Katz,4 Russell
W. Neuman, 5 and John Robinson, 6 who have treated such subjects as
Third World television programming, patterns of recall among television
news viewers, and the larger question of comprehension. There have also
been more specific studies dealing with images, impressions, and stereotypes
in the content of news programs. Such studies as those by William C.
Adams, Haluk Sahin, Dennis K. Davis and John Robinson and others/
when treated cumulatively, portray the "world of TV news" as a self­
contained, coherent area, with its own internal logic and dynamics, which
tend to form social reality in specific ways.
Studies of television coverage of international affairs by American
networks show that, with the exception of the Middle East and Vietnam,
news coverage of the Third World is, at best, sparse. Most of the studies
dealing with television news are crisis-oriented and deal mainly with tele­
vision coverage of the Third World. This is not only because the United
States as a major power is involved in many of these world events, but also
because television has become a major source of news and information for
large segments of the American public, and data on television news are
readily available in indices and abstracts.
The crucial question in analysis of the media in international affairs is
not only speculative and normative (what the media can or should do) but
also functional (how the media currently operate under certain structural
conditions and in response to particular environmental factors). Some
studies do address themselves to the structural conditions of television
news, but most of the analyses undertaken address the whole question of
news flow and news coverage by examining the pattern of the television
coverage of certain international issues.
Some studies in the United States are of particular interest here. One
deals with television coverage of the Middle East and analyzes some of the
most intensely reported news stories of the past two decades: the Iranian
hostage crisis, the Soviet involvement in Afghanistan, and Anwar Sadat's
trip to Jerusalem. 8 The other contains 1 3 issue-oriented and wide-ranging
studies of television coverage of such topics as terrorism, the Third World,
Vietnam, and Latin America.9 The focus of these studies is the role of
Western television coverage in the developing countries. For example,
Adams examines controversies of television coverage of international

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68 Global information and world communication

affairs in terms of thoroughness versus superficiality, US versus global

vantage, left versus right, and Hobbesian versus Panglossian (liberal model
versus "new class" leftist views). \ 0 James F. Larson presents an overview of
international affairs coverage on US evening network news from 1 972 to
1 979, showing the sparsity of the coverage and supporting the conclusion of
others that "many portions of the globe scarcely existed as far as viewers
of US network TV news were concerned." l l Unfortunately, there is little
coverage of Europe and such issues as the arms race and disarmament, and
none of Eastern socialist countries, let alone the forgotten continent of
Africa.
One of the studies conducted by Peter Dahlgren suggests that three
motifs - social disorder, flawed development, and primitivism - have per­
vaded Third World coverage by television networks in the United States.
He reports the following: 1 2

• According to the cumulative imagery that emerges from network news

reports, disorder looms eternal in the Third World.
• This violence is a very particular kind; it is overt, blatant, and often
irrational.
• The West stands for rationality: science over magic, purpose over
activity, man over nature.
• Corruption in the Third World takes on more of a systematic quality
and a similar treatment characterizes human rights violations.
• Idealization of the primitive is implicit in much of the reporting,
becoming relatively explicit only occasionally. When reports highlight
manifestations of primitivism, they can be grouped under one of two
sub-motifs: exoticism or barbarism.
• Reports of the Third World, like the other stories on TV news, offer the
viewer a form of truth, the literal truth of facticity.

Studies in the United Kingdom, Sweden, and several other Western

countries over the past decade or so show that the world of television news,
in its depiction of domestic and internal development, tends to address the
needs and interests of the social classes and economic and political elites.
Dahlgren notes this observation and adds that "though TV news' proximity
to the political economic processes of the international arena are more
remote compared to the domestic arena, its way of seeing reveals a
hegemonic approach in characterizing social and political realities between
countries." 1 3
Attention has also been given to the political/economic processes of
international television news and programs. However, two factors have
contributed to the expansion of the flow of television news in regions such
as Asia-Pacific. Firstly, there has been considerable improvements and
expansion of terrestrial communication networks covering the region as a
whole, capable of carrying television signals and secondly, the low cost of
satellite tariffs, which has been reduced from the maximum of $2,000 for

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the initial 10 minutes in 1 980 to a maximum of $ 1 85 for the same time

period in 1 996.
.

There has also been a growing tendency toward the expansion of com­
mercial television in several Western European countries, particularly in the
United Kingdom and Germany. On the other hand, because of internal
political change and communication policies adopted in some of the Third
World countries, such as Iran and Nicaragua, commercial television and
importation of foreign materials have been restricted in favor of public
service and national developmental objectives.

Impact and Effects of Television Flows

At the global level, television flow can be seen as the offspring of previously
existing broadcasting and film flows. Not surprisingly, the patterns of
introduction and development of television in many nations are similar
to those in the United States, where the infrastructure and resources
of broadcasting and film were already in place to nurture the growth of
television. This process is traced by Everett M. Rogers and Livia Antola in
their study on television flows in Latin America. In this instance, Mexico
plays a crucial role both as a regional producer of television programs and
as a gatekeeper for American programs being distributed throughout Latin
America, having gained its advantage in the late 1 950s when dubbing in
Cuba was no longer possible. Because Mexico possessed dubbing capability
and a suitable infrastructure resulting from its film industry, its potential
market and proximity to the United States provided the additional
necessary ingredients for the development of a television industry. A trend
was established that foreign television programming is broadcast within
Latin America only after Mexico has first purchased it. 1 4 More recently,
dubbing studios have opened in Brazil and Peru and those nations, along
with Argentina and Venezuela, now compete with Mexico in television
programming in Latin America. Despite such competition, Mexico
maintains its key position as a gatekeeper in television flow in Latin
America.
As described by Rogers and Antola, it is enlightening to follow the
process by which foreign television programs are transferred to Latin
America. US television producers exhibit pilot programs at an annual two­
week screening session in Los Angeles in May, attended by those
purchasing programming for Latin American TV. When there are enough
interested buyers for the American networks to cover costs and make a
profit, the programs are sent to Mexico for dubbing and distributed from
there to those Latin American networks that have agreed to buy them. I S
Within other regions o f the world, major producing nations are begin­
ning to function in a gatekeeping role similar to that of Mexico. Lebanon,
Egypt and Iran are important television centers in the Middle East, as is
Japan for the Far East.

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The most comprehensive summaries of international television flows are

found in the original work of Nordenstreng and Varis l 6 and a venture to
map international television flow with a new methodology by the London­
based International Institute of Communication (reported periodically in
Intermedia magazine). On the basis of their work, and on additional
literature reviewed, it can be said that little has changed in the past two
decades in the geographical distribution of studies on television flow. The
bulk of information is derived from research conducted in the United States
and Western Europe on television flows in and out of those regions. While
the number of studies done on television flows in Latin America has
increased, there is still a lamentable lack of material dealing with Eastern
Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia (excluding Japan and the
People's Republic of China). Canada, with its special concerns for broad­
cast spillovers from the United States, has taken greater strides toward
making its voice heard by conducting its own research and attempting to
clarify its communication policies.
In order to obtain a more precise view of both direction and content of
international television flow, a number of research projects have been
undertaken at regional and national levels. Additional studies, such as
Graham P. Chapman's 198 1 study on international television flows in
Western Europe, have focused on tracking changes in the flow over time or
on supplementing the knowledge obtained by the Nordenstreng and Varis
report. 1 7 Based on his review of seven channels in Sweden, Italy, Finland,
and the United Kingdom, Chapman concludes that there seems to be little
departure from the flow patterns described by Nordenstreng and Varis, but
he provides even greater detail on the content and viewing patterns, such
as the percentage of broadcast time allocated to imported programs
catalogued by the day and time of broadcast and records of monthly
variations. Foreign programming was found to be concentrated at peak
viewing hours on Mondays and on weekends. Particularly in Sweden, there
is more foreign programming in the winter than in the summer. The
United States is the primary programming supplier for Great Britain and
Italy, although the latter also receives programs from Great Britain and
France. Sweden and Finland rely primarily on European sources for
imported programming. While the imported programs are mainly for
entertainment purposes, the content of domestic programming is far more
diversified.
Interfacing with the work of Chapman, Jeffrey Johnson's research
focusing specifically on Swedish television flows during 1 977 reveals an
average of 58 hours per week of domestic programming and 33 hours of
imported programs. Of the 44 countries whose programs appear on
Swedish television, those responsible for more than one hour a week were
Great Britain, the United States, Finland, France, West Germany, Italy,
Norway, and Denmark. Through careful recording of the subject matter of
imported television shows, Johnson discovered most television drama and
documentaries came from British sources, most television movies were

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American, light perfonnances were produced by both the United States and
the United Kingdom, and programs addressing ethical issues were British,
American, West Gennan, Finnish, and French in origin. 1 8
George Gerbner's findings on television violence carry serious implica­
tions for policy makers:

Violence on television is an integral part of a system of global marketing, and it

dominates an increasing share of the world's screens. It inhibits other dramatic
approaches to conflict, depressed independent television production, deprives
viewers of more popular choices, victimizes some and emboldens others,
heightens general intimidation, and invites repressive postures that exploit the
widespread insecurities it itself generates. 19

The problem, as seen by Gerbner, is that in the United States these

questions of television and violence have not been placed on the agenda of
public discourse?O Gerbner's analysis of international data shows that
violence dominates US film and television exports. Two hundred and fifty
US programs that were exported to ten countries were compared to 1 1 1
programs shown in the United States during the same year. "Violence was
the main theme of 40 percent of home-shown and 49 percent of exported
programs. Crime/action series comprised 1 7 percent of home-shown and 46
,,
percent of exported programs. 2 1
A distinct richness emerges from research efforts of this nature as
detailed accounts of the direction of television flows are incorporated with
content analysis. Yet even with this added insight, there remain myriad
questions to be addressed by decision makers and researchers. As the
research leads to interesting conclusions about the international flow and
expanding television activities provoke greater curiosity, the need for
continued and more consistent research efforts becomes evident. Just one
day of television viewing over five channels in Japan provided 323 pro­
grams for categorization and study.
The potential for dramatic swings in television scheduling and the
increasing complexity involved in monitoring television flows suggest the
difficulties faced by researchers attempting to reconstruct accurate and
timely descriptions of global television flows. 22 Additionally, increased
awareness on the part of local and national decision makers, such as in
Latin America, is progressively bringing about a restructuring of television
programming. Rogers and Antola confinn a general trend in Latin
America of producing more and importing less; initial steps in this direction
are being taken by the longtime industry leader, Mexico, and followed by
Venezuela, Brazil, and Argentina. 23
Among the most stimulating publications are Torno Martelanc's study
on international broadcasting and the series of Cultural Cooperation
studies and experiences of "Three Weeks of Television: An International
Comparative Study" sponsored by UNESCO. 24 The growth in the inten­
sity of debate over the New World InfonnationlCommunication Order,
UNESCO's efforts to encourage and stimulate cooperative multinational

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research projects, and preliminary (although not comprehensive) findings

of research reports such as the one cited here have provided sufficient
stimulus for many national leaders to seriously reexamine past trends
in the television policy-making process, and to look for appropriate
alternatives.
Governments and national institutions frequently are the primary actors
in television program production, distribution, and exchange because a
majority of nations have government-owned and -operated broadcasting
facilities. However, the degree to which public systems are combined with
commercial enterprises varies considerably among the different nations of
the world.
In a commercial environment, single organizations evolving over time
and groups of organizations adjusting to the environment have expanded
through horizontal and vertical integration, as well as diversification of
their portfolios, to remain competitive actors in television flow. Pursuing
the ramifications of this process in various industrial sectors, Charles
Fombrun and W. Graham Astley discover that previously unrelated
organizations dealing in entertainment and information are uniting through
a series of acquisitions and joint ventures. 2 5 For example, firms such as
Time-Warner, Sony, Disney, IBM, Western Union, AT&T, and Hughes
Aircraft, which have generally been associated with information techno­
logies, are incorporating cable television, videocassette recorders, videotext,
and satellite transmissions into their packages of available services. These
services interface with the entertainment sector and it becomes increasingly
difficult to make clear distinctions between sectors within the international
telecommunications community.
At the heart of the debate on international television flow lies the issue of
the impact and effect on the viewers around the world. It is in this area that
values and priorities are most often considered in research efforts. In the
most general sense, participants in this debate are aligned in three camps.
One camp argues that television's impact is immense and totally pervasive,
requiring immediate formulation of national media policies to cope effec­
tively with advancing influences. A second group maintains that the lack of
empirical data precludes verification of the degree and nature of television's
impact, thereby necessitating an intensified research effort allowing policy
makers to base their decisions on accurate information. The third group
asserts that national communication policies result in restrictions detri­
mental to the free flow of television programming and, although there is at
present an imbalance, with time and fewer restrictions the process will right
itself.
A primary cultural issue is the American model of commercial television
programming possibly leading to consumerism and cultural homogeneity.
Many countries where television was launched as a medium for education
have subsequently moved towards commercialization of their television
systems. Additionally, the link between cultural identity, language, and
political conflicts is considered in the discussion devoted to linguistic effects.

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Although researchers such as Colin Cherry document an increase in the

number of languages used by international broadcasters, recorded declines
in programs broadcast in minority languages in the United States and other
countries elicit concern over possible homogenization of languages.z6
The research on the psychological effects of television has produced
variable results. While Charles Osgood's development of the semantic
differential isolates meanings that are universally understood, Charles
Holmes and Leonard W. Doob reported that visual symbols are not
always transferable from one culture to the next. An indication that
television serves as a vehicle for escapist fantasy may be found in research
by Bradley Greenberg and Marta Colomina de Rivera, yet in a classroom
setting, Milton J. McMenamin found that a teacher's effectiveness is
reduced when translated into the television image. 27 Different conditions
and intervening variables appear to produce different results. This
confusion of results highlights the need for more complete research in this
field.
Documenting the manner in which television programs serve to sustain
outmoded stereotypes are the contribution of Luis Beltran, who analyzed
the effects of American programs in Latin America; Margaret Gallagher,
who addressed global images of women in the mass media; among others.
Because children are seen as having special media needs and as being easily
molded by television messages, a number of scholars have taken issue with
the impact of television on children and its possible policy implications.
Resulting again in contending assessments of children's television are the
works of Doris A. Graber, John Mayo, Luis Ramiro Beltran, George
Gerbner, and Joseph Straubhaar. 28
Among the most critical debates are the questions of the impact of
television violence on various segments of the viewing population, and of
realities and television fantasies. Here, George Gerbner's work on television
and with cultural indicators is most relevant.29 Gerbner's studies are unique
and important because they take the research and data far beyond familiar
"children-and-violence" arguments, exploring wider and deeper ramifica­
tions. His conclusion, based on American television programming, is that
heavy viewers of the prime-time programs are receiving a grossly distorted
picture of the real world that they tend to accept more readily than reality
itself - that there is evidence that television violence induces heavy viewers
to perceive their world a more violent and more dangerous place than it
really is.
Some of Gerbner's findings follow:

• Male prime-time characters on American television outnumber females

by three to one, and women are portrayed as weak, passive, and sub­
missive to powerful men.
• The elderly (people over 65) are grossly underrepresented in television
programming.
• Television treatment of blacks is more one of image than of visibility.

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• Heavy viewers greatly overestimate the proportion of Americans

employed as physicians, lawyers, athletes, and entertainers.
• There is about ten times more crime on television than in real life.

Inherent in Gerbner's findings is the element of cause and effect, or the

"chicken-or-the-egg" proposition. Is it television that makes heavy viewers
view the world the way they do, or do the viewers come from that segment
of the population who, by virtue of their environment and socialization,
regard the world that way to begin with? Gerbner approaches the cause
and effect questions through cross-sectional correlational analysis and
sampling of heavy television viewers stratified across all ages, income and
education levels, and ethnic groups. To change the trend, Gerbner suggests
active, participatory roles for the viewers in the overall television
production and distribution process. 30
On a different note, the summary of a portion of a Nordic project about
women in television suggests that there are two mutually dependent
causalities determining the concepts of reality, and thus the concepts of
women, rendered by television. They are: "a) the position of the media in
society and the related managerial conditions, and b) the national and
international news structure (which is generally derived from the economic
structure of the society in question, but which is administered through a set of
professional journalistic criteria and methods of preference)." This research
states "that in many respects the women disagree with the existing principles
of producing and editing - disagreements which would be of great impact
,,
even to the contents of the broadcasts if they were taken into account. 3 l
Methodological questions regarding both flow and impact have also been
at the center of television research literature during the last 1 5 years. For
example, one of the first things that becomes obvious when reviewing the
literature on global television flow is the lack of consensus on the appro­
priate means by which one should study and measure that flow. 32
In the political arena, inquiry is directed toward the issues of sovereignty
of the state, prior consent for foreign television broadcasts, and the role and
extent of state control. Here, the nexus between the capacity to communicate
and economic viability is evident. Once again, the importance of conducting
additional investigations constructed to provide national leaders with reliable
information on which to base their policy decisions is stressed. Paradoxically,
there is evidence that those groups with the resources to sponsor such
research are not committed to these efforts, and those who feel a dire need
for additional information often lack the financial resources to gain it.
There are several factors that impede or facilitate the flow of television
programs from one country to another. Mayo refers to an insufficient
infrastructure in Latin American countries as inhibiting reception and
adaptation of programs such as Sesame Street. On a more concrete level,
this translates into a shortage of capital necessary to insure the backup
materials and services that keep a broadcasting system in operation, as well
as a lack of trained technicians, scriptwriters, actors, translators, producers

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and other essential staff, appropriate facilities, and interpersonal contacts.

This combination of factors alone explains why so many developing
countries find it easier to fill their broadcast days with canned American
programs at a significantly lower cost than to attempt building their own
viable production and distribution system.
By the same token, when communication and development goals are not
clearly defined, many national leaders have joined the bandwagon praising
Western technology to justify communications projects without carefully
considering the purposes for which the technology is to be applied. A
related factor is the rate at which innovations are diffused. The conse­
quences of misjudgment are best illustrated by the Iranian revolution,
where the modem communication system implemented by the Shah
conflicted with the traditional communication networks of Iranian culture
and value systems. 33
As has been discussed, governments play an important role in the flow of
television programming. 34 Some countries have implemented policies to
gain greater local control over the production and distribution processes. 35
For example, Canada has stipulated that a minimum of 60 percent of the
programs in a broadcast day must be Canadian in content and character.
Other relevant factors affecting the flow of television programming are
competition, commercial motivation, ethnocentrism, language barriers, and
the degree of cultural similarity between the producing and receiving
countries. 36 Proximity of nations, especially in the case of Europe, tends to
increase television flows, be it as a consequence of broadcast spillovers or
formal exchange systems. Different standards for television line systems
present technical barriers as well.
The question at hand is whether imported communication technologies
ensure the transfer of the skills prerequisite for local production. It is not
unusual to find countries in which the hardware for distribution of
programs has been set in place while the means for production of software
and programming have not been transferred. In those countries where local
production systems are just getting off the ground, domestic television
producers find themselves competing with slick foreign imports and
Western-established standards of "professionalism." If national communi­
cation policies are to be devised, the conflict of interest between conven­
tional notions of media professionalism and the desire to gain control over
the production end of television flows must be resolved.
As communication models vary, so do their supporting assumptions. It is
instructive to look at some of the common assumptions found in the
literature on television flows. It should be remembered that differing
worldviews lead researchers to ask different questions and to reach diver­
gent conclusions in their work. Assumptions frequently made include:

1 . Television is the most powerful medium and exposure assures impact.

2. The impact of television flow is especially powerful on women, children,
and populations of the least industrialized nations. 37

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3 . Uneven flow is bad and should be corrected through the formulation of

national communication policies. 38
4. Uneven flow is temporary and will balance itself out over time. 39
5. Given the nature of the "product life cycle" of television transfers, a free
flow of programs is more desirable than the imposition of national
communication regulations and policies.
6. The present global system of television flows is perpetrated by the
dominant Western producers of television programs (especially by the
United States) to maintain the status quo.40
7. The transfer of technology may be considered effective if the format
and original objectives of a given program are maintained, but the
process can be overtaken by local media personnel.41
8. Neither the dominant Western model nor the socialist model of
television infrastructures is sufficient to meet the communication needs
of developing countries.42

International Radio Broadcasting

Since its inauguration in the 1 920s, radio broadcasting has been a rapidly
expanding part of the flow of information, and international broadcasting
in particular has become a significant area of focus. Voice of America, for
example, claims that 86 million adults listen to its broadcasts at least once a
week and the British Broadcasting Corporation estimates its audience at
1 14 million regular adult listeners.43
In spite of the obvious significance of this medium in the international
flow of information, little is known on a worldwide scale about the
attention paid by external broadcasters to audience research. In much of the
world, domestic broadcasters are no better informed about their audiences.
The truth is that, as one writer suggests, "in some political contexts nobody
really wants to know the facts that would be uncovered by audience
,,
research. 44 In a system in which positive feedback is highly valued as
contributing to self-preservation, negative feedback indicating that the
broadcasts are off-target may be ignored or suppressed.
The research in radio broadcasting is imbalanced in other areas as well.
Little attention has been given to the use of international broadcasting in
the transportation industry - aviation, terrestrial, and maritime - and to
the commercial functions and stations. Additionally, there is very little
known about radio broadcasting in most Third World regions, both of
intraregional broadcasting and of South-to-North flows. Clearly, there is a
need to step up research efforts in the neglected areas of radio broadcasting
as it relates to the international flow of information.
International broadcasting can be defined as the purposeful attempt on
the part of stations in one country to reach listeners in other countries. It is
communication crossing national boundaries through technological and
telecommunication channels, the latter enhanced by the introduction of

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satellite, making possible super-high-frequency (SHF) transmissions that are

more rapid, higher quality, and more difficult to jam than other frequencies.
The flow has traditionally been from stations headquartered where
policies and programming are created directly to the audience through
relay stations located in foreign countries. There are, however, other types
of cross-border flow. One is from international transmitters to domestic
broadcasters who use portions of the external service to supplement
domestic programming. This type of flow appears to be decreasing.
Another type of flow in international broadcasting is in the form of
monitoring services, which function to collect and disseminate information
that is particularly relevant to political decision-making and foreign policy
objectives. It is estimated that this type of flow reaches larger audiences
than can be reached by direct broadcasting.
The directions of international radio broadcast flow can be viewed in two
distinct patterns. The first is a vertical flow, in which stations transmit to
foreign audiences within and between East and West and from North
to South. Although there is some intraregional broadcasting within the
South - or the Third World - there is no effective South-North flow.
The second distinct pattern is circular broadcasting, in which beamed
signals are intercepted and routed to alternate destinations. This is pri­
marily used by monitoring broadcast services that provide information to
policy and decision makers.
Of prime importance in the patterns of flow is the geographical distri­
bution of broadcast transmissions and receiving sets. In 1 986, the United
States, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East were the geographical
regions with the greatest number of radio sets. In terms of hours broadcast
per week, the list was essentially the same except for China replacing Latin
America in the third position. The major broadcasting regions also produce
the greatest number of multilingual services, with the Transworld broad­
casting station providing programming in 70 different languages and
dialects.45
There are three primary actors in the international flow of information
through radio broadcasting: governmental actors and agencies, interna­
tional institutions, and private organizations. The first, governmental actors
and agencies, perform two roles, sometimes functioning as regulators and
gatekeepers of the flow as well as actually participating in international
broadcasting to serve their "national interests." International institutions
play the same roles as governments on different levels and in differing
degrees. In addition to operating broadcast facilities to transmit news and
educational and cultural programming, organizations such as the United
Nations have passed resolutions pertaining to global broadcast flow. While
not exhibiting the enforcement capability of governmental regulations, such
resolutions do have an influence, however major or minor, on UN member
nations and broadcasters.
The third category, the private organization, would include religious,
unofficial political, commercial, and educational organizations. This is the

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most diverse category of actors, and the types and purposes of their
broadcasts are highly varied, ranging from missionary programs to
language instruction and from ideological propaganda to entertainment
sponsored by advertisers.
The purpose of the broadcast is a factor that influences both content and
flow of international broadcasts. A major purpose of broadcasting is to
inform and influence the receiver, whether politically, socially, culturally, or
academically. Radio broadcasting is also used both as an instrument
of "public diplomacy" and as an agent of psychological warfare. 46 For
example, a 1981 study showed that Cuban international broadcasting
covered diverse topics emphasizing news about Latin America and Africa
in its North American broadcasts while the United States' Voice of
America Spanish broadcast dealt primarily with US domestic and foreign
affairs.47 Within cultural and educational broadcasting, language instruc­
tion is the most prominent type of programming, although cultural pro­
gramming featuring classical music is also popular.
Another factor influencing international broadcasting is technical
capacity, which includes not only the actual technical facilities for produc­
tion and distribution but also the ability to jam unwanted incoming signals.
Additionally, multilingual capability is a factor which, when combined with
technical capacity, increases the size and diversity of the audience.
The financial capability of both broadcasters and receivers is a factor
that determines the amount and nature of the flow that is produced and
disseminated, as well as influencing where it is sent. For example, the BBC
had to drop its services in three languages because of budgetary constraints.
The high cost of maintaining correspondents abroad and of hiring
personnel, frequently required to be citizens of the receiving nation, restricts
and limits broadcast flow. Additionally, the purchasing power of a specific
audience is a factor in determining the type, amount, and feasibility of
programming.
Geographic factors and technical and financial factors are often inter­
related. For example, distance and natural barriers, such as mountains or
atmospheric interference, not only directly influence technical equipment in
terms of restricting its utility, but also increase the cost of maintaining
or securing equipment that can overcome geographical barriers. Similar
examples can be cited where the geographical barrier is not a natural
phenomenon but rather a human one, such as a widely dispersed audience.
Governmental relations and regulation comprise another of the factors
influencing broadcast flow. On the technical level, global flow is regulated
to some extent by international and intergovernmental institutions and
organizations such as the ITU, and by regional broadcasting organizations.
Additionally, national regulations and diplomatic relationships have a
direct influence on cross-border flows both in the content and the process
aspects of flow.
Additional factors influencing broadcast flow include world events and
crises as well as time. For example, there is a worldwide tendency for

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broadcasters to respond to crisis by establishing services or securing posi­

tions in the crisis area. This in itself directly affects content, volume, and
direction of flow. However, the time involved in setting up such facilities
and the time span of crisis activities have an equivalent influence.
Finally, human and ideological factors must be examined for their direct
and indirect effects on broadcast flow. The ideological orientation of the
producers is a definite factor in determining content, but a more subtle
influence is ideological affinity or opposition within the sphere of operation.
An even more subtle influence is the human aspect of production and
distribution represented by technicians, service staff, and translators. Even
though the ideology may be dictated by ownership, the human channels of
flow production and distribution will influence not only the message
content but sometimes even administrative policy, through the continual
minor decisions made by staff and technicians every day in the context of
personal mindsets. 48
The impact of international radio broadcasting on receivers is an area of
research that has largely been neglected, as was indicated previously by
broadcasters' relative disinterest in audience research. Some work has been
done, however, on what could be labeled "indicators" or impact. Jamming
efforts usually indicate that the flow is having some kind of an effect not
considered desirable from the point of view of regulatory institutions - be
they political or social. Additionally, mail received by broadcasters is often
regarded as an indicator of impact, although Bernard Bumpus of the BBC
warns against drawing conclusions about audience size or reaction to
programming based on listener letters. 49 Mail is, however, the primary
source of feedback in some instances, especially where there is no audience
survey.
In the area of regional broadcasting, infrastructure and technical facilities
have been the focus of research. Audience studies have been carried out
mostly in Europe, North America, the Soviet Union, and, to some extent,
in the Middle East. Although the structure and technique of broadcasting is
a line of inquiry in this area, few data are available on minor interregional
transmission, broadcasting among Third World countries, and South-to­
North broadcasting. There is significant imbalance in the research in this
area and much of the data on regional and international radio broadcasting
are prepared and distributed by the major stations, which have the financial
resources to conduct research to serve their own purposes.
Study of religious broadcasting is another research area having received
attention recently. Although religious stations are seldom included in
listings of major broadcasters, Donald R. Browne states that at least four of
them - Radio Vatican, FEBC, HCJB, and Transworld - figure among the
top 20 international broadcasters in terms of hours broadcast per week. 50
They are also leaders in multilingual broadcasting, Transworld broadcasting
in 70 languages and Radio Vatican in 30. In several Third World countries,
specifically in Asia, religious broadcasting has continued to expand.
Christian groups have received permission to operate broadcasting stations

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and are the major religious broadcasters in Indonesia, Australia, South

Korea, Taiwan, and the Philippines. There are also major differences in
methods and approaches within the groups of religious broadcasters. For
example, whereas Christian broadcast stations are operated by religious
organizations, Islamic broadcast stations generally operate as part of the
national broadcasting authority within the Islamic societies.
A further area of research in international radio broadcasting is audience
analysis. Until recently, most of the audience research on international
broadcasting was conducted on listeners in Eastern Europe and the Soviet
Union and little research was done on the US audience. A study conducted
on feedback in international broadcasting by Fred Collins, David Gibson,
and myself showed that the most common methodologies usually employed
by international broadcast stations around the world are audience surveys,
listener letter analysis, and listener diaries. Listener letter analysis was
shown more likely to be employed outside of Europe and North America
and the resultant research findings used more frequently to guide radio
programming. Similarly, domestic broadcasters were more interested in
estimates of audience size whereas external broadcasters were concerned
with audience perception of the station and its credibility. 5 1
A final category of radio flow research is programming and its flow
internationally, which occurs either by direct broadcast or by program
exchange among stations. The latter is controlled and coordinated by
international organizations and, additionally, somewhat controlled by the
receiving station, which links international broadcasting to domestic
services. Programming has been extensively researched with a focus on
content, sender, and receiver's socioeconomic status.

Direct Broadcasting by Satellite

The major issues in certain facets of international communications have

been transmuted in the last few decades. One of the primary elements
underlying this change has been phenomenal technological innovations that
have transversed various cultural, social, political, economic, and legal
norms. Most recently, the issue of new communication technology, specif­
ically in the form of direct broadcast satellites, has become increasingly
prominent in discussions pertaining to international communication.
The technique has been used in several countries around the world and is
being employed in the United States by television networks and cable
companies. However, it is the possible use of direct broadcasting inter­
nationally and across national boundaries, especially without the prior
consent of the receivers, that has stimulated the most controversy and
debate in the international community and organizations. In 1 982, the
United Nations General Assembly endorsed a resolution emphasizing
the importance of negotiating an international agreement on the subject,
and outlined a set of principles for such an accord.

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 Broadcasting the world 81

At issue is a new technique that relays satellite telecasts directly to

residences without going through ground receiving stations. The main
impetus behind the debate is the conviction in the world community that
unregulated DBS poses serious threats to national sovereignty. Specifically,
these perceived threats fall in the categories of propaganda, commercial
domination, and cultural intrusion.
On the other hand, there are undeniable benefits to be derived from this
technology. Broadcast satellites offer a cheaper and more flexible means of
communicating messages over long distances. This technology also has the
potential to open up contact with previously inaccessible areas. Because of
the dangers and benefits inherent in this technology, DBS has sparked a
heated international debate. The issue is complicated by the fact that direct
broadcasting involves the use of outer space - an area that has never been
adequately regulated. For this reason, these debates are perceived by many
nations to be important in establishing precedents in international law.
Crucial issues at stake here are the future of the administration of outer
space, and the competing principles of national sovereignty and the free
flow of information.
Direct broadcast satellites are not an essentially new form of communi­
cation; rather, they are the result of the development of the communica­
tions satellite. The direct broadcast satellite is a more powerful and
versatile communications satellite that transmits a signal "directly" to an
inexpensive receiver. There are two types of direct broadcast satellite
systems: (1) reception of the transmissions into community receivers for
rebroadcasting; and (2) direct reception by private sets via small antenna
without the aid of a community or ground transmitter. It is this latter type
that has caused much of the controversy because the nature of the former
makes it more conducive to control and regulation.
The lTV radio regulations revised by the WorId Administrative Radio
Conference for Space Telecommunications (WARC-ST) define a broad­
casting satellite service as "a radiocommunication service in which signals
transmitted or retransmitted by space stations are intended for direct
,,
reception by the general public. 52 The lTV radio regulations specify that
the term "direct reception" shall encompass both individual and com­
munity reception. Individual reception, on the one hand, is defined as "the
reception of emissions from a space station in the broadcasting-satellite
service by simple domestic installations and in particular those possessing
small antennae." Community reception, on the other hand, is defined as
"the reception of emissions from a space station in the broadcasting­
satellite service by receiving equipment, which in some cases may be
complex and have antennae larger than those used for individual reception,
and intended for use by a group of the general public at one location or
through a distribution system covering a limited area. 5 3 A distinction must
be made also within community reception as to whether the reception is
direct or indirect. A direct community reception is one in which there is a
transmission of programs from point A through the satellite to point B and

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82 Global information and world communication

point B is the site of a rebroadcasting facility that can immediately transmit

the signal as a broadcast to individual television sets. If, at point B, the
program signal is relayed further through terrestrial facilities to other cities
from which the program is broadcast for general reception, the distribution
is termed indirect community reception.
There are several problems related to the use of this type of satellite
reception system. One of the major problems in the past has been economic
in nature. In the beginning of satellite communication, terrestrial receiving
stations required such large expenditures, from hundreds of thousands to
millions of dollars, that the idea of having direct home reception was
realistically inhibited. On economic grounds, direct broadcasting by satellite
was not considered a viable alternative to the already existing terrestrial
transmission networks, especially in the developed countries. It was not
until the last two decades, through technological innovations in satellite
design, satellite receivers, and reception antennae, that the cost of such a
system has been reduced.
Furthermore, it had been thought that reception by large terrestrial
stations with subsequent distribution by cable would be a more econ­
omical arrangement than direct reception by a large number of viewers
using small terrestrial receiving antennae. In fact, it has been estimated
that this latter arrangement offers the lowest per-viewer cost. For
example, given a country with 1 6 million homes, each with individual
satellite reception, the distribution cost would be approximately 50p per
home per annum. This is considerably less expensive than a terrestrial
network system. Additionally, the cost of an antenna, modulator, and
receiver, assuming a production of one million units, would be between
$250 and $500. 54
A study in Italy has shown that to serve 98 percent of the population
would require the construction of 45 UHF main terrestrial transmitters
with 770 UHF relay stations. For a second program network with a
coverage of 96 percent, the required construction would be 48 UHF main
transmitters and 396 UHF relay stations. Assuming that the network would
have a life span of twenty years, the overall distribution cost would be
approximately $ 1 2.75 million per annum. A comparable satellite system,
however, would only cost between $6 and $8 million. 55
In the future, the cost of satellite broadcasting will diminish even more
than it has in the past three decades. With the space shuttle system
available, it is possible to use heavier satellites carrying more and more
transponders. Formerly, in the event of a breakdown, it was generally
impossible to intervene, and the satellite, although it may still have con­
tained many elements in perfect operational condition, had to be aban­
doned. Flights for maintenance or repair, whether manned or automatic,
were too costly in relation to the cost of the satellite itself. With the
development of the space shuttle it is now possible to do maintenance and
repairs in space and consequently, it is feasible to use components in the
satellite with less expensive reliabilities. 56 The economic impact is enormous

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 Broadcasting the world 83

because the capital outlay will be amortized over a lifetime much longer
than that of the existing satellites.
Additionally, it is realistic to assume that in the near future there may be
enormous space stations assembled in low orbit using separately trans­
ported units, which, once the station is assembled, can be transferred into a
geosynchronous orbit. 57 This could revolutionize broadcast satellite
systems, since it would decrease the cost of space systems, open the possi­
bility of more powerful satellites, and further lower the costs of receiving
antennae by reducing their diameter size requirements.
Aside from the promises for the future, a second major problem that
needs to be considered is the problem of orbital or spectrum spacing.
Although there is physically ample space in the synchronous orbit for a
very large number of satellites, there is a limitation on the proximity of
their orbits. As a result of the increased number of communication satel­
lites, a problem related to orbital spacing is "band capacity." The capacity
of a band of frequencies is the maximum quantity of information which
that band can convey.
A third major technical problem is that of "spillover." This problem
arises when the transmission signal overextends or crosses the boundaries of
one country into another. This causes numerous legal, social, and political
problems that will be discussed later. It is doubtful that future technology
can totally eliminate this problem. However, continuous technological
improvements have gradually reduced the degree of spillover in some areas.
Through the use of "spot" or "directional" beams, the area that a satellite
signal covers has been drastically reduced.
Satellites offer several advantages over more conventional methods of
communication. Because the satellites are located high above the earth,
they cover a much larger distance than do traditional broadcast systems. In
addition, there is no corresponding increase in cost for greater distances. A
second advantage is that satellites are much more flexible than terrestrial
systems, which rely on an infrastructure of cables and wires. In the first
place, they do not require the costly physical networking of a region to
establish communication ties. In the second place, satellite beams can be
easily redirected to other areas whereas physical infrastructure is rigid. A
third advantage of satellite communication systems is their greater capacity
for carrying messages. Satellites can be used to transmit large numbers of
any kind of electronic signal. 5 8
In the industrialized countries, ever-increasing needs for regional and
local television programs will take over terrestrial UHF or VHF bands and
national programs will have to find either another new medium or higher­
frequency bands. Thus, satellite broadcasting is also of interest in these
countries and provides a means of replacing or transmitting additional
national programs by making it possible for terrestrial networks to be used
for new services.
The fear of many nations is that this technology will result in the
unwanted reception of foreign programming. This outside programming

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84 Global information and world communication

can occur in two forms, which can be distinguished as unintentional and

intentional spillover.
The first, as its name implies, refers to the accidental transmission of
television signals between countries at border areas. This is often unavoid­
able because broadcast patterns cannot be made to conform with the
configuration of international boundaries. This type of spillover occurs with
any form of broadcasting. Progress is being made in attempting to avoid
spillover problems by altering the shape of the broadcast pattern.
Underlying the question of intentional spillover is a widespread sense
that the form and content of the television system in a country is an aspect
of national sovereignty. The traditional notions of sovereignty, which have
been expressed in geographic or spatial terms, are being redefined in terms
of concerns about informational sovereignty as integrity. This concept
reflects a recognition that all countries have, by national political decision,
worked out their own arrangements for domestic television to fit their
own special needs and situations. In most countries, including Europe,
broadcasting has always been under government control. Either the
national system has been directly operated by the state or by a state-owned
corporation, or it has been strictly regulated by the state. For these
countries, a system of international control represents no great conceptual
extension.
One concern for the broadcasting of television programming across
national boundaries has been the indication that the majority of this flow
has been one-way - from developed to Third World countries. The
introduction of direct broadcasting satellites to already existing inter­
national radio services and current television exports would seem to
indicate an increasing volume of this one-way flow, rather than any
equitable cross-national exchange of information. A related concern is the
balance of the flow. The principle of free flow of information would be
more palatable if it were not unidirectional, or nearly so. For these less
developed countries, which are media-poor and information-poor in the
Western sense, each external piece of information takes on great
significance.
The fear expressed by many countries of being subject to unwanted
political messages through DBS is not without precedent. The point at
which the free-flow-of-information principle seriously violates national
sovereignty and becomes offensive propaganda is, of course, subject to
widely divergent interpretations. Most countries with the technical capacity
have been engaging in international radio broadcasting for years. This is
particularly true where the sending and receiving nations are politically
antagonistic. To date, the only alternative nations have had to accepting
these unwanted messages has been to jam the incoming signals. This
measure is expensive and not entirely effective. Furthermore, jamming
wastes the limited number of broadcasting frequencies.
There have been claims that nations would not be defenseless against
unwanted direct television broadcasts. In addition to jamming, some

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 Broadcasting the world 85

writers have cited options such as forbidding illegal viewing, adapting

sets to prevent DBS reception, or even shooting down offending satellites. 59
For obvious reasons, none of these alternatives is realistically workable.
The only real option would be jamming, and it is even more difficult and
expensive to interfere with television signals than radio signals.
The chief advantage offered by DBS over more conventional methods of
television broadcasting is that the former method does not require
elaborate ground infrastructure to be developed before an area can receive
television transmission. For this reason, DBS may have more promise for
those areas where extensive terrestrial broadcasting facilities do not exist.
Additionally, for the countries having remote, sparsely populated areas
where it is difficult and expensive to set up terrestrial broadcasting, the
technology of DBS can be beneficial. It is projected that the use of direct
broadcasting by satellite would greatly reduce the cost and time required to
establish television networks. Formerly isolated areas could be connected
simply by setting up community receivers. By establishing visual contact
with formerly inaccessible regions, a country's leaders are provided with
opportunities to promote national integration and development. Among
current users of this type of broadcasting are Alaska, Northern Canada,
Siberia, and the Japanese islands.
The problem of national integration is particularly acute in countries
with regions and populations that are made remote by geographical,
cultural, and linguistic barriers. By surmounting these barriers through the
application of satellite communications systems, many national govern­
ments hope to unify culturally diverse and regionally scattered people under
a single set of national symbols and values. In addition to promoting
national integration, it is hypothesized that an all pervasive national
communication system would afford national planners the opportunity to
promote education and national planning. 6o
The first true direct broadcast satellite was the Applications Technology
Satellite (ATS-6), which was launched by NASA in May 1 974, and posi­
tioned in geosynchronous orbit over the west coast of South America. This
experimental satellite was intended to demonstrate major advances in
communication and spacecraft technology. It initially pioneered delivery
via space of advanced educational and health services to many Americans
in small towns in remote areas of the Rocky Mountains, Appalachia, and
Alaska, where reception by ground facilities had been difficult and costly.
At the conclusion of the year of availability for the Home Educational
Television experiment, ATS-6 was moved to 35° east longitude for the
Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE) for India from 1 975
through 1 976. This experiment took place under an agreement concluded in
1 969 between the Indian Department of Atomic Energy and NASA. The
primary objective of the SITE experiment was that television should be
utilized in the developmental process as an instrument of social change and
national cohesion, which should cater to both in-school and out-of-school
learning, with priority on primary education. Additionally, it should be

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86 Global information and world communication

used to disseminate infonnation about specific aspects of science, tech­

nology, agriculture, health, and family planning.
The educational programs achieved very high ratings in the Indian
villages, while entertainment programs, drama, folk music, and folk
dancing were less popular. The education was simplified and suited to the
very limited experience and knowledge of the village people. 61 The experi­
ment, more than anything else, was a hardware success story. 62
A second experimental direct broadcast system was conducted in Canada
and known as the Communication Technology Satellite (CTS). The CTS
experiment demonstrated how a satellite system of this magnitude and scope
could be used in conjunction with a well-developed terrestrial communica­
tion system, such as that existing in southeastern Canada. It provided
valuable infonnation on the utility of a high-powered communication
satellite. Not only have the northern communities of Canada benefited from
CTS, but so also has the nation's remote, underdeveloped areas - and the
United States as well. The CTS experiment further demonstrated reception
capabilities by compact, simple, and potentially low-priced receivers
representative of the home-entertainment type of equipment that would be
used for receiving television signals at home directly from a satellite. 63
In the United States the Satellite Television Corporation (STC), a
subsidiary of the Communications Satellite Corporation (Comsat), was
granted a satellite construction pennit for the nation's first direct satellite­
to-home broadcasting service. 64
The United States and Canada are not the only countries which have
experimented with and established direct broadcast systems. European
nations have already developed large-scale, fixed plans for direct-to-home
television and radio broadcast services. European broadcast administrators
are turning to satellite distribution out of desperation rather than choice, in
an attempt to solve major and increasing problems they already face
in their efforts to finance, produce, and distribute domestic broadcast
programming.
The evolution of the issue of direct broadcast satellites illustrates changes
in the nature of the debate on questions of international communication
since 1 970. These changes are in essence just reflections of larger alterations
in the international geopolitical structure. More specifically, this is evi­
denced by the changes within the United Nations system, in the inter­
national economic order, and in the way traditional identities of national
interests decompose and new ones emerge. From the beginning of the
debate on direct broadcast satellites, many countries have been reluctant to
accept this new communication technology without some fonn of control
over its application. The political values these countries attach to such
concepts as cultural integrity and national identity have taken precedence
over what the United States and several other countries would consider
more pragmatic values. It is clear that some of the more salient technical,
legal, institutional, and political problems of this new technology are just
beginning to emerge.

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 Broadcasting the world 87

Notes

1 . International Commission for the Study of Communication Problems, Many Voices,

One World (London: Kogan Page, 1980), p. 6 1 .
2 . Kaarle Nordenstreng and Tapio Varis, Television Traffic - A One- Way Street?, Reports
and Papers on Mass Communication No. 70 (paris: UNESCO, 1 974).
3. Ibid., p. 30.
4. Elihu Katz and George Wedell, Broadcasting in the Third World (Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press, 1977).
5. Russell W. Neuman, "Patterns of Recall Among Television News Viewers," Public
Opinion Quarterly, 40 (Spring 1976), pp. 1 1 5- 1 23.
6. John Robinson et aI., "Comprehension of Television News: How Alert is the
Audience?" paper presented at the Association for Education in Journalism annual convention,
August 1980.
7. William C. Adams, "Covering the World in Ten Minutes: Network News and
International Affairs," in William C. Adams, ed., Television Coverage of International Affairs
(Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing Corporation, 1 982), pp. 3-14. See also chapters by Haluk
Sahin, Dennis K. Davis and John P. Robinson, and others.
8. William C. Adams, ed., Television Coverage of the Middle East (Norwood, NJ: Ablex
Publishing Corporation, 1981).
9. Adams, ed., Television Coverage of International Affairs.
10. Ibid., pp. 3-14.
1 1 . Ibid., pp. 1 5-44.
1 2. Ibid., pp. 45-65.
1 3. Ibid., p. 62.
14. Everett M. Rogers and Livia Antola, "Television Flows in Latin America," paper read
at the Conference on Flow of Messages, Flow of Media in the Americas, Stanford University,
Stanford, CA., December 9 - 1 0, 1 982.
15. Ibid., pp. 7, 7a, and 8.
16. Chin-Chuan Lee, Media Imperialism Reconsidered: The Homogenizing of Television
Culture (Beverly Hills, CA, and London: Sage Publications, 1 980); Tapio Varis, International
Flow of Television Programmes (Reports and Papers on Mass Communication, No. 1 00), Paris:
Unesco Press, 1 985; Preben Sepstrup and Anura Goonasekera, TV Transnationalization:
Europe and Asia (Reports and Papers on Mass Communication, No. 1 09), Paris: Unesco Press,
1 994; and US Department of Commerce, The NTIA Infrastructural Report: Telecommunica­
tions in the Age of Information, National Telecommunications and Information
Administration, Department of Commerce, United Government, Washington, DC, 1 99 1 .
1 7 . Graham P . Chapman, "International Television Flow in West Europe," paper read at
the International Institute of Communication Annual Conference, Strasbourg, Austria,
September 7-10, 198 1 .
1 8 . Jeffery Johnson, Structure of Swedish Television Broadcasting, ITFP Discussion Paper
No. 12, Cambridge University, 1980. Also Mapping an Atlas of International Television Flow,
ITFP Discussion Paper No. 9, Cambridge University, 1979.
1 9. George Gerbner, "Television Violence: The Art of Asking the Wrong Question,"
Currents in Modern Thought, July 1 994, p. 387.
20. Ibid., p. 389.
2 1 . Ibid., p. 393.
22. Peter Gould and Anne Lyew-Ayee, The Structure of Jamaican Television: A Pilot
Study. ITFP Discussion Paper No. 1 3 , University Park: Pennsylvania State University, 1 98 1 .
23. Rogers and Antola, "Television Flows i n Latin America. "
24. Tomo Martelanc, External Broadcasting and International Understanding (Paris:
UNESCO, 1977); Eduardo Contreras, James Larson, John K. Mayo and Peter Spain,
Cross-Cultural Broadcasting (Paris: UNESCO, 1976).

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88 Global information and world communication

25. Charles Fombrun and W. Graham Astley, "Telecommunications Community: An

Institutional Overview," Journal of Communication, 32: 4 (Autumn 1982), pp. 56-68.
26. Contreras et aI., Cross-Cultural Broadcasting, pp. 26-33.
27. Ibid., pp. 31 and 33.
28. See Doris A. Graber, Mass Media and American Politics (Washington, DC:
Congressional Quarterly Press, 1 980), pp. 97, 144, 146, 1 50, 274; and George Gerbner,
Violence and Terror in the Mass Media (Reports and Papers on Mass Communication, No.
1 02), Paris: Unesco Press, 1 988.
29. George Gerbner, Larry Gross, Michael F. Eleely, Marilyn Jackson, Suzanne Jeffries
and Nancy Signorielti, "TV Violence Profile No. 8: The Highlights," Journal of
Communication, 27: 2 (Spring 1977), pp. 1 7 1 - 1 80. See also G. Melisoek et aI., eds, Cultural
Indicators: An International Symposium (Vienna: Akademie der Wisenschaften, 1 983).
30. Harry F. Waters, "Life According to TV," Newsweek, December 6, 1982, p. 140.
3 1 . Else Jensen, "Television Newscasts in a Woman's Perspective," paper read at the
International Association for Mass Communication Research Conference, Paris, September
1982.
32. Peter Gould, How Shall We Classify Television Programs? ITFP Discussion Paper No.
5, University Park: Pennsylvania State University, 1978. See also Peter Gould and Jefferey
Johnson, "National Television Policy: Monitoring Structural Complexity," Futures, 12: 3 (June
1980), pp. 178-190.
33. Hamid Mowlana, "Technology versus Tradition: Communication in the Iranian
Revolution," Journal of Communication, 29: 3 (Summer 1979), pp. 1 07- 1 1 2.
34. Joseph D. Straubhaar, "Television and Violence in Brazil," paper read at the Northeast
Conference on Latin American Studies, Dartmouth, NH, October 1980.
35. Haluk Sahin, "Ideology of Television: Theoretical Framework and a Case Study," in
Media, Culture and Society, 1: 1 ( 1979), pp. 1 6 1 - 1 69.
36. Hamid Mowlana, "The Limits of the Global Village," Intellect, November 1 974, pp.
122-124. See also John Mayo et aI., "The Transfer of Sesame Street to Latin America," paper
read at the Conference on Flow of Messages, Flow of Media in the Americas, Stanford
University, Stanford, CA, December 9-10, 1982.
37. Luis Ramiro Beltran, "TV Etchings in the Minds of Latin Americans: Conservatism,
Materialism, and Conformism" Gazette, 24: 1 (1978), pp. 61-65.
38. International Commission for the Study of Communication Problems, Many Voices,
One World.
39. Ithiel de Sola Pool, "The Changing Flow of Television," Journal of Communication, 27:
2 (Spring 1977), pp. 1 39-249.
40. Herbert J. Schiller, Communication and Cultural Domination (White Plains, NY:
International Arts and Sciences Press, 1 976).
4 1 . Mayo et aI., "The Transfer of Sesame Street to Latin America."
42. Hamid Mowlana, "Mass Media and Culture: Toward an Integrated Theory," in
William B. Gudykunst, ed., Intercultural Communication Theory: Current Perspectives (Beverly
Hills, CA: Sage Publications, 1983), pp. 149-170.
43. Statistics obtained from the VOA office of research and the BBC Branch Office in
Washington, October 1996.
44. Sydney Head, Broadcasting in Africa (Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press,
1974).
45. UNESCO Statistical Yearbook 1995. (Paris: UNESCO Press, 1 995).
46. See Rutger Lindahl, Broadcasting Across Borders: A Study on the Role of Propaganda
in External Broadcasts (Goteborg: C.W.K. Gleerup, 1978). For further reading in this area,
especially from a geopolitical point of view, see: David M. Abshire, International Broadcasting:
A New Dimension in Western Diplomacy, The Washington Papers, 4: 35 (Beverly Hills, CA:
Sage Publications, 1976); Georgi Arbatov, The War of Ideas in Contemporary International
Relations (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1 973); A.F. Panfil ov, u. s. Radio in Psychological
Warfare (Moscow: International Relations Publishers, 1967); Julian A. Hale, Radio Power:
Propaganda and International Broadcasting (Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1975);

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 Broadcasting the world 89

Donald R. Browne, International Radio Broadcasting: The Limits of the Limitless Medium
(New York: Praeger, 1982); and James O.H. Nason, "International Broadcasting as an
Instrument of Foreign Policy," Millennium 6: 2 (London, 1977). For a more recent example,
see Glenn Hauser, "Monitoring the Falklands Crisis," Popular Electronics, 20: 94 (September
1 982), pp. 94-96.
47. Howard Frederick, "Ideology in International Broadcasting: Radio Warfare Between
Voice of America and Radio Havana Cuba," paper read at the 30th annual conference of the
International Communication Association, Acapulco, Mexico, May 20, 1 980.
48. For factors influencing the flow of radio broadcasting see: Burton Paulu, Television and
Radio in the United Kingdom (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1981);
Browne, International Radio Broadcasting; and Douglas A. Boyd, Broadcasting in the Arab
World: A Survey of Radio and Television in the Middle East (Philadelphia, PA: Temple
University Press, 1 982).
49. Collins et aI., "Feedback in International Broadcasting," p. 18.
50. Browne, International Radio Broadcasting, pp. 300-305.
5 1 . Collins et aI., "Feedback in International Broadcasting," p. 18.
52. H. Kaltenecker, "Direct Broadcasting by Satellite: An Overview of the Work of the
United Nations," EBU Review, May 1977, p. 9 1 .
53. Ibid., p . 92.
54. Ibid., p. 23.
55. Ibid., p. 45.
56. Rosetti, "Prospects Opened up to the Broadcasters by the Use of Satellites," EBU
Review, May 1977, p. 29.
57. James Redmond, "Direct Broadcasting to the Home via Satellite: Possible Application
in the United Kingdom," EBU Review, January 1977, p. 9.
58. Benno Signitzer, Regulation of Direct Broadcasting from Satellite (New York: Praeger,
1976), pp. 3-4.
59. O.W. Riegal, "Satellite Communication and Political Power," in George Gerbner, ed.,
Mass Media Policies in Changing Cultures (New York: John Wiley, 1977), p. 69.
60. Hamid Mowlana, "Political and Social Implications of Communication Satellite
Applications in Developed and Developing Countries," in Joseph P. Pelton and Marcellus S.
Snow, eds, Economic and Policy Problems in Satellite Communication (New York: Praeger,
1977), p. 1 35.
61. Ibid., p. 1 39. See also Snehlata Shukla, "The Impact of SITE on Primary School
Children," Journal of Communication, 29: 4 (Autumn 1 979), pp. 99-105.
62. For an excellent discussion of the significance of rural realities and values in intended
effective communication exercises see K.E. Eapen,"The Cultural Component of the SITE,"
Journal of Communication, 29: 4 (Autumn 1979), pp. 106- 1 1 1 . Also see his "Social Impacts of
Television on Indian Villages: Two Case Studies," in Godwin C. Chu, Syed A. Rahim and D.
Lawrence Kincaid, eds, Institutional Exploration in Communication Technology (Honolulu:
East-West Communication Institute, 1978), pp. 89-108.
63. Michael Schrage, "2 Firms Race to Space for Lead in DBS TV," Washington Business
Section, The Washington Post, March 12, 1983, p. I ; and Michael Schrage, "2 Private
Satellites Planned," Business and Finance Section, The Washington Post, BI, March 12, 1 983,
p. 1 .
64. Eduard Haas, "Possible Applications of Direct Broadcast Satellite," EBU Review, May
1977, p. 39.

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 5

Cultural Industry: From

Books to Computers

The great acceleration in the flow of information across national

boundaries during the last half century has been due, in part, to radical
changes in the organization of international life resulting from tremendous
activities in the spheres of cultural industries and marketing and com­
mercial promotion, and also in the growth of scientific and technical
messages. As we approach the twenty-first century there promises to be an
ever-increasing international flow in the areas of advertising, film and
sound recordings, video, book publishing, scientific and technical journals,
and associated media. Unfortunately, communication research on these
channels is sparse and far from systematic.
The disparity of study observed in these somewhat overlapping areas is
due to at least three factors. First is the long tradition of communication
research occupying itself with those channels that are conventionally in the
province of classical mass media such as newspapers, news agencies, radio,
and television. Second is the particular interests of economists, technology
experts, and education specialists, who have examined these areas solely
from the perspective of their respective disciplines, giving little attention to
social and cultural impacts of such transactions. Finally, the short history
of many of the new technologies - such as video, DBS (direct broadcast
satellite), and the personal computer - has not provided sufficient time for
investigation of the different dimensions or international ramifications of
these media. For these reasons, research and writing on the international
flow of information in the above listed commercial and cultural industries,
as well as scientific and technical areas, is comparatively new.

Books, Journals, and Educational Texts

The current transborder flow of books, scientific journals, and educational

texts is immense. Both the production and trade of these materials have
grown at unprecedented rates during the last three decades. However, the
exact amount of the flow of books, journals, and related items has yet to be
calculated. It is only through general observations and through estimates
provided by the industry itself and by governments involved in exporting
and importing such materials that the tremendous growth in the industry is
discerned.

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 Cultural industry 91

More i s known about book production than about other printed material
since statistics on world outputs have been calculated by various
organizations including UNESCO. In the 1 6 years between 1955 and
1 97 1 , the total world production of books almost doubled, from 284,000
titles to 548,000 titles. The latter figure included 43,000 translations: 43
percent from English, l 3 percent from French, and 10 percent from
German and Russian. Most of the translated titles are from the regions of
high production - North America, Europe, Oceania, and the former Soviet
Union. l According to one estimate, 591 ,000 titles were published in 1 979.
Annual world production of book copies in 1 983 was estimated to be about
1 0 billion. 2
Between 1 983 and 1 994 the publication of books, worldwide, increased
40 percent. The largest producers of books in numbers of titles include the
former Soviet Union, the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom,
the People's Republic of China, India, France, Spain, Holland, and Italy.
The number of titles produced in each of these countries has been
increasing almost yearly since the 1 960s. The countries of Scandinavia also
produce a considerable number of books in terms of their population to
book production ratios. Other big producers are Poland, Hungary,
Belgium, Portugal, Switzerland, Austria, Canada, Australia, Brazil,
Mexico, Argentina, South Korea, Egypt, and most recently, Iran.
Although these regions dominate the international markets for books,
exports are not necessarily a large sector of their publishing industries. The
United Kingdom, where 50 percent of the income of the publishing
industry comes from exports, is the exception. Foreign revenues are
important, especially in the field of technical, scientific, and professional
publishing, but do not constitute a major portion of earnings. For example,
in the United States, only 6 percent of the total annual output is exported.
In examining the basic available figures, it is immediately apparent that
most of the world's books are published by only a few nations. Approxi­
mately 80 percent of all books are currently being published in the
industrialized world. The countries of Europe alone account for nearly 50
percent of the world total. Although the industrialized countries make up
only 35.6 percent of the world's population, they account for 83 . 1 percent
of all book titles. The less industrialized nations, with 64.4 percent of the
world's population account for only 1 6.9 percent of all book titles. 3
Furthermore, although figures on the total number of copies produced
are rarely available, there is obvious disparity in production-count totals,
since the number of copies run per title in most Third World countries is
lower than in the major book-producing countries of the West. Early in the
1 970s, Africa, which produced a mere 1 .7 percent of the world's book titles,
accounted for only . 1 5 percent of the copies printed during that year.
During the same period, Asia produced 1 6 percent of the world's titles and
only 2.5 percent of world copies. Although total production had increased
by the end of the 1 970s, the ratios had changed little by the beginning of
the 1 980s.

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In 1 976, Africa, with 1 3 percent of the world's population, Asia with

45.2 percent, and Latin American with 1 0.5 percent, accounted for only 1 .9
percent, 1 6.9 percent, and 5.2 percent respectively, of all books produced in
that year. While in the last two decades total book production, in terms of
both title and copy outputs, has increased steadily, and in some cases
dramatically, in the Third World, this vast region's percentage share of
total world production has remained disproportionately low and has, in
fact, declined. This decline is due to the immense expansion of book
production in the industrialized world.
The statistics on book production show that approximately 65 percent of
the people in the world experience a severe book shortage. Today in many
parts of the world there is a great demand for scientific, technical, and
educational books. Less industrialized nations continually import increasing
quantities of books from industrially advanced countries, while the flow of
books from the developing to the developed world remains slight. The
nature of the book trade between these two regions is essentially an
immense one-way flow.
Two other discernible patterns of flow are those between the nations of
the developed world and those among the countries in the Third World.
Large numbers of books are traded within Western Europe, as well as
between the countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, and
between Europe, North America, Australia, and Japan. Of the latter, the
greatest volume of trade is among the Europeans and across the North
Atlantic. The largest transborder flow of books in the world is from the
United States to Canada.
The majority of trade in books between Third World countries takes
place in Latin America, the Middle East, and parts of Asia. The recent
increase in trade among Third World countries is a positive development,
since they spread the creative works, thought, and knowledge originating in
the Third World, and usually at less cost than imports from the developed
world.
During the 1 950s and 1 960s, while new technologies were lowering
the cost of book production, the popularization and improvement of the
paperback were increasing book sales and production. Additionally, the
organization of publishing houses was changing through mergers. Although
small, specialized firms could still enter the market, control of the pub­
lishing industry came to be concentrated in a few multinational corpora­
tions. The larger publishing houses had an advantage in inventory control,
advertising budget, and distribution channels, and by producing greater
numbers of books, they lowered the unit price and expanded sales. The
1 970s saw even more mergers, this time across the media. IBM, ITT, RCA,
Xerox, and GE are examples of corporations that initiated mergers of
publishing houses and electronic corporations. There were also mergers
involving the motion picture industry.4
Large publishing houses in capitalist countries have been able to make
use of elaborate administrative and marketing arrangements to stimulate

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growth in industry sales. Advertising and other marketing devices have

resulted in the expansion of foreign trade for European and American
companies. Some mergers of firms across continents have taken place and
many American firms have established subsidiaries in Europe. European
firms are now beginning to establish themselves in the United States as well.
Consequently, there is increased publishing of books in foreign languages
for foreign markets, as well as co-publishing arrangements, especially
between German, Italian, Swiss, American, and Japanese firms.
The state and conditions of book production and distribution have been
altered considerably in Russia and the former republics of the Soviet Union
after the collapse of communism. The former Soviet Union reported a total
output of l .7 billion copies of 83,000 titles in 1 975, making it the largest
producer of book titles and among the largest printers of book copies in the
world. Book production and distribution were considered to be vital
instruments for national development and therefore the government put
much energy into the coordination of book production, publication, and
distribution. The majority of books produced in the Soviet Union were in
scientific, political, and social fields and usually printed in 20 different
languages. Most were published in Russian, but a large number were
translated from one Soviet language to another. The export of books was
regarded as highly important, and between 1 970 and 1 975 alone the output
of books in non-Soviet languages doubled in numbers of titles and tripled
in numbers of copies, nearly all destined for export. Post communism and
changing economic conditions combined with internal strifes have
considerably altered the publishing industries in the former Soviet Union,
especially in the Central Asian Republics.
The United States has consistently been among the top three publishers
of book titles in the world, the former Soviet Union and the United
Kingdom being the two other largest producers. The US is also the largest
book importer in the world. Over 57,000 titles were released in the United
States in 1 977 and domestic sales reached $4. 1 billion. Imports were valued
at $300 million in 1 98 1 , and book exports totaled over $600 million, 4 1 0
million copies being shipped abroad. The U S publishing industry benefits
directly from the increasingly worldwide use of English as a second lan­
guage, from the vast amount of scientific and technological research being
done in the United States, and from rising school enrolment in Third
World countries, especially where American publishers are actively
promoting and marketing their products.
The United Kingdom, which published 48, 1 58 titles in 1 980, is the
world's second largest producer of English books, as well as one of the top
three world producers overall. Britain's 2,000 plus publishing companies
include some of the largest in the world. For over two centuries this nation
has been a top center of world pUblishing.
Another important book producing country is Germany. Frankfurt,
although only the third largest book publishing center in Germany, is the
site of the world's largest and most prestigious book fair. Holland's liberal

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trade policies, its excellent location, and its modem intercontinental

communication facilities make this country a center for the importing and
re-exporting of books from other European countries and from North
America. Spain, which has been in the business of book exporting ever
since the sixteenth century, is the world's fifth largest book exporter and a
major supplier of books to Latin America. Another major center of world
publishing is Japan, which in 1 978 released 635 million copies 0( 43,973
Japanese books, making it the largest producer of books in Asia. Interest­
ingly, some 63 percent of Japan's imported books come from the United
States, and many American firms have established subsidiary houses in
Japan to produce books locally in the Japanese language.
Among the less developed nations of the world, India, China, Brazil,
Mexico, Nigeria, and Egypt are all important actors in book production
and distribution. India is the world's seventh largest producer of book titles
( 1 8,000 in 1 979), as well as the third largest publisher of English language
books.
Books, scientific journals, and educational texts are acquired either
through the exchange of publications or through direct purchase. Inter­
national exchanges are usually conducted through either centralized or
decentralized organizations to increase coordination and cooperation
among those participating in exchanges. A centralized distributing center,
generally the least costly method of exchange, considers the special needs of
the libraries it represents, deciding the most fitting partners for exchange
purposes, the quality and volume of consignment, and the subject matter of
exchanges. A decentralized system of distribution, on the other hand,
allows more relevant choices of partners, more rational selection of foreign
or international subject matter, and possibly more rapid supplementation of
items missing in library collections.
Direct purchases of dispatch are usually less costly than exchange, but
are subject to barriers that limit their possibilities, such as currency limita­
tions and import restrictions. It has been suggested that the ever-increasing
cost of educational textbooks and scientific journals, especially in Europe
and North America, greatly affect the acquisition budgets of individuals
and libraries, and will continue to have a dramatic impact on the inter­
national flow of such material.
Although the number of scientific and educational texts has increased,
especially in industrialized countries, no available research shows the extent
or pattern of their flow internationally. The best estimates usually come from
production/distribution institutions within individual countries, as well as
from raw data on import and export of scientific and educational materials.
For example, a conservative estimate indicates that in the late 1 970s,
approximately 2,700 scholarly journals were published in the United States:
that number has apparently been increasing at an average rate of 2 percent
or 3 percent per year. Approximately half of the journals published in the
United States deal with the humanities and social sciences, the remainder
with the natural and technological sciences. 5

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In the 1 970s and the beginning of the 1 980s, the number of communi­
cation and media research journals began to increase. According to a
published survey, the number of communication and media periodicals
increased threefold between 1969 and 1 980 to 534, nearly half being
published monthly and quarterly. 6 The major centers for publication of
communication and media research journals are the United States (70),
Germany (32), Australia (3 1), Canada (27), India (25), Brazil (25), Japan
( 19), Belgium (14), Poland ( 1 3), and Russia ( 1 3). The recent phenomenon
of "on-line journals" as well as the "electronic publishing" generally have
been contributing to the proliferation of research publications, challenging
the traditional resources of information.
There are both internal and external factors that impede the global flow
of scientific journals and educational texts. Economic factors include
surcharges on books sold abroad; shortages of foreign exchange; postage
and customs; transport and other taxes; different levels of development
between participating countries in publishing specifically and in overall
development generally; and the monopolistic influences of national,
international, and transnational book publishers and distributors.
Political factors affecting flow range from existing or proposed govern­
mental policies to political ideology and the political climate. Cultural
factors primarily concern the export of intrinsic cultural values within the
content of publications, and the resultant perceived threat to the ethnic and
national identity in importing countries. Examples include assumed literacy
levels, the languages and alphabets employed in publication, translation
barriers, the influence of the media employed, and the lack of a standard­
ized classification system.
Among the technical factors impeding the flow are the gap in tech­
nological advancement, the lack of accurate statistical data, and the lack of
coordination between centralized and decentralized exchange structures.
Institutional factors include both censorship and national and international
copyright laws.
Translation plays an important role in the international flow of printed
material, the amount and type of translated material revealing much
information about the circulation of books, journals, and educational texts
both internationally and within nations. The success of translated material
often depends upon acceptance in certain literary markets, overcoming
language barriers, and overcoming ideological and governmental barriers.
Because the flow of books and scientific and educational material is an
important part of the international exchange of information, some recom­
mendations can be made to facilitate a flow beneficial to all participants.
First and foremost, it is imperative that a universal classification system be
established, both to expedite the flow of such material and to collect and
compile data necessary to monitor and improve the flow. Second, the
circulation of systematic scholarly content reviews would improve the
accuracy and effectiveness of selection and exchange processes. Third,
specific governmental and private policies should be encouraged to create

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more favorable conditions for indigenous publishing and increased cross­

national exchange and sale. Such policies may include reduced transporta­
tion and postage fees, as well as customs regulations conducive to the
exchange and sale of printed technical material. Finally, it is important to
encourage increased international cooperation between and within the
public and private sectors to facilitate and coordinate this most beneficial
type of international exchange.

Film and Sound Recordings

The international production and distribution of films and sound recordings

is a major area of global information flow which has received relatively
little attention from researchers. Although statistics on world film produc­
tion are sketchy and imprecise, available data show the Asian countries in
the top positions, India and Japan each producing approximately 400 films
a year. A second group of producers includes Italy, the United States, and
the former Soviet Union, which are each credited with 250 to 300 films a
year. Countries producing up to 200 films a year include France, the
Republic of Korea, Greece, Hong Kong, and Spain: and those nearing 1 00
films per year are Mexico, Germany, the United Kingdom and Pakistan. 7
It is estimated that global production of long films varies between 3,400
and 3,500 per year, but this figure does not indicate the number of films
distributed internationally. Most film producing countries, in fact, have
little international distribution for their products and can rarely sell them
outside of their own national market. Further, American films have had a
dominant share of the international film market, and have joint ventures
with a number of countries in Europe such as United Kingdom, France,
Italy and Germany in production and distribution.
It is possible to compare the motion picture market with that of sound
records, although the two forms of mass communication have very different
characteristics. In the latter case, however, it is best to approach the market
from the point of view of consumption rather than production because
ample information on the consumption of records and CDs is more readily
available. The dollar volumes of the two markets are similar, the world
motion picture market being approximately $5 billion while the volume of
world record market is approximately $6 billion.
In 1 982, Thomas Guback and Tapio Varis collected data and analyzed
the transnational film and sound recording industry, concluding that the
"principal American motion picture firms constitute the only integrated,
world wide network for theatrical film distribution." g This network facili­
tates global dissemination of television material as well, and results in
negligible commercial distribution of foreign films in the United States. In
addition, American films abroad have "cultivated patterns of public taste for
decades, and this undoubtedly has facilitated the distribution of American
,,
television material. 9 These conclusions reinforce the necessity of examining

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a medium in terms of the broader global patterns and frameworks,

especially since the communications industry is an integrated, interacting
whole.

International Advertising

In 1950, the United States was responsible for some 75 percent of all
advertising generated in Western industrialized countries. However, as
other industrialized countries, particularly Japan, Germany, the United
Kingdom, and France, recovered from World War II and began to develop
their own consumer goods for distribution in the world market, their share
of global advertising increased. Nevertheless, the United States remains the
leader in the global promotion and advertising of consumer goods and
manufactured products, and sets the pace for the world:
The rest of the world is rapidly emulating many of our advertising practices and
by the year 2000 these will be the norm in a number of other countries around
the world. In this sense, the U.S. may be considered to be a leading indicator of
the developments that lie ahead in other parts of the world. 1 0

Viewed in this light, the implications involving the flow of international

advertising are indeed staggering. Not only does international advertising
attempt to influence consumer patterns; it actually helps to create markets
by encouraging development of mass advertising media. Thus, a review of
the more dramatic changes in the world's major advertising agencies in
recent years and the pattern of their involvement in the world economy will
not only help identify what will probably occur in the years ahead in other
countries but will also provide insights into future changes in the activities
of transnational advertising agencies.
It has been said that transnational corporations can change the "cultural
ecology" in a country through increased media ownership and penetration
of foreign advertising. This creates a communication structure that trans­
mits and reinforces the attitudinal conditions of the transnationals financing
the system. Transnational corporations usually employ the services of
either: (1) a domestic agency; (2) a company-owned agency in each country;
(3) a large international agency with branches; or (4) a coordinating agency
dealing with independents in the respective countries. Equally interesting, in
most commercially significant countries of the world, five patterns of
corporate expansion have emerged: (1) setting up a wholly owned national
operation; (2) purchasing an existing overseas agency; (3) buying an interest
in an overseas agency; (4) joining forces with overseas agencies to form
third parties; and (5) setting up corresponding agency relationships.
Until recently, there was a paucity of the more specialized advertising
media in many countries: but in the last two decades, especially in Western
Europe and to some extent in Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union,
and the People's Republic of China, specialized media have developed to
provide the industrial market with means of communicating with potential

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customers. In addition to advertising normally placed in the print media,

many industrial markets are now reached through catalogs, direct mail, and
trade fairs, all important promotional media in international industrial
marketing. For example, motion picture cinema advertising is now
becoming a popular tool for the international advertiser. In countries where
quality newspapers and magazines are difficult to produce, cinema adver­
tising is mildly successful. Many theaters sell commercial film time, and
even serve as places for merchandising. Additionally, there are two related
worldwide organizations: the International Advertising Service, which
consists of 2 1 major advertising concerns booking commercials into
more than 1 00 world markets, and the International Screen Publicity
Association.
Economic factors are highly correlated with the basic institutional
advertising structure of the transnational, which in turn influences the
requirements for international advertising agency service. There are
basically three ways in which the international advertising function inte­
grates into the structures of transnational organizations. These differing
structures in turn have a strong impact on the flow. The first is
headquarters-created advertising, where headquarters maintains full
responsibility and authority for all plans, creativity, production, media
selection, placement, and budget throughout the world. Local market
managers may make recommendations, but the ultimate decision-making
authority rests with corporate headquarters.
The second structure involves advertising created locally under broad
guidelines subject to periodic review. Advertising guidelines are set by
corporate headquarters, but no prior clearance is needed for release. In this
structure, there is an inherent controversy over the amount of control each
party possesses since local experience is often deemed necessary, but
multinationals are hesitant to delegate to distant advertisers the
responsibility for the interpretation and presentation of the company, its
ideas, its policies, and its products.
The third structure centers on locally created advertising, where copy,
illustration, and layout are all subject to varying degrees of corporate
conformity and control.
In some countries, no commercial television and radio advertising has
been permitted. This is changing because of the enormous expense involved
with local production when direct public subsidies are not available
(advertising revenues can offset expenses), and a corresponding tendency
toward construction of commercial radio and television stations. For
example, Italy, which had no private local radio or television until 1 976,
currently has some 300 plus privately owned stations. In countries where
advertising has not previously been permitted on government-owned
stations there has been a softening of restrictions, for example in Belgium,
where advertising is now allowed on state-controlled radio and television,
even though television advertising is concentrated at the beginning and end
of evening programs.

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Of increasing importance in advertising is satellite broadcasting. It is

estimated that the ability to reach all of Europe with a single message will
stimulate new forms of activity by international advertisers, including the
possibility of standardized messages covering several countries.
On the other hand, in several countries political factors, such as strict
regulation through taxation and other governmental policies, have reduced
the direct influence of international advertising agencies on the local scene.
In Iran, for example, since the establishment of the Islamic Republic in
1 979, the activities of international advertisers have been eliminated totally
and the commercial aspects of national radio and television have been
removed through constitutional provisions.
It is, however, evident that international advertising, by virtue of its
volume, its expenditure, and its activities, plays an important role in
the international market. Yet, research pertaining to the complex flow of
international advertising remains scant, and there is a definite need for
additional analysis in this area. As one reviews the existing literature and
available data at the beginning of the 1 990s, three general conclusions are
apparent: (1) the United States is the model within the field of advertising;
(2) the obvious sources of the majority of international consumer and
industrial advertising are transnational companies and international adver­
tising agencies; and (3) the flow of international advertising is mostly
vertical, from developed and industrialized nations to the Third World.
The world's top 50 advertising agencies in terms of gross income and
billings include, first, the United States agencies, followed by the Japanese,
British, German, French, and Italian agencies. Based on total equity interest
in foreign shops, the first 1 5 world agencies in the order of income
and advertising expenditure were: (1) Dentsu, (2) Young & Rubicam,
(3) J. Walter Thompson Co., (4) Ogilvy & Mather, (5) McCann-Erickson
Worldwide, (6) Ted Bates, (7) BBDO International, (8) Leo Burnett Co.,
(9) SSC&B, (10 Foote, Cone & Belding, ( 1 1 ) Doyle Dane Bernbach,
( 1 2) D'Arcy-MacManus & Masius, ( 1 3) Hakuhodo, (14) Grey Advertising,
and ( 1 5) Benton & Bowles. 1 1
The total worldwide advertising trends in terms of advertising expendi­
tures project that the United States will remain the leader in the world
market by the beginning of the twenty-first century, followed by Japan,
Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy. In 1 980 the total world
wide expenditure on advertising was $ 1 1 0,000 million. 12 In 1 994 this figure
had increased to approximately $200,000 million. In 1 985 the United
States, the European Union and Japan spent $60,000 million, $20,000
million and $ 1 0,000 million respectively on advertising. These figures
changed to $47,500 million for the United States, $60,000 million for the
European Union and $22,500 million for Japan in 1 994. The increase in
expenditure in 1 994 within the European Union (6.7 percent) remained,
however, under that recorded for the United States (7.8 percent) and Japan
(8 .6 percent). In 1 994 there was a clear upturn in advertising expenditure
across the whole of the European Union. Advertising is tending to become

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the prime source of financing for television in Western Europe. At the same
time television in Western Europe has become the main advertising
medium within the European Union. Advertising expenditure in central
and eastern Europe also rose sharply, a clear sign of growth markets, with
Slovakia increasing expenditure by 79 percent, Poland increasing by 70
percent, the Czech Republic by 59 percent and Hungary by 34 percent over
last year. 1 3
The economic as well a s cultural information powers o f world capitalism,
especially that of the United States, can be best examined by the worldwide
network of major advertising agencies and by growing expenditures to
advertise and promote their products on national, regional, and global
scales. The strength of international advertisers lies in the fact that not
only do they have a powerful influence over the international network of
transnational mass media and the entertainment industry but their
techniques and methods, developed over the past several years, are essential
for the development and expansion of manufactured goods and com­
modities. Furthermore, their perceived "neutrality" in international politics
and inter-state conflict, coupled with the desire of people almost everywhere
for certain universality, cosmopolitanism, and consumption, provide the
ingredients necessary for persuasive and informative strategies.

Video, Computer, and Related Technologies

During the last three decades, developments in cable, cassette, video, com­
puter, and satellite technologies have produced a scramble for profit on a
worldwide scale through information, business, and entertainment pro­
gramming, while also making possible an expanded use of these tech­
nologies to provide information services to the home. Additionally, the use
of these technologies in social and political mobilization has also been
tested. Such developments have brought about complexity in information
handling, both in the vertical and the horizontal dimensions of systems.
The consumption of new technologies generally, and of computer, video,
and cassettes specifically, is increasing so rapidly, particularly in indus­
trialized nations, that information regarding their use is nearly always
outdated and meaningless.
Worldwide consumers spent more on video than any other new media
technology between 1 985 to 1 995. The global figure for total video units
increased from 1 68.96 million in 1 987 to an estimated 300 million in
1 994. 1 4 In 1 987 the countries that had a higher than 50 percent penetration
figure of video in television households included Australia, Bahrain, Hong
Kong, Iceland, Ireland, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, Netherlands, New
Zealand, Nigeria, Panama, Qatar, Singapore, United Arab Emirates,
United Kingdom and the United States. IS These figures representing both
the industrialized and less industrialized countries reflect the fact that
middle-class homes are increasingly likely to have a video as well as a
television set, a trend continuing in the 1 990s. The influence of video on

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cinema attendance continues to be a debatable subject. However, as a

number of studies show, in many countries of the world video does not so
much replace cinema as operates as an adjunct to it. 16
Because of confusion surrounding regulations in the video industry as
well as import and foreign exchange restrictions, piracy is rampant,
especially in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. In the industrialized coun­
tries of Europe, however, and in such producing countries as Japan and the
United States, the public use of new technology continues to grow at an
accelerated pace. For example, a survey conducted by the Electronic
Industries Association for the Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Associ­
ation in 1 995 indicated that 88 percent of American households owned
videocassette recorders. l ? The same survey showed the following household
ownership of consumer electronic products: television, 98 percent; home
radios, 98 percent; telephones (corded), 96 percent; answering machines, 60
percent; telephone (cordless), 59 percent; home CD players, 48 percent;
personal computers, 40 percent; cellular telephones, 2 1 percent; and home
fax machines, 8 percent. Another survey in 1 995 showed that the rate of
growth of personal computers in the industrialized world is growing as
rapidly as did the videocassette recorders a decade earlier. There were a
total of 1 50 million personal computers worldwide in 1 995. 18
The onrushing wave o f video, cassette, and tape technology threatens to
bring down many established social and political bulwarks throughout the
world. With pornographic films a fact of life on the video circuit, and with
political messages taped through cassette and related technologies, censor­
ship threatens to become certainly different and somewhat irrelevant.
Similarly, in many parts of the world, defense by government and industry
of the monopoly of film and television broadcasting may appear increasingly
meaningless as alternative programs become available. The social utility of
these new innovations, however, will depend largely on the accompanying
structural changes within communication systems and national and local
policies; otherwise, their implementation on a world scale will most likely
perpetuate existing media commercialization.
Aside from the economic and commercial considerations, educational and
political implications of this type of information flow can be quite profound,
having lasting impact and consequences. In the 1 970s, prior to the Iranian
revolution, the exiled Ayatollah Khomeini sent his messages through
telephone and tapes to Iran, where they were copied by the thousands on
cassette tapes and distributed to the masses through the informal and
traditional communication network. This method of information flow
provided both the credibility and excitement of oral messages, and the
permanence and accessibility of written messages. 1 9 In 1 984 a videograph in
Asia reported that
a videotape cassette labeled "Playboy Lovers," smuggled through customs, is
later seen in many Philippine living rooms for its political, not sexual, content.
Most of the pornographic material has been erased and replaced by a taped copy
of a Japanese documentary on the assassination of opposition leader Benigno

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Aquino, Jr. Other illegal tapes of Japanese and u.s. newscasts are passed
around, recopied over and over on home recorders as Philippinos supplement the
bland news given by their own mass media. 20

Another major technological advance that gave impetus to the search for
appropriate nomenclature was videotex, the generic name for home retrieval
systems. In videotex, the merger of information reception, communication
transmission, and the computer was thought to be complete. This new
electronic data retrieval business was expected to boom. As one leading US
business journal pointed out, "A giant home information industry is taking
shape in the plans of hundreds of companies, many of them among the
largest U.S. corporation. By 1 990, they are confident that videotex will be
,,
big business. 2 1
There are two types of videotex. The first is the simple broadcast version,
teletext, which continuously transmits a finite amount of information on
the unused portions of TV transmissions. Users receive the desired
information whenever they want by entering a code into their modified
television sets. The second type of videotex is the interactive view data
service, which links a home terminal or computer either by cable or
telephone lines to a giant information bank. However, the videotex
technology did not expand as was expected due to the rapid advances in
other computer and electronic technologies, such as the Internet.
The distribution of a limited number of advertising dollars has caused
concern among publishers. While video services duplicate traditional
services such as newspapers, they can be updated more easily and at lower
cost. Businesses that have traditionally provided such services will soon
experience shrinking revenues that may force their closure.
The convergence of countless industries on the informatics sector is
certain to have a profound impact on the economic market as we know it
today. In the United States, with such diverse actors as Citibank, AT&T,
Time Inc., CBS, Fox Cable Communications, Dow Jones, Sears Roebuck,
and American Airlines all competing in the informatics arena, limitations
placed on community news ownership by the Federal Communications
Commission, for instance, are totally irrelevant.
Thus, any new communication policy will have to deal with all industries
that can be potentially linked to the digital system. It must also be
recognized that the US system is one of the few that will be operated for
the benefit of commercial interests. In Canada and the European countries,
the system will generally fall under the jurisdiction of the post, telegraph,
and telephone Ministries, which would then operate it for the benefit of the
government itself. It is in this context that a call is made for an information
policy to regulate this highly diverse and burgeoning field.

The Internet Elite

A few years ago, the Internet was just an experimental collaboration of the
US Defense Department and US academia. But it grew exponentially as

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 Cultural industry 1 03

users all over the world discovered the advantages of linking their com­
puters together to share software, exchange electronic mail, and discuss
complicated scientific problems.
The Internet seems like magic. Pioneer users established huge electronic
databases, and then threw open access to anyone in the world who had a
computer, a modem, and the will to access the information. Largely free
from government control, and run on a completely decentralized basis (it
was designed that way to help it survive a nuclear war), the Internet seemed
like the perfect free lunch. No one was in charge of running it, but
somehow it ran. Anyone could use it without paying for the privilege.
Universal access was a reality, and the most distant user could access the
system as easily as a New York tycoon or a Harvard researcher.
As talk of the Internet's benefits trickled out to the world, something
unanticipated happened: it began to interest casual users. During the 1 980s,
the worldwide population of people with access to personal computers
mushroomed from a handful to literally hundreds of millions. Popular
magazines and newspapers breathlessly promoted the benefits, and its use
doubled monthly. By the 1992 US presidential campaign, the Internet was
considered important enough to merit speeches by vice presidential
candidate Al Gore. Among the most over-hyped inventions of the twentieth
century, the Internet today is envisioned by many as the precursor to the
information superhighway.
And the hype only increases. Many enthusiasts consider the Internet as
not just a way to link electronic databases, but as an entirely new way for
people to interact. It is hailed as a return to the equality of the eighteenth­
century pamphlet. The most obscure user is free to post views on the
system's bulletin boards or to establish a forum, bypassing the monolithic
press and media barons. Interaction between people will be forever
changed, these enthusiasts claim, because anyone anywhere can commu­
nicate with anyone else, at any time.
Lately, however, a note of discontent has sounded. Even though the
Internet has moved from the back pages of computer magazines to the
covers of mainstream magazines, not everyone has been seduced by its
allure. Critics have focused on three shortcomings: potential controls over
content; the potentially disenfranchising effect of communication that is
available only to the upper and middle classes; and the profound social
impact of communication that takes place through an electronic inter­
mediary. Each of these concerns is taken all-too-cavalierly by technological
gurus and policy-makers, who seem intent on boosting the Internet no
matter what its cost to society.

Control Over Content

Theoretically, anyone can post information, but the reality is that the main
content of the Internet - the huge databases containing electronic infor­
mation so important to people's daily lives - is controlled by governments,

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1 04 Global information and world communication

corporations, and academic institutions. Their control was less significant

when the system's major purpose was to link together academic and
government researchers. Now that the Internet is becoming an important
source of world knowledge, the ease with which it is possible to alter
information - or merely to shade the truth by selectively culling out
unfavorable information - is a real concern. This concern is deepened by
the recent trend of large corporations to establish their own Internet sites,
especially on the fast-growing World Wide Web. There are proposals to
privatize the Internet. Some see the privatization and commercialization of
the network as a threat to its continuing availability for educational
purposes. Who will be the custodians of the world's information?

Disenfranchisement
Although the Internet supposedly is available to anyone with a modem and
the will to use it, the profile of users is skewed by race, gender, income, and
age. Studies show that more than 80 percent of all users are computer­
literate, middle-class males under the age of 40. Access may be unlimited in
theory, but it is restricted by the cost of technology and the steep learning
curve for computer neophytes. Although in 1 995 for the first time Americans
spent more money on home computers than they did on television sets, such
purchases were confined to middle- and upper-class families. If electronic
communication is the future, what will become of the vast majority of
people who can only stand by and watch the worldwide exchange of
electrons?

Social Implications
Finally - and most profoundly - there are the disturbing social impli­
cations of a future in which human communication increasingly takes place
through electronic media. Since the invention of the telegraph and
telephone in the nineteenth century, more and more discourse has taken
place through impersonal electronic intermediaries rather than through
natural face-to-face communication. Despite these changes, however,
personal communication still remained paramount. Whether at work or on
daily errands, people still needed to interact.
But the Internet could change that. Researchers are working on
electronic substitutes for the daily interactions we take for granted. Work
will be done at home and transmitted by modem; shopping will be done
over the World Wide Web and paid for by debits to our electronic bank
accounts. Even entertainment will take place through the computer screen.
Chat lines linking together devotees of certain hobbies long have been a
fixture of the Internet. With the growth of consumer interest in the on-line
world, electronic dating services, sexual chat forums, and even casino
gambling are all available today at 28,800 bauds per second. Soon, there
will be very little that cannot be accomplished from the comfort of our own
homes.

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 Cultural industry 1 05

But is a world split between an elite minority of information-empowered

people interacting electronically and a majority mired in information
poverty in anyone's best interests? Do we really want to choose between a
"successful" but soulless electronic existence and disenfranchisement?
The Internet is not an unmixed blessing. It gives the computer-savvy
individual access to information; at the same time it raises an insur­
mountable barrier to those who cannot avail themselves of the new
opportunity. It allows people to bypass the chokehold that the global media
giants have on political discourse - and disseminate underground materials
advocating actions like the Oklahoma City terrorist bombing. In short, the
Internet may fulfill the dreams of its boosters and reorder human
interaction, but that reordering may not be a good thing. All dreams
should be closely examined before being fulfilled.

Conclusion

Some aspects of the cultural industries discussed in this chapter direct our
attention to the influence of the information universe, the symbolic
environment that shapes the perceptions and behavior of actors at all levels
of the international theater. There is greater significance to such a symbolic
environment, which is nourished by various international, cultural, and
knowledge production industries, including book publishers, movie
distributors, advertisers, public relations practitioners, and purveyors of
electronic technologies and data. An analysis of the commercialization and
economization of culture and knowledge provides a basis for explaining
information imbalance in terms of the economic milieu.
Alongside the universe of material trade, production, distribution, and
value adding, there is a parallel or perhaps coterminous universe of cultural
and knowledge trade and cultural production and distribution, adding
value to culture and culture exporting. Not only do these universes impinge
on each other, but they offer "currencies" that are acceptable tender in each
other's realms, and sustain mutually supportive growth. One cannot hope
to market a new product without disseminating knowledge of it, creating a
demand, and shaping the cultural environment to accept it. The ability to
control the means of production and international distribution of cultural
products, then, is the key to larger markets and greater productivity and
prosperity in an international system that has eschewed "gunboat"
coercion, to some extent, in favor of the utilization of cultural industries
as persuaders.

Notes

1 . UNESCO Statistical Yearbook, 1974 (paris: UNESCO, 1975), pp. 663-668.

2. UNESCO Statistical Yearbook, 1982 (Paris: UNESCO, 1983), p. 790.
3. Ibid., see Table II.

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106 Global information and world communication

4. For a full historical account of changes in the industry as they occurred in the United
States, see Lewis A. Coser, Books: The Culture and Commerce of Publishing (New York: Basic
Books, 1 982).
5. The Report of the National Inquiry, Scholarly Communication (Baltimore: Johns
Hopkins University Press, 1979), p. 38.
6. These figures were computed from Sylwester Dziki, World Director of Mass
Communication Periodicals (Cracow: Press Research Center and Bibliographical Section of
IAMCR, 1980).
7. UNESCO Statistical Yearbook, 1982.
8. Thomas Guback and Tapio Varis (in collaboration with Jose G. Hanton, Heiberto
Nuraro, Gloria Rojas, and Boonrah Booyahetmala), Transnational Communication and
Cultural Industries, Reports and Papers on Mass Communication No. 92 (paris: UNESCO,
1982), p. 3 1 .
9. Ibid., p . 3 1 .
1 0. Robert J . Coen, "Vast U.S. and World Wide Ad Expenditures Expected," Advertising
Age, April 19, 1982.
1 1 . Ibid., pp. 9-1 2.
12. This has been computed from the projected statistics published in Advertising Age,
April 1 9, 1982.
1 3 . European Audiovisual Observatory Statistical Yearbook 96 (Strasbourg: European
Audiovisual Observatory, Council of Europe, 1 995), pp. 275-287.
14. Manuel Alvardo, ed., Video World- Wide: An International Study (paris: Unesco Press,
1 988), p. 323; and Screen Digest, August, 1 994, p. I S.
I S . Alvardo, ed., Video World- Wide: An International Study, p. 323.
16. Krister Maim and Roger Wallis, Media Policy and Music Activity (London: Routledge,
1992), pp. 43-44, 1 67-168.
17. "Who Has What?", New York Times, June 22, 1996. Section E, p. 2.
18. John Greenwald, "Battle for Remote Control." Time (special issue), 145: 12 (Spring
1995), p. 70.
19. Hamid Mowlana, "Technology versus Tradition: Communication in the Iranian
Revolution," Journal of Communication, 29: 3 (Summer 1 979), pp. 107- 1 1 2.
20. John A. Lent, "Videography in Asia: Revolution, Resistance and Reform," paper read
at the Howard University Communication Conference, Washington, DC, February 1 7, 1984,
p. 1 .
2 1 . "The Home Information Revolution," Business Week, June 29, 1 98 1 , p . 83.

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 6

Political Economy of Information:

Transnational Data Flows

An important trend in international economic activities during the past two

decades has been the increasing role of data communication. Information­
intensive industries such as banking, insurance, airlines, multinational
business, and news agencies are heavily dependent on the instantaneous
availability and dissemination of data around the world. In order to
transmit vital management information, manufacturing and trading firms
operating in more than one country must facilitate reliable lines of data
communication between the parent organization and its subsidiaries.
Governments, as well, rely on data links via satellite and cable for military,
diplomatic, and technical communication and decision-making.
These types of international communication, commonly known as trans­
border data flow, were made possible by the development of computer
communication systems, linking sophisticated computers in one country to
affiliated computers in other countries, and through them to remote
terminals. Providing for cost-effective and speedy data processing, storage,
and retrieval at virtually any location, the merger of computer and tele­
communications technologies is, in fact, the precondition for the emergence
of transborder data flow. !
In recent years, many nations have become concerned with the growing
international network of computers facilitating the storage, transmission,
manipulation, and retrieval of enormous amounts of information. This
information ranges from personal data on private citizens to financial
information and data on scientific and technical processes. The number of
industries involved in such activities is rapidly growing.
In short, the computerized supply of financial and commercial infor­
mation has become a major and growing source of profit. There are no
accurate statistics on the total amount of such transactions worldwide, but
it is estimated that the lucrative transborder data flow industry is a
multibillion-dollar enterprise.
The United States leads the way in the field of communication and
computer technology, and American producers of equipment and software
dominate the world market. Currently, the United States is responsible for
the majority of worldwide transmission and processing of data. 2
Of course, at this point, there are many nations without the tech­
nical development to build their own computer systems. An important
question for these countries is whether it would be in their interest to

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1 08 Global information and world communication

subscribe to an international data network where they will clearly play a

client role.
Opinion is divided on this issue. On the one hand, it is argued that
information networks offer less developed countries cheaper and more
effective access to the latest scientific and technical know-how from the
developed countries. 3 Others claim that Third World countries find
themselves in dependency relationships, suggesting that the information
that is transferred to the Third World is often "ill-suited to the resources,
,,
needs and climates of the developed world. 4 For example, francophone
Africa has much of its information on credit and insurance stored in
French computers. As a result, "a computer-poor country depends on a
dominating, computer-rich neighbour even for vital information about
,,
itself. 5 This is paralleled by an earlier observation that in the process of
technology transfer and know-how, "ninety-eight per cent of the scientific
and technological research at present is being undertaken in the advanced
industrial states - drawn on their own experience. Only one per cent of the
,,
research is directed at the special problems of developing countries. 6
Specifically, transborder data flows are defined as the transfer of digitally
encoded units of information for processing, storage, or retrieval across
national boundaries. To qualify as transborder data flow, the technical
process must involve (1) transmission, (2) storage, and (3) processing.
Traditional telephone and telegraph by themselves provide transmission,
but provide neither storage nor processing. Storage of data opens con­
venient access to large databases, and processing allows manipulation of
data in various forms and orders. This definition excludes transborder data
flows resulting from media products, such as news broadcasts, television
programming, and conventional telecommunication services. 7
These technical distinctions are important, as they relate to the roots
of problems peculiar to transfer data flows. For example, laws affecting
personally identifiable data did not appear until the development of tech­
nologies involving data processing and storage. In addition, transborder
data flows are normally of a proprietary nature and are based on con­
tractual relationships between parties. Thus, electronic media products that
involve mass diffusion are not considered as part of transborder data flow.
It is important to understand the nature of transborder data flow in the
context of its participants, content, patterns, and direction. To assure that
this innovation is used to benefit humanity in its global environment, we
must examine the various issues surrounding transborder data flow,
including the implications on communication policies, and determine the
direction of future research.

From Transborder to Transnational

The major actors in the flow of data across national boundaries are states,
intergovernmental organizations, and nongovernmental organizations such

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 Political economy of information 1 09

as private communication carriers, data processing service bureaus, multi­

national corporations, and transnational associations. 8 Depending on their
particular interests in transborder data flow, these participants may
promote or restrict the flow of information, with widely varying strategies
and methods for maximizing interests. It is precisely this complex of
conflicting interests that makes it so difficult to achieve widespread policy
agreement on transborder data flow. 9
States and multinational corporations are the most significant actors in
transborder data flow. They are heavy users of international computer
communication systems and own, operate, and manage domestic com­
munication networks that send and receive international data traffic. In the
United States, computer communication systems are operated largely either
in-house by private organizations, or by data processing service bureaus for
private customers. In other nations where communication services are state­
operated, data communications are provided through facilities of the post,
telegraph, and telephone (PTT) authorities.
Intergovernmental organizations are a second set of significant actors in
transborder data flows. Although their actual use of computer commu­
nication is quite limited, these organizations provide an arena both for
regulating data communication technologies and for debating and resolving
conflicts about the transnational flow of data. The International Telecom­
munications Union (ITU), a specialized agency of the United Nations,
performs planning, standard setting, and coordinating functions for inter­
national communication facilities ranging from telephone and telegraph to
broadcasting and data communication. Although the ITU operates no
communication facility, administrative conferences held under its sponsor­
ship have considerable authority over such practices as the allocation of
radio spectrum frequencies.
The International Telecommunications Satellite Organization (INTEL­
SAT) operates its own system of communications satellites. INTELSAT
membership currently stands at 1 36 states, each owning an investment
share in the system proportional to its use of the satellites.
Other international organizations taking an active role in transborder
data flow include the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Devel­
opment (OECD), the Council of Europe, and the Intergovernmental
Bureau of Informatics (lBI). These organizations are specifically involved in
the issues and controversy surrounding this burgeoning new field.
In addition to governmental actors who sometimes own and operate
communication facilities, there are a number of private communication
carriers and international data network organizations. International record
carriers such as RCA Global Communications, ITT World Communica­
tions, and Western Union International jointly own and operate trans­
national communication links with American Telephone and Telegraph
(AT&T) and state-owned PTTs. International data networks such as SWIFT
(interbank transfer system) and SITA (airline networks in Europe) provide
customized communication services to specific groups of subscribers.

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1 10 Global information and world communication

Another type of nongovernmental actor in transborder data flow is the

data processing service bureau. As a consolidation of specialized com­
munication carriers providing data transmission and processing, these
organizations offer international computing services directly to a wide
variety of users in any state that has transmission capabilities and per­
mission to access the network.
Multinational corporations purchase and use large amounts of data
services, as well as using internal international data transmission for
management purposes. Information-intensive organizations such as banks,
credit firms, and commercial airlines are the heaviest users of external
services, while manufacturing firms must internally transmit and con­
solidate vast amounts of data for corporate decision-making. Additionally,
some corporations use high-speed data communication for international
currency speculation.
A final set of nongovernmental actors includes national and transna­
tional associations such as the National Endowment of Science and the
Smithsonian Institution. These organizations produce and disseminate
scientific or bibliographic data through international computer communi­
cation networks.

Diversity of Data Flow

The use of transnational computer communication systems is largely deter­

mined by a variety of needs for a given actor. The content, patterns, and
directions of transborder data flow reflect the specific tasks assigned to each
data communication according to the diversity of the actors' needs.
Eric Novotny has identified four types of data flow content: 10
• Operational data consist of transborder data flows supporting
organizational decisions or sustaining certain administrative functions.
Multinational corporations, for example, use such information to
coordinate geographically dispersed business functions.
• Financial transaction data represent the information resulting in credits,
debits, and transfers of money that are distinct from operational data
containing financial information. While the unrestricted flow of
financial data permits convenient financial arrangement, it also makes
it difficult for governments to control currency speculation.
• Personally identifiable data contain information relating to credit and
medical histories, criminal records, employment and travel reservations,
or simply names and identification numbers. Personally identifiable
data may also appear in operational or financial transaction data.
• Scientific and technical data include experimental results, surveys,
environmental or meteorological measurements, and economic statis­
tics. Bibliographic databases and software to process raw data are also
made available to the international scientific community through
computer-communication systems.

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 Political economy of information III

As shown in Figure 6. 1 , patterns of transborder data flow movements

also fall into four generic types. 1 1
• Consolidation flow describes a simple subsidiary relationship in which a
subsidiary entity in country A transfers information one-way to a
headquarters user in country B. The headquarters consolidates such
data from a number of subsidiaries.
• Distribution flow occurs when a centralized entity distributes data to
several subsidiary entities. Applications of this type of flow include
updates to local databases, orders and financial reports, and similar
instructions or information transmitted to subsidiaries.
• Transnational network flow commonly involves transborder processing
such as a service bureau arrangement in which subsidiaries in one
country use host computer facilities in another. Two-way traffic occurs
since the main purpose of accessing the host is to use its databases.
• Multinational network flow is a more complicated pattern in which data
flows are characterized by multiple-user, multiple-host interactions.
Information and processing can be centralized, distributed, or both.
Large data service bureaus or time sharing networks typically operate
in this manner.
In this process, a more important consideration is whether a particular
type of data flow arrangement poses legal compliance problems. Generally,
regulatory conditions are influenced greatly by the directions of
transmission, the geographic location of processing and storage functions,
and, most important, the location of the user.
Although there have been few attempts to measure the aggregate volume
and direction of transborder data flows, heavy concentration of satellite
and submarine cable communications in the North Atlantic area and
between the United States and Japan indicates the predominance of trans­
border data flow within the industrialized West. Yet even within this area
there are disparities. Canada, France, and Sweden particularly feel that
they are too dependent on the United States to supply data processing
products and services, and that much valuable information is being
deposited in the United States without an equal flow in the reverse
direction. 12
This directional pattern is further reinforced by the uneven distribution
of computer communication technologies among nations. The limited data
processing capacity available in "computer-poor" countries, many of which
are located in the Third World, makes it necessary for them to export raw
data for processing and to re-import the processed data. As data flow out
to be processed, with them flow revenues and, consequently, business and
jobs in the information industry.
As Figure 6.2 indicates, this cycle in international data flow is analogous
to cycles in other trade areas where industrially less developed countries
export raw materials to industrialized countries for processing and then
purchase back the more costly finished products. Noticeably lacking is the

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1 12 Global information and world communication

COU NTRY A BORDER COU NTRY B

TYPE 1 : CONSOLI DATI ON FLOW

TYPE 3 : TRANSNATIONAL NETWORK FLOW

TYPE 4: M U LTINATIONAL NETWORK FLOW

Host
computer(s)

Patterns of transborder flow movements (Eric J. Novotny,

Figure 6 . 1
"Transborder Data Flow Regulations: Technical Issues of Legal Concern, "
Computer/Law Journal, 3:2 ( Winter 1981), p. 111)

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 Political economy of information 1 13

United States Flow of data for

Developing
countries

Figure 6.2 Directions of transborder data flows (Rein Turn, ed.,

Transborder Data Flows: Concerns in Privacy Protection and Free Flow
of Infonnation, Vol. 1, Report of the AFIPS Panel on Transborder Data
Flows ( Washington, DC: American Federation of Information Processing
Societies, 1979), p. 5)

exchange of data among developing countries. In the absence of effective

communication to integrate and represent the interests of the Third
World, their dependency relationships with the industrialized world are
exacerbated.

From Privacy to Sovereignty

The issues and controversies in transborder data flow, although wide­

ranging and seemingly unrelated, reflect the general context of conflicting
interests among actors and participants in international computer com­
munication. In one of the early studies on transborder data flow, Allen
Gotlieb, Charles Dalfen, and Kenneth Katz in 1 974 suggested that the
issues of computer communication should be viewed in light of the "tension
between the conflicting state interests in protecting, conserving, and
controlling information on the one hand, and of importing, exporting, and
exchanging ideas on the other - both in pursuit of state goals and in
support of national policies." l 3
This perspective was shared by Novotny in 1 98 1 :
Competition between the exclusive interests of infonnation control and the
inclusive interests of unrestricted transfer of infonnation across national
boundaries is the taproot of the controversy. Inclusive interests include principles,
practices, and policies grouped under the general tenn "free flow of infonnation."
These policies promote increased sharing, use, enjoyment and exchange of
transborder data flows. Principles, practices, and policies that represent exclusive
interests are grouped under the tenn "sovereignty over infonnation" and promote
controlled use, restricted access, conservation, denial and decreased transfers of
14
infonnation.

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1 14 Global information and world communication

In the process of balancing the competing benefits of promoting and

restricting the flow of information, transborder data flow encounters a
diversity of problems. The first issue to emerge from transborder data flow
activities regarded the protection of personal privacy - the rights of indi­
viduals regarding the collection, storage, dissemination, and use of infor­
mation about them. When the development of computer communication
technologies in the early 1 970s made it possible to store a large amount of
personal information in foreign databases bound only by the statutes of the
host nation, a number of countries began to realize the need for laws and
policies to preserve the privacy of their citizens.
While regulations vary from nation to nation, most countries follow the
principles of privacy protection contained in the Code of Fair Information
Practices Y
1 . Openness. There must be no secret personal data record keeping systems.
2. Individual access. There must be a way for individuals to find out what
personal data are on record about them and how the data are used.
3. Individual particpation.
i There must be a way for individuals to correct
or amend personal data about themselves.
4. Collection. There must be limits on the kind of personal data organiza­
tions may collect and the method employed.
5. Use. There must be a way for individuals to prevent the use of their
personal data for purposes other than those for which they were
collected.
6. Disclosure. There must be limits on the external disclosure of personal
data that record keeping organizations may make.
7. Information management. All record keeping organizations that create,
maintain, or use records of personal data must implement data
management policies.
8. Accountability. Record keeping organizations must be accountable for
their operations regarding personal data.
Privacy protection and fair information laws, however, are not imple­
mented by all nations. Virtually all of the concern about computer­
processed personal information has been in the democracies of the North
Atlantic area. Most other states do not have political traditions or
economies that require the legal arrangements for computer-processed
personal data.
Additionally, the privacy rights of an individual in one country may be
incompatible with those in another nation to which personal data are
exported. The potential legal problems and conflicts arising from the
different levels of privacy protection worldwide have prompted several
international bodies to establish a standard. In 1 980, the OECD "Guidelines
Governing the Protection of Privacy and Transborder Data Flows of
Personal Data" were adopted by 1 8 of the 24 member govemments. 16 In the
same year, the Council of Europe adopted the "Convention for the
Protection of Individuals with Regard to Automatic Processing of Personal

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 Political economy of information 1 15
,,
Data. 17 While the OECD guidelines are voluntary and intended to provide
an interim standard without creating unjustified obstacles to transborder
data flow, the Council of Europe Convention seeks to enforce common
principles of fair information practices among its members. The United
States, judging that transborder data flow problems and resulting policy
positions are in an early stage of development not warranting binding
agreements that are potentially disruptive of economic interactions, has been
critical of the Council of Europe Convention. 1 8
Another issue i n transborder data flow is the question o f national
sovereignty, which arises when vital information affecting national decision­
making is processed and stored in foreign databases. National sovereignty -
a country's ability to influence the direction of its political, economic, and
sociocultural changes - may be severely impaired if knowledge about the full
range of alternatives open to a given country in a given situation is restricted
because of limited access to relevant information or an underdeveloped
capacity to apply the necessary technology. 1 9 Sudden interruption of critical
data inflow by computer breakdown, natural disaster, political pressure,
or the outflow of sensitive data for processing in "data havens" (countries
with lax or no data protection laws) could expose a country to foreign
manipulation.
Prompted by fears of vulnerability, many states are leaning toward more
pronounced restriction of transborder data flows. A study by the Canadian
government concluded that "the government should act immediately to
regulate trans border data flows to ensure that we do not lose control of
,,
information vital to the maintenance of national sovereignty. 2o
Perhaps the most significant impact of computer communication tech­
nology on national sovereignty is the transformation of the concept of
sovereignty as expressed in geographieal terms to information sover­
eignty. 21 As the role of information in management expands, it is increas­
ingly recognized as a resource over which a state must exercise control.
Transborder data flow, however, has been an elusive problem for states. It
has been suggested that nations measure political sovereignty by control
over resources, including information. Unregulated transborder data flow
diminishes this sovereignty.
Yet when it comes to the regulation of internal information flows, states
do assert power. In the name of national security, governmental authorities
reserve broad powers to engage in interception of telecommunications and
monitoring of automated data.
A nation's sovereignty is threatened not only by other nations, but by
multinational corporations, probably the most powerful non-state actors in
transborder data flow. A primary threat is in the context of international
currency speculation. Empowered with a computerized global banking
system, multinational corporations are capable of bypassing national
monetary policy. A study by the French government reported that nations
no longer control the international cash flow and credit distributed through
specialized networks. They concluded that it was impossible to implement

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1 16 Global information and world communication

"a coherent financial policy" because worldwide electronic currency transfer

,,
makes exchange systems "volatile. 22 The continuous development of new
technologies is likely to intensify the threats to national sovereignty and the
corresponding reactions of states.
Another major issue in the recent debate over the economics of trans­
border data flow is the growing belief that infonnation is a commodity that
should be taxed and regulated as it crosses national boundaries. In order to
protect the domestic infonnation industries and markets from foreign
penetration, a number of countries have erected economic barriers includ­
ing tariffs, discriminatory pricing, inconsistent technical standards, moni­
toring of infonnation, excessive government regulation, and restriction of
entry into markets. France, in order to impose a duty on infonnation flows,
had proposed a system for their classification according to retail value ?3
However, the proposal never materialized due to the new round of trade
negotiations under the World Trade Organization (WTO). Tymshare, an
American computer finn, estimated that the cost of subscribing to a
Japanese public communication service is about ten times more than using
the fixed-cost, dedicated telephone line. 24
Governments also deter the flow of infonnation by non-tariff barriers,
such as regulations requiring registration of databases (Sweden), processing
of data within the host country (Gennany), purchase of domestic computer
and communications equipment (Brazil), and limiting the use of private
lines (Japan). 2 5 Many business leaders are concerned about the economic
impact of privacy data protection statutes that risk disclosure of prop­
rietary infonnation to an unwarranted third party, as well as the possible
protectionist motives that underlie the passage of such laws. 26
US government and businesses perceive these barriers to transborder
data flow as serious threats that affect not only the operation of individual
enterprises but the efficiency and growth of entire industries such as
banking. Canadian banking regulations, for example, require banks to
process and maintain copies in Canada of all data pertaining to Canadian
customers, thus compelling foreign finns to establish unnecessary data
processing facilities within that country. 27 As competition intensifies among
the infonnation industries, these kinds of problems in transborder data flow
are likely to be debated in tenns of international trade.
The impact of transborder data flow is not limited to the small circle of
Western industrialized states. To the extent that infonnation is a basis of
power, access to infonnation and ability to utilize it can give some nations
political, economic, and social advantages over others. Third World nations
fear that underdeveloped computer technology and lack of access to the
international data market will block their participation in the growing
infonnation-bases world economy, and perpetuate their dependence on the
developed world.
As a report by the UN Centre on Transnational Corporations (UNCTC)
points out, transborder data flow presents an enonnous potential for both
assisting and hindering the Third World development process.28 Providing

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 Political economy of information 117

instant access to a diverse pool of up-to-date knowledge, transborder data

flow may give developing countries more information on alternatives and
contribute to a more efficient international allocation of resources which, in
turn, will accelerate productivity and economic growth. On the other hand,
the current imbalance in the international data market and the corre­
sponding levels of computer technologies indicate that transborder data
flow has reinforced the international division of labor - Third World
nations supply raw materials (data) to the developed nations and receive
processed goods (data) in return.
Sophisticated capital-intensive technologies such as computers and tele­
communications tend to integrate the multinational corporate system, and
deepen the dependence of the Third World on hardware, software, training,
and administration supplied by that system.
It is in this context that several international forums began to reflect
Third World concerns for a more equitable distribution of data and tech­
nologies. In 1 978 IBI cosponsored with UNESCO an Intergovernmental
Conference on Strategies and Policies in Information (SPIN), where devel­
oping nations discussed methods of decreasing their dependence on the
United States and Europe for data processing, communication services, and
products?9 In 1 980, IBI hosted a Conference on Transborder Data Flow
Policies which initiated International Working Parties to conduct research
on topics such as data protection, national sovereignty, and the economic
impacts of transborder data flows.
Increasingly at issue in these forums is the assumption that the free flow
of data across national boundaries is beneficial to all. Herbert I. Schiller
has noted that the free flow of information has been and is a "myth." There
are "selectors and controllers," who "shift and shape the messages that
,,
circulate in society. 3o The fear and frustration of Third World nations are
exacerbated by multinational corporations that now select and control large
segments of world data flows.
At a 1 982 Conference on New Technologies and the New International
Information Order, Cuban delegates called for an alternative order in the
international flow of information. They advocated rejection of free flow on
behalf of establishing "autonomous, coordinated national communication
,,
policies, articulated to educational and cultural sectors . . . 3 1 With the
current economic and political situations surrounding transborder data
flow, however, Third World nations are likely to follow a different path,
where they will strike a balance between total acceptance and total
rejection of the free flow doctrine.
The increasing realization of the critical role of computer communication
technologies in economic and social development has prompted several
industrialized and developing nations to prepare comprehensive strategies
for the utilization of information resources and industries. Since trans­
border flow involves a variety of economic and political issues, national
communication policies are likely to reflect each country's view of the
international flow of information.

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While transborder data flow issues have grown, from initial concern over
privacy protection to concern for national sovereignty and trade, the
literature on data flow has also grown substantially in volume and scope.
The relatively large number of policy-oriented studies suggests that inquiry
into the nature of transborder data flow originated in states searching for
appropriate measure to incorporate this new communication activity in
national planning for economic and social development.
The current controversies concerning transborder data flow can be
attributed largely to the inability of the current international legal regime to
accommodate changes resulting from the rapid development of computer
communication technology. The concept of national sovereignty can no
longer be considered in geographic terms alone. Information is increasingly
viewed as a commodity that can be bought, sold, and taxed. Conventional
means of privacy protection are challenged by the capability of computers
to process and store large amounts of data at any location. The concept of
copyright is going through a fundamental change because of the ability of
computers to write, revise, edit, and modify programs and texts without
generating paper copies.
In light of these developments, there are several possible areas of future
research. First, there is a pressing need for the formulation of an inter­
national legal infrastructure. Although the proponents of "free flow" fear
that international agencies will result in more, rather than less, restriction
on transborder data flow, they admit the necessity for multilateral
agreements to facilitate international information trade.
While developing and implementing international agreements, it is
important to establish the current status and future direction of information
technologies. Most American researchers argue that premature decisions
creating binding agreements would hinder future technological development
and economic activities. They believe that the world would be best served
by "fluid conflict rules" and "a broad framework for resolving difficulties
,,
that arise from the diversity of national rules and regulations. 32
On the other hand, European and Third World nations believe that
computer communication technologies have reached the stage where they
should be controlled by states to protect their interests. In order to regulate
the economic aspect of transborder data flow, it has been suggested that the
World Trade Organization (WTO), formerly known as the General Agree­
ment on Tariffs and Trade, (GATT) be applied. Some believe the WTO
could serve as a "flexible multinational forum that can broaden its mandate
,,
to accommodate new trade issues, including international data flows. 33
While a report by the UN considers this relatively undefined legal
,,
environment as the "favorable preconditions for a cooperative approach, 34
others express skepticism. Any formulation of international legal infra­
structure is likely to occur as an attempt to balance the conflicting needs
and demands of states.
A second research concern mandates the empirical examination of
the content of transborder data flow and resultant impacts. Due to the

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 Political economy of information 1 19

proprietary nature of data flowing across national boundaries, it is difficult

to identify precisely what data are flowing and with what effect. The vast
majority of data flow is private and beyond public scrutiny. Yet, a study
conducted by the Japanese government in 1 982 indicates that empirical
analysis of transborder data flow is not impossible. The report, prepared by
Japan's Ministry of Post and Telecommunications, measured the quantity
of data flow in and out of Japan, classifying flows by industry (i.e., trading
firms, banking, and air transport). 35 This type of research is increasingly
important to verify the generally observed characteristics of transborder
data flow.
There is additional research interest in the impact of transborder data
flow on the Third World. UNCTC has been particularly active in
monitoring transborder data flow issues from this perspective. In a report
to the Secretariat, UNCTC identified an effort to determine how trans­
border data flow "could be used by host countries to assist them in
negotiating advantageous contracts and agreements on the whole range of
their interactions with developed countries in general and transnational
corporations in particular."
Subsequently, UNCTC launched a country case-study project, for which
Brazil and Japan submitted reports?6 Although the United States prefers to
pursue the debate over transborder data flows in forums more represen­
tative of developed countries such as the OECD, it agreed to participate in
the UNCTC project.
In the larger context of the international flow of information, transborder
data flow represents a wide range of issues yet to be explored. As the rapid
development of new technologies continues to change traditional economic
and political perceptions, fundamental changes in the structure of global
communication are expected. Scholars of transborder data flow will play an
important and challenging role in instituting these changes.

Trade and Information Services

As the new horizon of communication technology expands, all sides speak

about the potential benefits of new innovations for humanity if used
according to particular prescriptions. The most enthusiastic supporters see
technological advances as the harbingers of a new age of increasing and
equitable development. Others see them as the new means by which the
rich will become richer at the expense of the poor if their application is not
carefully directed at a change in the status quo.
Remote sensing, as defined by the United Nations Committee on the
Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNCOPUOS), is "a system of methods for
identifying the nature and/or determining the conditions of objects on the
Earth's surface, and of phenomena on, below, or above it, by means of
observations from airborne or spaceborne platforms" (UN Document N
AC. l OS/98, 20. 1 .72). Thus the term "remote sensing" refers not only to

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sophisticated satellite sensing activities such as Landsat, but also to con­

ventional aerial photography operations. Although this definition includes
other satellite systems (i.e., meteorological satellites and Seasats), the most
controversial system remains the US Landsat system. The ability of these
satellites to sense and "photograph" nations from a sunsynchronous orbit
of 705 km without the knowledge or permission of the nations being
sensed, combined with the enormous amount of information produced
concerning natural resources, has sparked the ongoing debate over issues
such as national security and national sovereignty.
The technology of remote sensing by artificial earth satellites has poten­
tial value in a number of areas. In fact, to many, the benefits of remote
sensing are overwhelming. By repetitively providing synoptic imagery of the
earth's surface, remote sensing can be helpful in such areas as resource
management, land use analysis, water quality study, disaster relief, crop
predictions, and protection of the environment. As in the area of direct
broadcasting satellite technology, the United States with its Landsat
program is in the dominant position in this area, although the former
Soviet Union has, in recent years, made significant advances.
As early as the 1 970s, remote sensing became an issue of debate within
the United Nations' Outer Space Committee. An earlier proposal by
France and the Soviet Union had mentioned the sovereignty of the state
over, not only its resources, but the information regarding these resources.
The proposal emphasized the principle that a sensing state should have the
"prior consent" of the sensed state before transmitting remote sensing data
to a third state, based on the assumption that remote sensing was not the
exploration of outer space, but the exploration of the earth from outer
space. 3 7
Advocates of strict regulations over remote sensing support their position
with Article III of the Outer Space Treaty, which establishes the obligation
of states to perform activities in the exploration and use of outer space in
accordance with international law, including the United Nations Charter.
In 1 974, Brazil cosponsored with Argentina an even stricter proposal for
remote sensing regulation than that supported by the Soviet Union and
France. Not only did the proposed treaty claim that information about
natural resources should be included under a state's sovereign rights, but it
also "would prohibit any remote sensing activity relating to natural
,,
resources under national jurisdiction without prior consent. 38
The United States was strongly opposed to both the France/Soviet Union
and BrazillArgentina draft treaties, indicating that "free and open dissemi­
,,
nation of data derived from remote sensing has no legal basis. 3 9 The
United States was not opposed, however, to the institution of a mild set of
guidelines. In a working paper submitted by the Canadians in 1 976, an
effort was made to find a middle ground between those who supported
"free and open dissemination" of all data, and those who called for strict
regulations to be applied to dissemination for economic and political
reasons. The question of how to establish some sort of international body

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 Political economy of information 121

to coordinate and oversee work in remote sensing also received attention at

several meetings of UNCOPUOS. While the debate on this matter
continues, a certain degree of consensus has been reached on a number of
principles. It was agreed that remote sensing should be carried out:
1 . for the benefit and in the interest of all countries;
2. in accordance with international law;
3 . to promote international cooperation and maximize the availability of
benefits;
4. to prevent phenomena detrimental to the natural environment of the
earth;
5 . by states which provide technical assistance to other interested states;
6. with the United Nations playing a useful role in coordination of remote
sensing activities;
7. with information indicating an impending natural disaster being made
available to affected states as soon as possible;
8. without the use of data intentionally to the detriment of other states.
It is safe to say that as the technology grows, efforts to establish legal
principles and to facilitate cooperation in this area will continue. It is also
probable that the interest of commercial enterprises in the West (especially
in Germany, Japan, and the United States) in operating their own remote
sensing satellites will continue to cause increased concern in the Third
World.
With the launching of Landsat D on July 1 6, 1 982, the capability of the
US to transmit high resolution images to its ground receiving stations
increased significantly due to the addition of a new thematic mapper (TM)
to the multispectral scanner (MSS) already in use in Landsats 1 , 2, and 3.
The new system is designed to accept 300 earth scenes a day with each
scene covering 1 3 , 255 square miles of land area. Scenes from the MSS
sensor contain 32 million picture elements, or pixels. Those from the TM
contain 300 million pixels. Under ideal conditions, the MSS sends 200
scenes a day and the TM sends 1 00 scenes a day through the ground
system. Every portion of the earth, with the exception of the polar areas,
undergoes this scrutiny every 1 6 days through the scanning of successive
swaths on each orbit, each measuring 1 1 5 miles wide.
The space shuttle also comprises part of the US remote sensing
equipment. Its second test flight in November 1 98 1 clearly demonstrated
the shuttle's ability to collect remote sensing data on a worldwide basis for
earth-related research.4o
The importance of Landsat imagery lies in its varied applications. These
applications include: agricultural production; rangeland management; forest
management; water resources management; geologic survey and mineral and
petroleum exploration; cartography; land use (urban and regional) planning;
demography; environmental protection; marine, resources, oceanography,
and coastal engineering; disaster warning and assessment; and desertifica­
tion. These diverse applications are made possible by Landsat's ability to

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1 22 Global information and world communication

detect sediment patterns in coastal waters, heat stress in crops indicating

disease, rock structures that indicate mineral or oil deposits, as well
as detailed surface imagery. The SIR-A flight in November 198 1 was
successful in identifying an ancient river system under the Sahara Desert,
using radar images that exposed features as deep as 16 feet below the arid
sand. 41
There are numerous ground stations currently operating outside the
United States that receive Landsat data directly from the relay satellite.
Most of these stations are owned by Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada,
India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Africa, Sweden, and Thailand. In
addition to these countries, many other nations have made use of the
information, available on the open market through the EROS Space Center
in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. These nations generally buy the imagery
either outright, or in conjunction with development aid through the World
Bank or USAID.
For example, the government of Upper Volta, working with the World
Bank, is using Landsat to identify areas that can support nomadic
tribesmen migrating southward because of drought conditions. A Regional
Remote Sensing Center has been set up in Ouagadougou under the
authority of a management committee composed of the 1 1 member
countries: Benin, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Guinea, Upper Volta,
Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, and Sierra Leone. In 1 98 1 , the center
had already trained 90 participants in remote sensing data interpretation.
Additionally, other nations have had access to and made use of remote
sensing information. The EROS Data Center has sole imagery to 1 27
countries. Thailand has proposed regional usage of the data generated by
its ground station in addition to current domestic uses. Sixteen countries of
distinct geographical territories are wholly covered and six more are
partially covered. In conjunction with the ASEAN countries, Thailand
could serve the entire area. 42 This proposal is in keeping with NASA's
original intention in expanding earth station coverage. Nations with ground
stations are encouraged to develop their own markets for the imagery to
defray some of the operational costs.
Foreign use of Landsat imagery constituted only 33 percent of all data
sold in 1 98 1 , and 25 percent of all data in 1 982. One of the largest domestic
users continues to be the US government. However, since the
commercialization of this technology in the 1 980s both in Europe and
the United States, private satellite firms have been active in the exchange of
data and images on an international level.
The Department of Defense has relied heavily on Landsat imagery in the
last decade to compensate for the failure of its own sophisticated weather
satellite system. Of two military weather satellites in polar orbit, "one is
spinning uselessly out of control." The primary instrument on the second
satellite has failed. "A third Air Force weather satellite was destroyed when
,,
its launching rocket failed. 43 During the Falklands War, Landsat provided
the only high-quality satellite data available. Since US spy satellites

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 Political economy of information 1 23

primarily focused on the Soviet Union, they did not range to the south, or
were too high in space when passing over southern areas.
In private application, the US Commerce department's National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellite data on sea tempera­
tures, ice, and wind conditions can be transmitted via radio facsimile to
Alaskan king crab fishermen aboard their boats. 44
There exists no comprehensive listing of the actual users of remote
sensing data. Apparently, Landsat data is stored haphazardly on various
computer tapes interspersed with tapes of aircraft photography and other
information. According to officials, a request for a list of users filed a
couple of years ago was turned down by the Department of Interior, which
decided that it violated the Privacy Act.
There is no readily available information on the former Soviet remote
sensing efforts. The countries in Europe do have their own system of
satellites: Intercosmos. For the first time, in 1 976, it was indicated that
some of the Intercosmos satellites were capable of remote sensing. This
ability had already been attributed to Soviet Soyuz and Salyut spacecraft. 45
The Japanese have developed their own MOS- l (Marine Observation
Satellite- I), the first of a planned series of land and marine observation
satellites. Japan launched MOS- l in 1 986, and the readout and processing
of sensor data is done at the earth observation center where Landsat
readout and processing currently occurs. Additionally, the Japanese Earth
Resources Satellite- l (JERS- l ) was developed by Japan primarily for
purposes of geological mapping and resource evaluation.46

Planetary Resource Information Flow

The issues involved in remote sensing are numerous. In the economic

sphere, the transition of remote sensing from an experimental project by
NASA to an exploitable market commodity under the auspices of the US
Commerce Department illustrates the rapidly changing context in which
this resource is viewed.
The transfer of the operational system to the Commerce department's
NOAA, and Comsat's takeover of the system complete with the weather
satellites, have resulted in a state of flux that make it difficult to pinpoint
exactly who is responsible for what services and information.
Although the general consensus is that there does not at present exist a
market that would make commercialization of the Landsat system econ­
omically feasible, the Metrics, Inc. study indicates that the field could be
extremely lucrative. Frederick Henderson of Geosat, a cooperative venture
of large private corporations that use Landsat data, states that "the
,,
technology is way ahead of its applications. 47 As Henderson speculated in
the 1 980s, the market has now, in the 1 990s, split into two separate fields:
the operation of the satellites themselves, and the "value-added" interpreta­
tion of the data for customers like oil companies and agricultural firms.

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1 24 Global information and world communication

It has been suggested that industry generally tries to obscure its sales
through third parties such as consulting firms or cooperatives like Geosat.
Mineral and petroleum companies will further try to cover up their interests
by "overbuying" (buying imagery in three or four different states to distract
any observers from their true interest in a small five-mile-square area).
State and local government purchases are also obscured by buying from
academic institutions. The institutions, in turn, further muddle the picture
by replicating what they have bought and swapping with other institutions.
Another economic consideration is the cost to other countries of con­
structing and maintaining ground stations. It takes between $4 million and
$7 million to build the station, and $ 1 million and $2 million annually to
operate it. Additionally, there is a $600,000 US government charge for data
access. Thus, although the US position on remote sensing advocates free
dissemination of the information, the cost often determines a nation's
ability to participate in data use.
An additional cost is interpretation fees. Landsat offers would-be users
(foreign governments or private companies) interpretation assistance for a
fee ranging from $ 1 , 000 to $3 ,000 per frame. The users of this service are
primarily the US government, but 30 percent are private industry, largely
oil and mineral exploration firms. In spite of the stiff fees, Landsat imagery
remains one of the most cost-effective means of obtaining the information
sought. Satellite image analysis costs only about 1 6¢ per square mile, as
opposed to aircraft film interpretation, which is about $ 1 .30 per square
mile. 48 These figures may have changed somewhat because of recent price
revisions, but the comparison with aircraft film is still appropriate.
The institutional and political factors in remote sensing revolve primarily
around the US government. The shift of operations from NASA to NOAA
in the Department of Commerce has introduced a new philosophy about
the nature of the program: that it should at least break even, or perhaps
show a profit. Admittedly, the Landsat program was initially designed as
an experimental program, and it was difficult for NASA to keep up with
the proliferation of ground stations and demand for imagery. The emphasis
in NASA was on innovation and further refinement of the existing system
rather than data production on a regular basis. The latest discussion of
privatization of the system reflects acknowledgement of this weakness, but
merely proposes government subsidization of a private corporation, rather
than a government agency. Commerce Secretary Malcolm Baldrige's April
1 4, 1 983 testimony before the House Committee on Science and Tech­
nology seemed to reflect a determination of the US government to turn the
system over to the private sector, despite considerable evidence discour­
aging this move.
The legal issues involved in remote sensing are numerous and complex.
In examining some of the literature produced in this area over the last three
decades, it is evident that many of the suggested approaches for dealing
with these issues through an international body have lost their pertinence
because technical advances have made them obsolete. Similarly, the lack of

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 Political economy of information 1 25

consensus on the issue has forced inaction in establishing a regulatory

system, resulting in the adoption by default of the US position of free
dissemination. Nevertheless, a brief overview of some of the most signifi­
cant statements can demonstrate the complexity of the area.
In 1 968, the United Nations established the Committee on the Peaceful
Uses of Outer Space partly to assist in the normalization of ongoing sens­
ing practices. The Scientific and Technical Subcommittee of UNCOPUOS
called attention to the use of remote sensing techniques for the planning of
global resources in 1 969.
An ongoing controversy in this forum has been the issue of national
sovereignty. Two types of suggestions have been offered to deal with the
reservations expressed by nations opposed to "free dissemination." The first
involves a technical solution that envisages the development of a space­
ground system confining the satellite's observations to a specific nation's
frontiers, and a " 'dump' coded telemetry" to each country individually and
exclusively. A procedural solution would establish a nation's priority access
to data about itself, prior to general release after a preestablished lapse of
time.49
The US, on the other hand, has traditionally advocated a policy of "open
skies," and asserts that infringement of sovereignty and related issues are all
moot points. To impose limitations on dissemination would be detrimental
to two predominant benefits of satellite sensing: the broad-era, synoptic
view of natural characteristics and of environmental and resource factors
that may be multinational in scope; and the timely availability of dynamic
data important to the international community as a whole in matters
requiring concerted action (as in the case of monitoring crops).
The policy of the US is that the space systems of any nation are national
property and have the right of passage through space without interference.
Indeed, the US regards the purposeful interference with the space
systems of any nation as an infringement upon the sovereign rights of
that nation.
William Lazaras describes the dilemma of developing nations in this
regard when entering negotiations with transnational corporations, even
when both have access to Landsat data:

Even with the best infonnation provided by the most honest, competent foreign
consultant, expatriate expert or national resource analysis department (a highly
idealized hypothetical situation), an LDC is likely to be at a disadvantage in its
ability to use the infonnation effectively in a negotiation. Local ground
experience, even if it is incorporated in the negotiating process, is often more than
outweighed by the multinational's access to print, graphic and computer data
bases which may include, in addition to the best available analyses of Landsat
data, highly sophisticated geological projections, contracts and negotiations in
other countries and high level decision-software for handling all the data. 50

Thus, the crucial distinction between "primary data" and "analyzed infor­
mation" can make a considerable difference in the ability to take advantage

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126 Global information and world communication

of remote sensing imagery, even if it is freely disseminated, as proposed by

the US government. Free dissemination does not guarantee equal access to
information, even as "free flow of information" does not mean "balanced
flow." However, with the widespread participation in use of Landsat
imagery in the last 20 years, and no regulation over reproduction of scenes
already purchased, the sovereignty and security issues disputed by many
developed countries are, indeed, moot.
The technical factors involved in remote sensing are fairly obvious from
the previous section of this chapter. The primary impact of the technical
aspects has been in the policy-making area, where technological advance­
ments have preceded any coherent consensus on collection and distribution
of the data in question. Since these data are also freely disseminated to
those who can pay, any proposals for restrictions through the United
Nations will have again been too late to be effective.
The impact of the flow of this information is evident in its many
applications. Undoubtedly, the number of nations that have been enriched
through use of remote sensing imagery are many. The examples mentioned
in this work only scratch the surface of the applications of data in the last
20 years. In all fairness, the availability of the data has, in all probability,
resulted in some exploitation of developing nations by multinational
corporations with the personnel and experience to extract the most
analyzed information out of the primary data. The international political
ramifications of remote sensing data are considerable as well.
Although the effect of the flow on private industry is impossible to
measure because of the obscured buying practices mentioned earlier, the
fact that the largest percentage of buyers is industry indicates that the data
are valuable in a variety of areas. Herbert Schiller sees an insidious link
between the private sector and government funding in the area of remote
sensing. Citing the Geosat Committee, Inc., as an example, he criticizes the
US position as catering to private interests and use of the "open skies"
policy as a shield for commercial exploitation of the information. Geosat is
an organization sponsored by tons of US and non-US international oil, gas,
mineral, and engineering-geological companies, and "coaches" NASA on
the technical interests of its members. As mentioned earlier, it acts as a
screen for corporate purchases of imagery through third-party buys.
Perhaps Schiller's most revealing quotation is from the testimony of Dr.
Irwin Pikus:

One [problem] concerns the question of sovereignty over information pertaining

to natural resources. We find that many developing countries guard their natural
resources quite jealously and are considerably concerned that advanced countries
might be able to exploit them to their disadvantage. That has motivated a
number of countries to assert sovereign control and sovereign claims over infor­
mation and data concerning their natural resources that, of course, we can't agree
with and it is a claim put forth strongly by a number of developing countries . . .
we do not consider the question of sovereignty over information in the hands of
1
others. 5

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 Political economy of information 1 27

Pikus presents the US position as refusing to consider the issue of national

sovereignty (except US sovereignty) entirely.
The purpose and intention of this vertical information flow is purely
technical. It is only when the impact of the data is considered that value
assumptions come into question. The literature in this area reflects this
split. The literature divides into approximately three different areas: (1)
technical works on issues or problems of a specific scientific or engineering
interest, (2) reports of field projects and efforts in technology transfer, and
(3) cost-benefit forecasts or works on the potential or prospects for the
technology in developing nations.
The first of these categories encompasses the majority of the literature
available today on remote sensing. These works range from do-it-yourself
manuals on remote sensing film interpretation to extremely technical
treatises on the workings of the multispectral scanner and the thematic
mapper. Most of the information from NASA falls into this category.
The second category, also easily identified, is composed of government
statements on remote sensing and governmental proposals for applications.
It seems that even as governments are criticizing the omniscience that
remote sensing data bestows upon the user, they are jostling in line to be
next.
The third category is equally represented in US government and in
foreign material. Noticeably missing, however (with the exception of
Herbert Schiller's work), is any criticism of the technology on a specific
level. The issues being raised currently by the proposed transfer of opera­
tions to the private sector need further study and analysis.
Thus, remote sensing is anything but a clear-cut issue. Because of the
numerous factors involved and the fluid state of current developments, it is
impossible to predict its future even a year from now. Suffice it to say that
remote sensing is here to stay, and the heated debate over its use may
ultimately be decided by similar contemporary issues in international
communication.
The benefit of these new technologies are now available on a widespread
basis, but policies to deal with them do not exist. It is here that policies
must be developed before the benefits are negated. An all-pervasive
problem on national, international, and global levels has been the continual
lag of social institutions behind technological progress. It is now generally
agreed that application of a set of principles, born out of narrow national
circumstances, to the operation of technologies with overwhelmingly global
implications is at least a pretentious and self-serving approach. This, at
least, is illustrative of the view of those who take a cooperative rather than
a competitive approach to international utilization of satellite technology.
The economic and political implications of the knowledge acquired by
remote sensing are obvious. The ability to predict agricultural failures and
food dependencies, for instance, can influence political judgements and
international market bids. 52 The conditions under which private corpora­
tions have agreed to the takeover of the remote sensing operation illustrates

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1 28 Global information and world communication

the economic and institutional aspects of this technology. These conditions

include: (1) giving away the existing facilities free of charge, (2) govern­
mental obligation to undertake future research and development, (3)
governmental assurance not to enter into any competition as well as to
guarantee a fixed market for remote sensing data, and (4) government
management of the international negotiations that global remote sensing
activities necessitate. For the moment remote sensing activities in the
United States are the domain of NOAA, but the government's intention to
tum the activity over to the private sector is also being entertained. In fact,
this commercialization of space by the United States private firms is well
under way. 53

Notes

1 . United Nations Centre on Transnational Corporations (UNCTC), "Transnational

Corporations and Transborder Data Flow: An Overview," paper presented at the Seventh
Session of UN Economic and Social Council Commission on Transnational Corporations,
Geneva, August 3 1-September 14, 198 1 , advance copy, June 1 98 1 .
2 . W . Michael Blumenthal, "Transborder Data Flow and the New Protectionism," paper
delivered before the National Computer Conference, Chicago, IL, May 6, 1 9 8 1 , p. 6.
3. For example, see Jonathan B. Tourtellot, "A World Information War?" European
Community, January/February 1978, p. 15.
4. See John H. Clippinger, Review of Ithiel de Sola Pool et aI., Datanets and the Third
World, in Telecommunication Policy, June 1 , 1977, p. 264.
5. Tourtellot, "A World Information War?" p. 140.
6. Hamid Mowlana, "The Multinational Corporation and the Diffusion of Technology,"
in Abdul A. Said and Luiz R. Simmons, eds, The New Sovereigns: Multinational Corporations
as World Powers (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1975), p. 83.
7. Eric J. Novotny, "Transborder Data Flow Regulation: Technical Issues of Legal
Concern," Computer/Law Journal, 3: 2 (Winter 198 1), p. 1 07. See also Mark B. Feldman and
David R. Garcia, "National Regulations of Transborder Data Flows," North Carolina Journal
of International Law and Commercial Regulations, 7: I (Winter 1982), p. 1 .
8. See Eric J . Novotny, "Transborder Data Flows and International Law: A Framework
for Policy-Oriented Inquiry," Stanford Journal of International Law, 16 (Summer 1980), pp.
1 50-156.
9. Rein Turn, ed., Transborder Data Flows: Concerns in Privacy Protection and Free Flow
of Information. Report of the AFIPS Panel on Transborder Data Flows, I, Washington, DC,
Federation of Information Processing Society, Inc., 1979, p. 39.
10. Novotny, "Transborder Data Flows and International Law," p. 1 56.
I I . Novotny, "Transborder Data Flow Regulations," pp. 1 1 1-1 1 2.
12. Novotny, "Transborder Data Flows and International Law," p. 1 52.
1 3 . Allen Gotlieb, Charles Dalfen, and Kenneth Katz, "The Transborder Transfer of
Information by Communications and Computer Systems: Issues and Approaches to Guiding
Principles," American Journal of International Law, 68 (1974), p. 227.
14. Novotny, "Transborder Data Flows and International Law," p. 145.
1 5. Rein Turn, "Privacy Protection and Security in Transnational Data Processing
Systems," Stanford Journal of International Law, 16 (Summer 1980), pp. 7 1 -73.
16. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, "Guidelines Governing the
Protection of Privacy and Transborder Flows of Personal Data" (Paris, 1 980).
1 7. Council of Europe, "Convention for the Protection of Individuals with Regard to
Automatic Processing of Personal Data" (Strasbourg, 1980).

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 Political economy of information 1 29

1 8. United States Congress, House of Representatives, 96th Session, Committee on

Government Operations, "International Information Flows: Forging A New Framework,"
December I I , 1980 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1980), p. 28.
19. United Nations Center on Transnational Corporations, "Transnational Corporations
and Transborder Data Flow," p. 28.
20. Ibid., p. 29.
2 1 . Hamid Mowlana, "Political and Social Implications of Communications Satellite
Applications in Developed and Developing Countries," in Joseph N. Pelton and Marcellus S.
Snow, eds, Economic and Policy Problems in Satellite Communications (New York: Praeger,
1977), pp. 124-142.
22. "Madec Expects TDF Dividends for France," Transnational Data Report, 5: 6
(September 1982), p. 291 .
23. United States Congress, "International Information Flow," pp. 13-19.
24. Feldman and Garcia, "National Regulation of Transborder Data Flows," p. 14.
25. United States Congress, "International Information Flow,' p. 24.
26. Feldman and Garcia, "National Regulation of Transborder Data Flows," p. 14.
27. Joan Edelman Spero, "Information: The Policy Void," Foreign Policy, Fall 1982, p.
143.
28. United Nations Centre on Transnational Corporations, "Transnational Corporations
and Transborder Data Flow," pp. 24-27.
29. Turn, ed., Transborder Data Flows, p. 29.
30. Herbert I. Schiller, Who Knows: Information in the Age of Fortune 500 (Norwood, NJ:
Ablex Publishing Corporation, 198 1), p. 20.
3 1 . "Technology, TDF and the New International Information Order," Transnational Data
Report, 5: 4 (June 1982), p. 206.
32. Ithiel de Sola Pool and Richard Jay Solomon, "Intellectual Property and Transborder
Data Flows," Stanford Journal of International Law, 1 6 (Summer 1980), pp. 1 17-129.
33. Spero, "Information", p. 1 53.
34. United Nations Centre on Transnational Corporation, "Transnational Corporations
and Transborder Data Flow," p. 36.
35. "Japan Investigates TDF," Transnational Data Report, 5: 8 (December 1982), pp. 421-
423.
36. "UNCTC Pursues Corporate TDF Impact," Transnational Data Report, 5: 7 (October!
November 1982), p. 322.
37. Valerie Hood, Mary E. Kimball, and David A. Kay, A Global Satellite Observation
System for Earth Resources: Problems and Prospects, The American Society of International
Law Studies in Transnational Legal Policy No. 1 5 (Washington, DC: West Publishing Co.,
1977), p. 48.
38. Hamilton DeSausur, "Remote Sensing by Satellite: What Future for an International
Regime," The American Journal of International Law, 7 1 : 4 (October 1977), p. 720.
39. "U.S. Presents Guidelines for Remote Sensing of the Natural Environment From Outer
Space," Department of State Bulletin, 72, March 3 1 , 1975, p. 421 .
40. J.W. Beck, "Earth Sciences and Land Remote Sensing - Applications in
Development," paper read at the First Intergovernmental Meeting of Space Technology
Experts, New York, February 4-5, 1983, p. 8.
4 1 . John Nobel Wilford, "Spacecraft Detects Sahara's Buried Past," The New York Times,
September 27, 1982, p. IA.
42. Sanga Sabhasri et aI., "Remote Sensing Activities in Thailand," paper read at the
Regional Meeting on Remote Sensing in Southeast Asia, Bangkok, Thailand, March 23-24,
198 1 , pp. 9-10.
43. Robert C. Toth, "Pentagon Can't Get Its Weather 'Spies' to Work," Los Angeles
Times, September 27, 1982, p. IA.
44. "Remote Sensing Aiding Alaskan Fisheries," Satellite Week, March 2, 1 98 1 , p. 4.
45. Gijsbertha C. Reijnen, Utilization of Outer Space and International Law (Amsterdam:
Elsevier Scientific Publishing Co., 1981), p. 63.

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13 0 Global information and world communication

46. Kioshi Tsuchiga, "Land Remote Sensing Technology of Current Status and Future
Prospects of Japan," paper read at the First Intergovernmental Meeting of Space Technology
Experts, New York, February 4-5, 1 983, p. 4.
47. Michael Schrage, "Scanning the Globe for Private Profits," The Washington Post, April
3, 1983, p. IH.
48. William M . Feldman, "Remote Sensing in the Development Process - UNCSTD
Initiative," memo to Sander Levin, July 1 3 , 1979, p. 2.
49. Resource Sensing from Space: Prospects for Developing Countries. Report of the Ad
Hoc Committee on Remote Sensing for Development, National Academy of Sciences,
Washington, DC, 1977, pp. 146-147.
50. William Lazaras, "Landsats, Minerals and Development: A Qualitative Notion of the
Down-side Risk," Massachusetts Institutes of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 1 980, pp. 2 1-22.
5 1 . Schiller, Who Knows, p. 1 18.
52. Ibid, pp. 1 30- 1 3 1 .
5 3 . See Michael Schrage, "Consortium Plans Private Satellite Venture," The Washington
Post, September 8, 1983, D I , p. I .

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 7

International Interactions :
Travel and Tourism

The worldwide explosion of communication and transportation technolo­

gies in the past three decades has led to a corresponding increase in contact
between peoples of different nations and cultures. As changes in technology
and communication have extended the boundaries of virtually every human
enterprise, a number of people are becoming acquainted with the inter­
national dimensions of their activities by personal contacts and direct
interactions rather than through the mass media. Links between cities and
villages no longer require urbanization as a precondition to participation.
Money and data can move through telecommunications and computers
without any bankers ever leaving their offices or customers their homes.
Goods can be purchased without buyers leaving their residences. In short,
technology has made possible the global exchange of information without
requiring the participants to venture from the center of their activities and
life.
Many activities, however, now involve a second layer or type of infor­
mation flow: human movement. Business people traveling around the
world; professors and students attending conferences and academic institu­
tions; immigrants in search of a new country; refugees seeking asylum;
military and diplomatic personnel on assignment; and tourists in pursuit of
novelty, pleasure, or rest are all potential channels of communication,
particularly disseminating a great deal of cultural information.
In today's world, many people become involved in international activities
as diverse as those in which they are involved domestically. Although
international flow of information in technological-human channels has
become multidimensional, international activities, which have originated
from very specific geographical locations within nations, are very unevenly
distributed.

The Foreign Relations of the Public

Unfortunately, nearly all traditional international relations research has

been carried out on the level of the national unit, emphasizing only (l)
high- and middle-level policy makers, including formal institutions and
bureaucracy, and (2) diplomatic, political, economic, and military aspects
of international relations. Consequently, with the exception of a few

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1 32 Global information and world communication

studies, l the attitudes of the public toward foreign policy and the public's
role in the entire realm of international communication have been
neglected.
The mobility of people across national boundaries has historically been
one of the most important factors in the international flow of information.
In past centuries, especially in the last 500 years, human flow across
national and cultural boundaries took the form of explorers, traders,
merchants, colonists, missionaries, and armies, as well as prisoners of war.
These flows are themselves quite revealing of the historical context within
which such phenomena occurred among nations.
To illustrate the significance of the human flow across boundaries, one
can cite the fact that in human communication, in addition to the message,
the whole machinery and system of communication is being moved as well.
When individuals move from one location to another, they transfer not
only their physical bodies, but also a whole host of previous experiences,
ideas, attitudes, beliefs, opinions, motivations, and goals. Despite the
increasing importance of communication technologies in international
relations and communication, and their profound impact on national,
international, and cultural systems, it is a central thesis of this study that
the development making current communication research different, and in
some ways more valid than in the past, is and shall be the inclusion of
human factors in international exchange.
It is, therefore, argued that the human being must be viewed as a central
component in the entire process of message producing and distributing. The
human being must be viewed as both a message and a channel of inter­
national communication. Individuals as media for international commu­
nication become most important in the light of the view that feedback is
more instant, and communication is perhaps more complete and lasting,
when it is executed on an interpersonal level. While this realization may
appear elementary, it is a benchmark of what may heretofore be the most
important efforts in research on the global flow of information.
The classification of the types of human flow across national boundaries is
extensive and only a few will be reviewed at length in this study. In general,
nine broad channels of human movement can be identified, each accounting
for a variety of activities in international relations. They are: (1) migration
and refugee movements; (2) movement of labor and professional personnel
across borders; (3) tourism; (4) military, diplomatic, and intelligence
ventures; (5) educational, scientific, and cultural exchanges and conferences;
(6) business and financial travel and meetings; (7) mass media, popular
culture, and performing arts; (8) sports; (9) voluntary organizations.

International Tourism as a Mode of Communication

In the past, research on international tourism has focused on the economic

aspects: market surveys, financial analysis, and logistical reports. It has

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 International interactions 133

now been recognized that tourism i s a powerful medium affecting cultural

change and international relationships. However, few hard studies have
been conducted, and researchers are divided on the issue of effects being
positive or negative. Many of the studies in the field of tourism do not
directly link it to international communication and flow of information.
Therefore, researchers must attempt to trace the history of tourism studies
and document the evolution of the field as a growing component in the
importance of international communication.
There are three key factors whose continued influence has shaped the
tourist industry. First, developments in transportation provide rapid
mobility at an affordable price. Second, communication technology brings
images of the world close, evoking a desire for more. And third, the
development of industrial production and a market economy provides the
surplus money and time for individuals to explore the world beyond their
front doors, and also furnishes the marketing apparatus to plan and sell
travel as a desirable escape.
A fourth factor could be identified in the symbiotic relationship between
tourism and all other forms of communication. As communication regard­
ing travel increases, both formally through market and nonmarket infor­
mation sources and informally through interpersonal contact, the volume
of tourism increases. When that occurs, there is further dissemination of
information and a spiralling effect is set in motion. All of these factors
working together are primarily responsible for the boom in tourism since
the 1 960s.
Four major actors shape the roles in international tourism. The first, of
course, is the tourist. The role of the tourist is especially important in that
it is changeable and directly affects the type of cultural interaction and
information flow that will occur. The tourist can be a part of the "mass,"
traveling and interacting only with the false fantasy world created for him
or her. At the other end of the spectrum, the tourist can be somewhat of a
drifter, traveling individually and observing or experiencing first hand the
true culture of the host country.
Two important factors in determining the role of these actors are their
reasons for traveling and their sources of information. Tourists travel for a
variety of reasons, including enhancement of social status, transcending
feelings of isolation, a search for reality and authenticity, escape, and
pleasure. Further, information sources are not necessarily objective and
unbiased. Obviously, travel magazines and literature are promotional
rather than factual. Studies show that the advice of friends is considered
more credible, but that, too, is certainly a non-objective information
source.
The second actor is the host national or the "local." Again, we must
make a distinction between those participating in the industry's fantasy
world and those outside it. "Local color" is often the creation of marketing,
and the host nationals who are employed by the tourism industry do not
necessarily interact with tourists in a representative manner. Those

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1 34 Global information and world communication

COU NTRY A COU NTRY B

Guest Host

Guest Host
public/private public/private
organizations organizations

Transnational Transnational
organizations organizations

Figure 7 . 1 International tourism relationships: patterns of information flow

and influence

nationals outside the industry may show a somewhat different face to

tourists and some are even likely to be hostile. Nevertheless, an accurate
reflection of people and culture in a foreign land is not apt to be obtained
through interaction with nationals employed by the tourism sector.
Third are the corporations and individuals who make up the industry
itself: travel and tour agencies, travel publications, airlines and transporta­
tion services, hotels, restaurants, shops, and all their personnel. These are
the actors who design, package, and sell the complete experience that we
have referred to as fantasy. These individuals and transnationals create the
experience and image that sells, and then proceed to make that the reality
for the tourist.
Finally, governments play an important role in tourism both as industry
participants and as regulators. The latter engendered the former when in
the process of regulation, governments became aware of the economic
impact of tourism. They began to be active participants in the industry,
forming travel ministries and information bureaus as well as developing
policy conducive to attracting tourists (see Figure 7.1 ).
Regulation does a t times, however, serve to protect the host and limit
tourism, as can be seen in the strict government control of the tourist sector
in certain countries. Some governments act to limit visas and specify travel
modes, routes, and destinations. The tourism sector is limited not only
geographically, but economically as well, and only authorized merchants
may accept specially minted tourist money.
Although the public and private organizations of developed countries
affect the people and governments of developing nations through invest-

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 International interactions 1 35

ment and employment, resulting in a variety of dependency relationships as

well as economic growth, the communication flows among participants in
the tourism interaction are not necessarily one-way, nor does a message
always end after passing between two parties. Interactions are possible at
all stages, especially in cases of face-to-face communication. A major key
to the outcome of a tourist interaction process is the nature of the
relationship between the individuals involved. Several anthropologists have
suggested that important factors influencing the quality of interaction are
the types of tourists and the motivations that lead them to visit a particular
country ?
One widely quoted theory of motivation for travel is Abraham Maslow's
,,
well-known "hierarchy of needs. 3 Here, after the basic human physio­
logical and social requirements are met, people turn to satisfying self­
realization needs. It has been argued that the wealth and leisure available in
the Western industrialized nations have enabled individuals to turn their
attention to the need for developing their own potential, seeking aesthetic
stimulation, and building their character. More commonly cited reasons for
travel and tourism are simply relaxation, pleasure, education, and culture.
This explanation, as it applies to modern mass tourism, however, ignores
the external information and promotion coming from the tourist industry
around the world, as well as the consumer and consumption orientation of
this phenomenon in modern life. Further, it overlooks the escapist nature of
the process from the viewpoint of alienated individuals in today's
industrialized world.
One of the few actual studies of tourist's motivations was a consumer
marketing study of travelers to the Pacific.4 Equally applicable to the
Caribbean region, it found that "vacationers were most concerned with
creature comforts such as accommodations and climate, with some interest
in recreational facilities and less interest in cultural items." A vacation
travel-attitude survey, based on personal interviews with 1 ,005 heads of
households, indicated that the most important factors in determining
American travel destinations (after elimination of visits to relatives and
habitual repeat visits to one locale) were, in order of importance: beautiful
scenery, a chance to get a good rest, good sports or recreational facilities, a
chance to meet congenial people, and outstanding food. 5 The fact remains
that in today's mass tourism, agents of the tourism industry are instru­
mental in the entire process of encounter, since they act as intermediaries
between the tourists and the host country. As gatekeepers, they are the
potential suppliers of information and indeed tourist-agenda setters.
Research shows that the allocentric "drifters" are the first to discover a
potential tourist locale. 6 They are followed by the "explorers," then, finally
by the largest group, the "mass tourists."
Mass tourism is large-scale commercial and institutional tourism. It
depends on the tourist establishment of hotel chains, travel agencies, travel
industries and in some cases is government-sponsored. Mass tourists are
processed as efficiently, smoothly, and quickly as possible throughout all

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1 36 Global information and world communication

phases of the trip. A mass tourist is allowed to take in the "foreigners that
,,
he seeks without experiencing any discomfort. 7 The mass tourist thus
travels in a world of his or her own, failing to become integrated into the
host society. Of the three groups just noted, mass tourists have the greatest
potential for stereotyping and being stereotyped by the host country. Thus,
in the 1 950s and 1 960s, when Americans more than any other nationality
were economically able to travel around the world, they became more
visible as a single group overseas. The cultural clash of this type of
encounter was highly responsible for the term "ugly American," which was
used for the American overseas. In the 1 970s, Arabs traveling in England,
and Japanese in the Far East and elsewhere, were targets of much local
resentment.
The degree to which tourist interactions will affect a host society can be
predicted using a functional framework consisting of such variables as
temporal, spatial, communication, and cultural factors. For example,
regarding the temporal factor, it has been hypothesized that the longer
visitors remain in one area, the stronger the possibility that they will have
greater penetration and encounters. The spatial factor will determine the
degree of contact between the tourists and their hosts. Communication
variables could include such factors as language, symbols, and nonverbal
behavior. Cultural variables will account for ethnic characteristics, color,
religion, and behavior. Such variables might allow policy makers and
promoters to predict the degree of effect tourism will have on the host
country as well as the visitors themselves. Further, sociocultural variables
might give information as to the direction of impact.

Tourism as an Integrated Industry

In the past, tourism was considered - largely by those outside the field - as
a provincial, peripheral area of domestic and regional studies dealing
primarily with commercial and business analyses and applications. Today,
however, the multibillion dollar international trade in tourism and travel­
related services has created an important sector of economic and cultural
activity. Furthermore, integration of communication technologies into the
tourism industry is involving tourism in the areas of technology transfer
and international trade in services, central areas of international political
debate for the 1 990s and twenty-first century.
International tourism evolved in a climate of expanding world trade and
rising production, employment, and income in virtually all industrialized
countries. s Tourism ranks as the largest industry in the world in terms
of employment ( 1 0 1 million people, one of every 1 6 workers) and ranks in
the top two or three industries in almost every country on nearly every
measure. In virtually every country, the industry is as large as - and in
many countries larger than - the entire agricultural sector or major manu­
facturing industries (autos, electronics, steel, textiles) considered integral

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 International interactions 137

parts of economic policy. Complex interindustry interdependence of

tourism products and services indicates that each million dollars in travel
sales generate close to $2 million in aggregate output.
Between 1 986 and 1 999, international trips (counting all trips across
international borders regardless of duration) are predicted to increase from
500 to 9 1 0 million, with real travel spending (excluding fares) rising
from $ 1 09 to nearly $200 billion at constant 1985 relative prices and
exchange rates. 9 Projected figures for the year 2000 are 532 million in world
international tourism arrivals and $304.3 in receipts (excluding inter­
national passenger fare payments). l 0 The accelerated numbers of interna­
tional travelers and frequency of travel are accompanied by increasing
wealth, cross-cultural exposure, and rising expectations of the frequent
traveler in market-oriented economies.
Today, the international tourism infrastructure stands as a symbol of
modern international relations in all its aspects by means of tourism's
integration into the complex world of global political, economic, and trade
relations (see Figure 7.2). The complexity of the tourism infrastructure,
therefore, and the methods used in understanding the integrated nature of
its growth are becoming central international relations policy concerns.

Telecommunications and the Tourism Industry

Telecommunications has now become a pivotal factor in international

relations and a central issue in the changing global systems. One of the
areas in which this telecommunications trend can be observed clearly is the
international tourism infrastructure in which a number of economic and
political issues converge (see Figure 7. 3). This convergence is generating a
new range of forces for cooperation and coalition formation as well as for
increased interdependence and dependency in the division of labor in the
tourism industry. The most recent major developments indicative of these
changes include:
1 . A rise in formal and informal national and international alliances and
coalitions within the private sector and between public and private
institutions involved in the globalization of travel and tourism.
2. A progression toward political and economic regionalism through
increased levels of negotiations for new intergovernmental policies in
such areas as international trade in tourism-related services and free
trade and investment agreements.
3. The emergence of informal or quasi-international welfare systems in
tourism in response to world economic crisis, resulting in corporate
consolidation and the globalization of the communication and financial
industries.

The increasing involvement and prominence of mixed-sector alliances

and coalitions in the international system, particularly those in the tourism

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 -
w
00

Business Travel Commercial Trade

Pleasure Travel Political Dimensions

�
�
>:l
--
() Family Travel Cultural Dimensions
�
o
� �
t2::r-. >:l

CD
Q.
TELECOMMUN ICATIONS
§'.
§
� >:l..
CD Advertising, Media, Transportation and Travel ;t
o
� and Travel Agencies Airlines, Shipping, Trains, etc. ...
is:

Educational Banking
Hotels, Resorts, etc.

Marketing and Entertainment

I
§
International Organizations Insurance
§.
leAO, WTO, etc. 5'
;::

Figure 7.2 Integrative model of tourism as international relations

 International interactions 1 39

COMMUN ICATION
AND
INTERNATIONAL TOU RISM
I N F RASTRUCTURE
(i.e., transportation, accommodation,
banking and booking facilities)

Airline Frequent Business

Computerized Travel Programs;
Reservation Bank and
Systems Non-Bank
(CRS)

I N FORMATION Research and INFORMATION

TECHN OLOGY Development;
Education,
Training

Figure 7.3 Interaction of information technology and telecommunications

with international tourism

infrastructure, illustrate shifts occurring in the international economic

power base. Corresponding fonnal and infonnal arrangements have fonned
on national and international levels within the private sector and between
public and private institutions. These arrangements are arising to
accommodate contending interests in the international tourism infrastruc­
ture over division of labor in the industry. The effects of this mixed-sector
coalition-building trend are visible in the areas of agenda setting and links
among issues in international government and non-government fora. Those
centering on the allocation of strategic international financial and tele­
communications resources in international tourism are prime examples. 1 1
Specifically, these include the institutionalization of such well-known
critical infonnation and capital-bearing structures (which might be called
"infonnation capital") as airline computerized reservation systems (CRS),
frequent business travel programs, and the accompanying globalized elec­
tronic payment distribution and retrieval systems, such as bank and non­
bank credit cards. 12
The telecommunications-based globalization of these programs, in tum,
has contributed to the emergence of cross-sector alliances and coalitions at

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140 Global information and world communication

the policy level. Such arrangements have been promoted largely by trans­
national corporations in the interests of both maintenance and expansion of
international trade and investments.
International financial institutions and telecommunications firms, within
the structure of international tourism, consolidate into larger units through
acquisitions and cross-ownership. The traditional labor-incentive sector of
tourism, (i.e., booking and travel agencies) is being threatened with the loss
of its traditional role. This is due to the fact that major transnational
companies, through new integrative telecommunications techniques, are
establishing the potential for direct market contact with tourism consumers,
thereby bypassing the need for travel agents and other small intermediaries.
Faced with industry-wide unemployment, large firms and transnational
corporations are under pressure to make new arrangements to maintain the
traditional sectors of international tourism through provision of technology
access and indirect subsidies and benefits. At the same time, these large
corporations are continuing to establish new relationships with the
emerging market dominance of corporate business travel consumers.
On April 9, 1 990, for example, under the auspices of the American
Express Company, the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) was
formed, comprised of nearly 50 Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) from the
world's leading travel and tourism companies. Being a CEO of a company
was a membership prerequisite along with the payment of a $ 1 0,000 fee. The
WTTC is financed by contributions from member companies and has an
annual operating budget of $ 1 .5 million. With dual headquarters in Brussels
and London, the WTTC represents the first attempt by powerful global
corporations - uniting diverse companies from within the industry - to cope
with rising demands and issues in a changing international environment.
Principal objectives of the WTTC include protecting the multi-billion dollar
information capital tourism investment and promoting tourism's economic
significance as the world's largest industry. In other words, the formation of
the WTTC grew out of the rise in importance of the tourism infrastructure
as a global instrument of economic power and of the ripeness of the inter­
national system for market expansion through telecommunications. The
WTTC style is action-oriented as a public policy lobbyist coalition on the
transnational level. The strength of the WTTC lies in the fact that there is
direct participation by CEOs who shape the WTTC agenda, formulate
policy, and speak out for the group at highest levels of international
government and nongovernment interaction. "Therein lies our difference
and our capacity to elevate industry issues onto national agendas." In short,
the recent cross-sector alliance and coalition-building process has coordi­
nated unprecedented collective thinking and mobilization toward political
participation at the highest-ranking executive level of the tourism industry.
Thus, the convergence of telecommunications technologies with trans­
national banking and investment is contributing to the genesis of new
supernational economies of scale in the tourism infrastructure and to the
formation of oligopolies in the transnational trade of information capital.

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 International interactions 141

Tourism i n a Global Context

Communication Technologies and transnational finance are central factors

in the international interactions linking tourism to international relations;
these relationships are heightened or altered strikingly by political, socio­
economic, or cultural instability or conflict. War is an unfortunate occur­
rence but at the same time provides an opportunity to examine the
relationship of certain phenomena to international relations through their
response to changes in the international system. During the 1 980s, for
example, events such as regional and international conflicts ranging from
the Lebanese civil war and that country's invasion by foreign troops, the
Iran-Iraq War, upheavals in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, and
worldwide terrorist attempts, all had profound effects on international
tourism.
The psychological effect of terrorism in the context of the Persian Gulf
War, more than in any other period in history, had direct impact on
international tourism. Countries such as Egypt, Israel, Turkey, Jordan,
Morocco - some as far as 4,000 miles east of Kuwait - were perceived to
be "too close" (by Western standards) to potential danger and experienced
large drops in their visitor counts. The precipitous decline in tourism
affected national foreign policy strategies. Israel and Egypt even canceled,
as fruitless, their national tourism promotion campaigns scheduled for
winter 1 990. Sharp declines in US visitors, fearful of terrorist activities on
trans-Atlantic routes and in international airports, were devastating to
London hotels, which experienced declines in occupancy rates between 25
and 50 percent in February 1 99 1 , forcing properties to lay off employees
and close floors, a trend reflected by hotels in most major European cities.
As a result of the Persian Gulf crisis, the integrative role played by
telecommunications technologies and transnational finance in the interna­
tional relations policy field has become virtually an established theme. The
collateral damage experienced by the international tourism industry during
the Persian Gulf War was to a large degree attributable to these techno­
logical and financial links. As a device for monitoring the increasingly
integrative effects of political instability on the international economy,
international tourism provides a useful barometer.
In today's global economy, instruments such as communication,
organizational and advertising skills, and manipulation of travel markets
have become important sources of power. Thus, countries which foster
transnational firms, such as the United States, Germany, and Japan, are
becoming more powerful in the international scene, as are emerging regions
such as the Asian-Pacific. Added to this, American and European long-time
experience in marketing and advertising techniques are becoming crucial
elements in intangible sources of power. The increasing level and geogra­
phic distribution of such international interactions are contributing to the
erosion of the conditions upon which traditional conceptions of national
sovereignty are based. It is not that the importance of nation-states as

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coherent units and dominant participants in world politics is disappearing.

Rather, it is that the conditions underlying contemporary interactions are
changing, shifting the political processes at times away from tradition,
intergovernmental definitions in the direction of linkage strategies and
agenda setting characterizing new transnational and transgovernmental
relations. 1 3
From the perspective of national sovereignty and economic power, the
direction of this flow is of critical concern. It is producing a continuous
erosion of the traditional notion of national sovereignty, especially in the
areas of information flow and telecommunications. This, coupled with the
growing trend toward consolidation in tourism, telecommunication, and
banking industries, is changing the international regulatory environment of
the international tourism infrastructure with profound effects on regional
and domestic policies.
A significant pattern of flow in world tourism is North-South, from the
more industrialized to the less industrialized countries. Many of the Third
World nations are virtually tourist-free, while some Third World regions
receive a disproportionate share of travelers. These latter areas constitute
the "pleasure periphery" : a tourist "playground" belt surrounding the
industrialized zones of the world, normally two to four hours' flying time
from the big urban centers and usually in the direction of the equator and
sunny climes. The North American periphery includes the Caribbean
countries, Mexican resorts, and the Pacific Islands. The Europeans head for
Mediterranean destinations. There are also countries such as Kenya and
India that draw thousands from the United States and Europe.
The present patterns of tourism support the theory that information flow
between a mother country and a colony or former colony will be largely
one-way.
A second issue that specifically concerns the center-periphery pattern of
tourist flow is cultural imperialism. The exposition here is the same as in all
the other types of information flow discussed: the dominant center over­
whelms the underdeveloped peripheries, stimulating rapid and unorganized
cultural and social change (Westernization), which is arguably detrimental.
Further, the influence is all the more potent for its proximity: rather than
seeing images of affluent Westerners on television, host nations are
intimately involved in assuring maintenance of that high standard of living
when Westerners travel abroad. Frustrated expectations take on a whole
new meaning when the "haves" are in the resort hotels next to the
dilapidated homes of the "have nots."
On the other hand, it is argued that such interaction stimulates positive
development, that it is a catalyst for necessary cultural change. It is
currently unclear whether the positive and negative impacts balance out.
Two things, however, are clear. One is that tourism will continue to be a
growing source of communication among nations. The other is the
recognition of a desperate need for research on tourism that goes beyond
the usual economic and financial concerns.

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 International interactions 143

In the final analysis, of course, whether tourism is a negative or positive

force in the country depends on one's value judgements, national aims,
national communication policies and objectives, and finally on individual
definitions of development. However, there is increasing evidence that the
growing quantity of tourist encounters does not necessarily mean increased
quality of relationships. The world of technology has expanded, and so has
the perceived physical world with all its diversities and colors, but whether
people's emotional capacities have also been expanded remains a big
question: the potential for communication does not automatically bring
people to a sense of personal involvement with one another.
Conclusions, at least for policy recommendations, are limited by the lack
of empirical studies in the field of tourism from a sociocultural perspective.
The fact remains that tourism will continue to be a growing source of
information flow among and between nations and cultures. The potential
for cultural impact increases with the number of tourists, and is particularly
strong in the case of travelers from industrialized countries flowing to lesser
developed regions: both of these points are forecasted trends.

Impact and Effects

The impact of tourism as a global flow of information can be seen on three

levels: global, societal, and individual. As mentioned previously, tourism is
now the single largest contributor to international trade, affecting not only
global economic relations, but political and social relations between and
among nations as well. Worldwide organizations and societies of pro­
fessionals employed in the travel industry have been established. The
movement of people around the globe cannot help but have far-reaching
ramifications, many not yet fully understood.
On the societal level, the emphasis has increasingly shifted from a focus
on economic impact to concern over cultural and social effects. Although
the flow of information between societies is two-way - the tourist passes
information about his or her own culture as well as receiving and relaying
information about the host culture to friends at home - the social and
cultural influence of tourists from developed nations on underdeveloped
periphery nations is unsettling.
On the third level of impact, the individual, personal images are created
or reinforced, on the part of both the traveler and the host. Individual
interaction is deemed by the participants to be the most credible source of
information on cultures and peoples. It is at this level that stereotypes are
either broken or irrevocably reinforced.
It should be pointed out that communication interaction occurs not only
within the levels of impact and effect, but between them. For example,
individual tourists have interaction with governments internationally as
they cross many national borders en route from one country to another.
They interact on a societal level with the culture and history of a specific

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nation or with the bureaucracy in securing a visa. Finally, tourists have

personal interaction with the individuals with whom they come in contact.
Keeping in mind the levels of interaction and impact, we tum now to
two key issues that are currently the subject of heated debate. The first is
image portrayal. It is argued that the travel industry purposely distorts the
true image of a society and people to create a marketable image. This false
marketable image, or "pseudo-image" as Daniel J. Boorstin calls it, is the
conglomeration of everything the industry thinks the potential tourist
desires. 1 4 The industry then goes to great lengths to provide the fantasy it
sells, creating a tourist paradise and isolating it from the actual host
society. Hence, false images and inaccurate information are perpetuated.
The French become the greatest lovers, the Germans are typed as
unfriendly, Polynesian islanders are thought to wear grass skirts and live in
grass huts. Mexican fishermen are believed to be fishing with nets as their
progenitors did, and Africans are stereotyped as uncivilized savages living
happily in their primitive cultures. Such pejorative and sometimes
patronizing images create substantial barriers to international interaction,
and in the case of the Third World, become obstacles to real social,
economic, and political development.

Notes

1 . Chadwick F. Alger's "Foreign Policies of the United States Publics," International

Studies Quarterly, XXI: 2 (June 1 977), pp. 277-3 1 7, is one of the few studies in this area.
2. Erik Cohen, "Nomads from Influence: Notes on the Phenomenon of Drifter Tourism,"
International Journal of Comparative Sociology, 14 (March-June 1973), pp. 89-103; Nancy H.
Evans, "Tourism and Cross-Cultural Communication," Annual of Tourism Research, 3
(March-April 1976), pp. 1 89- 198; and Valene Smith, "Tourism and Cultural Change," Annal
of Tourism Research, 3 (January-February 1 976)), pp. 122- 1 26.
3. Donald E. Lundberg, The Tourist Business (Boston, MA: CBI Publishers, 1 980), p. 1 .
See also Louis Turner, Multinational Companies and the Third World (New York: Hill and
Wang, 1973), p. 24.
4. Louis Turner, Multinational Companies and the Third World, p. 102.
5. Ibid., p. 104.
6. Cohen, "Nomads from Influence," p. 90.
7. Lundberg, The Tourist Business, p. 256.
8. Willbald P. Pahr, "Report of the Secretary-General of the World Tourism
Organization," presented to the First International Tourism Forum, October, Lausanne,
(Madrid: World Tourism Organization, 1989), p. 3.
9. Anthony Edwards, "International Tourism Forecasts to 1 999," The Economist Intel­
ligence Unit, London: The Economist Group of London, 1988, in "World Travel Overview,
1 988/1989," Travel and Leisure (New York: American Express Publishing, 1988), 1 6.
10. David L. Edgell, Sr, "Charting a Course for International Tourism in the Nineties: An
Agenda for Managers and Executives," Washington, D.C.: US Department of Commerce (US
Travel and Tourism and Economic Development Administrations), February 1990, 4 1 .
1 1 . Hamid Mowlana and Ginger Smith, "Trends in Telecommunications and the Tourism
Industry: Coalitions, Regionalism, and International Welfare Systems," World Travel and
Tourist Review, 2 (1992), p. 163.

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 International interactions 1 45

12. Hamid Mowlana and Ginger Smith, "Tourism, Telecommunications, and Transna­
tional Banking: A Framework for Policy Analysis," Tourism Management, 1 1 : 4 (1991), pp.
85- 106.
13. Robert O. Keohane and Joseph S. Nye, "Complex Interdependence, Transnational
Relations, and Realism: Alternative Perspectives on World Politics," in Charles W. Kegleyji Jr
and Eugene R.W. Wittkopf, eds, Global Agenda: Issues and Perspectives (New York: Random
House, 1992), pp. 257-271 .
14. Daniel l. Boorstin, The Image (New York: Harper Colophon, 1961), pp. 86-107.

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 8

Human Flow Across National

Boundaries : Intercultural Communication

Educational, artistic, scientific, and scholarly relations in general, and the

particular interests of economic, political, and cultural groups and indi­
viduals, as well as of the nation-state, comprise a significant aspect of
international and global flow of information. Since World War II, and
especially in the last 30 years, we have witnessed a historically unparalleled
expansion of significant activities in the area of international cultural and
scientific contact and transfer.
That the flow of educational and cultural information is an important
part of the current pattern of international relations cannot be denied. Such
channels of information and communication offer to business, the diplo­
matic community, and foreign policy institutions an instrument the poten­
tial of which is enormous and only yet beginning to be felt. International
education and cultural activities, however, are not simply instruments of
foreign and economic policies; they are an essential part of what foreign
policy, international economic and political relations in general, and
international communication in particular are all about. In today's world,
they are also inseparable from the stream of information provided by other
national, regional, international, and global channels such as the
mass media, telecommunications, and a score of political and economic
institutions.
At the same time, the unprecedented expansion of worldwide communi­
cation capabilities resulting from advances in communication technologies
has not yet created the "global village" these capabilities were expected to
create. Therefore, it is of increased importance and concern to both
researchers and participants in the international field that we construct a
meaningful bridge to facilitate understanding and harmony among the
peoples of the world. In short, because they concern themselves more with
quality than quantity in communication, international education and
cultural exchanges can reflect alternative paths to international political and
economic communication. Furthermore, these types of information flow are
directed toward specific individuals who are leaders and potential leaders in
their communities, and eventually provide the necessary ingredients and
contexts for other types of messages to be received. Finally, it has been
hypothesized that such educational and cultural flow of information may
contribute to the development of a common ground of shared interests
between nations, on which cooperative effort can be built.

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 Human flow across national boundaries 1 47

In the fields of international relations and international communication,

much attention has traditionally been given to military, economic, diplo­
matic, telecommunications, and mass communication policy, while educa­
tional and cultural policy have received relatively little intellectual attention
or systematic analysis. Yet the tradition of exchanging students, scholars,
artists, and even athletes is an age-old international practice. It is important
to note that both private and public exchange programs have increased to
an unexpectedly high level since World War II, and especially since the
1 960s, when a number of countries in the less industrialized world were
added to the list of independent nations. The growth in the significance of
such activities as an element of national policy has paralleled increases in
the frequency of exchanges over the last three decades. Today, the edu­
cational and cultural aspect of international affairs is not only more
apparent but considered to be more important than ever before.
In terms of information flow, the altered character and significance of
international education and cultural interchange can be attributed to:

1 . changes in the nature and sources of technological innovation;

2. changes in techniques of rapid distance communication and in the size
of audiences exposed to messages;
3. changes in the nature and sources of the transfer of technology from
materials, machines, and objects, to skill-oriented training and research;
4. changes in the perception of the epistemology, philosophy, and method­
ology of arts and sciences worldwide, particularly the "explosion of
knowledge";
5. recognition of educational and cultural flow as an aspect of national
development policy (especially in developing countries), and, in many
cases, as part of political and ideological policies (especially in indus­
trialized countries);
6. expansion of business and trade across national boundaries and the
emergence of a diversity of transnational actors;
7. increases in the number of intergovernmental and nongovernmental
organizations, as well as the number of the institutions and individuals
engaged in educational, cultural, and artistic activities.

Information flow through human movements, such as educational and

cultural activities, is more pronounced because it lends itself to both
international and intercultural communication. Quite simply, international
communication theoretically consists of communication across national
boundaries and between countries, whereas intercultural communication
occurs anywhere between people of different cultures. In practice, however,
the two are often identical, since communication crossing national borders
frequently involves different cultures. For example, the exchange of per­
forming artists not only necessitates a crossing of national borders but
requires contact with people of different cultures.

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International Conferences

Conferences - both at the regional and international level - play a sig­

nificant role in international communication and international relations.
The conference mechanism provides a forum for the exchange of infor­
mation, discussion, debate, and negotiation between governmental and
nongovernmental actors. The review of literature in this area suggests
a potential for research contribution, since few empirical studies have
been conducted to assess the information flow in, and emerging from,
conferences.
The importance of potential studies in this area can be illuminated by
examining the recent growth of international conferences. Such growth is
due largely to overall growth in the number of international organizations
as well as to increases in air travel, rapid technological growth, and
simultaneous translation capabilities. Consequently, the number of inter­
national conferences increased exponentially from three in 1 853 and just
over 100 by 1 900, to more than 2,000 in 1953, I reaching well over 5,000 in
the early 1 990s.
In 1 967, there were about 4,000 international meetings? In the fields of
science and technology alone, the last 40 years have seen a tremendous
increase of meetings held throughout the world, from 5,800 in 1 958 3 to
over 1 2,000 in 1 992. Although few attempts have been made to analyze
the trends, ample data for such analysis do exist in the form of calendars
and directories of international meetings and records of conference
proceedings.4
Informal exchanges of scientific information at a conference, however,
are unrecorded, and the "invisible college" nature of a scientific conference
is difficult to document. Many of the papers that are presented are not
published, many of the speeches are not recorded. Although some studies
have been done on the exchange of scientific information in general, there
has been little systematic research effort regarding international confer­
ences. Information is available on the evaluation of international con­
ferences or on organizing conferences, but this explains little about the flow
of information occurring during and subsequent to such meetings. Yet, the
international flow of scientific information is very important.
Additionally, international conferences are a valuable resource focusing
public attention on issues of worldwide importance. They facilitate com­
munication on vital issues and provide an area for negotiations that can
lead to policy formation and international agreements. They also provide
open forums for developing countries to voice their needs and demands.
Still, not only is most scientific and technical information in the possession
of the industrialized countries, because of educational and financial
opportunities, but those nations also possess more scientists and technical
experts than the rest of the world.
There are a variety of cultural, economic, political, legal, social, institu­
tional, and technological factors that influence the flow of information at

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 Human flow across national boundaries 1 49

international scientific and technical conferences. These factors are inter­

related and often overlapping. For example, the geographical location of
the conference is an important factor in the amount and the direction of the
flow of information at and from it. It is difficult to get precise data on the
most frequently selected locations for conferences: the information exists
for individual organizations but aggregate tallies are unavailable. A listing
of the geographical locations of headquarters for international organiz­
ations, however, showed that most are located in the United States, while
France, Belgium, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland offer the next most
popular sites. 5
The Yearbook of International Organizations notes how many times a
country is listed as a member of an international organization, including
both nongovernmental and intergovernmental organizations. In general,
countries listed more than one thousand times include Canada, the United
States, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the
Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom,
Australia, and Japan. 6 The high cost of attending international conferences
cannot be overlooked, nor can the allocation of funding by governments
and organizations for particular individuals and groups to attend.
Cultural factors play a paramount role in the flow of information at
international scientific and technical conferences. Obviously, language,
interpretation, and semantics are very important. Surprisingly enough, little
research has been done on simultaneous translation at international con­
ferences and how this affects the flow of information. English is, increas­
ingly and unquestionably, the language of science throughout the world,
and consequently the main language of international scientific conferences
as well. One writer even advocates the use of simultaneous English-to­
English translation for non-native speakers, which suggests that, although
some conferees may have a good understanding of written English through
knowledge of scientific books and journals, they may not be comprehen­
sible in discussions with English-speaking conferees.
Political factors affecting the flow of information at international scien­
tific conferences are often potentially volatile, many resulting from current
political events and the compatibility or incompatibility of contending
ideologies. For example, largely as a result of the ill treatment of the
dissident Sakharov, as well as the former Soviet actions in Afghanistan and
Poland, the United States Academy of the Sciences, following the Reagan
administration's political and economic sanctions against the Soviet Union
in 1 98 1 , imposed a moratorium on joint symposia and other high-level
contact with the Soviet Academy of Sciences. 7 In another decision, three
weeks before the conference of the Society of Photo-optical Instrumenta­
tion Engineers in San Diego in October 1 982, the Defense Department
announced that nearly 1 00 papers scheduled for presentation would have to
be withdrawn because they contained sensitive technical information. 8
Soviet scientists had been invited to the conference and the government saw
this as a threat to national security. Access to the information, it was felt,

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1 50 Global information and world communication

would enable the Soviets to skip costly research, perhaps developing early
countermeasures to American military advances.
Similar restrictions have been imposed, on grounds of security reasons,
not to grant visas to a number of scientists and scholars from countries
with whom the United States has unfriendly relations, such as Iran and
Cuba. In the words of the former Deputy Secretary of Defense Frank
Carlucci, speaking in the early 1 980s when the Cold War was still at its
height, "By the very nature of our open and free society, we recognize that
we will never be able to halt fully the flow of military technology to the
Soviet Union. Nevertheless, we believe that it is possible to inhibit this flow
,,
without infringing upon legitimate scientific discourse. 9 Many examples
could be cited to illustrate similar restrictions on the flow of scientific
information imposed for political and security reasons by governments
around the world.
Historical and cultural factors, as well as past colonial ties, indirectly
influence the flow of scientific information, particularly in the case of
British Commonwealth countries, where the influence of Western science
and research is strong. According to one observer, Indian scientists partici­
pate in international conferences almost as much as they participate locally:

The structural linkages of the Indian science and technology system indicate
strong built-in flows of scientific ideas and technical information, as well as
cultural and ideological orientations, from the West. These tendencies are con­
stantly reinforced through higher education, scientific technical books and
periodicals, and professional seminars and conferences which are so common
place in free and democratic India . . . This linkage is . . . its greatest strength but
it is also (part of) its greatest weakness . . . its alienation from the reality of
10
India.

Conference reports were previously mentioned as one of the key aspects

of information flow connected to an international conference. Such reports
are probably the most tangible evidence of the activity of international
organizations, both nongovernmental and intergovernmental. This is due,
in part, to the fact that the report of a conference may, for some time, be
the only literature available on the subject until various papers and writings
find their way into scholarly and professional journals and texts.
More recent studies of international conferences tend to focus on
computer-assisted conferences, teleconferencing, and videoconferencing. It
is quite likely that with technological advance, the forms of conferences will
continuously change in the decades to come. A surprising number of
international organizations have been involved with computer conferencing.
However, there is little written evaluation of the nature and quality of
information flow through such conferences. Telecommunications and
computer-assisted technologies can partially substitute for both meetings
and conventional laboratory-style team research. Such practices will con­
serve scarce resources, especially for the smaller and poorer countries.
Although team research conducted through electronic media will be subject

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 Human flow across national boundaries 151

to the same cultural, linguistic, and political difficulties of other kinds of

international scientific cooperation, observers believe it will receive govern­
mental support if it shows proven benefits and cost reductions. Recent
developments in communication and computer technologies can now
provide an economically attractive alternative to face-to-face conferencing,
but it seems unlikely that teleconferences will replace the scope and
meaning of direct personal contact.

International Educational Exchanges

Each year thousands of high school and college students, teachers, pro­
fessors, researchers, vocational and technical trainees, conference delegates,
and cultural performers travel to foreign countries to study, work, or
perform. Although most exchanges are participant-sponsored, many inter­
national exchanges and human movements in the sphere of education and
culture are funded by governments, foundations, transnational corpora­
tions, and educational institutions. In many cases, these organizations
support international exchanges because they believe exchanges can create
better international understanding and promote world peace. In spite of
such beliefs and the resultant activity in the international exchange of
persons, there is little systematically acquired or coherent knowledge of
exchange interactions themselves, or of their functions and effects.
In the United States, research in the area of international exchanges has
focused primarily on the practical concerns of exchange agencies. There­
fore, the studies of exchange programs are "mostly specialized and non­
cumulative, largely devoid of replication so that past studies might
reinforce or modify presumed knowledge, predominantly 'episodic,' i.e.,
focusing on present data with little regard to comparison with related other
data, and thin in the evolution of fruitful concepts and the building of
theory." l l These observations were made by Michael J. Flack of the
University of Pittsburgh at the 1 980 US-German conference on "Research
in International Educational Exchange." Flack began his overview of
research in the United States on international exchange with a review of his
1 976 study, The World's Students in the United States. This study, a survey
of almost 550 publications and studies on international educational
exchange, concluded that the literature on exchanges is "quantitatively
large, methodologically uneven, conceptually and theoretically unfocused,
topically wide ranging but seldom interrelated . . . , in policy
recommendations scattered, ad hoc and unconcerned about implementa­
tion, in research recommendation broad, seldom mutually related, encom­
passing a wide spectrum and within it emphasizing some recurrent themes
,,
while ignoring others. 1 2 Flack identified further characteristics of inter­
national exchange research in a review of literature published since 1 974-5.
These characteristics include an increase in the number of publications, a
decrease in analytical studies, and an attempt to apply the ideology of

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international exchange to a "global perspective of the cultural transfonna­

,,
tion processes in mankind. 1 3
Flack's critique o f exchange research i s bolstered by the similar obser­
vations of Spencer and Awe in 1 970 in their study of 262 publications from
1 960 to 1 967 on international educational exchange. Like Flack, Spencer
and Awe noted that exchange studies exhibited inadequate research design
and a lack of research on "students' objectives in undertaking foreign
study, [and] institutions' and nations' objectives in providing opportunities
,,
to study. 14 According to Spencer and Awe, "most studies do not refer to,
or take into consideration, psychological or cross-cultural problems or
research perfonned on general second-cultural variables, nor do they relate
,,
to the American abroad. 1 5 These studies reviewing exchange literature all
emphasize the variety and abundance of available research, but, more
important, note the need for more effective, comprehensive, and analytical
research.
On a more general level, we can divide research and literature on the
educational and cultural aspects of human flow and movements across
national boundaries and cultures into four specific categories. The first
involves comparison of demographic infonnation collected on international
exchanges. A clear example of this type of study is the annual publication
of the Institute of International Exchange (lIE), Open Doors, which
provides statistics on foreign university students and scholars studying in
the United States, and US university students and scholars studying in
other countries.
Studies in this first category of research are basically concerned with
numeric and demographic trends in international exchange. These statis­
tical reports provide a broad representation of the international exchange
of persons, but do not answer questions regarding the quality and effects of
exchanges. In short, it is difficult to abstract propositions from studies in
this first category, since it is primarily descriptive, with data collected for
the purpose of illustration rather than systematic analysis.
The second type of research involving the flow of people through
educational and cultural channels is concerned with questions of image and
attitude change as well as the effects of participating in international
exchanges. This set of literature is oriented toward the generation of
sociopsychological theory on attitude change and adjustment in a foreign
culture. A discussion of these studies touches such topics as personal
contact and interpersonal relations, the impact of academic failure and
success, the sojourn experience and the "U curve" phenomenon, misunder­
standing in communication, and cross-cultural norm conflict and
adjustment.
For example, in his analysis of exchange research, Richard Merritt looks
at the changes in attitudes and predispositions of foreign students toward
their host country after living there for a time. 16 The impact of a foreign
culture on travelers in general was reported by Hhiel de Sola Pool in
"Effects of Cross-national Contact on National and International

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 Human flow across national boundaries 1 53
,,
Images. 1 7 Still other researchers have studied the influence of perceptions
and differing experiences in assessing the professional utility of various
exchange programs. Frederick Barghoorn and Ellen Mickiewicz conducted
such a study in their survey of American scholars, scientists, businessmen,
government officials, and others who had visited the Soviet Union under
various exchange programs. 1 8 The different perceptions and experiences
that individuals brought to the exchange were, in essence, reflections of
their culture, which influenced their opinions on the value of the program.
Herbert Kelman's study "The Problem-Solving Workshop in Conflict
Resolution" looks at the role of culture in terms of its influence on the
perceptions and attitudes that individuals from conflicting countries bring
to a research workshop designed to develop and test ways to resolve
international conflicts. 1 9 It is important to note that the real utility of the
workshop approach described by Kelman - and in a similar study carried
out by Leonard Doob attempting to employ a modified form of sensitivity
training in an international setting - is said to depend on the "ability
to specify the points in foreign policy decision-making and inter­
national politics at which the attitudes and perceptions of certain
individuals make a difference and to develop procedures specifically suited
,,
to the occasion for which they are introduced. 2o Once again, the attitudes
and perceptions of individuals may be thought of as a reflection of their
culture.
Research on cross-cultural encounters is growing, especially in the
United States, Canada, and Japan, but the focus is on sociopsychological
concepts rather than the process and content of information flow. For
example, Richard W. Brislin's documentation of face-to-face contact
experienced by students, scholars, immigrants, and diplomats shows how
cross-cultural adjustments can be effected. 2 1 Earlier studies by John W.
Bennett and Robert K. McKnight concentrated on the Japanese student
in a new cultural environment in the United States, and his or her
relationship with cultural and historical changes in Japanese society. 22
Later studies by Tamar Becker showed two distinct patterns of attitudinal
and behavioral changes on the part of foreign students in the United
States: (1) the U-curve pattern of students from highly industrialized
countries, and (2) a reverse pattern for representatives of less industrialized
countries for whom the involuntary return home would be perceived as a
threat. 23
The existing literature, however, provides little information or theoretical
clues to the ways information is conveyed to foreign students and visitors in
a host country. The author and Gerald McLaughlin's study is one of the
few examining the information-seeking habits of foreign students in the
United States. Foreign students indicated that they use the media, particu­
larly newspapers and television, as a main source of information about
American culture, but that interpersonal communication and contact with
Americans remains the primary factor determining their attitudes towards
the United States. 24

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A somewhat different focus is portrayed in research concerning the

effects of foreign students as mediators of culture on their return home.
Much emphasis has been placed on the effects of a foreign culture on the
student, but little research has explored the student's impact on his or her
own culture as well as on the country and culture he or she is visiting. For
example, contact with the host country, through travel, lectures, con­
ferences, meetings, and discourse through political demonstrations and
public gatherings has been neglected in the study of the international flow
of information.
A third category of study and research in the area of educational and
cultural flow deals with the impact and effect of international exchanges on
national and international development. Demographic studies show that a
great number of students from developing nations are educated at
universities in developed and industrialized countries such as the United
States, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Leaders of developing
countries hope that these students return home to assist in the development
of their nation. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. A number of
studies have documented the continuing and increasing problem of trained
professionals, scientific specialists, and students from developing countries
remaining abroad after studying or working in industrialized countries. 2 5
This phenomenon, labeled the "brain drain," has resulted in attempts by
countries to institute precautions insuring that students and scholars return
home upon completion of their study. There are those who argue for
unrestricted mobility of the factors of production, asserting that absorbing
educated people from the developing countries into the production and
information stream in the developed world will result in raising world
output and welfare. On the other hand, some view the educated elite, their
professional skills, and vital information as critical to the growth process;
their transfer is seen as detrimental to developing nations. This latter group
perceives the brain drain as evil, and a threat to the stability and growth of
the developing world.
This hidden subsidy of the rich by the poor has been occurring since the
end of World War II. According to a multinational study by the World
Health Organization, for example, India is the world's largest exporter of
medical professionals. 26 In 1 980, more than 1 5,000 Indian doctors rep­
resenting some 1 3 percent of the total physicians of that country were
working abroad, a government investment loss estimated at $ 1 44 million.
Another study showed that in 1 976, the United States saved $ 100,000 for
every trained student imported from India. 27 Further research estimated
that profits from foreign workers between 1961 and 1 972 were $30 billion
for the United States, $ 1 billion for Canada, and $3.5 billion for Britain. 28
The fourth and final category of research and studies in the area of
human flow views the process of international education and cultural
exchanges as a fundamental aspect of scientific information and the
worldwide explosion of knowledge. Many social science disciplines, such as
psychology, anthropology, sociology, and political science, have included

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 Human flow across national boundaries 1 55

the study of educational and cultural contacts on personal levels as a

laboratory for comparative and cross-cultural studies, as well as a testing
ground for universal applicability of hypotheses and theories.
The direction of the flow of international educational exchanges - that is,
the international flow of students and scholars - can be illustrated by a
review of demographic studies provided by such organizations as UNESCO
and the Institute of International Education. Several characteristics emerge
from the data gathered on this type of human flow across national
boundaries.
The first characteristic of the flow of educational exchange is the con­
tinual increase in the number of people involved. The number of university­
level exchange students around the world rose from 489,000 in 1 970 to
802 , 677 in 1 979 , nearly doubling in a nine-year period. 29 These statistics do
not, however, include the thousands of secondary-level exchange students
on programs such as Experiment in International Living (ElL), American
Field Service (AFS) InternationallIntercultural Programs, and Youth For
Understanding (YFU) in the United States. YFU has exchanged nearly
100 ,000 students in the past 32 years. AFS, founded in 1 947, operates in 62
countries and exchanged thousands of students between 1 954 and 1 986.
The Experiment in International Living pioneered youth exchange,
initiating the home-stay in over 40 countries.
These are only a few of the many programs involved in youth exchange
among and between the various geographical as well as ideological regions
of the world. Exact figures of worldwide participation in these programs
have not been compiled, but given their large number, they represent a
substantial addition to the increased flow of educational exchange, and are
growing yearly.
Second, the United States has gradually become the major center of
foreign students subsequent to World War II as it has gained importance as
a world power. Prior to that time, the United States received few foreign
students, the major recipients for foreign students being the United
Kingdom and France. In 1 979, the United States hosted 286 , 340 students,
more than twice the number studying in France, the number two host
country; that figure included approximately 34 percent of the university­
level exchange student population. By 1981 , well over 300, 000 foreigners
were studying in American universities and colleges. According to the
Institute of International Education, that figure was more than doubled by
1 990, when foreign students accounted for at least 1 0 percent of US college
enrollments.
A third characteristic (although somewhat overshadowed by US domi­
nance in the field of educational exchange) is the tendency of students from
less developed countries to study in those developed countries which have
strong historical, linguistic, and cultural ties with their native country. 30
For example, the number of students from French-speaking Africa
attending universities in France reflects the strong ties of these two regions.
France clearly hosts the majority of students from Africa. Sizeable numbers

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of students from Algeria, the Congo, Morocco, Senegal, Tunisia, and the
United Republic of Cameroon attend French universities. Although the
United Kingdom has lost many of its foreign students to the United States,
it still receives the majority of students from Zambia, Zimbabwe, Sudan,
Brunei, Cyprus, Iraq, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and Malta. It is not
surprising to find that the Soviet Union led in the number of students from
Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, the German Democratic Republic, Hungary,
Poland, Cuba, North Korea, Laos, and Mongolia. Germany maintains the
largest foreign student populations from such less developed countries as
Botswana, Afghanistan, Indonesia, and Turkey. Clearly, in choosing a
country in which to study, students from less developed countries use a
number of criteria including the reputation of its universities, its world
status, and its linguistic, cultural and historical ties to the student's native
country.
Another important criterion for choosing a country in which to study is
the availability of financial aid. The majority of students studying in the
United States do not receive any financial aid. Generally speaking, home
governments and foreign private sponsors provide only 1 6 percent of the
students with funds. Another 1 5 percent received US funding. The United
States also ranks behind its major European allies and Japan "in the
,,
percentage of its national budget allocated to public diplomacy efforts. 3 1
Indeed, US expenditures have decreased in recent years, while Germany,
Japan, and Britain all increased their appropriations for these activities.
Although the United States has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on
educational aid overseas in the past, it now appears to be educating mostly
the middle- and upper-class ranks of the developing world.
Another important characteristic of the flow of information through
educational exchanges concerns the tendency of less developed countries to
educate a large percentage of their students abroad, while only a fraction of
the student population in developed countries studies abroad. The
overwhelming majority of these students participated in programs lasting
only a semester or a year. American students rarely complete their uni­
versity education in other countries.
Another characteristic concerns the content of foreign study. A review of
the major study fields of exchange students reveals that students from
developing countries concentrate on the sciences, while students from
developed countries go abroad to study the humanities and social sciences.
The last characteristic of the flow of educational exchange is the large
number of students who emigrate to their host country. This brain drain
exists not only for the developing countries, but for some developed coun­
tries as well. Countries as diverse as South Korea, the United Kingdom,
and India suffer the loss of highly qualified individuals through emigration,
a consequence partly of social, political, and economic conditions in the
countries of emigration, and partly of immigration policies in receiving
countries. At the same time, one must remember that outflow is a direct
result of conscious decisions made by individuals.

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Effects of Intercultural Communication

The characteristics reviewed above raise many questions regarding the

effects of international educational exchange. Of the four types of edu­
cational exchange research and literature examined in this chapter, the
second and third types of studies (image and attitude; effects of inter­
national exchanges on development) are primarily concerned with the
effects of exchange.
The image/attitude studies examine the effects on the individual. Viewing
educational and cultural exchanges as part of the global flow of infor­
mation, a major question is whether or not educational exchange produces
positive image/attitude changes toward the host country. A variety of
answers have resulted from the ensuing research. Herbert C. Kelman
discovered that "favorable change is facilitated by the joint occurrence of
two conditions: genuinely new information about the country and people
must be provided in the context of a positive interaction between nationals
,,
of the participating countries, 32 Richard Merritt's work builds on
Kelman's premise with a number of additional conditions necessary to
increase the likelihood of a foreign student having a positive image of and
attitude toward the host country. These conditions include a greater
similarity between the countries, more favorable attitudes of the host
country towards the student's native country, a greater amount of inter­
action between the student and nationals, and the close friendship of a host
country national. 33
The contrasting studies of Anita Mishler suggest that exchange students
will develop a "more complex and differentiated image of the host country
,,
[as a result of their exchange experience]. 34 An exchange student in the
USA may develop positive feelings toward Americans, but this will not
necessarily imply an automatic positive view of American national policies
and behavior. Indeed, given the diverse opinion of Americans regarding
their country's national and foreign policies, there is no reason to believe
that a foreign student's experience will determine his or her opinion of
government policies.
Cross-cultural contact enables persons to understand the complexities of
another society and empathize with persons of another culture. The ability
to understand other cultures may represent the cornerstone of international
understanding and world peace. Evidence of international understanding
resulting from educational exchange was discovered in Barghoorn and
Mickiewicz's study of Soviet-American exchanges. This study demon­
strated that exchanges "gained confidence in the possibility of coexistence
. . . [and] increased tolerance of the social and political system of the
other. 35 This learning opportunity, however, is available to only a few
persons from particular countries. The number of students from developed
countries studying in less developed countries is slight. Thus, persons in
industrialized countries have little chance to understand the cultures of the
less developed world. Moreover, exchange students from developing

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countries studying in developed countries represent, for the most part, the
elite of their nations. They provide their hosts with an undifferentiated and
incomplete picture of their cultures. As a result, the diverse societies of
developing countries are often misrepresented in the industrialized world.
In sum, where the most misunderstanding occurs, a lack of substantial two­
way exchange exacerbates misperceptions.
Foreign students, because they are an important link in understanding
between their home country and host country, are valuable sources of
information in international and intercultural communication. They
represent their native culture and may be the only contact many host
nationals have with that particular culture. Likewise, their fellow nationals
may experience a foreign culture only vicariously through the related
experiences of the students upon their return home. For these reasons, it is
interesting to study the attitudes of foreign students toward their host and
their home countries, general changes in these attitudes, and the reasons for
the changes. It is also interesting to examine the crystallization of the
diverse experiences that students carry back to their homelands and incor­
porate into personal value structures. Equally, as part of the two-way flow
of information, it becomes important to study the impact of these students
on the host country and the types of information, images, and attitudes
generated by the host country's citizens as a result of such interactions.
To determine some of the probable effects discussed here, it is necessary
to examine the kind of background foreign students bring with them.
Important cultural factors include structure, values, and personality, from
which come the complex of motivations and expectations that will
determine the students' reactions to the host country. Because the self­
image of an individual is so complex, it is helpful to isolate three com­
ponents and determine how they are affected. These components are
nationality, socioeconomic background, and the structure of culture.
It has also been argued that educational and cultural exchanges on a
person-to-person level will assist nations and cultures in the foundation of
"bridge leveling," that is, the development of a horizontal field of com­
munication. In most cases, intercultural communication takes place between
"communication partners" who share much in common. For example,
scientists, artists, athletes, and technicians have a common profession, a
similar level of education, and/or common interests and motivations with
their counterparts in other cultures. Horizontal lines of communication
develop in spite of vertical barriers that are erected between cultures because
of the cognitive distance of different world views or frames of reference.
The importance of educational exchange as an overall aspect of foreign
and national policies has been well documented in recent years by several
reports in the United States, France, Germany, and Britain. For example,
in its 1 980 report, President Carter's Commission on Foreign Language
and International Studies states that educational exchanges are conse­
quential to national interest and essential to an aware and involved
citizenry in the United States. The report specifically discusses four types of

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international educational exchanges: high school students and faculty

exchanges, study abroad programs for college and university students,
foreign students in the USA, and exchanges of college and university
faculty. The commission addresses the strengths and weaknesses of the
program in each of these four areas, and concludes by suggesting ways to
increase participation in educational exchanges.
In the area of international exchanges for high school students and
teachers, the commission reports that "exchanges at this level contribute
enormously to foreign language acquisition and cross-cultural interaction."
It suggests that exchanges of teachers should have greater priority and
more support because of the multiplier effect, assuming that experience
abroad affects what and how teachers teach, as well as their perceptions
and attitudes toward other countries and cultures. 36 However, in 1 978-9,
the year in which most of the commission's findings were based, a marked
decrease in the number of teachers and countries involved in the direct
teacher exchange was noted. In that year, the program involved only "six
foreign countries and one hundred thirty two US teachers, all of whom
went to the U.K., Canada, West Germany, New Zealand and Switzer­
,,
land, 37 compared with the 45 countries receiving US teachers some 1 0 to
1 5 years previously. The Office of Education administered Fulbright pro­
grams contributing to school exchanges, but also tended to "neglect the
non-western world, or enrolled far too few participants to produce a major
,,
impact. 38 The commission's report cited cutbacks in federal funding,
decreasing foreign language proficiency in the United States, decline in
foreign language teachers, and the restricted job market for teachers in the
US and other industrialized countries as the major factors responsible for
the reduced number of high school teachers participating in exchange
programs. The commission concluded that more international exchange
opportunities and available funds were needed, but that "American
attitudes towards foreign language and international studies must also
,,
become more positive if this situation is to change. 39
In its discussion of study abroad programs for college and university
students, the commission acknowledged their importance in strengthening
the interest and competence of US college students in foreign languages
and international topics, explaining that experience abroad can have a "life­
long impact on values and on concern for and understanding of other
cultures." In fact, research on the impact of study abroad, a field in which
more research is needed, suggests that it may be most important in terms of
the personal experience of living in another culture and interacting with the
people of another country. An Antioch College study showed that Antioch
students who had studied abroad were "subsequently much more likely
than their fellow students who stayed in the US to complete their degrees,
to read the foreign press, to buy books published abroad and to enter
,,
careers which take them overseas. 40 The commission's findings, however,
indicate that there seem to be several deterrents that prevent an increasing
number of American college students from taking advantage of study

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abroad programs. Higher costs for international travel and living abroad
(depending on the location), diminished funds for graduate study abroad,
and higher tuition fees for foreign students all conspire to make American
study abroad more difficult. The report also regretfully noted that, in
contrast to the increases in the number of US students going to the less
developed countries in the 1 970s, fewer students do so now probably
because of increased travel costs and "the waning of 'Peace Corps' spirit
among students in recent years."
The commission recognized the thousands of foreign students studying
in American colleges and universities as a valuable resource for educating
Americans about other countries, and as a pool of talent increasingly
recruited by multinational corporations after they finish their degree
programs. Noting that foreign students provide an indispensable contact in
developing commercial and financial links between the United States and
the rest of the world, the commission sees their education in the United
States as an "investment important to American national interests." In
addition, involving foreign students in educational programs with
Americans can produce positive feelings toward people from other cultures,
facilitate learning about them, and counteract the cultural stereotyping
typical of anti-foreign attitudes.
Lastly, the commission addresses the area of international exchange
between college and university faculty. Access to and the advancement of
knowledge in a foreign language and international studies, in addition to
providing specialists with training and experience, are some of the needs
served by this type of exchange. The report notes, however, that recent
surveys indicate:
fifty-seven percent of over half of American academics have never traveled out of
the U.S. for professional reasons. Of those who do, sixty-six percent are in
medicine, forty-five percent in the social sciences, and fifty-eight percent in the
humanities. The percentage of college and university faculty traveling to non­
western countries is miniscule compared with the nearly thirty-four percent
4
travelling to English language countries, mainly the U.K. and Canada. 1

The unavailability of funding - especially of the Fulbright program, the

major federally funded international exchange program related to inter­
national studies - reduced stipends, and reduced grant periods are factors
limiting the participation of many academics in exchange programs. In
addition, Fulbright awards in non-Western countries are predominantly for
teaching, with only a few for research. "Of those research grants awarded
in 1 977-78, ninety-five out of one hundred and eighty-eight were for
,,
Western European countries. 42
The report of the commission concludes by recommending a program for
continuing financial assistance, appealing not only to the federal
government, but also to the state governments and the higher educational
institutions themselves. The commission's findings also suggest improving
the access of US researchers and scholars to developing countries and those
geographical areas currently underrepresented.

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 Human flow across national boundaries 161

Another area of impact of educational and cultural flow through human

movement across national boundaries and among cultures is the issue of
"dependency" or "dominance" and its possible effect on national and
international development. Again on the positive side, studies have shown
that a foreign education can indeed assist national and international devel­
opment, particularly if it is based on a sound educational and develop­
mental policy. For example, Richard Myer's survey of the developing
countries' alumni of four US universities revealed that these alumni were
employed in organizations that "played a very important (54%) or
moderately related (37%) role in national development. Also, the alumni
indicated that their "u. S. education received almost full (2 1 %), much
,,
(48%), and some (26%) professional use. 43
On the other hand, the current theme of international debate has been
the uneven flow of information in the world community. The pattern of the
flow of information consists of two-way communication between developed
countries and the one-way dissemination of information to the developing
nations from the industrialized world. It is also argued that this flow
pattern is replicated by the international exchange of persons. Thousands of
students from the developing world study in the industrialized nations each
year. These students learn about their host countries' theories, philosophies,
technologies, and methodologies. Although students gain a more differen­
tiated picture of their host country, they are also influenced by the culture
in which they lived. Many returnees become separated mentally and
spiritually from their native cultures, thus inhibiting their ability to assist in
national development. Thus, educational exchanges that do not consider
the national developmental goals have been linked to the reinforcement of
this dependency syndrome.
This dependency and penetration have been best illustrated in the United
States-Iranian cultural relations prior to the Islamic revolution.44 The last
period of the former Shah's rule in Iran, 1 953-78, can be characterized as a
period when the United States-Iranian cultural and educational relations
became truly multidimensional from the American side. To a score of
US governmental institutions active in Iran during this period were added
many university and corporate programs in such fields as business,
management, education, marketing, advertising and mass media, sports,
and entertainment. The number of Iranian students studying in the United
States increased rapidly and there was hardly a modem institution in the
Iranian metropolis that was not under the influence of American higher
education and corporate training. By now, the United States had replaced
France and Britain as a major source of Western cultural, scientific, and
educational values in Iran.
In 1 977 there were approximately 300 American business and educa­
tional organizations involved in some aspect of educational and business
training in Iran. Thus, the most active and aggressive period of United
States-Iranian cultural relations took its course at the time that most of
Iran's cultural, educational, religious, and traditional institutions were

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under extreme repressive measures of the former Shah. Iran was a fertile
ground for the implantation of American educational structures and values.
With a Western development model in mind and sufficient oil reserves in
hand, the Shah's government oversaw the establishment of 74 direct links
between American and Iranian universities and had adopted the American
system of education as a template for its future. At the same time, large
numbers of Iranians who were educated both in Iran and the United States
or Europe took their permanent residency in Europe and the United States.
For example, 1 60 out of 3 1 5 physicians who graduated from the University
of Teheran Medical School in June 1 966 were permanent residents in the
United States a decade later, with more in Britain and Europe.
Several Iranian universities had moved in the direction of an American
University model. The chancellor of the Pahlavi university, on one occa­
sion, summarized the significance of this relationship: "We tried deliber­
ately to adopt Western technology and to train the needed manpower for
creating a new government system . . . of greatest importance was the
formation of a homogeneous faculty trained in the American system of
education." During this same period, Iranian students flocked to study in
the United States. As late as 1 97 1 -2, there were only 6,365 (4 percent of
total foreign student enrollment). By 1 975-6, there were more Iranian
students ( 19,000, or 1 1 percent) in US universities and colleges than from
any other country. Just before the revolution in 1 978, even that total had
almost doubled to 36,220 ( 1 5 .4 percent). In 1 978, it was estimated that
66,000 Iranian students enrolled in various colleges and universities in the
United States alone, while the total number of college students in Iran did
not exceed 1 20,000. At one time, Iran taught its elite the French language
and with that came the whole of French thought, French literature, and
French methods. During the 1 960s and the 1 970s, American English
prevailed. By the mid- 1 970s, important signs of the revolution were begin­
ning to develop on college campuses in Iran and among Iranian students
overseas. Thousands of Iranian students, scholars, and scientists abroad, as
well as their American and foreign counterparts who were residing in Iran,
had become a significant aspect of the United States-Iranian, and in fact
worldwide, information flow.
Had the direction, content, and intensity of this type of information flow
been taken into account in the analysis of the development in Iran and the
region, the Western analysts and the students of politics who were surprised
by the revolution in Iran and its outcome would have had a better picture
and understanding as the events unfolded. In fact, the two dominant views
of what was "really" happening in Iran prior to the downfall of the Shah -
the first seeing Iranian culture and society under the complete domination
of the West and the second proclaiming the path of development in Iran as
an inevitable and irreversible trend toward secular modernization under the
Shah - proved inaccurate. The analysts of both of these views based their
evaluations on official information, media content, and economic data.
Both dismissed Islam and the information generated and circulated through

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the traditional religious and national centers as well as the students and
academic institutions as less significant. Similar misperceptions about the
Iranian climate stemmed from a number of otherwise expert and credible
sources in the academic field in both the United States and Europe. The
study of the Iranian revolution underlined the importance of an appreci­
ation of the flow of information through educational, cultural, and tradi­
tional channels and the total communication system in another culture.

Traditional Communication

Traditional communication models focus on technologically oriented

channels of mass media. Information such as news is seen as flowing
through mass communication channels from a sender to many recipients.
Traditional studies also emphasize the content of such information flows.
In the interpersonal model, by contrast, the individual is at once the
message, channel, sender, and recipient of communication when the indi­
vidual moves from one culture to another, from one nation to the next. The
crucial question in international flow studies of interpersonal communica­
tion should be what happens to such an individual in such a setting where
feedback is much greater than in the passive, one-way flow of mass
communication.
Several considerations for inquiry can be identified in analyzing
interpersonal communication on the international level:

1 . What changes does the individual undergo during his or her socializa­
tion in the foreign environment? How does the individual communicate
with this environment and receive information?
2. How are the individual's perceptions about the foreign environment (its
people, policies, etc.) changed in the communication process?
3. What is the impact of the individual's presence on the host country and
the individuals in his/her environment or activities?
4. What are the contents of information flow between the individual and
his/her environment?

It is clear from the above considerations that significant differences exist

between the analysis of mass communication systems and that of person-to­
person contacts. In the latter, the total communication system is actually at
work, giving rise to different questions and modes of research. The human
is the focus of inquiry in this setting. The area of international education
exchange would seem to offer one of the most propitious fields of inquiry
into how an individual's communication processes may or may not change
when residing in another culture, and whether that change may affect
information he/she receives on that country and the values, attitudes, and
opinions that are based on that information. The sociology of international
educational and cultural exchanges might offer a wealth of material and

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data on how the conduct of international relations might take place in the
future.
Although much attention has been paid to the process of socialization of
individuals on national and community levels, less attention has been
directed to the study of socialization on the international level. Most of the
analysis of international relations has been concerned with two traditional
ideas: a theory of a mass society (mass public) and a theory of decision­
making elites. The first theory, based on public opinion data and content
analysis of the media, makes no distinction between groups and subgroups
within national or international politics. Public opinion data or the content
of the media will make little contribution to our understanding of how a
given percentage of the population of country A favors closer relations with
country B without considering such factors as ethnicity, professional and
educational socialization, and the meaning of cooperation and coexistence
between and among various classes of people. The second theory, by
emphasizing the decision-making elite or the ruling class, takes a different
view of international relations, seeing the public's impact as minimal and
the formal decision makers of the time as the only group possessing policy
influence. The decision-making elite theory ignores the two fundamental
developments of the last fifty years: (1) that counter elites have been
responsible for much of the development, change, revolution, and reform in
the Third World, and (2) that the politics of the post-World War II period
and the closing decades of the twentieth century are politics of instability. 45
During the last three decades, this elitist view, coupled with insufficient
attention paid to an excluded group of educated individuals who at the
moment were not at the top of the power pyramid but later assumed
political leadership in many countries, was responsible for much mis­
perception of political decision makers as well as the embarrassing analysis
of many writers. The crisis of post-World War II leadership in many new
nations in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, such as Indonesia, Pakistan,
Lebanon, Chile, Ghana, and Nigeria; the takeover of political leadership
by the socialists in Greece and Spain; and, most dramatic of all, the Islamic
revolution in Iran, rejecting alike the old-fashioned "nationalists," the
contemporary "liberal social democrats," and the Marxist group, are all
cases in point. Many of these new leaders, who attended universities in the
United States, Britain, France, Germany and who more than ordinary
citizens participated in many scientific, professional, cultural, and religious
programs internationally, did not come from the traditional elite strata.
The revolution in Iran was perhaps the greatest imbroglio and embar­
rassment social science research and methodology has suffered in some
time. With the exception of a few writers whose works were either
unnoticed or unpublished, practically no one as late as 1 977 could have
guessed that Mohammed Reza Pahlavi would be overthrown by a man
relatively unknown to the West, and by his many followers - some of
whom had received their advanced education in the United States, France,
Britain, and Germany - and would subsequently die in an ignominious

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 Human flow across national boundaries 1 65

exile. The failure to recognize the potential power of the ulama - the clergy
- their historical and traditional role in education and the intellectual life in
Iran, and the religio-political background of the many foreign-trained and
educated professionals who stood in sharp contrast to a more "secular" and
Western-oriented politicaVtechnological elite had had adverse conse­
quences. Less attention was paid to the flow of information and power
in the traditional and informal channels of communication. The dominant
approach was to analyze the flow of information in an institutionalized
"modern" political structure. The concept of "secularism" as it is used in
the West had little practical application in Iran, because politics and
religion have been fused in that country. The "experts" had realized the
influence of the religious leader and were aware of the informal nature of
information flow and the political process, but could not establish how
vertically or horizontally encompassing they were. Others had written of
the "uprooters," the "technocrats," and the "alienated" students, pro­
fessionals, and intellectuals, but their uncritical methodology of interviews
and survey research had produced little useful data and analysis on
information flow and communication. The collapse of the Soviet Union
was another reconfirmation of this trend in social science research.
It was precisely this exclusive concentration on the ruling elites on the
one hand, and the monothetic thinking about the public and the middle
echelon of the societies on the other, that made it almost impossible for
those in charge of foreign relations to get an understanding of the process
through which the publics and competing elites alike undermined the
existing legitimacy of many institutions around the world. Today education
and cultural relations are at the core of international relations. For
international relations, after all, are relations between nations, and nations
and communities are composed of human beings. Socialization and
communication of individuals through this channel is indeed an important
factor in international sociology. Although much of the international flow
of information through these human channels is somewhat unstructured
and unformalized, the unquantifiable nature of much of this type of
research at present should not dissuade researchers, for the human dimen­
sion must be investigated more thoroughly if we are to gain a more truly
balanced picture of international flow of information.

Notes

I . Paul Pederson, "International Conferences: Significant Measures of Success,"

International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 5: I (1981), p. 5 1 .
2 . Eyvind Tew, Yearbook of International Congress Proceedings (Brussels: Union of
International Associations, 198 1).
3. E. Garfield, "lSI's New Index to Scientific and Technical Proceedings Lets You Know
What Went On At a Conference Even If You Stayed At Home," Essays of an Information
Scientist, 3: 40 (1978), p. 247.
4. US Department of State, Science and Foreign Relations International Flow of Scientific
and Technical Information (Washington, DC: US Department of State, 1950), p. 34.

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1 66 Global information and world communication

5. Union of International Associations and International Chamber of Commerce,

Yearbook of International Organizations, 19th edn (Brussels: UIA and ICC, 198 1).
6. Ibid. (1977 edition).
7. Victor S. Navasky, "Secrecy Strikes," The Nation, September 1 8, 1982, p. 227.
8. Ibid., p. 228.
9. Quoted in Ivars Peterson, "Controlling Technology Exports: Security vs. Knowledge,"
Science News, 121: 12 (March 12, 1982), p. 206.
10. Aucil Ahmad, "Flow of Science and Technology Information: The Cases of India and
China," Media Asia, 6: 2 (1979), pp. 80-8 1 .
1 1 . Michael J . Flack, "International Educational, Cultural and Scientific Interchange,"
Research on Exchanges: Proceedings of the German-American Conference at Wissenschaftszen­
trum, DAAD, November 24-28, 1980, p. I .
12. Ibid., p. 59.
13. Ibid., p. 6 1 .
14. Quoted in Diether Breitenbach, " A Critique o f Interchange Research," Research on
Exchanges: Proceedings of the German-American Conference at Wissenschaftszentrum, DAAD,
November 24-28, 198 1 , p. 8.
1 5 . Ibid., p. 9.
16. Richard L. Merritt, "Effects of international Student Exchange," in Richard L. Merritt,
ed., Communication in International Politics (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1972),
pp. 64-94.
17. Ithiel de Sola Pool, "Effects of Cross-National Contact on National and International
Images," in Herbert C. Kelman, ed., International Behavior: A Socia-psychological Analysis
(New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1965), pp. 104-129.
18. Frederick C. Barghoorn and Ellen Mickiewicz, "American Views of Soviet-American
Exchange of Persons," in Merritt, ed., Communication in International Politics, pp. 146-167.
19. Herbert C. Kelman, "The Problem-Solving Workshop in Conflict Resolution," in ibid.,
pp. 168-206.
20. Leonard W. Doob, Resolving Conflict in Africa: The Fermeda Workshop (New Haven,
CT: Yale University Press, 1970).
2 1 . Richard W. Brislin, Cross-Cultural Encounter (New York: Pergamon Press, 198 1).
22. John W. Bennett and Robert K. McKnight, "Misunderstanding in Communication
Between Japanese Students and Americans," Social Problems, April 3, 1956, pp. 243-256.
23. Tamar Becker, "Patterns of Attitudinal Change Among Foreign Students," American
Journal of Sociology, 73 (January 1968), pp. 43 1-442.
24. Hamid Mowlana and Gerald W. McLaughlin, "Some Variables Interacting with Media
Exposure Among Foreign Students," Sociology and Social Research, 53: 4 (July 1969), pp.
5 1 1 -522.
25. For example, see Deena R. Khatkhate, "The Brain Drain as a Social Safety Valve,"
Finance and Development Quarterly, 7: 1 (March 1970), pp. 32-36; George B. Baldwin, "Brain
Drain or Overflow," Foreign Affairs, January 1970, pp. 358-365; Walter Adams, ed., The
Brain Drain (New York: Macmillan, 1968).
26. S. Nagrajzn, "The Third World Brain Drain," World Press Review, September 1983, p.
46.
27. Ibid.
28. Ibid.
29. UNESCO Statistical Yearbook 1982 (London: Computerprint, 1982, pp. 1 1 1 , 479-48 1 .
30. International Youth Exchange: A Presidential Initiative, The President's Council for
International Youth Exchange and the Consortium of International Citizen Exchange, 1983-
84, Washington, DC.
3 1 . Report of the United States Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy, Washington,
DC, 1982, pp. 21-25.
32. Herbert C. Kelman, "International Interchange: Some Contributions from Theories of
Attitude Change," International Studies Association Conference, St Louis, MO, March 22,
1974.

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 Human flow across national boundaries 1 67

33. Merritt, ed., Communication in International Politics, pp. 79-83.

34. Anita L. Mishler, "Personal Contacts in International Exchanges," in Kelman, ed.,
International Behavior, p. 551.
35. Barghoorn and Mickiewicz, "American Views of Soviet-American Exchange of
Persons," p. 1 59.
36. Barbara Burns, "Study Abroad and International Exchanges," Annals of the American
Academy of Political and Social Science, 449 (May 1980), p. 130.
37. Ibid., p. 1 32.
38. Ibid., p. 1 32.
39. Ibid., p. 133.
40. Ibid., p. 133.
41. Ibid., p. 1 37.
42. Ibid., p. 138.
43. Quoted in Flack, "International Educational, Cultural and Scientific Interchange," p. 70.
44. Hamid Mowlana, "U.S.-Iranian Relations, 1954-78: A Case of Cultural Domination,"
paper presented at the Middle East Studies Association Conference, Salt Lake City, UT,
November 8, 1979.
45. These points have been elaborated in Lewis Coser, "The Role of Groups: Contributions
of Sociology," in Arthur S. Hoffman, ed., International Communication and the New Diplo­
macy (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1968), pp. 106-123.

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 9

Information Technology: Developing

Communication Systems and Policies

While communication policy and planning in the past largely were sectorial
and usually dealt with only one dimension of the development problem
(i.e., communication vis-a.-vis economic, political, or bureaucratic subjects),
in the light of communication development, we have learned that this now
entails a multistage type of analysis.
Communication policy and planning in any society or nation are influ­
enced and shaped by real-world factors. Policy-making is the initial phase
in which problems are recognized and specific governmental efforts are
made to determine directions. The notion of communication policy and
planning, however, as the integrative nature of developmental projects of
all kinds is not well recognized. In general, the need for some control or
regulation of the information- and communication-technology industries is
acknowledged. There is, however, little agreement in most nations, on
political and philosophical grounds, as to the best approaches to take in
any given situation, resulting in policy that is usually fragmented and
ineffective or altogether absent. Many less industrialized nations and
regions lack cohesive and coherent communication policy to direct the
effective incorporation of policy and planning into telecommunications as
well as communication projects.
In many nations, information technology is a powerful resource, one that
is not depleted with use. Further, this resource aids in the organization and
allocation of other resources - economic, political, cultural, and legal.
Control over the distribution of these resources positions nations
strategically as well as operationally either inside or outside of the flow of
international interactions determining power in the global system. Policy­
making unavoidably is influenced by extranational forces. More significant
than the obvious politico-economic and diplomatic influences is the impact
of private corporations on government policy formulation, especially in the
areas of technology transfer, know-how, and innovation.
Less industrially developed countries, without communication policy and
planning infrastructures, for example, are in a weak position to control
resource applications that are influenced heavily by private international
businesses with agendas differing from their own national development
objectives. On the other hand, such countries with high degrees of human
and natural resources, through carefully designed national strategies for
communication policy and planning, can effect powerful control over the

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 Information technology 1 69

economic, political, cultural, and technological and legal factors influencing

development. For example, by setting a national policy mandating 5 1
percent local ownership of all foreign direct investment in India in
computer-related technologies, India successfully maintained control over
its communication policy and planning process and, at the same time,
supported development of its national technological industries.

The Communication Revolution

If the "communication revolutions" and the "explosion of information" are

undeniable, their nature, causes, and consequences are much less certain. 1
Two opposing viewpoints have been prevalent during the last three
decades. The first sees development of modem communication technology
and the international flow of information as ordinary and evolutionary
processes, similar to those processes through which Western society has
frequently passed in the last four centuries.
Most of these experts view this stage as a unique form of acceleration of
either economic, political, or technological growth. They see modem tech­
nology of communication as a "savior," having the capability, and indeed
the power, to reduce conflict, poverty, and disintegration. If developed
worldwide, they believe it can (and in many instances will) stimulate econ­
omic growth, helping to resolve such problems as population explosions
and geographical, social, and psychological isolation.
The main issue is seen in a conflict of "democracy" and "totalitarian­
ism." Further, some experts among these diagnosticians advance the theory
of "strong men" and "wicked men," where conflicts between the "good
fellow" leaders and the "lunatic" leaders are at the center of the issues.
Through measures of technology, information, and economic growth they
hope to correct the maladjustment, to eradicate the evil, and to keep the
society and polity sane.
The second view has been more pessimistic. It sees the current crisis of
the world not only as the death agony of the dominant industrial powers,
but as that of the less industrialized world totally dominated and overtaken
by the industrialized world. No remedy can avert this destiny; no cure can
prevent the death of Western or Eastern or Southern culture unless basic
structural economic and political transformations are made.
In the author's opinion, both of the foregoing diagnoses are incomplete
and rather simplistic. Contrary to the optimistic view, the present world
order is not ordinary but extraordinary. Unlike the second view, the present
crisis is not merely an economic or political maladjustment, but simul­
taneously involves nearly the whole industrialized culture and society -
both capitalist and socialist - in all their main sectors. The point is that the
fundamental form of industrialized culture and society dominant for the
last four centuries is now in a stage of transition, as much as it is a
basically transitory force in the less industrialized societies where it has

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penetrated and dominated. What we are witnessing may be one of the

turning points of human history: where one fundamental form of culture
and society, that of industrialized nations and their modes of communica­
tion and information, is declining, and a different form is emerging.
Despite the terms used to describe this new era as "post-industrial" or
the "information age," we still know little as to how the society and the
international system might cope with the complexities of this new period.
This means that the main issues of our time are not merely economic,
political, and technological in nature, but are basically related to culture
and communication. In the West - both capitalist and socialist - it is a
crisis of sensate culture and communication in search of a new form and
new pattern, being confronted with ever-increasing new technological
and digitary information systems that contradict individual human needs
and desires. In the less industrialized world, it is the confrontation between
this collective sensate culture, economy, and policies, and an old ideational
and idealistic form of native culture.
In the realm of technology and scientific discoveries, it is now clear that
developments in communication technology such as satellites, computers,
and video, during the last three decades, have far exceeded the ability of
both policy makers and the academic community to deal effectively with
such innovations. Numerous attempts have been made to label this new
era, which differs significantly from the traditional telecommunications
concept embodied in the work of several international organizations such
as the International Telecommunications Vnion. 2 lTV, now over a century
old, has dealt primarily with telephony, telegraphy, radio, and cable, and
its inability to cope with issues evolving from new technology is evidenced
in the somewhat unproductive bickering that has characterized some of its
meetings in recent years.
This new technology differs also from the "classic" notion of mass media,
the twentieth-century term that has come to represent primarily print media,
radio, television, and cinema. As a result of technological development, all
these individual aspects of the information and communication industries
have combined to forge a new product with enormous potential for
expansion into all aspects of daily life and significant implications for the
economic market. Thus, the search for new labels to deal with this area has
begun. Some of the most popular and widely used terms these days include
"informatics," "telematics," "telesatcomputers," and "digital technology."
Concepts, in a subtle way, help shape the boundaries within which we
examine a given object or phenomenon. In the communications field,
conceptualization has become important in contemporary global society,
not only by creating the image we hold of communication technology, but
also by influencing the context within which we view the world and form
ideas and policies. In short, concepts form the parameters within which we
can operate. Furthermore, they act as a cause for rationalization and,
ultimately, legitimization. Over a period of two decades or so, these con­
cepts have become so thoroughly ingrained that they act as defenders of

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their own territories, not allowing new and possibly conflicting concepts to
encroach upon their established domain.
The concept of mass media illustrates this tendency. A product of
Western thought, the development of mass media coincided with the
emergence of mass society through the growth of organizations that served
to unite diverse elements into what is now considered mass culture in the
industrialized countries. The industrialization of the West led to the
inevitability of mass production and mass consumption, setting the stage
for the concept of "mass society," which was so popular during the first
half of this century among American and British sociologists.
This "Triple-M theory" - mass society, mass media, and mass culture -
influenced what emerged as one of the dominant paradigms of societal
organization. Mass society, essentially, is an industrial society. The division
of labor has made its members more interdependent than before. In the
Triple-M Theory, the triangle-circle of mass culture, mass media, and mass
society is closed; the media of mass communication are the parents of mass
culture, mass culture is the child of mass communication, mass media were
born out of mass society. In its early days, the growth of mass culture, or
what has been termed commodity culture by the critics of capitalism, led to
strong dissident movements and wide appeal in the industrialized West for
discrimination and taste. Elsewhere, the author has shown how the Triple­
M Theory was confronted and contested by the political economy and
technological deterministic theories in later years, and has offered an
integrated theory of media and culture as an alternative. 3 Suffice it to say
that the Triple-M Theory fell into disfavor as developing countries began to
reject the conceptualizations that accompanied imported industrialization
and technology.
As developing nations examined the domestic impact of communication
technologies such as radio and television, it became apparent that the
concept of mass communications and mass media, which had been openly
accepted as prevailing components of all societies, were in fact inappro­
priate in many of these countries. This realization occurred slowly, over a
period of 20 to 30 years, during which time developing countries attempted
to employ the mass media as a means of organizing their populations into
Western-style mass societies. Only in the 1 960s, when student revolutions
and political upheaval revealed weaknesses in Western societies and their
assumptions, did the developing world begin to seek alternatives to "mass"
development.

Technology versus Tradition

These alternatives, patterned after Gandhi's India, Julius Nyerere's

Tanzania, Mao Zedong's China, and Ayatollah Khomeini's Islamic
Republic of Iran, took advantage of communications infrastructure already
in existence: traditional channels such as large-scale community meetings,

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market places, mosques and bazaars.4 These traditional channels have

historically been ignored as identifiable areas worthy of classification and
study. They are generally termed "oral," but the many variations in oral
communications have not been determined. For instance, there is person­
to-person communication, but some countries have also developed a
traditional form of public communication that resembles the mass media.
Without benefit of technology, this channel can reach as many people as a
given newspaper. In studying these traditional channels, important poten­
tial uses will be identified and coordination between modem technology
and traditional channels can be achieved. An example resulting from such a
study was the integration of modem communication technology with the
mosque in Iran for the purpose of education, dissemination of religious
teachings, and political mobilization. 5
The decline of conventional mass media as we know them in the 1 960s
and 1 970s should hasten our examination of alternatives. In the 1 980s and
early 1 990s, both in the United States and certain other industrialized
countries, we have seen a rise of what might be called "class media" -
specialized and individually tailored publications, radio stations, and movie
houses, which can no longer claim to reach vast portions of the population
as the term "mass" would imply. With the exception of television, we do
not really have a medium that can reach large segments of the population
even if we consider the so-called national publications. The tendency has
been toward decentralization, with increased power to regional manage­
ment. This tendency means that mass media, as we know them, are rapidly
disappearing.
It is in this context that new technology has been developed and insti­
tutions such as the Intergovernmental Bureau of Informatics (IBI) have
been established. These institutions tend to make free use of the term
"informatics" without establishing its precise definition. In general, infor­
matics refers to the convergence of computer and telecommunication
technology, and "the emergence of a new complex of scientific, tech­
nological, and engineering disciplines and management techniques which
makes it possible to deal with data and information in a more systematic
manner," while remaining aware of the wider social, economic, and
cultural contexts of information. 6 Several other catchwords have been
coined in an attempt to conceptualize this multidisciplinary field, but the
English "communications" and the French "telematique" are considered
too awkward for universal acceptance. Thus, "informatics," from the
French "informatique," currently seems to be the front runner in the
competition.
A variety of definitions of informatics have been proposed in different
countries. In the context of the IBI, informatics encompasses "the design,
construction, evaluation, use, and maintenance of systems of information
processing, including the hardware, software, organizational and human
aspects, and their impact on industry, commerce, administration, and social
,,
and political life. 7 The IBrs official definition, somewhat more simplified,

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 Information technology 1 73

is: "Infonnatics is the rational and systematic application of infonnation to

economic, social and political problems." g
This new field is being influenced by two very different developments.
The first is the emergence of microelectronic technology. Rapid
development of microprocessors, coupled with broad-band communica­
tions, fiber optics, and other advances, is generating a new infonnation
technology.
The second aspect of infonnatics that has had an impact on the field is
the realization of the need for coherent policy-making in this area. The
1 978 SPIN Conference (Intergovernmental Conference on Strategies and
Policies for Infonnatics), held in Torremolinos, Spain and attended by
delegates from 78 countries, concluded that universal access to and imple­
mentation of infonnatics was essential. This tenet was affirmed
unanimously, against a background of recognition that financial, labor,
and infrastructural limitations exist today, and fonn the development gap.
The conference called for an exchange of experiences and infonnation
among countries at similar stages of infonnatics development; planning of
educational and training programs for, and by, the use of infonnatics; and
encouragement of scientific and technical research in the field of infor­
matics. In all these endeavors, social, economic, and cultural conditions
had to dictate the types of programs to be implemented. The conference did
not mention traditional communications channels, but perhaps considera­
tion of this area can be inferred from the references to social and cultural
detenninants.
The IBI has outlined seven principles that fonn its recommendation for a
national infonnatics policy: (1) consideration of infonnatics in fonnulation
of strategies and policies for national development; (2) special infonnatics
authorities and agencies to coordinate effects; (3) more education and
training programs to produce a labor force capable of utilizing the latest
technology; (4) endogenous infonnatics production capability; (5) develop­
ment of policies for the appropriate use of computer and telecommunica­
tions systems and services; (6) recognition of the need to preserve cultural
traditions and control technology for the benefit of society; and (7) regional
and international cooperation and interaction.
These principles sound very much like those that have been expounded
time and again in the New World Infonnation Order debates, and echo
some of the findings of the MacBride Commission report. They are,
understandably, somewhat idealistic and concentrate on the use of tech­
nology in solving the problems of inequality between developed and
developing nations. Moreover, the question of whether infonnatics is
advocating a communications policy or an infonnation policy remains
unclear. According to an IBI document, "[i]nfonnatics is not a philosophy
nor a doctrine, but a methodology and a means to apply infonnation power
,,
to real problems. 9 The basis of methodology is technology - electronic
infonnation-processing by computers. The combination has an added com­
ponent when new communication modes such as teletext and videodata are

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considered: the technology of the mass media. This trend has resulted in use
of the term "mass informatics," referring to applications such as electronic
mail, electronic transfer of funds, computer-assisted instruction, and
domestic informatics that brings computerization into the home.
The relationship between informatics and what has been termed the post­
industrial information society needs to be examined. Although "informa­
tion society" emphasizes the service sectors of the economy and the current
phenomenon where over 50 percent of the labor force is employed in the
sale of "information" of various types, "informatics" might ultimately
prove to be a more useful adjective. At any rate, those in the forefront of
the industry, particularly those involved in digital technology, would say
that we have already entered the informatics society, thus taking into
account not only the product but the means of transmission.
Cybernetics, the science of communication and control, is also related to
the field of informatics, and the distinction between the two needs to be
clarified. In studying the relationship between humans, machine, and
society, cybernetics appears to overlap informatics. Like informatics,
cybernetics deals with this relationship not only at the technological level,
such as in military radar, but also on the societal level, such as in environ­
mental issues. As a theoretical discipline, cybernetics has transcended the
rapid technological changes in communications in this century: informatics,
currently a futuristic term, could easily become outmoded in a decade.

Communication Technology and National Development

What, then, can we say about the relation between national development
and modem communication technology? The common assumption is that
there is much the communication media and technologies could do to help
the processes of development if the rulers and leaders of nations choose to
seek the growth of that technology. Yet difficulties must be faced when the
choice before them is a complex one. There is no convincing argument or
model that places the development of the most modem technological
hardware or software in the order of priorities in developmental needs.
There is, indeed, a tendency to generalize the problems and situations of
developing and even developed nations at the cost of a careful considera­
tion of their diversity. The stage theories and classifications of communi­
cation revolution and their historical contexts are good analytical exercises,
but cannot be applied in their pure form to the realities of contemporary
societies. It is one thing to divide history neatly into such categories as pre­
speech, speech, writing, printing, mass media, and telematic; but it is
completely another to observe the functioning of these societies along the
line of the combination of two or three, or even all.
Technology and informatics could easily be the dominant integrative
cultural and epistemological paradigms in some societies, but no one can
deny the sweeping forces of science, ideology, or mythology in the same

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 Information technology 1 75

socIetIes. Electronic communication networks, centralized databases, and

decentralized electronic cottage industries may dominate, but there will still
exist trade unions, voluntary associations, churches, and temples.
Here, an attempt will be made to demonstrate that some analytical­
historical-evolutionary stage of communication technology can guide our
thinking; but only a whole integrative schema or model can best illustrate
the complexities and contradictions of communication technology and
society, and might give us a better picture of the dialectics of technology
and development.
Historically, we can identify three major technological breakthroughs
that have had profound impact in social, political, and economic aspects of
human civilization. These three "revolutions' - the agricultural ( l OOO Be to
the l 800s), the industrial ( 1 800 to 1 950), and the information (1 960 to the
present) - are now being discussed as the major stages in technological
history. Each period was or is marked by significant changes in the
definition of property and work. In the agricultural period, land was the
most important measure of property and work. Capital, in the form of
machinery and money, characterized the period of industrial growth.
Today, information is emerging as the dominant power factor in the
information or "post-industrial" age. 1 0
No further steps will be taken here to emphasize these three distinct
periods and establish further subcategories for each domain. What has been
neglected in the discussion of this type of stage analysis is the fact that of all
three - land, capital, and information - the last has had the longest and
most pervasive impact throughout human history. Information in the form
of skill and knowledge preceded capital formation, and in many ways
characterizes all three stages. If we accept this assumption, it simply means
that information and knowledge are not the exclusive property of indus­
trialized societies, unless information and knowledge are defined in terms of
the Western epistemological and philosophical context. An example is the
amount of scientific information and knowledge produced in the Islamic
world in such fields as medicine, mathematics, and astronomy, prior to the
Industrial Revolution, not to mention the importance of communication,
transportation, military operations, literature, and philosophy during the
early civilizations of the Egyptians, the Chinese, and the Greeks. Infor­
mation is the only thing that can grow and evolve, and the concept is the
most important to any evolutionary and stage theory. The terms
"information" and "knowledge" are used quite interchangeably. There
exist, however, a number of definitions of the two terms that are extremely
crucial to our discussion. For example, economist Joseph Hirschleifer
defines information as "changes in belief distribution," ) ) which is somewhat
in contrast with the definition given by information scientists who define
information as "a measure of the freedom of choice in selecting a message."
In cybernetics, of course, information theory is one of the most
important areas of discussion. Norbert Wiener, often cited as the founder
of cybernetics theory, defines information as "the content of what is

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1 76 Global information and world communication

exchanged with the outer world as we adjust to it, and make our adjust­
ments felt upon it." 1 2 He writes, "Information is information, not matter or
energy. No materialism which does not admit this can be survived at the
,,
present day. 1 3 To Colin Cherry, "information content is not a commodity
but rather a potential of signals." Thus, "information communicated will
depend upon the choice of signals in any particular channel of communi­
,,
cation with relation to the receiver's expectancies. 14 Others have defined
information as "power" and industrial information as industrial or
economic power. Kenneth Boulding defines information and knowledge as
,,
"that which reduces uncertainty. 1 5
In the realm of philosophy we can find such writers as E. Wasmuth, who
views "information as a time-relationship" or "that of continuous time­
,,
flow, or as a product of the two time relationships. 16 Another writer, G.
Gunther, asserts "that information and communication processes are not
,,
just not material processes but also not mental phenomena. 1 7 These
philosophical views are rejected by Marxist-Leninist writers as "idealist
accounts" of information, since from the viewpoint of dialectical material­
ism there is only matter and its properties and products; there is neither a
spiritual component nor any other metaphysical component of reality. 18 In
short, this divergent opinion about information is related to the different
ways of viewing information.
Thus a useful way to view the "post-industrial age" or the so-called
"information age" is to see it as a tangible or "material" infrastructure
being built into contemporary society. If we employ the concept of infra­
structure we can then say that, historically, the earliest known infrastructure
was the transportation infrastructure (i.e., roads, seaports, and mail).
Energy, in the form of water, dams, electricity, and oil, was the second
infrastructure, followed by printing, machinery, and eventually telecom­
munications as a third major technological infrastructure. We can then say
that modem communication and information technologies, in the form of
satellites, computers, and radar (or telematiC/informatic), comprise the new
infrastructure.
I have argued that the notion of "information" has been prevalent and
equally vital in all historical stages in the past, and will remain so in the
future. Therefore, it cannot be compared to such things as "land" and
"capital" in describing the agricultural, industrial, and post-industrial
periods of history. A major characteristic of the new infrastructure, or the
post-industrial age, is its ability to produce data, and not necessarily
information, in large quantities. Data production, processing, and distribu­
tion best characterize the technological development of our time. Infor­
mation is different from data in that information is defined as a patterned
distribution, or a patterned relationship between events. 19
Knowledge production is defined broadly as "any human (or human­
induced) activity effectively designed to create, alter, or confirm in a human
mind - one's own or anyone else's - a meaningful apperception, awareness,
cognizance, or consciousness of whatever it may be."2o Here, the two major

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conceptual contributions made by economist Fritz Machlup, namely the

distinction between (1) procedural (know-how and technology enabling one
to perform action in a prescribed series of steps in order to obtain a desired
result) and propositional knowledge (knowledge related to stated proposi­
tions) and (2) the treatment of knowledge as a manifestation of capital in
order to integrate it into the larger economic paradigm and derive insights
therefrom, are of considerable value in examining and understanding the
key issues of today's international relations. Machlup expresses reservation
about singling out a class of knowledge "under the heading 'scientific
knowledge' or 'science"'21 because the terms have meant and continue to
mean different things depending on one's cultural and academic back­
ground. The position Machlup adopts visca-vis "truth" or veracity of
knowledge is that "for much of knowledge (in the weak and wide sense)
produced (acquired, disseminated) in our society, the requirements of
,,
verifiability or falsifiability would be quite unrnanageable. 22
It is as unrealistic to describe the characteristics of a given society or
system as a pure end product of the unilinear development of a single
historical period of human civilization or technological innovation as it is
to ignore that tradition entirely. Rather, one might conceive of the com­
munication system of a given country as a hybrid born of multifarious
scientific and technological, as well as social, traditions, at various times
betraying the influence of one or the other, or a combination of the
traditions. This point is especially crucial if we consider other layers of
human infrastructure in the form of culture, religion, government, and
bureaucracy, without which societal communication cannot take place.

A Conceptual Framework for Theory and Policy

Although we have seen a progression of policy research and a rise in the

number of national communication policies during the last two decades,
writings on communication strategy and planning as they relate to devel­
opment remain somewhat fragmented, simplistic, bureaucratic, and market­
oriented. Upon examination of both the literature and institutions dealing
with communication policy and planning, the following different research
approaches have been identified:
1 . long-range planning with policy goals toward equitable distribution of
communication power in a society's future;
2. comprehensive planning examining all aspects of a communication
system within the broader sociopolitical framework of society;
3 . development support communication designed to encourage the
participation of beneficiaries in a project and to ensure its execution
and success;
4. technology transfer and assessment, especially innovations in such areas
as satellite communication, cable television, and telecom-computer
linkups;

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1 78 Global information and world communication

5 . control and regulations and their legal and institutional consequences;

6. normative and goal-oriented approaches in which the information
program policy plays an active role in broadening the political and
cultural views of the people through alternative and critical programs;
7. information economics, determining the information sector of the
economy's contribution to overall economic growth; and
8. an integrated approach toward a unified comprehensive methodology.

Traditionally, technological and institutional approaches to communica­

tion policy and planning have predominated. In other words, most writings,
research, and prescriptions on communication policy and planning focus on
those areas that are technologically mediated or institutionally arranged.
The two approaches overlap somewhat, despite their general and specific
distinctions.
Both technological and institutional approaches require that development
planners work with existing resources or with those that can be realistically
created within financial and time constraints. The availability and assess­
ment of resources naturally become critical components of the planning
process and involve identification and evaluation as well as assessment of
distribution and potential distribution or extension of resources. Commu­
nication resources available to both approaches can be grouped into three
categories: (1) traditional communication and interpersonal interactions; (2)
conventional mass media and telecommunications; and (3) high technology
and space applications.
The technology-mediated focus contents that international telecommu­
nications is vital to progress in the developing countries. It maintains that
since the modern world's technical and scientific culture is global, any
country that cuts itself off from the electronic flow of knowledge in that
global enterprise risks incurring information isolation and economic
underdevelopment. The institutionally arranged focus, on the other hand,
acknowledges that research and planning in communication and develop­
ment is indeed a complex task and that the analyst must maintain a broad
view of communication as a part of the larger development system, while at
the same time focusing on the communication system itself and the rela­
tionship of its component parts. The central assumption of the institutional
approach, in other words, is that communication planning for development
is initiated on the premise that change is needed. Thus, institutional
frameworks are intended for the practical use of planners and decision
makers.
Recently, new contributions in development planning have been sig­
nificant, among these the application of planning and management to
development efforts. It is important here to take note of some of the most
recent diagnoses of communication policies and planning as they apply to
the developing countries. It increasingly is recognized that there is a need
first to link communication development with overall development, through
the formulation of national communication policies that reflect demo-

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 Information technology 1 79

I N D IVIDUAL-SYSTEM LEVEL AXIS

Individual

COU NTRY B COU NTRY A

-'
�a:
:::Jf-­
U:::J
a: Mass media and
tn
� Traditional telecommunication Informatic
� communication and telematic

z
o
�
u
Z
:::J COU NTRY B COU NTRY A
�
�
o
u

National system

Figure 9 . 1 Multidimensional and integrative approach to communication

utility

graphic imperatives, and, second, to develop an endogenous approach to

development that simultaneously acknowledges opportunities as well as
dangers in the extranational environment.
How and to what extent can technological and information media
categories be "plugged into" contemporary theory and policy phenomena?
So specific, multidimensional, and far reaching are these factors that to
strictly relate the entire societal development, top to bottom, to the
characterization of a country or a communication system will probably
jeopardize the credibility of making the association in the first place. At the
same time, it is valuable and necessary to employ a consideration of this
body of stage theories as a backdrop for communications and media
phenomena rather than viewing the latter as a complete crystallization of
the former. The connection of different societies and different countries or
systems to different aspects of communication technology is diffuse rather
than direct. Thus, as illustrated in Figure 9. 1 , a given society or a country
on both individual and nation-stage levels may reflect the feature of any
combination of traditions of communication systems and technology, and
some may be stronger and more dominant than others at any time and at
any level (individual or nation-state), depending on social, cultural,
political, and economic conditions.
These three stages of communication development - traditional, con­
ventional mass media, and futuristic informatics - can be found in varying
degrees in most societies today. Often in developing countries, however, the
gap between the communications channels used by the society or nation-

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1 80 Global information and world communication

I N DIVIDUAL-SYSTEM LEVEL AXIS

Individual

\ \
\ COU NTRY B \ COU NTRY A
--l
<{a: \ \
::J \ \
UI­::J \ Family
\
a: \
Mass media and
Groups
Organizations
\
\ \
<{a:til Traditional \ telecommunication
\ Informatic
� communication and telematic

zo \
Institutions
\
\ \
�u \
Corporations
Bureaucracy
\
Z::J \ National government
\
� \ \

o�
COU NTRY B \ COU NTRY A \
u \ \

National system

Figure 9.2 Multidimensional and integrative approach to communication

utility

state and individuals within that society is enormous. For this reason, a
continuum of stages is best depicted as four quadrants (see Figure 9.2) with
a separation between individual and national (or established system) levels
on the vertical, individual-system level axis, and between traditional
communication, mass media and telecommunications, and informatic and
telematic levels on the horizontal communication infrastructural axis.
Thus, American society, where individuals are generally as preoccupied
with high information technology now readily available as the national
system as a whole, would fit in the two right-hand quadrants. Even in the
United States, however, isolated rural societies such as those found in
Appalachia still rely on the local store and Sunday visiting as a source of
news and information, despite widespread television ownership. Market
places in rural Iowa or North Carolina and town meetings in New England
are all examples of traditional channels of communication, as are the pubs
in Britain, in spite of the use of advanced communications technologies at
the national level. These individual cases could appear in the upper left
quadrant somewhere between traditional and mass media. The significant
aspect, in the case of both the United States and Britain, is that there is a
level of homeostasis between the utilization of communication technologies
on individual and national levels. In short, there is coordination and
harmony between the system's adoption of information technologies and
the individual's utilization of these technologies.
In many countries, such as oil-rich Nigeria, Venezuela, and Saudi
Arabia, the polarity between individuals and the national system is, of

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 Information technology 181

course, much more striking as the national communication policies tend to

move toward the direction of high technologies while the individuals
remain in the realm of traditional or semi-traditional communication and
information systems. In this example, the two points would be diagonally
opposite on the graph, the individual's utility of information technology
remaining in the traditional sector while the national system moves to the
opposite sector, signifying the chasm between urban "sophistication" in
major cities and the concerns of the average rural dweller. Thus, contra­
dictions and polarity gaps in national communication policies become a
major social, political, and economic problem.
The development of specific industries and services can be plotted along
this graph as well. The airline industry, for instance, has moved steadily
along the continuum from left to right, as has the banking system, a result
of the computerization that now characterizes those enterprises.
The horizontal axis is the communication infrastructural system that a
country utilizes. The vertical axis represents the actors. In Figure 9.2, a
spectrum-like axis has been employed, as it is on the horizontal axis in
Figure 9 . 1 , to show the range of actors or users - from individuals to
institutions and organizations to national systems.
Given these varying degrees of utilization, it would then be possible to
consider a country like the United States on this diagram in a different
manner. In this example, one can see that the further down the vertical axis
an entity is, the more toward technological exposure of communication it
will be. The lower portion of the vertical axis would be further to the right
than the upper portion because the national systems are ahead of con­
sumers with regard to technology use. The information flow in pre­
revolutionary Iran clearly showed the conflict between the official com­
munication and culture of the government and the traditional commu­
nication and culture of the masses rooted in Iranian national and religious
tradition. Nowhere is this conflict better illustrated than in the structure
and use of the means of communication at the disposal of both cultures. In
contrast to the modern media and high technology were the traditional
institutions by which the people obtained their information, and through
which the revolution was accomplished. In this case, the individuals were to
the far left of the diagram, while the national governmental system was at a
much more distant right.
This is in contrast to the process in developing countries, in which a gap
is created because the development of one sector, such as the national level,
is conducted at the expense of the other institutional or individual sectors.
For example, the introduction of personal computers (PCs) in the United
States and Europe and the methods used in their rapid diffusion are classic
examples of the integrative nature of the marketing techniques used by
the multinational and other producers. Within a short span following the
introduction of PCs in these areas, a high degree of diffusion of knowledge
of and reliance on the systems was achieved, for example, among local and
national bureaucracies, office workers, students, bank executives, and

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1 82 Global information and world communication

military personnel. Indeed, by providing, free of charge, hardware and

software as well as time, especially to individuals and educational institu­
tions, the producers and manufacturers of pes were able to recruit as well
as train enough "person power" to make their future market operative and
more profitable. The cost of operations and maintenance of the com­
munication hardware is facilitated once the public and institutional wealth
of customers is recruited successfully into the system.
Thus the graph serves as a conceptual framework for communications
development in which all channels of communication are represented and
given equal weight. Abandoning the earlier assumptions that viewed
development as necessarily industrial and Western, the traditional end of
the continuum is given equal emphasis in realistic acknowledgement of its
ongoing importance in most of the world. Here, we are not restricted to
certain technology-driven conceptualizations. A given communication
system in a given society may reflect the features of any combination of
traditions, and some may be "stronger" than others at any given time,
depending on social conditions.

Implications for National and International Communication Policy

Ideally, the first step in policy formation should be a precise definition of

such concepts as "informatic" and "telematic." Although numerous defi­
nitions have been offered, a distinction must be made between informatics
and the other areas which it overlaps. Only when informatics can stand
alone as a separate field, or at least indicate specific stages of activities, will
the terminology prove useful. As long as words like telematics, tele­
communications, and cybernetics are widely used, there is bound to be
confusion in the field.
The definition should also clarify exactly what is being transmitted
electronically. Informatics implies that information is being transferred, and
information differs significantly from the streams of uninterpreted data bits
that travel from computer to computer via the telephone line. Only when
information and communication policies are distinguished from informatics
policy will the term be useful.
It is possible that informatics will replace other popular terminology if
these preconditions are met. There is a serious need for standardization in
the informatics field, not only in technical and engineering areas but in the
theoretical area as well. Twenty years ago, telecommunications was an
acceptable term to use, and most specialists in the field knew what was
meant. In today's rapidly changing climate, however, precision in language
is all important, as language shapes our ability to think and conceptualize.
Therefore, it is imperative that terms not be created ad hoc, without
deliberation. Once terminology comes into vogue, we become prisoners of
that terminology, and our ability to move beyond is severely hampered.
Images are created based on that name, especially as they relate to software,

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 Information technology 183

with all the political, cultural, and economic implications involved. Thus,
even as the new informatics age is heralded as the latest technological
achievement, some thoughtful consideration should be given to the ramifi­
cations of this achievement, and perhaps some planning for the future could
benefit a world now inured to the constant assaults of technological
revolution.
Such are the conditions without which the failure in designing a mean­
ingful communication policy cannot be stopped and the tragedy of
transition alleviated. There is no doubt that the realization of these factors
is infinitely more difficult than the application of the superficial measures of
economic, technological, or other "readjustments." Our remedy demands a
fundamental transformation and change in our level of conceptualization
and viewing communication and information flows as an integrative whole.

Conclusion

Viewing the communication process as an integrated whole challenges the

technological determinism that underlined much communication policy and
planning of the 1 970s. Aspects of this integrated approach have been
emphasized by a number of scholars and planners in the 1 980s and 1 990s.
This view considers the importance of modern technological innovation in
terms of developmental objectives and communication needs and the
distribution of political, cultural, and economic benefits to society. The
process of aligning different societies, countries, or systems with various
aspects of communication technology is a diffuse one.
Thus, a given society or country on both individual and national levels
may reflect features of any combination of traditions of communication
systems and technology, and some may be stronger and more dominant
than others depending on social, cultural, political, and economic con­
ditions. In this regard, this chapter, although general, hopefully can be a
guideline for a much broader perspective on communication and policy
with application to telecommunications or other communication-oriented
projects. Such a remedy demands a fundamental transformation and
change in our level of conceptualization toward viewing communication
policy and planning as an integrative, holistic process.

Notes

I . Some of the works in this area include: Jacques Ellul, The Technological Society (New
York: Vintage Books, 1 964); Oswald H. Ganley and Gladys D. Ganley, To Inform or to
Control: The New Communication Network (New York: McGraw Hill, 1 982); Alvin W.
Gouldner, Dialectic of Ideology and Technology (New York: Macmillan, 1 976); Youeji
Masuda, Information Society as Post-Industrial Society (Tokyo: Institute for Information
Society, 1980); Marc Porat, The Information Economy (Washington, DC: US Office of
Telecommunications, 1977); Theodore Roszak, Where the Wasteland Ends: Politics and
Transcendence in Post-Industrial Society (New York: Doubleday, 1 972); Herbert Schiller, Who

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1 84 Global information and world communication

Knows: Information in the Age of the Fortune 500 (Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing
Corporation, 1981); Wilson Dizard, The Coming of the Information Age (White Plains, NY:
Longman, 1 982); Norbert Wiener, The Human use of Human Beings: Cybernetics and Society
(New York: Avon Books, 1967); Daniel Bell, The Coming of Post-Industrial Society (New
York: Basic Books, 1 973); Colin Cherry, World Communication: Threat or Promise? (London:
John Wiley-Interscience, 197 1 ), and Technological Man: The Myth and the Reality (New York:
Mentor Books New American Library, 1969; and Kathleen Woodward, The Myths of
Information: Technology and Post-Industrial Culture (Madison, WI: Coda Press, 1 980).
2. An example is a symposium "The 'New Technology': Who Sells It? Who Needs It?
Who Rules It?" published in Journal of Communication, 32: 4 (Autumn 1982), pp. 55- 1 78.
3. Hamid Mowlana, "Mass Media and Culture: Toward An Integrated Theory" in
William Gudykunst, ed., Intercultural Communication Theory: Current Perspectives (Beverly
Hills, CA: Sage Publications, 1983), pp. 149-1 70.
4. See Julius K. Nyerere, Ujamaa: Essays on Socialism (Dar es Salaam: Oxford University
Press, 1968). See also Kusum J. Singh, "Gandhi and Mao as Mass Communicators"; Asghar
Fathi, "The Role of the Islamic Pulpit"; and Hamid Mowlana, "Technology versus Tradition:
Communication in the Iranian Revolution"; all published in Journal of Communication, 29: 3
(Summer 1 979), pp. 94- 1 1 2.
5. Hamid Mowlana, "Technology Versus Tradition: Communication in the Iranian
Revolution," Journal of Communication, 29: 3 (Summer 1979), pp. 107-1 12.
6. "Informatics and Development," Intermedia, 7: I (January 1979), p. I .
7 . Edward Ploman, "The Need for Informatics," Intermedia, 7: I (January 1979), p . I I .
8 . F.A. Bernasconi, "Informatics, the IBI and SPIN," Intermedia, 7 : I (January 1 979),
p. 12.
9. "Informatics and Development," Intermedia, 7: I (January 1 979), p. 14.
10. See Bell, The Coming of Post-Industrial Society. For a discussion on information in the
process of transfer of technology, see Hamid Mowlana, "The Multinational Corporations and
the Diffusion of Technology," in Abdul A. Said and Luiz R. Simmons, eds, The New
Sovereigns: Multinational Corporations as World Powers (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall,
1975), pp. 77-90.
1 1 . Joseph Hirshleifer, "Where Are We in the Theory of Information?" American Economic
Review, 63: 2 (May 1 973), p. 3 1 .
1 2 . Norbert Wiener, The Human Use of Human Beings, pp. 26-27.
1 3 . Wiener, Cybernetics, or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine,
new edn (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1961), p. 1 32.
14. Colin Cherry, On Human Communication (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1 957), p. 1 3.
1 5. Kenneth Boulding, The Image (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1956),
p. I .
1 6. As quoted in Peter Paul Kirschenmann, Information and Reflection: On Some Problems
of Cybernetics and How Contemporary Dialectical Materialism Copes with Them (Dordrecht:
D. Reidel, 1 970), p. 6. For the original work see E. Wasmuch, Der Mensch und die
Denkmaschine (Man and the Thinking Machine) (Cologne: Olten, 1 955).
1 7. Quoted in Wasmuth, Der Mensch, p. 7. For the original work see G. Gunther, Das
Bewusstsein der Maschinen - Eine Metaphysik der Kybernetik (The Consciousness of
Machines: The Metaphysics of Cybernetics) (Krefeld: Baden-Baden, 1963).
1 8 . Wasmuth, Der Mensch, pp. 9-17, 94-105.
19. See, for example, Karl W. Deutsch, The Nerves of Government: Models of Political
Communication and Control (New York: Free Press, 1963).
20. Fritz Machlup, Knowledge: Its Creation, Distribution and Economic Significance, Vol. I:
Knowledge and Knowledge Production (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1980), p. 1 86.
2 1 . Ibid., p. 62.
22. Ibid., p. 1 17.

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 10

Communication and Development:

The Emerging Orders

Is there a communication of development? The term "development" as an

all-encompassing concept referring to such widely different processes as
"modernization," "Westernization," "Europeanization," "industrialization,"
"economic growth," "political change," "nation building," and a score of
other economic, political, social and cultural activities and changes was not
used extensively in the literature until the end of World War II. Yet, for
over half a century prior to the outbreak of war, the relationship between
communication as a social process and communications as a means and
technology of the modem age was studied in the context of such specific
phenomena as revolution, reform, economic growth, democracy, and
political mobilization as well as education, literacy and cultural activities.
Experiments and studies were implemented not only in the highly indus­
trialized countries of the West but also in a number of less industrialized
and agricultural economies such as the Soviet Union, Japan, Egypt, Iran,
Turkey and Mexico. One important characteristic of this period was the
clear-cut relation hypothesized between a given communication technology
(and medium) and a specific "developmental" goal. Thus the role of the
press as an organizer, an agitator, and propagandist was recognized, as was
its place in the democratization, surveillance, and cultural transformations
of societies and nations The central role of telecommunications -
specifically the telephone, telegraph, and submarine cables - in economic
growth and trade was recognized, and attention was given to the role of the
press in urban development and the role of radio in agricultural and rural
extension services.
The widespread use of "development" as a conceptual framework for a
number of individual, institutional, national and international changes as
well as for "progress," is a post-World War II phenomenon. In the 1 940s
and especially in the 1950s and 1 960s, the term "development" became
synonymous with growth, modernization, change, democracy, productivity,
industrialization, and other related Western historical and evolutionary
changes. Popularized first by (and among) the American scholars and
policy makers, and soon introduced to Europe and especially the less
industrialized countries of the world, the term "development" became a
major issue in international organizations, despite its ill-defined and less
than universally recognized meaning. The term was popular, especially
among American scholars and policy makers, for several reasons.

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1 . The United States was the hegemonic world power at the end of World
War II, and its government attempted to transform defeated countries
as well as emerging non-Western and less industrialized countries of
Asia, Latin America, and Africa into "Western-style" democracies
through peaceful means and gradual reforms and reconstructions. Thus,
"development" in both Western and non-Western societies was
perceived as a gradual but multi-stage evolution rather than as a
revolutionary process. In short, development meant the incorporation of
less industrialized countries into the dominant model of the capitalist
economic and social system.
2. Through the Marshall Plan to assist Western European reconstruction;
the Truman Doctrine's Four Point program of economic and technical
assistance to countries such as Greece, Iran and Turkey; the increase in
the amount of US foreign aid to a number of countries on the path of
"modernization" such as Pakistan, Thailand and South Korea; and the
subsequent establishment of the US Agency for International Develop­
ment (USAID), with its various programs and activities, the term
development acquired a special meaning from the viewpoint of the
United States as donor and a number of countries as recipients.
3. The establishment of the United Nations system and its affiliated agencies
involved with aspects of national, regional and international activities of
an economic, monetary, financial technical, educational, scientific,
cultural and political nature further helped to enhance the concept of
development, especially in the context of the political and economic
modernization and growth of less industrialized countries and emerging
nations. The 1950s and 1 960s became known as the decades of develop­
ment, when many countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, after
years of struggle for independence and decolonization, were within reach
of developmental models that they envisioned would improve their stan­
dards of living, establish economic and political infrastructure, and help
them join the community of nations as participant and equal partners.
4. Finally, the keen interest of the United States and the Soviet Union
during the Cold War and later of Europe in the study of non-Western
societies under the rubric of "developing" countries was largely
responsible not only for the further popularity of the term "develop­
ment" but also for its conceptual and methodological growth.
Thus, development, both as a process and as a concept referring to
several specific evolutionary phenomena, was used after World War II to
describe two broad themes: ( 1 ) modernization, nationalism and political
development; and (2) economic development and technological diffusion.

Theoretical and Methodological Problems and Prospects

During the 1 950s and 1 960s, modernization, nationalism, and political

development were the dominant approaches to development and nation

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 Communication and development 1 87

building, especially among political scientists, sociologists, and social

psychologists in the United States. The series initiated under the leadership
of Gabriel Almond and sponsored by the Committee on Comparative
Politics of the Social Science Research Council at Princeton University first
began to compile cross-cultural data necessary for a discussion of
modernization and political development.
Working within this paradigm, Lucian Pye, Ithiel de Sola Pool,
Frederick Frey, and Richard Fagen perceived communications as a key
function common to all political systems. Here the literature on political
development and modernization tended to distinguish political from econ­
omic development. The writers emphasized the importance of Western
democracy as well as institution building and citizen participation. The
emphasis was on formal institutional channels of politics, mostly along the
lines of parliamentary democracy. Multi-party systems, secularization, and
the sovereignty of the nation-state system were strongly advocated and
supported. Political development was viewed primarily as a process of
national integration, as movement from less to more national unity.
Associated with this theory were two problems: the necessity to link
previously autonomous units to each other and the requirements to bridge
the gap between national elites and others in the same system. Political
development also meant extending central and communication networks
into and across previously isolated sectors of the society. Modernization,
the political development process, involved increased structural differentia­
tion in the political system, movement away from ascription criteria and
toward achievement criteria in political recruitment and evaluation, a
widening of the effective scope of political activity and increased secular­
ization and "rationalizations."
However, by the end of the 1 970s, these models of modernization and
political development were being challenged not only on the theoretical but
also on empirical and practical levels. The Islamic revolution in Iran and
other developments in Asia, Africa and Latin America had sent shock
waves through the regions and the world. Islam on the move became a
worry for the West - that is, the United States and Europe. A decade later
the disintegration of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, the developments in
Eastern Europe and Germany's reunification were accompanied by Islam's
return to the scene of history and its ability to mobilize its adherents from
Algeria to Kashmir and Central Asia.
What went wrong with these development theories? Why did the
theorists of modernization neither prophesy nor delineate the commu­
nication, political and cultural landscapes that prevail today? Was this
because they paid too much heed to those elements in modern life which
characterize formal institutions and formal ideologies? Or did they simply
misconstrue the process of social change taking place in our time? Were
they misled by their cultural bias and the pattern of discourse which had
dominated their social interactions? How critical were their "critical"
methodologies?

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1 88 Global information and world communication

In the optimism of the development decades, it was believed that the

increases in information made possible through broadcasting and print
technologies would pull the "developing" countries up to the level of their
neighbors to the north. Their theories rested on the hypothesis that
individual behavior changes, brought about by the messages of the mass
media, and mediated by opinion leaders and literacy, would produce a
modem political and economic actor. This actor would plant the right
types of seed, use credit efficiently, voice political views and demands
through the appropriate channels, and organize the institutions needed to
push traditional societies over the threshold of modernity and into the
twentieth century.
During the post-World War II period and especially in the 1 950s and
1 960s, from an economic and technological perspective development was
viewed as synonymous with economic growth measured in aggregate terms
- a perspective that still has many adherents today. Here, the major deficit
of national development or societal development is seen to be a deficit of
economic resources. The "classical" school of development (Adam Smith,
Thomas Malthus, John Stuart Mill, David Ricardo) focused its attention
on economic growth. Total economic output was seen as dependent on the
size of the labor force, the supply of land, the stock of capital, the pro­
portions in which these factors of production were combined, and the level
of technology.
The strategy of direct economic investment in developing countries to
increase their rate of economic growth predominated in the years following
the war. This thesis, which became the backbone of the Marshall Plan and
related programs of the United States, was the basis of much of the
economic aid flowing from developed to developing countries from the
1950s onwards.
One of the most influential views of development was Rostow's theory of
economic growth, which identified five stages: (1) traditional society; (2)
precondition for take-off, in which certain requisites were fulfilled; (3) take­
off; (4) drive and climb to maturity; and finally, (5) high levels of mass
consumption. This model was based on the belief that a steady increase in
per capita income, especially during the take-off stage, through the mech­
anism of savings and investment and the emergence of a political and social
framework capable of exploiting the impulses to expansion, would
underline the drive to maturity, resulting in development.
The dominant liberal/capitalist model of development comprises the
following four main elements: (1) economic growth through industrializa­
tion and accompanying urbanization; (2) capital-intensive technology
mainly imported from the more developed nations; (3) centralized planning,
mainly by economists and financial experts, to guide and speed up the
process of development; and (4) assertion that the causes of underdevel­
opment are mainly within developing countries themselves. The implication
for the role of communications in this model was obvious: to transfer
technological innovations from industrially developed countries and

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 Communication and development 1 89

agencies to their clients and to create an appetite for change by raising a

"climate for modernization" among the public in the industrially less
developed nations. The classical diffusion models of communication as well
as the orthodox theories of communication and modernization were com­
patible with this development model.
However, as we entered the last decades of the twentieth century the core
areas of that liberal/capitalist model, mainly the United States and a
number of European countries, were in deep financial and economic crises.
According to the US Labor Department, nearly a generation after US
technology companies unleashed a new wave of computers, telecommuni­
cations gear and electronic equipment, high-tech communication machines
were cutting productivity in the US service industry. l
Indeed, during the 1 980s, the average rate of growth in the productivity
information and service industries was far below what it was before the
advent of the computer technology in the early 1 970s. By the early 1 990s,
unemployment and a major economic recession were in full swing in the
USA - witness 1 99 1 's unprecedented bank mergers, deregulations, airline
failures and consolidations in retailing, advertising, and telecommunica­
tions. The burden of recession had shifted to the white-collar workforce,
mainly the 60 percent of the workforce employed in information and
service industries. Blue-collar workers were also hurt, but they had been
accustomed to harsh economic reversals since the 1 950s.
The economic and development communication models in the socialist
countries of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union were even more
disastrous. The centrally, state-run economic and communication sectors,
combined with inefficient bureaucracy and heavy investment in the defense
sector, had produced a largely corrupt elite hierarchy with little legitimacy
for survival. In short, the dominant capitalist and socialist models were no
longer the "ideals" by the end of the 1 980s.

From Modernization to Postmodernity and Beyond

Three categories of writing or approaches have dominated the paradigm of

communication and development since the 1 950s. The first approach is to
view communication and development as a cause-effect relationship. The
second approach deals primarily with what might be called cost-benefit
analysis or utilitarianism. The third approach deals primarily with infra­
structural analysis. Here, political economy, cultural identity, and value
system are linked with communication and development by examining the
structure of existing communication, economic, political, and cultural
systems at all levels: national, international, and global.
Classical and neo-classical economic thinkers saw communication as a
necessary factor for economic development and growth. In the United
States various causal models correspond roughly to this theoretical
perspective, including the works of Daniel Lerner.,2 and theoreticians

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associated with the school of modernization. Often, these models were stage
theories such as those proposed by Walter Rostow.
Lerner's causal model suggested a sequence of institutional develop­
ments leading to self-sustaining growth and modernization: urbanization,
literacy, extension of the mass media, higher per capita income and
political participation. Lerner contended that growth in one of these areas
listed sequentially stimulates growth in the others, and that the process
moves society toward modernization. He maintained that a society must
develop empathy - the ability of a person to imagine significant positive
change in his or her own status - in order to proceed to modernity. In
explaining an individual's progression from traditional, to transitional, to
a modern way of life, Lerner advanced the notion that modernization in
developing societies will follow the historical model of Western develop­
ment. The key factors to modernization are physical, social, and psycho­
logical mobilities, which express themselves in the concept of empathy.
The entire process is facilitated by the mass media, which act as an agent
and index of change.
Lerner used a communication framework to characterize the traditional!
modern difference. Modern society to him was the "media system." Within
the media system, the channel of communication is the "broadcast," the
audience is "heterogeneous" (mass), the content of the message is "descrip­
tive" (news), and the source is "professional" (skilled). In the oral system,
the channel is the person, the audience is "primary" (small group), the
content is "prescriptive" (rules), and the source is "hierarchical" (status­
oriented).
According to the model of modernization, the change from traditional to
transitional and then to modern society was always accompanied by a
change from oral communication systems to mass communication systems.
The change was always unidirectional. The difference between the two
systems, according to Lerner, was that traditional interpersonal commu­
nication enforces traditional attitudes and mores, whereas mass commu­
nication teaches new skills, attitudes, and behavior. Mass media are
therefore a "mobility multiplier" that has the capacity to communicate
both the character and the possibility of change to a growing audience.
Lerner asserts that an interactive relationship exists between the media
index of modernization and other social institutions. The closest correla­
tional growth of organization and literacy happens after take-off at 1 0
percent urbanization and ends at 2 5 percent urbanization. After this point,
literacy growth correlates most highly with mass media growth.
Lerner's proposition that access to mass media is a precondition for
participation in modern society and that mass media directly affect per­
sonal attitudes and behavior has been questioned not only by critics of the
orthodox models of development but also by the proponents of com­
munications and development. For example, Lucian Pye3 asserted that all
aspects of communication rather than the mass media by themselves are
important agents of political participation, while Ithiel de Sola Pool4 was

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skeptical about whether the media have the same direct effect on changes in
attitudes and skills.
Another area of contention was Lerner's correlation growth hypothesis.
Seymour Martin Lipset, 5 who used a similar model in his study of political
participation, was among the early writers of modernization who cautioned
that the functional interdependence of urbanization, literacy, media
exposure, and political participation may not be as well established as
Lerner's data showed.
Some studies on mass media exposure and modernization partially
confirmed Lerner's correlation hypothesis. Others could not verify the basic
chain of interaction in which urbanization, literacy, media participation
and political participation increased in direct relationship to one another.
For example, Wilbur, Schramm and W. Lee Ruggles6 concluded that by
1961 urbanization was no longer as basic to the growth of literacy and
mass media as Lerner had assumed several years earlier. Their suggestion
was that the spread of modern electronic technology (especially radio),
coupled with rods and rapid transportation into villages, had made
urbanization less essential to the process of development and the general
growth in education. It was found that the monotonic relationship of
growth stopped at substantially lower levels of urbanization than those
proposed by Lerner.
Examples of causal models dealing with communication and develop­
ment on the individual level include those of David C. McClelland. 7
McClelland's work examined the relationship between personality and
innovational activity. McClelland measured the degree of achievement
motivation present in various countries at various periods in history and
correlated it with economic advances in those countries. He concluded that
the need for achievement, which he equated with entrepreneurial activity, is
key to economic growth not only in Western capitalist countries but also in
economies controlled and fostered largely by the state. Socialization and
communication in the early stage of life play a crucial role in the formation
of a need for achievement.
This second set of approaches to communication and development
contains divergent themes that can be classified as: diffusion models;
mobilization theories; technological assessments and transfer theories;
development communication approaches; and general systems approaches
and analyses.
The communication-development models such as those of Lerner -
founded primarily in economic realization - found their social realization
counterpart in the work of Everett Rogers. 8 Rogers defined the role of
communication as providing the channels for passage of development
information, and he proposed that since mass communication exists in
advanced societies, developing countries should consider these same
infrastructural ideas in their societies.
The diffusion model, one of the dominant approaches to the role of
communication in development, reached the pinnacle of its popularity in

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the 1 960s partially through the publication of the work of Rogers and his
associates and the execution of numerous projects by the US Agency for
International Development, testing diffusion models in Latin America,
Asia, and Africa. These theories are still prevalent today in much of the
communications and development programs in areas like health promotion.
At the most abstract level diffusion research is an approach to under­
standing the process of social change. Social change, the process by which
alternation occurs in the structure and function of a social system, may, in
Rogers' view, be either immanent change - stimulated from within a social
system - or contact change - the result of external stimulus. Change can be
understood as a process of three sequential stages: invention, the process by
which new ideas are increased or developed; diffusion, the process by which
these new ideas are communicated to the members of a given social system;
and consequences, the changes that occur within the social system as a
result of the adoption or rejection of the innovation. Social change is seen
as an effect of communications, and diffusion research is regarded as a
subset of communication research dealing with the transfer of ideas.
The emergence of diffusion research since the 1950s as a single integrated
body of concepts and generalizations was facilitated by its application to a
variety of developmental ideas. The earliest of these traditions of diffusion
research was rooted in anthropology, where diffusion explained change in
one society as a result of the introduction of ideas and technologies from
another. Sociologists were also concerned with diffusion. The French
sociologist Gabriel Torde, for example, at the beginning of this century,
suggested that the adoption of new ideas can be a S-shaped curve. A small
number of individuals initially adopt the innovation, followed by a rapid
rate of adoption, and then a diminution as the last member of the system
finally adopts. Some of the classic studies were conducted in the field of
rural sociology, dating from the study conducted by the US Department of
Agriculture in the 1 920s of campaigns to introduce new agricultural
practices. In the 1 940s, studies, for example, of the diffusion of hybrid seed
com, investigating the social characteristics of innovators and the functions
of various communication channels in the innovation-decision-making
process, were common. The fields of education, marketing, journalism, and
medical sociology have produced diffusion research that seeks to
understand the pattern and pace by which new ideas are diffused within
and among the different strata of society.
There are hidden assumptions in the communication and diffusion
model: the idea that communication by itself can generate development
regardless of socio-economic and political conditions; the idea that
increased production and consumption of goods and services represents the
essence of development and that a fair distribution will follow in time; and
the idea that the key to increased productivity is technological innovation,
no matter who benefits or who is harmed.
New diffusionists, who are now among the critics of the orthodox theories
of diffusion, have admitted flaws in diffusion theory, modernization theory,

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and the traditional communication models that carry their imprint. Yet, a
close scrutiny of recent writings shows that, although critical of the pitfalls
of past experience, they are basically loyal to the underlying tenets of the
dominant paradigm of both communication and development. In the last
two decades, the research and interest in the area of development communi­
cation and the use of different communication strategies and technologies
for developmental programs have increased considerably. Countries and
communities throughout the world face the interrelated problems of
deciding how best to use modem technology while minimizing any negative
impact on indigenous cultures. Although it has been demonstrated that the
various forms of mass media have considerable potential for use in
developing countries, traditional forms and channels of communication and
their integration with modem communication systems have been found to
be most effective in generating desired results with minimal negative
impacts.
Communication and diffusion research in the United States had found
mass media channels to be relatively more important in the information
and "knowledge" function, whereas interpersonal channels were relatively
more important in the persuasion function of the decision-making process
in general and in the innovation-decision-making process in particular. 9
Two "important" concepts were identified by these studies: the "two-step
flow" of mass communication ideas and the "opinion leadership" notion,
in which the flow of information in the first step was from source to
opinion leaders and in the second step from opinion leaders to their
followers. lO This discovery, though negating some of the earlier notions of
direct influence of mass media messages on the public, was hardly a new
finding for non-Western and less industrially developed countries, where
modem mass media systems were not yet dominant. Nevertheless, because
the development of these societies along prescribed Western lines required
the spread of modem mass media technologies, for some time, especially
in the 1 950s and 1 960s, the two-step flow notion was replicated in the
developmental projects in the poorer countries, with emphasis given to the
spread of centralized communication technologies. It was only in the
1 970s as a result of changes in the political, economic and social systems
of many developing countries, that the function and role of traditional
communication systems (such as religious meeting places and market­
places) as independent and fully integrated systems of their own were
realized.
The structural approach to development and communication examines
the infrastructure of the world communication system to determine whether
it impedes or promotes development on all levels. Positions taken by
countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America in the debate over a New
World Information/Communication Order are based on this approach. The
structural approach or infrastructural analysis of communication and
development is relatively new compared with the literature on causal and
utilitarian approaches. It covers the traditional political economy approach

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to communication as well as works dealing with the social and cultural

dimensions of communication systems, on both national and international
levels. The area is grounded in economics, political science, and sociology,
and contributors to it come from a variety of epistemological and
methodological schools. Although many studies in the area are primarily
oriented toward political economy theories, a substantial portion of the
work, especially in the 1 980s and 1 990s, has been carried out by structuraV
cultural theorists whose views of development most approximate monistic/
emancipatory models.
Examples of research and writings in this area include: Dallas Smythe's I I
work on communication, capitalism, and dependency; Herbert Schiller's l2
critical examination of the structure of the American communication system
from political and economic perspectives; Armand Matellart's 13 research on
the role of transnational actors and culture industries, my l 4 analysis of the
international flow of information and my integrative approach to
communication and developmental processes; Cees Hamelink's l 5 writings
on self-reliance, cultural autonomy, and national and international com­
munication policies; and Luis Ramiro Beltran and Elizabeth Fox de
Cardona's structural perspectives on communication and development in
Latin America. 16
The structural analysis of communication and development deals not
only with the questions of the political economy of information but also
with a set of cultural and social indicators relevant to communication and
society in general. For example, an integrated framework for comparative
communication systems has been proposed in which emphasis is given to
the process of both message production, distribution, and intent rather than
to the atomistic notion of content and effects. 1 7
The distribution stage o f communication systems, long neglected, has
been singled out and emphasized, and a number of indicators have been
identified that focus on the linkages among society'S cultural, economic,
political, and communication institutions. This integrative approach to
communication and development policies and planning not only
considers such variables as ownership, production, and distribution, but
equally takes into account the perceived and actual control in com­
munication systems and capital, income distribution, bureaucracy, and
message use.
The structural approach rejects the argument of the communication and
development paradigm that communication brings about structural change
by first creating socio-demographic conditions or by changing individual
psychological characteristics. Acknowledging the importance of the
individual level of communication and change, it takes the position that
structural change is a precondition for any successful developmental
objectives.
The liberaVcapitalist model was centered on concepts of industrialization,
individual freedom of choice, a high level of consumption, and a laissez-faire
economy. The second model - that of socialism a la Marxism/Leninism -

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ostensibly challenged the first one, but basically it too emphasized the
genesis of modernization, which meant material growth, large bureaucracies,
and technological growth. However, it kept these dimensions within the
systems of state control. Pluralism, in a real sense, meant little to this model
and the emphasis was put on the creation of a superstate which was
supposed to deliver the world community of proletariat and workers.
The Third World response to these two models was a critique of them
rather than a well-defined, coherently identified, and clearly mapped
approach constituting a model in its own right. More specifically, such
discourses as dependency theories, self-sufficiency, and cultural autonomy
and disassociation were all responses to the dysfunctioning of the two
dominant approaches rather than a coherent set of alternative proposals for
development and communication.
The approaches of the past, focusing either on individual psychological
characteristics or on structural conditions, fail to encompass the changes
that have occurred as a result of the expansion of communication processes
and products in post-industrial societies. The economic and political crisis
in the north - low growth, high unemployment, inadequate social services
and education, national disarticulation, political apathy, and breakdown
of representative organizations - no longer provides a "model" for the
"underdeveloped" countries to follow or presents the corresponding
psychological characteristics of modernity.
In many ways, communication now is development. The revolutions of
post-industrial society are revolutions in information and communication
processes and services affecting social, political, and economic structures.
Communication and development studies become fused in a common
search not for the impact of one on the other - communication does not
cause development - but the concomitant evolution of the two toward new
social, political, and economic organizations.
With the demise of the Soviet Union and a number of other socialist
regimes, the dominant paradigm of communication and development has
taken a new name but remained loyal to its basic principles. This neo­
modernization model of development is now referred to as "post
modernity," "information-society" and "globalization." Its major premises
are outlined in such international forums as the "Big Seven," the OECD,
United Nations Security Council, and, of course, the discussion of such
items as the New World Order proposed by the United States and a
number of European countries, including the new state of Russia. However,
voices searching for alternative models are also being heard, mainly from
the Islamic culture. The newly emerging states of Eastern Europe may be
looking for a new "civil society," but they have no blueprint of their own
for an alternative model of development.
Illustrations of the confusing new development paradigm can be seen in
some of the apparent paradoxes of the latest communications develop­
ments. For example, after struggling for decades to maintain a public sector
in telecommunication services and to maintain national sovereignty over

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communication resources, many countries of Latin America are actively

seeking or have found buyers for their national telephone services. By
selling traditional telecommunication monopolies, Chile, Venezuela,
Argentina, and Mexico hope to lower the cost of communication services
for national and foreign investors, upgrade technology and services, and
eliminate costly government subsidies for domestic services. But whether
this will resolve their development problems is a major question. The
countries of central Europe, for example, emerging from decades of com­
munist rule, are attempting to formulate communication policies for their
domestic media that balance freedom of expression and commercial
exploitation, but have yet to come up with a blueprint.
Clearly, communication has become everyone's problem. The challenge
to communication theorists worldwide is to look at the field comprehen­
sively in a way that would include:

• a perspective of communication and the transformation of society,

focusing on the centrality of different world views;
• a breakdown of the general and stereotypical notions of the "devel­
oping" countries into more specific and concrete functional and
geopolitical areas with socio-cultural elements as a common ground for
description and designation rather than a narrow economic criterion;
• a framework of analysis with its focus on the central world view that
underpins culture as an integrating element in the process of change,
emphasizing values and belief systems that permeate the process and
help to proceed to the parameters of both individual and societal
change in a more systematic and coherent way;
• a view that development, in all its complexity, is communication and
that communication is development. Communication development, if
fused as an area of inquiry and research, should be referred to as a
single term, encouraging the construction of development programs to
fit the society, rather than orienting society to fit development
programs;
• a perspective that encompasses the decline of nationalism and secular
national ideologies patterned on European and Western schools of
thought, and the concurrent discourse and revival of notions of com­
munity along sociocultural lines;
• development and developmental projects that can be discussed in
comparative ways and on horizontal levels so that the study of any
given phenomenon related to social change can examine the problem
not only in the "Third World" or the less developed world's laboratory,
but in the industrialized world as well;
• a perspective that rejects setting goals for the final completion of the
processes of change in societies. Whereas project and plans may have
specific goals and objectives, change in a society is continual movement
in time and space - and never ends. Transformation is not an external
object. It lies deep within the individual.

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Knowledge Affluence and Information Hunger

Today, many of the development statistics from Latin America, for

example income, are actually behind what they were 1 0 or even 20 years
ago. Yet, communication and development theorists by and large continue
to work within the dominant paradigm of the 1950s and 1 960s, postulating
that the increase in information flow and media use in the region is
beneficial to objectives of economic growth and political democracy.
Although development was not necessarily among them, enormous
changes did occur throughout the world, especially since World War II, as
a result of communications. Many of these changes have shaken the
timbers of political and economic development theories. The changes
generally were not noticed by development communication scholars, how­
ever, who were more concerned with measuring attitudes and behaviors of
peasants and farmers, tracing information flows to outlying areas, and
counting the newspapers and radio sets in remote villages. The field of
communication and development, by focusing primarily on the ordained
modernization of what was called the Third World, ignored transforma­
tions taking place in the Second and First Worlds as a result of new
communication technologies and the regimes and institutions that formed
around them. The theories and methods used in the traditional field of
communication and development were, in this respect, stillborn. By the
time most of the research took place, the development model that the
"First World" and the "research world" hoped the Third World would
follow was no longer alive in their own backyards.
The paradigm of the communication and development theorists was
unprepared for the global transformations of post-industrial society, for
example: the paramount economic role of information products and
services; the imbrication of supply and demand brought about by the
culture industries; and the displacement of traditional political institutions
and parties by mass media-led campaigns and candidates.
Mainstream development communication theorists were not alone in
their blindness to these larger changes. During the same period, the so­
called radical/left theorists of communication and development were
equally shortsighted. Although their models recognized the larger structural
conditions that limited economic progress, and identified the dependent
technological and financial relations between the center and the periphery,
they failed to address the wider changes occurring worldwide as a result of
the information and communication "revolutions" and sociocultural devel­
opments. For them, culture or communication remained a dependent
variable to economic and political forces, mechanically determined by the
interests and the conflict of the two major super forces and the powers of
imperialist countries. Furthermore, as their object of analysis was largely
the poorer countries, the left and the "new left" theorists ignored the
changes occurring elsewhere, for example in the countries under communist
regimes. In part for this reason, most theorists were unable to explain the

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key role played by communications in the rapid and momentous changes of

the Soviet Union and the countries of Eastern Europe in the last few years
except with liberal theories of communication and democracy.
Scholars and communication theorists from Asia, Latin America, and
Africa, for the most part products of the educational institutions and
training of Europe and the United States, initially shared the paradigm of
the communication and development field as it evolved in the North.
Scholars of those regions that were the objects of development, however,
were in a unique position to capture the paradoxes of a model that
anticipated a development role for a communications industry that was
rapidly expanding as a global market for goods and services. Radio and
television industries pushed into the further village and the poorest slum, yet
did not produce a modern society but heightened the polarization of rich
and poor and the disparities within the economy. Mexico found itself able to
flood the world with soap operas, for example, but watched as its traditional
cultural wealth and diversity was packaged and sold by commercial
television monopolies without the concomitant and hypothesized formation
of community organizations or institutions for political representation.
Communication and development is no longer a North-South issue or
an issue of wealth and poverty. The problems initially posed as exclusive to
the "developing" regions of the world - poverty, disease, illiteracy, lack of
basic economic skills, and information - are now problems of large
population groups within the "developed" countries. A shrinking public
sector and the lack of democratically formulated policies for communica­
tion institutions are problems that face the member of the European Union,
the United States, the new countries of the former Soviet Union, and the
emerging democracies of Africa. Problems of nation building, political
apathy, lack of voter participation, and political manipulation plague new
and old democracies throughout the world. The importance of information
products and services at all levels of the post-industrial economy pose new
challenges to economic growth and distribution worldwide.
Today the disparity between information-poor and information-rich
societies can be observed in the development of national, regional, and
global communication infrastructure. Two dominant trends, the so-called
"information superhighway" and the complex networks of digital data and
information images, are illustrative of the development of communication
infrastructure as we enter the twenty-first century, yet the question remains:
to what degree can these new infrastructures reinforce the problems of
information hunger or the prospects of knowledge affluence?

Networking as Communication

The concepts "networks" and "networking" have become fashionable over

the last several years to describe what is seen as a new phenomenon related
to the formation of individual and institutional ties for communication

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applied toward achieving specific ends. The concepts also have been used in
reference to a type of telecommunications expansion encompassing sizable
numbers of corporate clientele and institutions, mostly in the private sector
but also in the public sector and the educational institutions. Here we
approach the phenomenon of networking from the perspective of the types
of communication processes that take advantage of the new human and
technological infrastructures to transfer social messages in terms of atti­
tudes, values, and ideas. The focus is on the social and economic structures
that give birth to networks as well as the values and ideas they propagate.
The creation of so-called "networking" is nothing new; it is simply the
upshot of the marriage between changing social structures and techno­
logical infrastructure. The impact and values around which these networks
operate, however, are new, for example environmental protection, human
rights, cultural identity, and corporate responsibility, as well as the global­
ization of production and the standardization of cultural formats.
Networks and networking consist of many separate entities and a system
of interconnection that ties them together through any means: word of
mouth, the mail, the telephone line, the computer modem; and within any
institutional context: a religious movement, a political party, a large
corporation, a grassroots public interest group. Are existing and emerging
international networks compatible with the existing social and cultural
order? If not, in what directions are changes occurring? Has the marriage of
changing social structures and technological advances worked to the benefit
of the status quo? Who has won and who has lost in the mediation between
new technologies and the demands of social, political, and cultural move­
ments? In short, we assume that emerging networks at the international
communications level have the ability and the capacity to challenge as well
as to reinforce the existing social, cultural, economic, and political systems.
What dimensions should we analyze in order to assess the impact of this
challenge?
Many of the international communication networks are created as a
result of the convergence of modern technologies for the processing,
storing, and sharing of information and the needs of emerging socio­
economic groups. In a number of cases, at both a macro- and micro-level,
these international networks undermine existing structures of social
communication, some of which are supportive of the status quo. In other
cases, international communication networks debilitate traditional systems
of solidarity and community which in the past have supported objectives of
social justice and equality. International communication networking can be
an obstacle to the existing national and international powers as well as to
the forces that oppose these powers. In the former case networks are a kind
of "nomadic" sniper force, clipping the ability of existing elite infrastruc­
tures and piercing the conventional networks of international communi­
cation. In the latter, networks strengthen the power over users of existing
organizations, for example the case of international networks of financial
institutions for sharing credit and financial histories of individuals.

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Networks are mediators; they are used by and arise from individuals and
institutions in order to achieve certain ends, although, at times, the conse­
quences of networks can escape the control of their organizers and, at
others, networks can organize spontaneously without an apparent direction
or objective in mind. International communication networking is basically
a potential resource for power and its redistribution. It is through networks,
especially in the history of advanced communication technologies, that the
new transformations of power are taking place. International communica­
tion networking generates power infrastructure through mobilization and
assimilation and transfers these resources and mechanisms of control to
groups and individuals.

Sociocultural Dimensions of Networking

Development, once described as mainly a "Third World" problem in the

decades after World War II, has now demonstrated itself as a worldwide
problem. A cursory look at both the emerging communication networks and
the economic, social, and political problems associated with them demon­
strates the multidimensional aspect of communication and development.
What are the dimensions along which sociocultural change can occur as a
result of networks and networking? Four broad areas of dimensional change
can be cited here. One of the most obvious dimensions of change is in the
degree of centralization of decision-making and control. Concentrated power
structures of information and management mediated through international
communication networks can serve to consolidate much of the policy and
planning of organizations and institutions, hence contributing to the
centralization of decision-making and control. This dimension, however, can
work in both directions now that the formation of an efficient international
communication network can also allow for a greater participation of
separate entities in the decisions and direction of the organization. In other
words, networks can also work in the direction of decentralization.
Another dimension is homogeneity. The ability to connect simultaneously
a large number of entities around a specific purpose or movement
necessarily involves a certain degree of homogenization. On the simplest
technological level, all members of the network must be able to connect
into the information web with some sort of standardized interface. They
must use some form of common terminology and codes in order to share
information. These processes, and the resulting cultural impact of working
toward common objectives or products, can result in a decrease in the
diversity of codes, values and "cultures" of the separate entities. The scope
of the network and the fact that it can include a large number of very
disparate entities from different contexts and cultures, however, can also
mean that the diversity of the network and therefore of the objectives it
works for is increased, for example in the case of some of the library
networks. Herein lies another paradox of networking: it can work both for
and against homogeneity.

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 Communication and development 201

Yet another dimension of change is in the operation of hegemony.

Networks formed around specific interest areas can work effectively to
increase the power of those interests. It would be counter-intuitive to think
of a successful network formed to achieve a certain end that does not
increase the power and control of its authors. Yet, if the objective of the
network is empowerment and democratization, as for example could be the
case in voter registration and public awareness or the mobilization of public
opinion around global environmental concerns, overall hegemony may in
fact be decreased by increasing the number of informed participants in the
decision-making process.
Finally, there is a dimension of change in the connection between
networks and networking and the present global system of nation-states.
International communication networks are often created parallel to the
state's existing communication infrastructure and are often of a non­
governmental nature. This can mean both citizen or public ownership and
control as well as private, commercial ownership and control. In either case
the network operates outside traditional lines of state power and admin­
istration, thereby potentially weakening the national state and the public
sector. When the state is acting to redistribute power and wealth and
protect minority and disadvantaged interests, the decrease of state power
can be cause for concern. In cases of non-representative, authoritarian
states, on the other hand, a decrease of state power is cause for celebration.
Some of the most important types of international communication net­
works that have potential impact on sociocultural and politico-economic
levels are: (1) religio-political networking; (2) eco-cultural networking; (3)
inter-governmentallnon-govemmental networking in areas like international
tourism, science, technology, education; (4) corporate networking in terms
of expansion of marketing values, corporate efficiency, the maximization of
profit and commercialism; (5) cultural industry and mass media
networking. For example, one of the most important sociocultural changes
accompanying the processes of networking is the worldwide religio-political
movements that have manifested themselves during the last two decades.
Islamic resurgence in various parts around the world is the most visible
manifestation of these sociocultural changes involving an integrated system
of networking of both traditional and technological communication.

Networks in the Islamic Societies

From the Islamic revolution in Iran to the Muslim mobilization in Algeria,

from the "Intifada" in Palestine to sociocultural assimilation and awareness
in such places as Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Bosnia, Islamic parties and
communities have used the rich and traditional infrastructures of mosques,
madrasah, hey'at, and so on, along with modem communication infra­
structures such as telecommunication, tapes, fax, satellites and related
technologies, to form new integrated systems of networking in an attempt
to achieve their social and cultural goals. 1 8

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Within the cultural and educational realms, the creation and utilization
of emerging networks of communication are having a profound impact on
the sociology of knowledge within Islamic societies. For example, conven­
tionally, the power of the religious scholars in Muslim societies has been
based on their role as the depositories of knowledge, as data banks, as
individuals who could instantly quote the Qur'an and hadith as well as
comments, criticism, and opinions of classical jurists. New information
technologies and networks, however, have the potential of making this
knowledge available to a wider population. It is in the use of distributive
and decentralized networks that their greatest potential lies for Muslim
societies and cultures. The use of personal computers has already become
widespread in such Muslim countries as Malaysia, Pakistan, and Egypt.
The basic sources of Islam are readily available on floppy disks and are
being used for study and criticism by many intellectuals and students of
Islamic culture who otherwise would have had difficulty in having access to
these materials. A plethora of data bases on the Qur'an and hadith now
open up these texts and make them accessible to average, non-expert
users. 1 9 The existing databases on the Qur'an and hadith make available
only the basic sources of Islam; moreover, they do not, as the ulama have
been quick to argue, furnish the user with knowledge or expertise required
for the interpretation of text. A database does not equip the non-expert to
undertake the independent reasoning that leads to a new understanding or
interpretation of fundamental texts. For that, one would still have to fulfil
the stringent criteria laid down in the later classical period by religious
authorities. However, a network of combined traditional and modem data
banks using compact discs may indeed assist the young students of Islamic
culture and theology to achieve what may have taken the earlier ulama
many years.
The compact disc with appropriate text and expert systems will be
available in many Islamic societies in about a decade. Initially. it will be
used by intellectuals and professionals working on specific problems,
lawyers defending difficult cases from Islamic viewpoints, medical doctors
facing ethical dilemmas, and scientists looking for public support for their
projects. But eventually, just as computers and current religious databases,
CD-based expert systems will find their way into universities and colleges. 2o
And it is here, in the preparation of the next generation of critically aware
Muslims, that the most profound impact of the new communication
networks will be felt. Given the vast geographical diversity of Islamic
ummah (community), the international communication implications of such
networks in bringing the large number of Islamic countries under a unified
system of information are indeed profound.

Telecommunications and Finance

One of the most important areas of growth in international networking is

in the fields of intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations,

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 Communication and development 203

particularly in the sphere of economic, corporate, and business activities.

For example, the increasing involvement and prominence of mixed sector
alliances and coalitions in the international system, particularly those in the
tourism infrastructure, illustrate shifts occurring in the international
economic power base. Corresponding formal and informal arrangements
have formed on national and international levels within the private sector
and between public and private institutions. These arrangements are arising
to accommodate contending interests in the international tourism
infrastructure over division of labor in the industry. Those centering on
the allocation of strategic international financial and telecommunications
resources in international tourism are prime examples.
The convergence of telecommunications technologies with transnational
banking and investment is contributing to the genesis of new supernational
economies of scale in the tourism infrastructure and to the formation of
oligopolies in the transnational trade of information capital. This con­
vergence has the potential for increasing the dependence of the information
capital-poor - no longer always the underdeveloped or lesser industrialized
nations or regions - on the information capital-rich. The joint impact of
telecommunications and tourism on the international division of labor is
evident in trends toward coalitions, regionalism, and informal and formal
international dependency and "welfare" systems in which telecommunica­
tion is the core. These trends are altering the conduct of international
relations and are contributing to the integration, disintegration, and trans­
formation of power in the international system.
Multinational corporations were the first to take advantage of the flows
of trade information through complex telecommunication networks. Use of
these networks can result in increased trade efficiency, but there is
uncertainty as to who will be connected to which network, at what costs
and with what benefits and risk. (These questions are being considered by
international bodies such as UNCTAD, the OECD, WTO, and the Euro­
pean Union.) The development of these networks depends on the technical
and regulatory conditions which apply to the public telecommunication
networks. These conditions often are administered by institutions resting on
a false assertion - namely that technical infrastructures are separate from
the political, economic, and social ones. Furthermore, private service
providers are increasingly extending their value-added services beyond
the national borders. They want to serve their customers, mostly multi­
nationals, who do not want to deal with other, different public telecom
operators every time they cross a border. Equally, the public telecom
operators, partially set free by liberalization and confronted with a squeeze
on their national telephone profits, are desperately looking beyond their
nest for the more lucrative international markets.
The growth of private and pseudo-private telecommunications networks,
driven by goals of economic efficiency and profit, are becoming the norm in
today's world of communications. As technology and deregulation make it
possible for these networks to spread to developed and underdeveloped

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countries alike, a number of questions arise regarding the shrinking public

space of telecommunications and the philosophies of subsidy that have
traditionally reigned in the provision of communication services. While the
commercial origins of the networks are clear, their impact on such areas as
local telephone rates and services is not. By directing scarce resources to
modern telephone switching computers instead of the expansion of basic
urban and rural networks, a private, corporate community building is being
privileged at the expense of citizens' participation. As a small minority of
customers (mainly international firms) generate most profits, will the tele­
phone companies leave residential or poorer customers outside their
networks?
The last two decades have witnessed an exponential increase in the
volume of information and data flow. It seems that time and distance no
longer are constraining elements upon communication. However, social
and cultural factors continue to play even more crucial roles in the so­
called "international" networks than before. We are indeed witnessing a
decrease in the "time cushion" between sociocultural changes, their impact
and consequences, and an increase in dependence upon information and
communication services. The growth of complex human and technologi­
cally linked systems is fragmenting basic societal services, resulting in
abrupt changes in perception of the sociocultural environment. These
radical conceptual changes are being introduced in national, regional, and
international systems by increased volumes of information and commu­
nication. A new power structure is emerging based on information, data,
and knowledge and leaving behind it leveling effects on traditional and
existing social strata. Many decisions affecting the global sociocultural
environment are now largely occurring outside local and even national
political and economic systems. Not only are communication networks as
cultural ecology affecting the sociocultural environment, but information
and cultural relations are becoming ever more central to the conduct of
international and global systems.

Development in Eastern Europe and Russia

What are the implications of these growing networks of international

communication and new communications ecology for the new emerging
systems of Eastern Europe and Russia?
The downfall of communism and the ensuing collapse of the proletarian
dictatorships which characterized the governments of Eastern Europe and
the Soviet Union for many decades were initially greeted with great
euphoria by all Eastern Europeans. It was hoped that with the yoke of
communism lifted, freedom, accompanied by economic prosperity, would
quickly flourish throughout the region. However, this optimistic scenario
has not materialized as many hoped that it would, and the fledgling
governments of Eastern Europe have rapidly been overwhelmed by seem­
ingly insurmountable problems. These difficulties have given rise to a wave

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of pessimism throughout the region as people realize that the Western

world which they once so greatly longed for has its own "dark side," and
that living in a world dominated by Western capitalists may not be as
appetizing as it once had seemed. In fact, some have concluded that the
system of Western capitalism has as great a need for reform as did the
system of Stalinist communism.
Although there may be many who deny it, the current situation in
Eastern Europe - and to a great extent Russia and other republics of the
former Soviet Union - has a striking and rather frightening resemblance to
the situation which was faced by many Third World countries 40 years ago
after the Western colonial powers withdrew. This situation is most similar
with regard to three specific areas. First, both groups are the product of
colonialism. Although the details of such colonialism may differ in some
respects, it is undeniable that each situation has come into being precisely
because of the colonial domination which was once so characteristic of the
respective groups. Second, both groups gained their "independence" only
within the context of an established set of rules which dealt with economic
and commercial behavior. Third, each group is completely marginalized
from the dominant forces which wield all of the political, economic,
technological and cultural power. Indeed, the only major difference that
can be found between the Third World and the countries of Eastern Europe
is that Eastern European countries do share a common civilization and
culture with the West. 2 1
With these facts in mind one comes to realize that the course of devel­
opment in Eastern Europe will very likely be dominated by the following
characteristics. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World
Bank will enforce the top-down, capitalist model of development on Eastern
European states; Eastern European states will be trapped in the debt syn­
drome, their only advantage being their large pool of cheap and abundant
labor; and, finally, industrialization will take priority over agricultural
development, with the result of a deformed economy. It is also likely that
Eastern Europe will fall prey to the "hopeful syndrome," whereby it
increases its dependence on the West by complying with all of its demands,
yet will still be denied many of the economic benefits it so desperately seeks.
While this scenario is pessimistic, it cannot be denied that such parallels
do exist between the Third World and Eastern Europe. Only time will tell
whether or not the newly independent countries of Eastern Europe will
indeed follow the path of the Third World. Rather, it must be hoped that
they will find a new course to the ultimate goal of self-determination and
self-sufficiency - a course that will allow them to avoid the unfortunate
experiences of the Third World.

Notes

1 . Keith Schneider, "High Tech Actually Cuts Productivity in U.S. Service Industry,"
International Herald Tribune, June 19, 1987, p. 9.

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206 Global information and world communication

2. Daniel Lerner, The Passing of Traditional Society: Modernizing the Middle East
(Glencoe, IL: Free Press, 1958), pp. 1-102.
3. Lucian W. Pye, ed., Communication and Political Development (princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press, 1963).
4. Ithiel de Sola Pool, "The Mass Media and Politics in the Modernization Process," in
ibid., pp. 234-253.
5. Seymour Martin Lipset, "Some Social Requisites of Democracy: Economic
Development and Political Legitimacy," American Political Science Review, LII (March
1959), pp. 69-105.
6. Wilbur Schramm and W. Lee Ruggles, "How Mass Media Systems Grow," in Daniel
Lerner and Wilbur Schramm, eds, Communication and Change in Developing Countries
(Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1 967), pp. 57-75.
7. David C. McClelland, The Achieving Society (princeton, NJ: Van Nostrand, 1961).
8. Everett Rogers and F.F. Shoemaker, Communication of Innovations: A Cross-Cultural
Approach (New York: Free Press, 1971).
9. Ibid.
10. Elihu Katz, "The Two-Step Flow of Communication," Public Opinion Quarterly, XXI
(Spring 1957), pp. 61-78.
1 l . Dallas W. Smythe, Dependency Road: Communications, Capitalism, Consciousness, and
Canada (Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing Corporation, 1981).
12. Herbert Schiller, Mass Communication and the American Empire, updated 2nd edn
(Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1992).
13. Armand Matellart, Multinational Corporations and the Control of Culture (Brighton:
Harvester Press, 1979), and Transnationals and the Third World: The Struggle for Culture
(South Hadley, MA: Bergin and Garvey Publishers, 1983).
14. Hamid Mowlana, International Flow of Information: A Global Report and Analysis,
Reports and Papers on Mass Communication No. 99 (Paris: UNESCO, 1985).
1 5. Cees J. Hamelink, Cultural Autonomy in Global Communication (White Plains, NY :
Longman, 1983).
16. Luis Ramiro Beltran and Elizabeth Fox de Cardona, "Latin America and the United
States: Flaws in the Free Flow of Information," in Kaarle Nordenstreng and Herbert Schiller,
eds, National Sovereignty and International Communication (Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing
Corporation, 1979).
1 7. Hamid Mowlana and Laurie J. Wilson, The Passing of Modernity: Communication and
the Transformation of Society (White Plains, NY : Longman, 1990), Chapter l .
18. Hamid Mowlana, "Technology versus Tradition: Communication in the Iranian
Revolution," Journal of Communication, 29: 3 (Summer 1979), pp. 107-1 12.
19. The most popular packages are "el-Qur'an and al-Hadith Database" produced by the
Islamic Computing Centre, London; the multi-lingual data based on the Qur'an, hadith and
Islamic history produced by Institute Alif, Paris; and "The Hafiz," produced by ISL Software,
San Antonio, Texas.
20. See Ziauddin Sardar, "Paper, Printing and Compact Discs: The Making and Unmaking
of Islamic Culture," Culture, Media and Society (Special issue on Communication and Islam,
edited by Philip Schlesinger and Hamid Mowlana), 15 (January \993), pp. 43-60.
2 l . Ziauddin Sardar and Merryl Wyn Davies, "The Future of Eastern Europe," Futures,
March 1992, pp. 1 50- \ 57.

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 11

International Communication Research:

From Functionalism to Postmodernism
and Beyond

As we near the end of the twentieth century, there seems to be growing

interest in two fundamental areas of communication arts and sciences: a
resurgence in the study of the philosophy of communication, as evidenced
by the number of publications and conference panels in this area; and a
keen interest in new epistemological schools of thought and research
methodologies beyond the "ferment in the field" l in which positive
empiricism and critical theory were the only positions debated among the
students of communication studies. Whereas the philosophy of commu­
nication is replacing transcendental philosophy as the prime concern of
philosophical reflection, there is also a new interest in exploring new
conduits of inquiries and fresh approaches to methodologies. 2
I have defined international communication as a field of inquiry and
research that consists of the transfer of values, attitudes, opinion, and
information through individuals, groups, governments, and technologies, as
well as the study of the structure of institutions responsible for promoting
or inhibiting such messages among and between nations and cultures. It is a
field of study and research which entails an analysis of the channels and
institutions of communication. More important, it involves examination of
the mutually shared meanings that make communication possible.
In an attempt to discern the substance of international communication as
a field of inquiry, many controversial theoretical questions are raised. Both
explicitly and implicitly, the new literature portrays the quest for a sub­
stantial, and more elaborated, theory, one that will take into account the
"high stakes" enterprise of communication in an era of technological and
industrial change. Communication research, like any scientific study,
depends essentially on the quality of theory or conceptualization to give it
direction and focus. Specifying the conditions under which predictions can
be hypothesized is the function of a well-integrated theory of communica­
tion research. The basis for achieving this is still an unresolved issue of
debate among communication researchers.
This question is not merely a scholarly controversy, but also a highly
politicized debate that is fundamentally based on the notion of power and
its implications for communication. The fact that communication research
does not function in a political vacuum makes the concept of power a very

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relevant issue indeed. Hence, many of the scholarly debates in the social
sciences are, in fact, political controversies, poorly disguised.
The role of theory and the areas of research priority need to be clarified.
To know the important questions, the way they should be approached, and
the scholar's role in society are issues of crucial importance. The crux of the
matter is whether theory should emanate out of reality to explicate it or
whether it should construct another vision of reality. In short, should it
perpetuate, modify, or eradicate the existing order? Assuming that a uni­
versal paradigm of communication behavior is attainable, the political
biases hinder the prospect of achieving this hypothetical endeavor. Perhaps
the reason is that much of what passes for metatheoretical debate in
actuality fixates on pseudo problems instead of illuminating substantive
issues. In other words, the current disputes within the realm of communi­
cation research are often fueled by ideological preferences and not sub­
stantive intellectual issues.

Communication Research in Transition

In general, there seem to have been four kinds of communication models

underpinning the research carried out during the last four decades: (1)
mathematical, (2) social psychological, (3) linguistic, and (4) political
economy and cultural analysis. The mathematical models of information
and communication seem to represent a growing field and the low-level
mathematical theories have come from empirical and theoretical research
done on information flow, military strategy, and even politics and national­
ism. The social psychological tradition has had tremendous influence on
politics and mass media research. The linguistic tradition, meanwhile, has
led to such areas as symbol analysis. Finally, political economy and cul­
tural analysis have often acted as alternatives and challenging perspectives
to the first three.
Can communication research attain the knowledge through which to
understand and to change social reality? This is the persistent and trouble­
some question for international communication research in the twenty-first
century. This question presumes the necessity and feasibility of social
change: the evolutionary or revolutionary - relative to historical circum­
stances - transition from a present society to a projected society. Yet, the
prevalent theoretical monomania and methodological exclusivity of
communication research cannot meet the challenge of designing concrete
images of situations that can be realized. Comprehending the reasons for
the failure to meet this "normative" challenge is a very bewildering task. It
has been said that work by communication researchers, particularly within
the domain of mass communication, demonstrates a heightened concern for
the practical implications and social relevance of communication issues.
Although the tightly controlled laboratory study that dominated early
research efforts is still much employed, a heartening move toward

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 International communication research 209

naturalistic studies and more reliance on field experimentation has con­

siderably evolved. Diversity in research strategies is the order of the day,
and the restless urge for social relevance has served as one powerful
stimulus for such diversity. 3
A new perspective on the effects of media emerged when the notion of
the "unlimited capacity" of media to directly affect behavior in itself
proved invalid. It has been argued that media have come to be viewed not
as an active agent of change in isolation, but as having influence through a
complex set of cultural, economic, and sociopolitical factors. 4 Thus, there is
a need for a radical departure from the premises of the old perspective
about the role and effect of media. A review of the work of key theorists
concerned with the relation of media and cultures suggests that a more
elaborate theory for the interaction of change in social structure, change in
communication patterns, and change in culture is needed in communication
research. Implied in this assertion is a new research perspective in which the
focus is shifted from communication as social control to communication as
integral to sociocultural change. Therefore, a different set of disciplinary
methodologies must be formulated to operationalize this type of research.
The old framework was challenged on the basis of its preoccupation with
effects of mass media messages on audiences perceived as potential cus­
tomers. This type of research displaced the focus of inquiry away from the
media (the object) to the audience (the subject). In addition, the method­
ology adopted revealed its pro-status quo bias in that it never considered
the alternative of creating a new system but rather presented a functional
adjustment of the old. A transition toward a new paradigm is evident, but
there is no general unanimity on the direction of the paradigmatic shift.
The new rhetoric for a more comprehensive theory was stipulated by the
realization of the ever-increasing importance of research in the high-stakes
enterprise of communication for an era of "information production." The
significance of studying communications is becoming a self-evident fact,
more obvious every day. The long-term, deep structural forces and the
dynamics of the power relations are making communication the central
process in global, national, and local social organizations. The most
powerful national and transnational decision-making groups are employing
compelling new information technologies to consolidate and extend their
positions. The maintenance of power systems nationally and transnation­
ally is in the balance. Thus, communication study is largely the outcome of
global and national forces that have propelled the communication process
and information to the center of domestic as well as international attention
and concern. 5
The emerging crisis within the philosophy of science and the growing
political cynicism among the general public has given rise to a widespread
questioning of the prevalent modes behind the established legitimacy of
both knowledge and power. This questioning, within communication
studies, has generated an interest in the critical social theory initially
advocated by Max Horkheimer, Friedrich Pollock, Theodor Adorno, and

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their associates at the Institut fUr Soziale Forschung (the Frankfurt School)
in the 1 930s. The critical approach to communication research has sub­
sequently been articulated and enriched by Herbert Marcuse and Jiirgen
Habermas in their respective endeavors to secure a basis for emancipating
communication in industrial societies. 6 The preoccupation of researchers
with the power structure came as a result of this realization. Hence, there is
no safe harbor in which researchers can avoid established power relations,
even if they declare their neutrality. Neutrality itself is not apolitical
because of the unavoidable alignment of the research process with econ­
omic and political factors.
The central characteristic of this historical era makes international
communication a significant field of inquiry. Five major factors contribute
to this phenomenon. First, the transformation of the world political scene
from a handful of commanding states to the threshold of a potentially
genuine international community promotes the vitality of international
communication as an area of study. Second, the reactions of 1 80 or more
nations to their pre-independence and post-liberation communication
experiences have crystallized the particular importance of this field. The
once seemingly silenced periphery is now a multitude of independent actors
voicing their own interests and reflecting their own creativity. The other
side of the coin is the importance of international communication to the
system-maintenance of the major powers, a third critical element. The
fourth contributing factor to the prevalent significance of international
communication is the gigantic expansion of the transnational corporations.
Indeed, the most revolutionary dimension of these corporations is not their
size, but their world view. Fifth, and finally, the concept of the sovereign
nation-state as a force controlling the economic life of its citizens has been
eroded and the role of international communication has become central to
this process.

Challenge to Theoretical Orthodoxy

Communication research has been based upon the conceptual and

methodological orientations established by researchers in the West and
particularly in the United States. This fact has led to the inappropriate
application of culture-bound research methods to survey studies in less
developed countries. That communication studies have subscribed indis­
criminately and markedly to theoretical models mostly imported from the
United States is not the main issue. The crucial matter is that the "made-in­
the-USA" type of communication research suffers from insensitivity to
contextual and social-structural factors in different societies. Thus, the style
of communication research appropriate for US conditions has proved to be
quite inappropriate in other socio-economic and political contexts. The
failure of the so-called "development-oriented communication campaigns"
has become self-evident when applied to the Third World countries.

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Review of the communication literature reveals that the most serious

theoretical problem stems from the premise that communication plays an
independent role in affecting social changes and behavior. Consequently,
two preoccupations were paramount from the early days of Harold
Lasswell and Robert Merton: one was with the effects of mass media on
individuals' behavior, and the other was with the function of these media in
society. Stated differently, researchers examined what media do to people
and how messages can use people, rather than studying ways in which
people use or can use messages. The joint and systematic comprehension of
channel-message capabilities and audience-response mechanisms was to
produce a behavior-controlling rhetoric serving the interest of the com­
municator. Accordingly, research methods appropriate to these main
conceptual requirements were devised whereby content analysis and the
sample survey through structured interviews came to form the basic
methodological arsenal of most communicologists. 7 This method restricted
the researcher's attention to the receiver's possible reactions to specific
manifest contents of communications, while keeping covert the motivations
and intentions of the communicator. Emphasis has been placed on the
development of increasingly formal theory and methodology in the hope
that a body of scientific rules will provide the key to conduct future
research. Unfortunately, this process has resulted in models that are hardly
recognizable as representations of behavior in the real world. Furthermore,
if ideally there is no bias inherent in the scientific method, such a bias exists
in reality, for results clearly find their way into ideological, economic, and
political practice. The abstract analytical categories of idealist thought have
become substantive descriptions and have taken habitual priority over the
whole social process of which, as analytical categories, they were attempt­
ing to speak.
The belief in one-way mechanistic causation rather than mutual causa­
tion is the underlying epistemological error that characterizes the linear
models. The basic problems with the linear models emanate from the
epistemological assumptions about the nature of the individual and the
nature of information, how we seek it, and what kind of quality it is.
Information is treated as if it were purely a physical entity which can be
moved around like billiard balls on a table. s Hence, mainstream com­
munication researchers perceive the concept of causality in simple linear
terms, in which the sender, message, and receiver are isolated as units in an
unmediated simple causal chain. Often what have been proposed as
alternatives to the hypodermic model have been merely elaborations.
In the final analysis, all empirical results are conditioned by a theoretical
base, even when that base remains unexposed. It has been asserted that the
epistemological differences besetting the world of communication scholars
lie in the notion of science as emancipation or as domestication, that
underlying this dichotomy is the ontological definition of reality, either
as including yet to be realized potentialities or as confined to factual
manifestations.

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The definition of reality as potentiality is fundamental to the choice of

science as a tool of emancipation. Therefore, on the one hand, science can
be a tool for the liberation of people from those forces that keep them from
being free to think about what they want to do. On the other hand, science
can be a tool for the overt or subtle domestication of people into a
dependency upon those forces that prescribe social reality as an objective
part to which they must adapt.
The ever-increasing production of communication technologies will give
rise to a new wave of exciting research on communications. Communica­
tion research will most likely be directed toward new questions made
salient by drastic changes in the communications situations. New tech­
nologies raise different questions than do the mass media. An information
retrieval system is not the sole format for the coming age, yet it is the
prototype of what is becoming increasingly important. The chief char­
acteristic of the new electronic media is that they provide diverse material
on demand to individuals. 9 They also allow for fragmentation of the mass
audience and even for silent individualized communication. In this case, the
relevant research question will focus on the way the new media are insti­
tutionalized and modified to meet what society demands rather than what
the electronic media are technically capable of delivering.
In an effort to critically assess the contributions and limitations of critical
theory, one can ask whether the emancipatory project of critical theorists
have offered any practical plan for resistance or a program for translating
criticism into action. Thus, much critical analysis tends simply to assume
that existing institutional structures are the problem and must be changed.
Unfortunately it usually does not provide a clear idea of how these
structures should, could, or would be realistically changed to alternative
institutional structures that research has shown are better.
Today the apparent diversity of critical approaches and the range of
sources for critical positions that cut across all of the human sciences
account for the difficulty in identifying common premises. 10 With the advent
of new information technologies, the established powers are strengthened,
new dependencies are created, and new social discrepancies are brought
about. The situation is worsening day by day, and the price of fitting into the
establishment is higher than ever. This is because the ethical questions have
been subsumed under the banner of science, progress, and development.
Here a brief historical note is in order. In the 1 960s there was a
convergence of external social events and epistemological currents which
necessitated reevaluation of positive empiricism as the post-World War II
mainstream paradigm of international communication research and
literature. At least two epistemological currents were at work during this
postwar period. In the face of the dominant empirical framework, there
arose a revival of critical theory led by the students and followers of
the founding fathers of the Frankfurt School in Germany and later in the
United States. Combined with this resurgence of critical theory was the
underlying apologist posture of the positive empiricists in their self-critical

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 International communication research 213

examination of their roots in behavioralism and of the limitation of the

behavioral science movement as an epistemological base. United States
communication research, under the influence of positive empiricism, was
characterized by its preoccupation with effects of mass media messages on
audiences perceived as potential consumers. This type of research displaced
the focus of inquiry away from the media (the object) to the audience (the
subject). The major aim was to learn about persuasion and adjustment for
conformity. Science was neutral and causality was perceived in simple
linear terms. Communication was viewed as a contentless process. What
distinguished critical approaches from other communication research was
the redefinition of the notion of causality and the concern with the means
in which the control of knowledge is fundamental to the exercise of social
power. Critical researchers addressed the production of information out­
puts, instead of focusing on individual consumption and media products.
They tried to comprehend the sources and exercise of power, particularly in
relation to communication processes and information flow.
Superordinant to the empirical and critical theory frameworks was that
of so-called postmodernism (or poststructuralism) which coexisted as a silent
partner in the literature of philosophy, epistemology, and literary criticism
from the 1 940s forward. 1 1 The genesis of postmodernist thought derived
from a reevaluation of the limits of existentialism and a disenchantment
with the structuralist phenomenology of critical theory and the objectively
quantitative restrictions of empiricism. The postmodernists and poststruc­
turalists attacked the authority of reason. Not only did they criticize the
rationality of the natural world and the methodological difficulties of
conquering it but they also questioned the concept of self as living. Their
discourse circles around becoming. They were concerned not with the study
of structures such as laws, regularities, patterns, but with the practical
historical forces that would impose or resist structure. Mostly an intel­
lectual exercise in the French social science tradition, this postmodernist
writing was based in the esoteric realm of philosophy, language, and
literature. Its appeal to and acceptance by Western social scientists was to
come much later, in the 1 980s, when its tenets appear to offer possible
explanations for the unconventionality of contemporary communication
issues and events.
From the 1 960s through the 1 970s all three epistemological currents were
at work in the West; however, the manifestations of these lines of thought
in the communication literature of this period were summarized, quite
interestingly, only in terms of the critical theory versus empiricism debate.
The revivalism of critical theory was well documented in the literature but
acknowledgement of the influence of postmodernist conceptions was
blatantly absent. In retrospect, the Western non-recognition of the post­
modernist contribution is all the more remarkable when considered in the
context of the late 1 960s. What will be the ultimate postmodernist contri­
bution to the 1 980s and beyond has its roots in a given social milieu, of
which a number of events in 1 968 are quintessential examples.

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In 1 968 in the United States, a general social discontent was manifested

in the student rebellions against the Vietnam War. This dissent was
reflected in communication research in the criticism of behavioralism and
empiricism which dominated the social sciences. In Europe there was
evidence of other social movements in the 1 968 student rebellion in France
and the liberalization movement in Prague. Beyond the West, and ignored
by it, there was evidence of the roots of the Islamic movement in Iran and
elsewhere professing a different epistemological view.
In developing a history of the development of communication discourse,
the omissions in the field of inquiry and research can be of great import.
The lack of inclusion of other perspectives, except that of positivism and
critical theories, into the literature of communication of the early post­
World War II period falls into this category. It was only in the late 1 970s
and 1980s that students of communication and of the other social sciences
slowly became interested in the study of contemporary social phenomena,
employing different typology and world views beyond that of empirical
positivism and critical perspectives.
Attempts were being made to develop a different approach to communi­
cation in which linearity was replaced by circularity, causality by catalysis,
syntax by semantic-pragmatics, the rationality of Western norms by the
irrationality of desiring production, hierarchical relations by heterarchical
relations, and the centered subject by the decentered web of relations and
difference.
For example, one perspective outlined viewed communication on the
principle of connection, heterogeneity, and multiplicity. There are no
discrete boxes of sender, receiver, media, and message, no homogeneous set
of ready-made signifying messages as an information theory, no subjective
linear choices which may prevent the entry of heterogeneous substances of
expression into the process. As noted by Deleuze and Guattari, "There is
no longer a tripartite division between a field of reality (the world) and a
,,
field of representation (the book) and a field of subjectivity. 1 2
In the linear sender-receiver model of communication, and in the tradi­
tion of Western social, cultural, and political discourse, the component of
the media took a royal if not a despotic position. With the rise of mass
media theory and urban sociology, coupled with the tremendous attention
paid to industrial and technological growth, communication research in
both empirical/administrative and critical/dialectic circles was transformed
into the royal position of media status. This media-centered research,
ranging from studies of popular culture (cultural identity in the terms of the
Frankfurt School) to audience analysis and totalitarianism, culminated in
the work of Marshall McLuhan - "the medium is the message."
If the deterministic image of society that the "Triple-M" (mass society,
mass media, mass culture) theorists portray is drawn from the laissez-faire
doctrine of economics (if not totally from the Protestant view of society),
the political economy theorists draw most of their ideas from the Marxist
view of production.

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By and large the Triple-M Theory of the media and culture i s a theory of
social control from above even though it is premised on the necessity for
making concessions to mass tastes in order that the masses be controlled
most effectively. The political economy theorists view the process from
below, where, through an elaborate feedback of political and economic
machinery, the masses can participate in the production and distribution of
cultural messages. Both theories of social communication, however, tend to
be media-centered, linear, and structural.
The process of deconstruction or restructuring begins when the black box
of the media is removed from the communication model and discourse, all
the while recognizing media's traces everywhere and in every point in the
process. This is communication without media. We are watching television
as much as it watches us. Instead of focusing our attention on a single
element, we pay attention to an assemblage in its multiplicities.
Here we can think of communication not as a tree with roots and
branches, but as a rhizome, a network, where any point can be connected
to any other with roots everyplace. As Deleuze and Guattari point out: "A
rhizome ceaselessly establishes connections between semiotic chains.
Organization of power, and circumstances relative to the arts, sciences,
and social struggle . . . . There is no ideal speaker-listener, any more than
there is a homogeneous linguistic community." J 3

What We Have Learned

The purpose of the present study has been to synthesize the relevant
research already undertaken by different institutions and organizations in
all aspects of the international flow of information, in both its human and
its technological dimensions. Close examination of these salient areas may
aid us in analyzing political, cultural, economic, technological, and
professional practices affecting the international flow of information.
It has been argued here that examination of the international functional
implications of communication - in both human and technological terms -
is another way of studying the complex phenomenon of international
relations. After an examination of the range and definition of the phenom­
enon, an attempt has been made to lay a foundation for an identification
and critical evaluation of major approaches, theories, concepts, and
propositions, with particular attention focused on problems of analytical
integration within the field of study and problems of interdisciplinary
contribution and coherence. Toward this end, a framework of analysis has
been proposed with the hope that it might provide a guideline for a
methodology to follow in future evaluations of related development.
Research on the international flow of information has grown enormously
over the last 1 0 years, but we do not know the extent of growth in
international communication itself. A major contention of this analysis is
that because of the tendency to focus on a few actors and factors, and

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because of a paucity of systematic research, the present state of knowledge

on the international flow of information is rather fragmented. No full-scale
investigation has shown the possible effects of international information
systems on international policies, politics, and economics.
Despite these shortcomings, we are in a much better position today to
draw a rough skeleton of the global information flow than we were a
decade ago. In summarizing, integrating, and evaluating the vast and
diverse amount of research on the international flow of information, we can
only hope that such an exercise will provide us with a concise statement of
what we know and what we have yet to learn.
The demand for a New International Economic Order (NIEO) is familiar
as the main basis of disputations in the North-South dialogue between the
developed and the developing nations. A similar demand for a New World
Information/Communication Order (NWICO) is less known among the
general public in many countries, primarily because of erroneous percep­
tions that it is less important, and partially because the public media have
presented the importance of the international flow of information in an
extremely narrow sense. Thus, people generally tend to perceive the issues
of the economic debate - trade figures, gross national product, energy
prices, etc. - as concrete aspects directly affecting their lives. Information is
seen as a comparatively abstract or non-material good, rather low in
developmental priorities.
Over the last 10 years, however, the calls to reexamine the international
flow of information and to reevaluate the existing structure of global
communication have snowballed, first among the information specialists in
non-aligned group meetings, and subsequently as part of Third World
demands for a comprehensive set of new world orders. Consequently, the
study of the international flow of information has occupied the most
prominent position among the students of international communication, as
well as among policy makers dealing with national and international
development issues. This upsurge of research, writings, and debates came
about as a result of the increasing realization that the imbalances perceived
in the economic field were also present in the information and com­
munication field, and in equal need of redress. Some of the imbalances are
painfully obvious, as documented in this study, and research conducted
during the past several years has demonstrated an imbalance of the world's
communication and information resources that now is widely accepted.
It is precisely here that a more daring historical analysis of real processes
and conceptual development outlined in this study would facilitate under­
standing as to how information flow has become one of the major issues of
our time. Although this study is not meant to be an historical analysis of
international flow of information processes, it is hoped that the combined
presentation of the synchronic and diachronic elements in the preceding
chapters has demonstrated the crucial role played by information and
communication in our global environment. Thus, the once-debated issue of
information and communication, which was perceived a decade ago as

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another disputation between the industrialized and less industrialized

countries of the world, has now become a global issue.
Viewing analyses of the international flow of information historically and
as a whole, we see that the study of information flow has gone through two
distinct but interrelated phases, and that third phase is just beginning to
emerge. The first period characterizing the analyses of the flow of infor­
mation in the 1 950s and the 1 960s emphasized the message and production
aspects of communication media, with little or no concern given to the
broader aspects of international flow of information that could transcend
the boundaries of conventional media and telecommunications to include
the human-oriented types of information channels. The main characteristics
of this period, as evidenced in the present study, are the fragmentary nature
of the analysis of content, as well as emphasis on the processes of message
production in terms of both techniques and socio-economic factors. A few
studies attempting to examine the cultural, educational, scientific, and
related aspects of international information flow were conducted in
isolation.
The second phase of international flow of information research is char­
acterized by the studies carried out in the 1 970s, especially in the latter part
of that decade. The analyses of this period are recognized as being critical
of the first phase just mentioned, and emphasize both the production and
distribution aspects of the message as well as the possible or probable
impacts of the content. In short, research in the second period took a
comparatively broader view of the international flow of information,
extending it beyond conventional journalistic and media studies and
relating it to the process of political economy and structure of the system
itself.
The development of research during these two periods can be better
understood if we consider historical processes of the last two decades, such
as the birth of new nation-states, the greater demands of citizens to
participate in political and economic decision-making, the increasing
number and power of transnational actors, the increase of mobility and
human movements across national boundaries, the worldwide development
of electronic communication technologies, the unsuccessful trials for
establishing an international network for distributing television and other
programs and documentaries, the transfer and growth of earlier sporadic
news and information to a now-massive data and information flow, the
neglect of and failure to cope with inequality and problems arising from the
electromagnetic spectrum and the computer satellite systems, and, last but
not least, the development of political debate around the New World
Information/Communication Order.
We are at present on the threshold of a third phase, that of the so-called
"post-industrialized" or "information age" now closely associated with the
post-traditional telecommunication technologies such as videotext, compu­
terized communication technologies, telematics, and scores of other
technological auxiliaries often combined under the rubric of "informatics,"

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implying complex communication and information systems and their

interrelationships with the "information age." It is also a phase in which
international communication and the flow of information are becoming
viewed not only as hardware and software development but as behavioral
and social development also. In short, there is an urgent need to view the
phenomenon of information flow in its human-technological dimension
and in the context of individual, national, international, and global issues
and ramifications.
The communications revolution has meant the spread of technology,
systems innovation, and the speed and quantity at which messages travel.
But the real evolution is the communication revolution - explained in terms
of a quest for satisfactory human interaction - rather than a communi­
cations revolution viewed through the lens of technological and institutional
spread and growth. One characteristic of this third phase is that the
interpretation of communication policies is no longer restricted; it realizes
the possibility of and need for integrating the hitherto distinct spheres of
information and communication policies.
In the preceding chapters, some tentative conclusions were drawn by
examining the data and the research literature in specific aspects of inter­
national flow of information. Here follows an identification of the general
trends and the emerging picture of the world information flow as one views
the landscape of accumulated empirical evidence.

Directionality of the Flow

Inherent in the term "flow" is a vector quality. Three directional patterns

have been hypothesized: center-periphery, vertical North-South flow, and
triangular flow (a variation of North-South flow). In fact, the verticality of
the North-South flow downward from the information-rich North to the
information-poor South has come to be a common assumption lending
itself to a foundation for further study. Researchers have generally set out
to show that flows have been from North to South, and more often than
not, in terms of the media selected and comparisons made, it has been
demonstrated that such a directional trend exists.
The term "imbalance," however, has not been clearly defined by
researchers. It has had quantitative and qualitative meanings to both
researchers and policy makers. Whatever its meaning, "imbalance" in
information and communication flows and structures is often regarded in
isolation, rather than being seen as another manifestation of much deeper
economic and political imbalances. Interestingly, the nature, pattern, and
direction of the world economy are more or less parallel and depict the
directionality of world information flow. In almost all kinds of information
flow, whether it is news or data, educational, scientific, or human flow, the
pattern is the same. The cycles are quite similar to cycles in other trade
areas where industrially less developed countries export raw materials to
industrialized countries for processing and then purchase back the more

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costly finished products. Notably lacking is the exchange of data, news,

information, cultural programs and products, and persons among
developing countries.
On the other hand, there exists a much better balance in terms of both
quantity and quality of information among the industrially developed
countries (see Figure 6. 1 p. 1 1 2 above). This is not to say that proximity of
cultural factors is not important in determining the flow direction, but
merely to indicate the undeniably strong and important relations between
the economic and political control of human and material resources, on the
one hand, and communication, information, and cultural control on the
other.

Quality Versus Quantity

Although there has been some quantitative improvement in the amount of

information and news exchanges internationally during the last several
years, the qualitative improvement is either incomplete or totally lacking.
Indeed, such research evidence supports the hypothesis that in the areas of
news flow, cultural and ideological distortion and biases have been
predominant during the last several years, particularly in relation to several
unfolding international, regional, and national events and development.

Communication Technologies and International Policies

There is a broadly shared perception of a growing overall gap between

industrially developed and developing countries in the way they are able to
create, process, and apply the needed information for economic, political,
and cultural development. While such development, as convergence between
telecommunication and computing, underlines a trend in the industrialized
countries, the increasing needs and determination of developing countries to
provide telecommunications in support of their national and international
policies remain basic. Research supports the fact that the growth of tech­
nology is not necessarily increasing the access of all peoples to information,
nationally or internationally. On the contrary, there is a disparity between
the poor and the rich. At the same time, competition within and between
the industrialized countries in the area of implementation and services is
growing. Yet, during the last five years, there has been a remarkable global
consensus regarding the needs for and value of structural change and
development in the world communication system.
There is also a growing need for and realization of an international
regulatory/standard-setting process and institutional modification of the
present international communication system. The future need for increased
tasks and responsibilities of the system will not be realized unless equitable
legal, structural, and international steps are taken now. Otherwise, not only
will the continuation of the current design of international communication
enhance rather than diminish the dominance of certain industrialized

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countries, but the result of other industrialized nations' challenge to

American dominance in the global market will disrupt the fragile new
information economy.

Trends in National Policies

The debate and writings on communication and information issues during

the last 10 years have stimulated governments in both industrialized and
developing countries to adopt national policies, and in some cases compre­
hensive plans, to respond to problems brought about by advances in
computer and telecommunications technologies and to protect vital
national interests. Developing countries particularly view their dependence
on foreign firms and transnational actors as evidence that the important
basis for national decision-making is now located outside their national
boundaries.
These national policies are being designed in order to preserve national
sovereignty; to ensure national security; to assure access to information
held in data banks; to preserve cultural identity; to design appropriate
educational, scientific, and artistic policies; and, in some cases, to protect
individual privacy. While these measures are observable in some
geographical areas in the direction of public interest, there are also cases
in which national and local policies are directed toward a greater restriction
of the individual citizenry and groups, in the direction of political and
economic control. There is also a tendency in some industrialized countries
toward commercialization and privatization of public communication.

Imbalance in Communication Research

As research on the international flow of information has expanded during

the last 1 0 years with most dramatic growth registered in the beginning of
the 1 980s, it has been accompanied by several new lines of inquiry. In fact,
the last five years can be characterized as the most active period of
international communication research in history. There is no doubt that the
debate on the New World Information/Communication Order in various
international forums, including UNESCO's declarations and activities, has
been primarily responsible for this growth. The numerous conferences,
symposia, and workshops held in many parts of the world; the increased
number of periodicals and journals devoted to various aspects of infor­
mation and communication; and a somewhat inflated amount of publishing
in this area are all illustrative of this phenomenon. 1 4
One of the findings of this study is that a substantial number of
these studies have been carried out by the Third World scholars, a devel­
opment that was almost absent in the early years of communication
research. Yet, there exists a communication imbalance between field and
subjects, between the issues and different geographical areas, and between
epistemological and philosophical orientations. If there is to be a correction

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 International communication research 221

in communication imbalance, we need no less than a new order in com­

munication research. 1 5
For example, a survey for this study showed that there is no major
textbook in the field of international relations either in North American or
in Europe that has devoted a chapter to international communication and
international flow of information. Little attempt has been made to
incorporate the international implications of communication and informa­
tion technology in the broader area of international affairs. Equally, the
authors of communication textbooks have failed to place the findings of
communication research in the context of international relations.
Furthermore, most studies on information flow have focused on only a
few regions of the world, namely North America, Western Europe, and, to
a lesser degree, Latin America and Asia. Thus, the contributions on the
study of flow in Africa, the Middle East, and the socialist countries in the
East have been less representative. When research is available, such things
as language, translation, and distribution have become factors impeding the
flow of information.
It should also be emphasized that the study of international com­
munication in general, and the flow of information in particular, have been
on the centrality of the North. Little attention has been given to South­
South relations as a phenomenon in international communication and
international relations. The study of the international flow of information
as it relates to the southern half of the globe is usually cast in terms of
"Third World development," and in the field of international politics as a
case of "regional conflict management."
Among many writers on Third World development and communication
there is not only no deep consciousness about the nature of change inde­
pendent from big-power politics, but there is little consensus as to the
nature and direction of indigenous cultural revolution or evolution now
taking place. Thus the literature in this area fails to explain and predict the
characteristics of the social process. This is particularly true when writings
and research are dominated by a certain epistemological orientation.
Unfortunately, to a great extent, the field has been the victim of either pure
positivism or crude ideological orientations and biases. The failure of many
students of international relations and international communication who
have had this orientation, both in the West and in the East, to predict the
social, cultural, and political development of many parts of the world in the
last 1 0 years is a case in point. In short, there has been a high level of
advocacy and a low level of analysis.
Therefore, the final global generalizations made in many past research
findings are already flawed. Fortunately, one positive result of the ongoing
and current discussion/controversy on the structure of world information is
that it has stimulated debates on the nature and direction of communi­
cation research. 1 6 It is hoped that such debates will have a profound impact
on the quality of research, and bring about a kind of pluralism that is badly
needed.

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There have been serious flaws in the study of information flow during the
last three decades. Specifically, the analyses were inadequate in six major
ways.
First, they were concerned primarily with the examination of channels
and content, leaving either end of the process - the source and the desti­
nation- untouched. There have been no serious efforts to study precisely
who makes what use of which kind of information on the destination level.
Equally little attempt has been made to carry the research beyond the
framework of the media to examine the primary sources of the message.
Furthermore, both traditions of international flow of information research
in the 1 950s- 1 960s and the 1 970s- 1 980s proceeded with the assumption that
distribution, consumption, and exposure to outside messages would have the
desired impact. The literature on the flow emphasized the exposure, but
could only make inferences on probable effect or impact. Less emphasis was
placed on exactly what would happen to the recipients of information once
they were exposed to internal and external messages. Less attention was paid
to the dynamics of internal human and societal communication, and to the
complexity of culture, in relation to mass media or other technologically
mediated messages. Unless these factors are taken into account in a variety
of cultural, political, and economic settings, we will have no more at our
disposal than the "conventional wisdom" and guesswork as to the impact
and effects of information on individuals, groups, and the international
system as a whole.
Second, both phases and traditions of research were inherently biased
toward the study of only that type of flow that was technologically oriented
and developed, and that would fit the predetermined definitions of "mass
media," "communications media," and "information media." Thus, the
research of the past not only deemphasized but, to a large extent, ignored
the role played by traditional, personal, and group channels in the process
of information flow.
Third, the analysis of the flow of communication media was not
externally related to the input and output of information in such areas as
education, tourism, migration, science, and the arts. Consequently, the
fragmentary nature of the studies, coupled with each discipline's traditional
resistance to loss of autonomy, prevented both scholars and policy makers
from having access to a wider framework of the international flow of
information including both human and technological, economic and
political, and cultural as well as social spheres.
Fourth, researchers almost totally ignored examination of the role of
non-readers, non-viewers, and non-listeners who for a variety of reasons
were not in the center of modem media exposure in the international flow
of information, and concentrated only on those targets that were mediated
through modem media technologies. Equally little attention was paid to the
nature and patterns of information among the different socio-demographic
strata, such as its international business and political leaders, or children
and other specific age groups.

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 International communication research 223

Fifth, the first period of the flow studies in the 1950s and 1 960s
emphasized the East-West relationship; the second phase characterizing the
1 970s was tailored to the North-South axis, with emphasis being placed on
the West-South aspect of that flow. Less attention was given to the
international flow of information among the socialist nations, on the one
hand, and the less industrialized countries of the Third World, on the other.
The underlying assumptions of many scholars and policy makers, which
divided the world into a monolithic pattern of First, Second, and Third
Worlds, obviously hampered the analysis in light of diversification and
pluralism, and contributed much to the stereotyping and the homogeneity
of the Third World.
Sixth, most of these studies, using power paradigms either in their
political or economic forms, paid less explicit and implicit attention to
cultural analysis and methods. Therefore, the question of culture, though
popular and controversial, remained subservient either to political or econ­
omic analyses, or to technological discourses, both in theory and methods.

What Needs to be Learned

This study began with the notion that to understand the international flow
of information, and, thus, the role of communication in international
relations, it is important that both the stages of production and distribution
of messages be analyzed in terms of hardware and software. In light of
preceding chapters and the conclusions drawn from the analysis of different
dimensions of international flow of information, it is now appropriate to
suggest that any future study of the flow of information must include two
additional dimensions within the production-distribution process outlined
previously. In the production stage these are the analysis of the source or
sources that initially feed the stream of information through institutions,
groups, transnational actors, and other channels. This will carry the process
of the creation of symbols and messages beyond the present levels of
analysis to the political, economic, and cultural groups, both national and
international, that initially provide the information.
In the distribution stage, studies must be carried beyond conventional
exposure to information, to analyses of the process of absorption,
internalization, and utilization of messages in a given population nationally
or internationally. It is only by paying close attention to the latter stage
that we can learn something about the function or dysfunction and
manifest or latent aspects of message transmission. Thus, the international
flow of information, if it is studied comprehensively, must include a careful
consideration of the factors in four distinct but related stages of the
communication process: the source, the process of production, the process
of distribution, and the process of utilization.
One important trend underlying most of the studies of flow is that, from
its beginning right after World War II and continuing until the late 1970s,

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it was primarily, if not totally, an inter-nation- or "international"-oriented

analysis rather than being world or global in context. That is to say,
nation-states were most often the units of analysis in the traditional
international relations framework, rather than communities, cultures, or
regions in their anthropological, cultural, and historical contexts. In short,
the division of the world into many units called nation-states, the desire of
each nation-state to gain full political, economic, and cultural autonomy,
and the articulation of the concept of power in terms of security, military,
and economic capabilities of governments created a unique framework in
which international flow of information analyses took place. More
attention was paid to the sovereignty of nation-states than to the welfare
of individuals. More emphasis was put on preservation and retention of
national culture than individual identity. Yet, as we approach the end of
the century, not only has the number of world actors in terms of nation­
states increased, but a large number of transnational and supranational
organizations have been created that are alternately in conflict or
cooperation with nation-states.
Additionally, it is now clear that as a result of many social, political,
economic, and cultural factors, there is a greater demand by transnational
actors and individuals outside the nation-state for the articulation,
formulation, and implementation of different policies. It is clear that a
comprehensive analysis of the international flow of information must
account for these factors, and research projects designed to examine the
various facets of international information flow should include all these
varied dimensions in their most complex forms.
Most current books, articles, and monographs barely scratch the surface
of the problem. They view information and communication problems as a
mere maladjustment of a purely economic, political, technological, or
biological nature. In terms of the East-West conflict, communication and
information problems are seen as incidental or ideological. In terms of the
North-South debate, they are presumed to be economic. What is not
understood is that communication problems are inherent in the nature of
the modem industrialized and information culture. Accordingly, for the
elimination of problems, the solutions prescribed with perfect confidence
are either economic-technological readjustment - in money, banking,
transportation, training and communication technology, computers, satel­
lites, video, teletext, and other media auxiliaries - or a modification of
political systems; a new bureaucracy, a new infrastructure, a new manage­
ment, or a new form of disassociation. There is no doubt that some of these
measures, where properly applied, can result in some improvements. But
there is also no doubt that none of them can reach the source of the
problem.
It is now clear that the development of modem communication tech­
nology and the continuous stream of information flow have increased
consciousness of national sovereignty and have made proliferation of states
and transnational actors possible. This has generated important functional

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demands on the international system well beyond its capacity to handle

sufficiently with the existing machinery. This in turn raises important
questions about the viability of the prevailing model and order of inter­
national information system to cope with the rapidly changing environment
of international relations in general, and international communication in
particular.
The fact that "the vessel of sovereignty" is leaking, and in some instances
may even be sinking, is now beyond doubt. Nations may act as though
they are in control of their full national rights, but the erosion of
sovereignty through communication technology and new transnational
actors is paralleled by the growing constraints on freedom of national
action and the increasing responsibility seen for international organizations.
As the locus of decision-making is continuously transferred from national
to international and transnational levels, an increasing number of issues
will have to be settled in an international environment. Otherwise the
conflict is inevitable. It is here that international organizations, particularly
those dealing with communication and information issues, are likely to
become a more central force in international relations.
The problem of national policies versus international policies and
considerations becomes crucial not only in the sphere of communication
technology but also in the set of related global issues connected directly with
the nature of information flow and the quality of communication. Such
issues as environmental alteration as a result of human activity; weather and
climate modification; large-scale experimental and weaponry actions with
substantial and potential environmental effects; pollution; mineral and
organic resources of the seabed; living resources of the sea; congestion in
ocean uses; forestry; agriculture; geography; resource mapping; data gather­
ing and distribution; navigation and traffic control; food and population -
accompanied by increased public interest in protecting the environment -
will result in a growing recognition that governments, a group of powerful
nation-states, or a number of profit-motivated transnational actors do not
have the right to act unilaterally in communication and technological areas
when the effects may spread beyond national borders. The existing legal
regime and the institutional structure of the global communication system
with the entire complex of intergovernmental organizations will have even
more difficulty in the future in meeting the needs and responsibilities of the
new systems that will be developed in a few years unless serious and
conscious attempts are made to prepare them for a new order.
A list of several (not exhaustive) functional elements and implications of
the international flow of information as it relates to the international
system can be cited here with the purpose of illustrating the kind of
functional international requirement needed for many of the information
flow systems examined in this volume.

l . Management. This is a crucial aspect of the international information

system. As experience has shown in at least some cases, national ownership

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226 Global information and world communication

and operation are not an adequate permanent arrangement for a variety of

political, technical, and social reasons. If nationally owned, information
systems are at the mercy of extreme international and regional coopera­
tives. Here, international bodies - both old and new - can contribute to the
smooth operation of newly established information resources by having
management responsibility and even legal ownership. Resource and tech­
nology operation, technical assistance, conduct of research, and financing
of projects can certainly fall in this category.
Information exchange, data gathering and analysis, monitoring of
physical phenomena, and facilitating national, regional, and international
programs are among the elements related to the management function.
Here, information and equal access to it are seen as factors for reducing
dependency in economic, political, and cultural relations. An important
issue here is that information and access to information are often viewed as
power. The measure of the distribution of access, for example, can be seen in
terms of global distribution of national focal points (NFPs). Focal points
refer to "offices in appropriate national ministries, designed to serve as the
liaison centers within an international information system." NFPs are
particularly important for the developing countries because they bring the
system and user close to one another. A study by Ernst Haas and John
Gerard Ruggie found that "[i]n 1 980, 1 7 major global information systems
maintained 1 039 NFPs; UN regional commissions maintained an additional
1 60. ,, 17 Unfortunately, there appears to be concentration of NFPs among
the richer countries, indicating, according to Haas and Ruggie, that devel­
oping countries have not had a significant input in the information provided.
Another implication is the potential role of international information
systems to provide conceptual guidance in policy-making. A final
consequence is the power of information systems to generate new forms
of social organization. These consequences of the current state of infor­
mation systems are, of course, speculative because of the incomplete state
of knowledge about international information systems, but Haas and
Ruggie conclude that research effort in this area is both justified and
worthwhile. Their preliminary conclusion emphasizes that "[i]nformation
systems can also affect the dependency of poorer countries on the
industrialized North by compensating for the lack of material power within
the developing world." In reference to cultural dependency, they conclude
that "in the short run at least, the internationalization of Northern designs
and products are enhanced rather than diminished by the prevailing
,,
structure of information fiOW. 18

2. Legal and regulatory aspects. In the last three decades, communication

policy and regulations have emerged as important issues in international
relations and conflict resolution, and are expected to remain dominant
issues into the twenty-first century. The lack of consistency and coherence
in legal concepts and applications has been conditioned not only by
historical circumstances but also by the development of new technologies.

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 International communication research 227

Today in international law there is simply no generally recognized category

under the heading of "information law." In many cases "information law"
has been associated only with human rights. In other instances, it has
referred to telecommunication law, space law, postal law, intellectual
property rights, or a set of ad hoc rules and regulations developed through
institutional and historical circumstances. Such salient areas as culture and
education, trade and customs regulations, transborder flow of broadcast
signals, terrestrial transmission, television signals via cable systems, and the
host of related social, political, and technological elements are left open to
different interpretations and national considerations. At the same time,
international organizations serve as forums in the entire process of
establishing international rules and norms. As a direct consequence of this
norm allocation and establishment of international rules and regulations,
international and intergovernmental organizations must deal with the
disagreements arising from the interpretation and operation of new
communication systems. Thus adjudication, mediation, and enforcement of
standards and regulations are the functional areas within the realm of legal
matters that the international community must consider at present and in
the near future.

3. Economic and strategic consequences. Economic and strategic conse­

quences are at the heart of the functional elements of international flow of
information and modem communication technologies. Some of the systems
being developed may involve differential costs of application for some
geographical areas, as well as considerable differential benefits. Aside from
purely economic consequences, there are security, political, and military
factors that must be considered once the new systems are in operation. It is
said that in such cases there will be strong pressure for these new systems to
be internationally operated, with the users assured a voice in management
and ownership. The profit potential of some of these systems cannot be
ignored, nor can the equity principle involved in procurement and other
related activities. It is here that these functional implications will have to
accompany either the creation of new institutions or the modifications of
existing infrastructure. Since information is a resource convertible to all
kinds of power, there is, and in all probability will be, intensive competition
and conflict over its production and utilization. In short, many questions are
debatable, among them: Who pays and who profits? What will be the
ecology of national and international systems in the future? What will be the
stratification of the information elite nationally and globally? What will be
the relationship between the knowers and users? Will it reduce the amount
of armed conflict or will it lead directly to the ruinization of the Cold War?
What about alienation, mental isolation, withdrawal, and cultural
acceptability of individuals, groups, institutions, and even nation-states?

4. Reliability and quality. Finally, there remain the elements of reliability

and quality of information, especially as they apply to human-machine

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228 Global information and world communication

communication. The barriers to the quality and reliability of information

arise not so much from the information transfer process, but rather from
the translation required to accommodate the highly different and distinct
characteristics of receivers and sources. Whereas humans, though noisy and
narrow-banded, have simultaneous active channels such as facial expression
and other intelligent and flexible sensory organs, machines are single­
minded and highly restrained by programming. Machines can produce and
generate text much faster than can be assimilated by humans, but infor­
mation other than text can be assimilated much more rapidly by humans.
Thus, forecasting human-machine technology is much more difficult than
predicting hardware technology. Yet the information flow resulting from
machine and from human-machine interaction is increasing at an
enormous rate.
For example, the NASA Task Group in forecasting space technology
between 1 980 and 2000 , predicted that:
�
by the year 2000, ima ng experiments in Earth applications satellites will be
ca able of returning 10 3 _ 1 0 1 5 bits per day, in comparison to the present rate of
ft
10 °_ 1 0 1 1 bits per day. The lower value of 1 O l 3 bits will encode approximately
one million 300-page books; that much data per day corresponds to 30 Libraries
of Congress per year. 1 9

Comparable increases in data can be expected from other missions or

technologies. Yet, the same report acknowledges "that reliability has not
received attention in the individual forecasts in proportion to impor­
,,
tance. 20 At the same time, the introduction of robots is no longer a science
fiction. The NASA forecast in 1 976 indicated that:
During the last decade of this century the technological and economic develop­
ments of the preceding 1 5 years in information science and in computer
hardware, combined with advances in problem-solving, learning, decision­
making, sensory analysis, and other fields of artificial intelligence, will permit the
introduction of simple robots to society at large. 2 1

This has now become a reality.

Here lie the questions of reliability, quality, and utility, as well as indi­
vidual, social, and global utility of information. This increase in the volume
of information is not limited to space and satellite technologies. The
elements and problems are equally applicable to all kinds of information
channels outlined in this study. The increase in the amount of information
will require increasing the amount of selectivity and absorption. It is also
here that not the amount and quantity of information but its selectivity and
quality will be crucial for communication.
There might indeed be a consensus on a now popular and somewhat
orthodox view that the industrialized countries of the North have entered
the information age, that many others are on the threshold, and that sooner
or later the less industrialized societies and nations will enter the circle.
There is, in fact, a broader view that regardless of the level of development,
all nations are already in the midst of the information age - internationally

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 International communication research 229

if not globally. Although we might accept these views and propositions as

natural or inevitable phenomena, the important question remains: Will we
handle the Information Revolution better than we handled the Industrial
Revolution?

Research Questions for the Twenty-First Century

The international communication critiques of the last decade or so, noble

and persuasive as they were in their presentation, did not go beyond
political and economic debates. Whose version of the New World Infor­
mation and Communication order are we supposed to construct? Should
there be a new single world structure based on a nation-state system as we
have now? Or would that constitute too many orders in the field of free
play? Can we equate universal agreement with universal good? Whose idea
of international peace and world community are we talking about? In the
tree-shaped and linear model of communication, we have examined
ground, roots, branches and we have analyzed the gatekeepers through
channels; but have we located the gate-makers and gate-producers whose
roots cannot be detected from our model? Will the progressive replacement
of the mechanical and energy-based mode by yet more powerful linear
models, inspired by current information/communication paradigms, serve
to transform rational self-perception and to give individuals a new image of
themselves? Would a new rationalism created as a result of the modem
technologies be likely to impose a policy of radical instrumentalism, under
which social problems would be treated as technical problems? These
questions and the many others that inevitably will follow are pressing
international communication research into new, uncharted territories in the
twenty-first century. And this will be for the better.
As we approach the twenty-first century, I believe that the most wide­
ranging questions regarding communication research will be seen at the
international level. The increasing internationalization of domestic policies
and its domestication of international politics should provide new chal­
lenges for international communication scholars. Here are examples of the
main problem areas and themes as well as a few research questions raised
by the new communication technologies and new development in
international and intercultural communication:
1 . In what ways are relationships between modem nation-states likely to be
affected during emerging communication technologies and their political,
economic, and cultural impacts? At the center of this question are the
economic and strategic aspects of international communication for the
wealthy and powerful states as well as the inevitability of technological
dependency for the so-called developing countries and the Third World.
The fact that existing instructional and regulatory structures of
international systems have proven incapable of dealing with all the
technological and political questions makes the international legal

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230 Global information and world communication

regime somewhat problematic at the present time. This also raises further
questions as to whether past and present strategies of self-reliance and
self-sufficiency handled by a few developing countries will be applicable
to new realities in the twenty-first century. The question remains: How
possible will it be in the future for developing countries to maintain a
capacity for independent technology assessment? To what degree will the
decline of the superpowers make them abandon the strategy of status
quo and help lure some fundamental changes into the structure of
international communication as we know it?
2. To what extent do the new international communication technologies
increase the erosion of cultural vitality and how will the modem nation­
state systems with their secular-oriented national sovereign signifier cope
with emerging religious political ideologies such as Islam which is based
on universal community or ummah? This will require a thorough
examination and understanding of communication systems of non­
Western societies in both their traditional and modem forms as well as
research into the world views, theories, and assumptions underlying the
modes of both interpersonal and social communication in most
geographical areas of the world. Especially important is the question of
whether our orthodox and traditional methods of research will be
enlisted to reinforce obstacles to our understanding of intercultural
communication, or whether we will be able to improve and create
methodologies that may assist us to expand our knowledge in
understanding and respect for other forms of communication.
3. How much do we really know about the relationships between
international communication and international peace and conflict
resolutions? At the core of this question is the growing importance of
modem communication technologies for the expansion and maintenance
of the existing military-industrial complex of modem states, especially
the great powers. At the same time, the last part of the twentieth century
has seen nationalism, anti-imperialism, and revolution in many parts of
the world and diverse nations and cultures in quest for self-determination
and a new world order, as militarily weak powers confront the major
powers with increasing success. Will the new century bring about a new
course of action for reconciliation and cooperation or will it increase the
amount of disinformation and deception through modem channels of
communication thus leading the world into a greater stage of entropy?
4. What should (or would) the role of mass media be in helping to
articulate and give identity to the various biological (age group),
psychological, and aesthetic groupings that have begun to emerge as a
result of the decline of traditional groupings and the increase of the so­
called "postmodem" or "hypermodern" environments? Traditional
communication research, especially in the field of mass media,
emphasized the flow of information and content analysis, the gatekeeper
process, and audience investigation but paid little attention to the
sources generating information as well as the ultimate utilizers who

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 International communication research 231

absorbed the infonnation for a variety of decision-making purposes.

Consequently, our knowledge about the role of communicators,
political leaders, economic elites, religious and spiritual personalities,
and new actors who have gained legitimacy remains sketchy. We also
know very little about how infonnation is handled by those who are
exposed to it. Communication research in the twenty-first century must
go beyond the simple production and distribution stages and must
direct its attention to both the initial sources of the message and its
absorption and utilization. To do this, international communication
research needs to go beyond the existing political, economic, and
sociological models to incorporate anthropological, linguistic, and
sociocultural frameworks into its well-established domain.
5. What is the evolution of linguistic fonn and specialized languages under
the impact of modem international communication technologies and the
development of science and arts? The relationship between language and
international communication, though very obvious to any student in the
field, has been very much neglected in both textbooks and research
journals. The relationships between world languages and international
flow of goods and services as well as cultural industries will, in my
estimate, be of even greater importance in the future as we move toward
adopting a single language as a means of technical and instrumental
transfer of know-how and at the same time are faced with the ever­
growing interests in national languages and educational policies.
6. Has communication research a role to play in understanding the
dynamics of modem world systems in tenns of studying the trans­
national actors, international division of labor, immigrants, refugees,
and individual economic, political, cultural, and military elites whose
actions and reactions bypass national boundaries and in themselves
fonnally and infonnally constitute new leases of power, bargaining, and
negotiations?
7. What role can communication research play in ecological and environ­
mental issues in the twenty-first century? What about the impact of
communication technologies in such areas as disaster prevention, public
health, hunger, and other international, regional, and national crisis
issues?
8. And last, but not least, would infonnation society of the twenty-first
century also be primarily a material society as was the case with the
Industrial Revolution? Where are the spiritual and ethical or moral
sources of the new era we are talking about? What would be the role of
communication researchers in handling these critical questions?

Notes

I . Gerald R. Miller, "Taking Stock of a Discipline," Journal of Communication (Ferment

in the Field - Special Issue), 33 (1983), pp. 3 1 -4 1 .

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232 Global information and world communication

2. John Rajchman, Michel Foucault: The Freedom of Philosophy (New York: Columbia
University Press, 1985); Ken Wilbur, Up from Eden: A Transpersonal View of Human
Evolution (Boulder, CO: Anchor Press, 1983); A. Katherine N. Hayles, The Cosmic Web:
Scientific Field Models and Literary Strategies in the 20th Century (Ithaca, NY : Cornell
University Press, 1 983); Erick Jantsch, The Self Organization Universe (New York: Perryman
Press, 1 980); Lawrance Grossberg, "Does Communication Theory Need Intersubjectivity?
Toward an Immanent Philosophy of Interpersonal Relations," in Michael Burgoon, ed.,
Communication Yearbook, 6 (1 982), pp. 1 7 1 -205; Ihah Hassam, The Postmodern Tum: Essays
in Postmodern Theory and Culture (Columbus, OH: Ohio University Press, 1982); Michel
Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (New York: Vintage Books, 1979);
and Hamid Mowlana, Global Communication in Transition: The End of Diversity? (Beverly
Hills, CA: Sage Publications, 1996).
3. Miller, "Taking Stock of a Discipline."
4. Robert H. White, "Mass Communication and Culture: Transition to a New Paradigm,"
Journal of Communication, 33 (1983), pp. 279-301 .
5 . Herbert I . Schiller, "Critical Research in the Information Age," Journal of
Communication, 33 ( 1983), p. 256.
6. Jennifer Daryl Slack, "The Political and Epistemological Constituents of Critical
Communication Research," Journal of Communication, 33 (1983), pp. 208-219.
7. Luis Ramiro Beltran, "Alien Promises, Objects, and Methods in Latin American
Communication Research," in Everett Rogers, ed., Communication and Development: Critical
Perspective (Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications, 1 976), pp. 1 5-42.
8. Lawrence D. Kincaid, The Convergence Model of Communication (Honolulu: East­
West Communication Institute, 1 979), p. 4.
9. !thiel de Sola Pool, "What Ferment?" Journal of Communication, 33 (1983), pp. 260-
261 .
10. Cary Nelson and Lawrence Grossberg, Marxism and Interpretation of Culture (Urbana,
IL: University of Illinois Press, 1987).
I I . Jean-Franf;ois Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge
(Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1984); Jean Baudrillard, "The Implosion
of Meaning in the Media and the Implosion of the Social in the Masses," in Kathleen
Woodward, ed., The Myths of Information: Technology and Postindustrial Culture (Madison,
WI: Coda Press, 1 980), pp. 1 37-1 50; Jfugen Habermas, "Modernity - An Incomplete
Project," in Hal Foster, ed., The Anti-Aesthetic. Essays on Postmodern Culture (port
Townsend, WA: Bay Press, 1983); Hal Foster, ed., The Anti-Aesthetic: Essays on
Postmodernism Culture (port Townsend, WA: Bay Press, 1983; Foucault, Discipline and
Punish.
12. Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia
(Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1987), p. 23.
13. Ibid., p. 7.
14. To cite the various symposia held on international communication will take many
pages. For a list of periodicals in the field of mass communication alone see Sylvester Dziki,
World Directory of Mass Communication Periodicals, Cracow (poland), Bibliographical Section
of IAMCR and Press Research Centre, Cracow, Poland, 1 980.
15. This point has also been emphasized by K.E. Eapen, "Reshaping Training and
Research for the NIIO," Media Development, XXVII: 4 (1980), pp. 16-19.
1 6. For example see: International Association for Mass Communication Research, New
Structure of International Communication: The Role of Research (Main papers from the 1980
Caracas Conference), Leicester, International Association for Mass Communication Research,
1 982: UNESCO and International Association for Mass Communication Research
Consultation Meeting Report of July 1982, "Communication in the Eighties: The Nature of
the Problem and Some Proposals for an International Research Strategy," prepared by
Annabelle Sreberny-Mohammadi, Leicester, Centre for Mass Communication Research,
University of Leicester, January 1983; E.M. Rogers and F. Balle, eds, Mass Communication
Research in the United States and Europe (Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing Corporation, 1983);

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 International communication research 233

James D. Holleran, "Warning Schools or Complementary Perspectives?: A Case of Critical

Eclecticism," Leicester, Centre for Mass Communication Research, Leicester University, 1983;
Hamid Mowlana, "Mass Media and Culture: Toward an Integrated Theory," in William B.
Gudykunst, ed., Intercultural Communication Theory: Current Perspectives (Beverly Hills, CA:
Sage Publications, 1983); Tamas Szecsko, "The Grammar of Global Communication,"
Intermedia, 10: 2 (March 1982); Alex Edelstein, Comparative Communication Research (Beverly
Hills, CA: Sage Publications, 1982); G. Melisoek, K.E. Rosengren, and J. Stappers, eds,
Cultural Indicators: An International Symposium (Vienna: Akademie der Eisenschaften, 1983);
and George Gerbner and Marsha Siefert, eds, World Communications: A Handbook (White
Plains, NY : Longman, 1983). See also Journal oj Communication, 33 (1983; the entire issue is
devoted to communication research). For a more general and epistemological debate on
communication and society see Jiirgen Habermas, Communication and the Evolution oj Society
(Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1979); Ali Shari'ati, Marxism and Other Western Fallacies
(Berkeley, CA: Mizan Press, 1980); and LV. Blauberg, V.N. Sadovsky, and E.G. Yudin,
Systems Theory: Philosophical and Methodological Problems (Moscow: Progress Publishers,
1977).
17. Ernst B. Haas and John Gerard Ruggie, "What Message in the Medium of information
System?" International Studies Quarterly, 26: 2 (June 1982), p. 205.
18. Ibid., p. 218.
19. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), A Forecast oj Space
Technology: 1900-2000 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1976), p. 3-1 17.
20. Ibid., pp. 3-1 19.
21. Ibid., p. 3-105.

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 12

The Unfinished Revolution:

The Crisis Of Our Age

It is ironic that for at least the last three decades both the idealist­
humanist and the strategist (this term would encompass the latter three
approaches mentioned earlier) have emphasized the so-called "commu­
nication revolution" as a focus of analysis for their respective schools of
thought. The communications revolution has meant the spread of
technology, systems innovation, and the speed and quantity of messages.
However, as we noted in the previous chapter the real revolution has been
the communication revolution, explained in terms of a quest for
satisfactory human interaction, rather than a communications revolution
viewed through the lens of technological and institutional spread and
growth. In other words, the cultural components of international and
human relations have been overshadowed by the political, economic, and
technological aspects of the field. This is unfortunate, for modern political
development, social rebellion, religious resurgence, and contemporary
revolutionary movements in both the industrially developed and the less
industrialized societies can be better understood if we look at them from
the perspective of human interaction (i.e., from a communication
analysis), rather than from a purely politico-economic or technological
perspective.
Western theories of human development, both Marxist and liberal
democratic, proceed from a shared assumption that the development of
societies requires that modern economic and social organization replace
traditional structures. Widely accepted in the West and diffused among the
elites of the less industrialized countries, this assumption encompasses,
among other things, industrialization in the economy; secularization in
thought, personality, and communication; the development of a "cosmo­
politan attitude"; integration into the "world culture"; and rejection of
traditional thoughts and technologies simply because they dominated the
past and thus are not "modern." But contemporary movements around the
world, whether in groups, communities, or nations, all share an alternative
vision of human and societal development. This "third way" eschews both
Marxism and liberal democracy. It has its roots in more humane, ethical,
traditionalist, anti-bloc, self-reliance theories of societal development. In
short, the "third way" seeks not to promote itself or its ideology; it seeks
dignity through dialogue. It is the quest for dialogue that underlies the
current revolutionary movements around the world.

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 The unfinished revolution 235

The French Revolution, for all of its noble ideas and promises, in the end
did not further this quest for dialogue among individuals. On the contrary,
it marked the watershed in the rise of the individual vis-a-vis the nation­
state. The concepts of freedom, equality, and fraternity that came to the
forefront - in terms of political and economic aspirations by the individual
making demands on the state - have played a major role in revolutions
ever since and led to the rise of modern nationalism. But this juncture can
be identified as the point of departure of individuals from their communi­
ties. No longer was interpersonal communication the main mode of com­
munication. Bureaucracies arose to take care of human needs. Humans
communicated with each other more as roles than as individuals. Mass
media began to mediate government-citizen communication. People
became alienated from one another as cultures moved inexorably from
association (Gemeinschaft) into abstraction (GeseUschaft). The growth of
"instrumental" and "functional" communication became paramount in the
decline of genuine inter/intrapersonal dialogue.
This preliminary exploration of the area of inquiry of human communi­
cation, of course, appears to present few or no points of controversy. The
detrimental effect of modern technological society and its monstrous
institutions on the capacity for inter-intrapersonal communication has been
well documented, analyzed, and accepted as a fait accompli by countless
sociologists, anthropologists, and psychologists. What still begs analysis is
the possibility of reversing this trend, of reviving the capacity for human
communication among already alienated individuals. Two steps are
required. First, we must shift our attention and our emphasis from com­
munications (as means) to communication (as sharing and trust). Intel­
lectually, this will require a reorientation in communication studies: from
sole concern with the roles, effects, and impacts of communication media to
the study and discovery of a communication theory of society. Second, we
must create an environment in the form of a restraining influence that can
stop this deterioration in relations, can protect humanity from self­
destruction, and can eventually direct the machinery of communication to
explore human growth and potential.

Communication as Cultural Ecology

Ecology as a concept offers a useful framework not only for the well-being
or deterioration of our planet and physical environment but for principles
that can be applied to our cultural as well as media environment. The
ecological perspective argues for sustainable development and a commu­
nication system that satisfies our needs without diminishing the prospects of
future utilization.
It now seems more imperative than ever to discuss global tension, not
only in terms of explicitly economic, geopolitical, and military structures,

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236 Global information and world communication

but also equally in the context of cultural communication and information

struggles. To suggest that culture and communication are crucial for
analyses of international relations is not to view these areas as exclusive
territories of the idealist approach to world politics that so often char­
acterized the Wilsonian era of international politics and the more norma­
tive discourse of war and peace literature which followed the years
immediately after World Wars I and II. The post-Cold War era, I believe,
will bring the cultural dimensions of world politics to center-stage.
For one, the reductionism of the conservative school of realpolitik, and
that of radical political economy, which dominated the scholarly and policy
fields for over four decades, proved incomplete in answering the many
questions regarding developments around the world. Furthermore, the
epistemological tradition of research, in which the realm of ideas was
separated from that of matter, was not only historically specific to the
tradition of Western philosophy and science but also created a dualism
which impeded the formulation of concepts and theories of a practical
nature. Most important of all, the erosion of state legitimacy, and the
political development that followed the events of Eastern Europe and the
Soviet Union, combined with the economic crisis in the West and chal­
lenges emanating from non-Western culture, made the "inevitable" conduct
of human affairs by the Western powers more problematic.
Today, as the West moves toward the Information Society Paradigm, the
conceptions of justice, derived from civil society by the intellectual elites of
the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, have run into trouble. On the
international level, the conventional argument was popularized that, if one
wanted peace, one should prepare for war. The systems of autonomous
nation-states had little sense of community but strove for power and
divergent interests under pluralism. For much of humankind, on national
and international levels, culture became increasingly something that arrived
in cans. Indeed, a contradiction developed between nationalism of the small
powers and integration of the big powers. Thus, hegemony in the name of
universalism was asserted by the big powers as small nations struggled
against domination. Both realism and historical materialism directed
attention to conflict. On the national and societal level, the line between
civil rights and state rights became blurred.
Elsewhere, I have argued that the process of information and techno­
logical innovations, as it relates to communication between human beings
and their environment and among peoples and nations, can be explained
under what could be termed the unitary theory of communication as
ecology. l I use the term ecology here in a broad sense to include all the
symbolic environments in which human and technological communication
takes place.
Thus, the major dimensions of this ecological terrain include the follow­
ing: (1) ecology of goods and commodities, such as industrial and manu­
facturing items; (2) ecology of services, which includes banking, insurance,
and education; (3) ecology of warfare, meaning all the military and security

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 The unfinished revolution 237

Cultural Ecology

Cultural Ecology

Figure 1 2 . 1 Unitary model of communication as cultural ecology. The

order in which the six ecological dimensions are shown is not fixed and
static, but rather dynamic and interchangeable

hardware, software, and the infrastructure therein; (4) ecology of infor­

mation, encompassing such processes as cultural industries and mass media;
(5) ecology of habitat, comprising such areas as demography, housing,
physical environment, and pollution; and (6) ecology of ethics and
morality, referring to specific normative discourse such as religion, mores,
laws, and social contracts (see Figure 12. 1).
These six terrains are not spatial but relational and integrative - that is,
not only do we interact with these environments as separate and one-to-one
bases, but also the interactions of all these six with each other and with
human beings in an integrative form characterize the unique aspect of our
civilization. Hence, our cultural, economic, and political environments
cannot be understood completely unless we tum our attention to this
unitary phenomenon in terms of communication and culture. Thus, our
notion of self, society, and universe is very much shaped by this ecological
view and the way we perceive language, literacy, arts, sciences, and in short
reality.

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238 Global information and world communication

Communication and the Human Potential

Today many scientists in the United States, Europe, Japan, and Russia are
in agreement that human beings are using a very small fraction - between 6
percent and 1 0 percent - of their capacities. For example, the capacity to
experience our environment more freely through our olfactory organs
remains a potential. Ever since the air became an overcrowded garbage
dump for industrial wastes and the internal combustion engine, it has
become easier for us to tum off our sense of smell than to keep it func­
tioning. We have experienced similar closures with other senses as well. By
closing ourselves off from both our physical and interpersonal environment,
we have reduced our capacity to communicate. Consequently, we perceive
less clearly and, as a result, we feel less.
Not only do we shut off awareness of our own feelings, but we are
becoming desensitized as to how other people feel. Today, in many
industrialized societies, the media (especially television), peer groups and
bureaucracies (same-age groups and working cliques), and loneliness
accompanied with boredom have replaced parents, relatives, neighbors, and
other caring adults. Research in at least half a dozen human-potential
centers across the United States supports the hypothesis that our capacities
are almost infinite. But the question remains: how can we learn to use them
when "negative conditioning" limits our confidence and approach to life?
Take, for example, the media system and the educational system - two
of the most powerful channels of communications. The excessive focus on
violence in television programs and motion pictures, and the emphasis on
sensationalism in much of today's radio and television news, are the result
of a narrow, almost brutal attitude toward life that is inimical to the
development of the human potential. The world is increasingly perceived as
a threat, and viewers and readers become anxious and lose their reservoir
of trust. In many people there slowly grows a conviction that it is safer to
withdraw from such a world, to isolate oneself from its struggle, and to let
others make decisions. As our self-concept erodes, our "trust factor" - a
fundamental element in harmonious social life - diminishes.
Many commentators around the world have argued that our modem
educational system damages creative minds and limits experiences with
problem solving rather than effectively teaching necessary skills and
fostering diverse abilities. Compartmentalizing information not only makes
it more difficult to learn and to retain but also ignores the necessary
perspective and practical aspects that a more comprehensive approach
would include. Each student has unique needs and abilities which must be
taken into consideration when planning a course of study.
The general tendency now is to emphasize the vocational aspect of
education, using a hard-headed, businesslike tone. Higher education is
represented as an industry engaged in manufacturing socially needed com­
modities such as secretaries, engineers, economists, and even commu­
nicators. As usual, the central claim is efficiency, and the logic is that mass

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 The unfinished revolution 239

education requires mass-production methods. To some critics, the result is

already clear: "technication," meaning standardization. In the age of
cybernetics and our highly technological society, the process of personal
orientation and self-discovery is becoming not a luxury but a necessity. On
most of our college campuses few students, apart from those who have a
vocation and know exactly where they are going, know enough either of
themselves or of the world to make effective choices. Although we are
limited by our culture, we must seek alternatives that best suit our political,
social, and economic needs. Education is the mainstay of culture, for how
one learns is culturally determined; but flexibility and creativity are the keys
to positive change and growth.

Toward a New Perspective of Global Communication

Classical theories of social change and social processes did not consider
communication as an independent dimension of human activity. At the
same time, the science of humanity tended to classify itself with the natural
sciences. Consequently, knowledge of historical change and social evolution
made possible the control of social processes in a manner analogous to the
control learned in the natural sciences. 2 A reductionist tendency was
generated, in which the communication act was incorporated into produc­
tion and work. 3 Communication and culture became subservient to the
mode of production rather than being a superstructure itself. This concep­
tualization made it impossible to separate some of society'S most distin­
guished activities that were not in simple feedback relations to work and
production.
Elsewhere, I have described how the old theories of communication and
culture - drawn from the laissez-faire doctrine of economics, technological
determinism school of thought, and the political economy paradigm - have
usually taken a one-way view of the process, that of the impact of the
technology and the media on work and culture, and have suggested an
integrative framework in which culture and value systems are in central
position in the process with significant impact on the media and work. 4
Here, in the interest of time and space, I would only add that we might
consider a communication theory of society in which cultural traditions are
the basis of the rationalization of action and in which the organizational
principles of communication determine the range of possibilities within
which economic, political, and technological development might evolve. In
short, it is the mode of communication - not in its technical and instru­
mental forms but in its human-interaction form - that determines the
outcome of social processes.
Extending this to international relations, or, to use a better term, world
society, it justifies and encourages new approaches to cross-cultural
relations. The limitations of the traditional approaches to communicating
across and between cultures are too apparent when one looks at recent,

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240 Global information and world communication

less-than-successful policies of the great or small powers toward each other.

The discontents and revolutions in many parts of the world have been
efforts by individuals to communicate their needs for dialogue, and for
respect and dignity. 5 In short, there is more at stake in recent revolutions
and protests than the traditional fight for nationalism and material goods.
Transcending these limits would benefit not only individuals and insti­
tutions interested in the humanistic sharing of values but also those with
political, economic, and technological concerns.
Today, the process of intercultural relations has become more complex
and multidimensional. Aside from the development of technological hard­
ware, we can observe the emergence of a universal superculture based on
science and technology, development of world economy and population,
revival of cultural identity and ethnicity, appearance of transnational
actors, and the role played by nation-states in national development. While
these latter activities are more difficult to quantify and categorize than most
conventionally directed activities of governmental and nongovernmental
actors, there is an increasing realization of their importance in the overall
intercultural as well as international communication processes.
Based on the propositions just outlined, I feel that the prospect for future
intercultural relations will be shaped by three realizations:

1 . True democracy will not occur without the development of communi­

cation at a dualistic level: the technical means of communications and
communication itself.
2. Future intercultural cooperation and conflict will be determined by the
relationship of communications (technological development) and com­
munication (traditional classical channels for satisfactory human
interaction).
3. The new international relations will emphasize more than relations
among nation-states or transnational actors: they will emphasize
relations among individuals along social and psychological channels.

Analysis of these three points may provide us with a better under­

standing of the future relations between cultures and peoples.
A definition of international communication (a term used here to include
both international and intercultural communication) combines both a
national and international dimension. It is a term used to describe a field of
inquiry and research that consists of the transfer of values, attitudes,
opinion, and information through individuals, groups, governments, and
technologies, as well as the study of the structure of institutions responsible
for promoting or inhibiting such messages among nations and cultures. It
entails an analysis of the channels and institutions of communication, but,
more important, it involves examination of the mutually shared meanings
that make communication possible. These meanings might take the form of
information, opinions, and values, and an examination of their native
origin might well be necessary for their international and cross-cultural

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 The unfinished revolution 241

comprehension. For many, international communication also involves a

normative element: the idea that the multiplication of communication
channels and international contacts will automatically bring great inter­
national understanding. However, both the theories of major contribution
to the field and the weight of empirical findings refute this notion.
Advances in communication technology, without an accompanying trans­
formation of values, will not result in the mutually shared images and
meanings that form the basis of any international consensus.
The meaning of any message is the change it produces in the subjective
knowledge structure, or in the image, of communicators. Accordingly, the
value systems of communicators are the single most important element in
determining the effect of the message on images. Similarly, the question of
primary significance is whether the communicator and recipient see
common meaning in the message. While many scholars appear to put more
emphasis on this acquisition of common meanings, all stress the signifi­
cance of this dynamism in the communication process. While recognizing
the dual nature of human language as both social and personal, we might
even put more emphasis on the concept of mutual human involvement in
the communication process, for communication consists of a sharing of
mutually recognized signs. Thus, for communication to have meaning it
requires a change in the image of the recipient. However, new meanings or
the reinforcement of previously held meanings must take place if the
process is to be termed communication.
We should also give further consideration to the implications of
nationality, ethnicity, and group difference, because in some cases loyalties
toward one group mean to some extent antagonism toward other groups.
As a result, resistance to the process of international communication is
frequently perceived as a positive act in promoting the coherence of the
smaller group and its cultural identity.
While the notions of cultural pluralism or multiculturalism are recent,
the phenomenon they express is not. The birth of nations during the last
four decades or so and the upheavals and changes occurring in the old
nations across cultural and social lines are not simply the result of political
and economic changes. They also represent an important communication,
cultural, and intellectual development. Advances in communication and
transportation, when coupled with social and psychological elements, have
helped to lessen cultural isolationism. These advances also tend to increase
the cultural awareness of minorities by making them more aware of the
distinction between themselves and others. Individuals become more aware
of alien groups as well as those who share their own identities. Thus
communication plays a pervasive role not only in social mobility and
nation building, but also in strengthening group consciousness. 6 It is here
that the symbolic environment created along the lines of mutually shared
images and meanings by non-technical aspects of communication plays a
crucial role in coping with possible dysfunctioning processes of com­
munication technology.

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242 Global information and world communication

Greater international understanding, therefore, is not a direct or auto­

matic result of the rapid expansion of international communication. At
least one writer has made the important distinction between "knowledge by
reporting" and "knowledge by encounter."? The former has proliferated on
a grand scale, but has merely led in most cases to perception of the affairs
of other peoples in abstract cliches. The proliferation of communication
through the international media, for example, may in fact desensitize those
on the receiving end, as in many cases during wars and international crises.
"Knowledge by encounter" has expanded at a greatly reduced pace, and,
consequently, effective international and intercultural communication has
been handicapped by the dearth of mutually recognized signs. Even the
increase in exchange of individuals fails substantially to promote this
"knowledge by encounter," because most of this flow, like tourism, involves
the movement of richer people to the poorer and more antiquated areas of
other countries in order to confirm what the visitors already believe. While
this view seems to contain an element of exaggeration, there is much
evidence to support the conclusion that the "whole world communication
network may drive us apart emotionally." s Unless a reorientation of value
systems takes place to bring about a corresponding change in the images
and perceptions of communicators, the technological revolution in the
machinery of international communication will be unlikely to result in an
enhanced sharing of mutually recognized signs and meanings. Modem
communication technology does not guarantee improved international
understanding, but it does allow more possibility for it.

An Ethical Framework

It has been suggested in this study that the quest for dialogue and the
transcendence of alienation through interpersonal communication is an
ongoing revolution in society, and that this must be recognized and
examined. The point here is to note a social phenomenon, not to lament
the lack of good conversation. This is both a human and societal problem.
The suggestion is that the way people relate to each other in a world of
"internationalized" culture and consciousness may be more important than
how nation-states relate. On this human level, we must distinguish between
the politically "sexy" right to communicate and the more homely need, or
even yearning, to communicate.
This is not to suggest that we should abandon our efforts to improve our
communication technology; nor is it proposed that organizational, tech­
nical, or even politically organized communication should be limited. In an
extension of Shakespeare's observation that the world is a stage where all
humans are the players nestles one of the most powerful tributes to the
utility of international communication forums. The United Nations with all
its shortcomings, UNESCO, and many other intergovernmental and non­
governmental organizations and institutions have served as theaters where

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 The unfinished revolution 243

nation-actors might play out their roles, communicating frustrations that, if

left unexpressed, might lead to violence. The value of this cannot be
underestimated in view of the recurrent scenario in world history, in which
comparatively small countries that feel neglected or unheard can set in
motion chains of events that climax in catastrophic conflagrations. Another
advantage of international forums has been the fact that they have at least
partially compelled a farewell to that long chapter of human history where
the strong agreed to divide the rest of the world between themselves,
literally and figuratively, or set the rules that the weak would follow.
The world scope of the media and communication must ultimately be
viewed as a whole. While nations will always retain characteristics of life­
style to maintain separate distinction, it is important to consider the kind of
impact a hypothetical global ethical framework might have. After all, the
whole idea behind a media entity, both technological and traditional, lies in
the effectiveness of its communication. Communication can only function
on interpersonal, local, and national levels for so long. Eventually it
transcends national boundaries to blanket other countries' operations and
gain insight into new and different cultural schemes. It also creates an
international or global symbolic environment in which the conduct of
international political and economic behavior must take place. It is at this
juncture, when the nature of the media coverage crosses cultural lines, that
an ethical framework, one that hovers above all nations, must be con­
sidered. Recent studies in the United States and in Europe show dramatic
changes in public opinion on such issues as arms, defense expenditure,
nuclear war, and allocation of world resources as a result of the demise of
the Cold War. In the United States, although the threat of war has become
less, the military spending has remained constant. The American public in
general, have supported their government's military involvements in such
places as the Persian Gulf, Haiti, Bosnia, etc. Yet, the same population
feels that such expenditures are a waste of available resources. It is perhaps
difficult at this juncture to prove that the media coverage is in major part
responsible for this shift of attitude, but the long history of media coverage
of the arms race, and perpetuation of the so-called "threat" and arms "gap"
notions cannot be denied; nor can we dispute any longer the inability of the
media to cover the current religious resurgence and political upheaval
around the world.
This in itself supports the argument that what is needed now is a shift
from a manipulative, technology-oriented communication to more inter­
action, human dialogue, and exchange of ideas. To achieve this we must
move to create and promote a set of principles or considerations that is not
culture-bound but universal, strives for the dignity and potential of human
beings, and saves the world from a catastrophic war and destruction.
Present narrowly defined ethical or professional codes of ethics are irrele­
vant, inconsistent, and ineffective as tools in creating such an atmosphere
of understanding simply because they do not challenge the technological
determinist view of communication, are acquiescent to the centralized

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system of management, and put too much hope in the hands of nation­
states and actors to deliver the goods. A confluence of historical factors has
produced this disorder in the moral dimension of our communication
process. The utilitarianism that pervades the world and marks various
political economies generates a stream of dissenters who consider social
choices unjust. Until some synthesis of the moral system is achieved, our
conduct at home and abroad will continue to be indecisive. But before we
can begin to suggest a better future we have to engage in a dialogue and
national debate about the cycle of desire in our own institutions. Prevention
of war, respect for human dignity, and recognition of diverse cultural
values, religions, and traditions different from our own are the areas that
must be promoted and publicized internationally.
The kinds of principles that an international code of consideration might
propose should be designed to apply to a form of behavior that engenders
moral, ethical, and thoughtful issue-coverage, whether or not there is fertile
ground present in a given country for it to flourish. Part of the idea of a
code of ethics is that it be exactly that: ethical. The concept of ethics does
not imply force. It is the study of what ought to be, so far as this depends
upon the voluntary action of individuals. While it is still too utopian to
hope for countries to feel an ethical duty and obligation in mass media
communication, the only way for such a proposition to be sustained would
be for professional organizations, and not governments, to decide on these
principles. It is impossible to create a universal code of ethical and
professional media conduct, but it is not impossible to draw a set of broad
considerations and principles on which the human resources can be
mobilized. The ultimate ethical power the communication institutions have
within themselves is to serve the public, and the zenith of serving that
public is reached when a communication entity succeeds in raising a group,
a public, or a world, whatever its size, to a higher level of understanding
and insight.
In this spirit I would propose four basic principles, or what one might
call a set of considerations:

1 . Prevention of war and promotion of peace. If, as so often demonstrated,

international media can mobilize for war and exacerbate tensions, why can
they not do the reverse? International media and all communication
institutions should:

• increase the amount of information available on peaceful solutions to

conflict;
• break down stereotypes that dehumanize opposing populations;
• be aware of hidden biases of coverage on controversial issues;
• serve as early warning devices to bring attention to potential flash
points;
• remind opponents of peaceful solutions to conflicts;
• confer prestige on the peacemaker;

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 The unfinished revolution 245

• help create a public mood conducive to the spirit of reconciliation; and

• put peacemakers on opposite sides in touch with one another.

2. Respect for culture, tradition, and values. No one culture or value system
has ownership of the truth. Only in the dialogue of adversaries will the
truth emerge. International media and communication institutions should:
• promote respect and tolerance for the world's manifold cultures;
• uphold tradition in the face of unchallenged outside intrusion;
• facilitate the often difficult and distorted communication between
cultures;
• help diverse value systems arrive at common definitions for such
universal goals as peace, integrity, and national sovereignty;
• point out that deeply ingrained cultural values determine in part a
nation's political behavior; and
• strengthen and preserve cultural identities and support cultures in the
face of outside domination.
3. Promotion of human rights and dignity. Communication institutions must
provide a voice to the dissenter and the downtrodden. Freedom of speech,
of the press, and of information are vital for the realization of human
rights. Communication should:
• publicize violations of human rights and international conventions;
• promote access of individuals and groups to media outlets in the face of
domination by elites or majorities; and
• promote the democratization of communication, which means
removing the obstacles to the free interchange of ideas, information,
and experience among equals.
4. Preservation of the home, human association, family, and community.
International media and communication institutions must attempt to
reverse the trend toward alienation, de-individuation, atomization, and
anonymity. They should, for example:
• promote interpersonal communication by facilitating more interaction
among people rather than narcotizing them through mass-distributed
programming; and
• facilitate self-reliance and interdependence by publicizing local,
decentralized solutions to common problems.
I would be the first to acknowledge that these principles are general,
culturally relative, and will at times have different meanings in the context
of prevailing ideologies and belief systems. The point, however, is to place
them in the main agenda of the day as we normally do with political,
military, technological, economic, and business issues, with the hope that a
social, ethical, and moral ecological balance can be created and a genuine
learning process take place in the international system. Our knowledge of
the "real" or "true" international system is incomplete, since we do not

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have a coherent theory or scientific data on the image-creating processes of

the international system. The images of the international system in the
minds of decision makers and the public alike are derived not from a
systematic and scientific study of day-to-day events, but from a melange of
contradictory and ill-designed "literary" information. Today, the road to a
stable peace in the world requires a learning process on the part of not only
the national decision makers but the public as a whole. Its roots can be
traced to three general but interrelated areas. First is the common maturity
and civility of all types of international societies that could outgrow the
adolescent disease of nationalism and ethnocentrism; second is the learning
process accompanied by the high cost of human and material alienation -
showing that "bad behavior" does not pay off in the long run; and third is
the communication and symbolic environment and climate, in the form of
restraining influences that can keep nation-states from devouring each
other. It is to this last point that this epilogue is addressed.

Notes

1 . See Hamid Mowlana, Global Communication in Transition: The End of Diversity?

(Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1 996).
2. For a non-Western view of this process, see Ali Shari'ati, Marxism and Other Western
Fallacies (Berkeley, CA: Mizan Press, 1980).
3. For a Western view along the line of critical theory see Jiirgen Haberrnas,
Communication and the Evolution of Society (Boston: MA: Beacon Press, 1979).
4. Hamid Mowlana, "Mass Media and Culture: Toward an Integrated Theory," in
William Gudykunst, ed., Intercultural Communication Theory: Current Perspectives (Beverly
Hills, CA: Sage Publications, 1983), pp. 149-170.
5. Hamid Mowlana, "Technology versus Tradition: Communication in the Iranian
Revolution," Journal of Communication, 29: 3 ( 1979), pp. 107- 1 1 2.
6. See Hamid Mowlana and Ann Elizabeth Robinson, "Ethnic Mobilization and
Communication Theory," in Abdul A. Said and Luiz R. Simmons, eds, Ethnicity in an
International Context (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books, 1 976), pp. 48-63.
7. Colin Cherry, World Communication: Threat or Promise? (London: John Wiley­
Interscience, 1971), p. 8.
8. Ibid., p. 175.

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 Bibliography

This is a selected bibliography representing the different dimensions of international flow of

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Brislin, Richard W., Cross-Cultural Encounter (New York: Pergamon Press, 198 1).
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 Index

academics, international exchange of, 1 60 cassettes, 1 0 1

advertising center-periphery pattern
expenditure on, 99-100 of news flow, 44-45
means of, 98 of tourism flow, 142
on radio and television, 98, 1 00 Chapman, Graham P., 70
research on, 99 Cherry, Colin, 10, 1 76
satellite broadcasting, 99 cinemas
structure and practices of transnational advertising in, 98
corporations, 97, 98, 99 influence of video on cinema attendance,
advertising agencies, 97, 98, 99 101
Antola, Livia, 69 Clark, Peter M., 53
Arbatov, Georgi, 10- 1 1 'class media', 1 72
Asahi Shimbun, 54 Cold War, international communication in
ATS-6 (Applications Technology Satellite), context of, 12, 1 8, 149- 1 50
85 commercial perspective, in information flow
Atwood, Erwin L., 49 studies, 28
audiences commercial radio advertising, 98
communication research focus on, 2 1 1 , commercial television broadcasting, 69, 72,
213 98, 100
radio audience research, 7 6 , 79, 80 communication
approaches to development and, 28
Barghoorn, Frederick, 1 53, 1 57 causal models of, 1 89- 1 9 1
Becker, Tamar, 1 53 diffusion model of, 1 91-193
Beniger, James R., 54 inadequacies of paradigms of,
Bledsoe, Robert L., 57 197-198
books liberal/capitalist model of, 1 88-189,
educational texts, 90, 94, 95-96 1 94-195
factors effecting international flow of, postmodern models of, 195-196
95-96 proposals for theory of, 1 96
growth in international flow of, 90 socialist model of, 1 89, 1 94-195
international exchange and purchase of, structural models of, 1 93-194
94, 96 approaches to international
patterns of international flow, 92 communication, 6-8
publishing industry, 92-93 concepts of, 239, 240-241
world production of, 91-92, 93 contribution to international
see also scholarly and scientific journals understanding, 1 57- 1 59, 241-242
'brain drain' phenomenon, 1 54, 1 56 as cultural ecology, 235-237
broadcasting, see direct broadcast and cultural identity, 241
satellites; radio broadcasting; elite activities in international
television communication, 18, 1 64
bureaucracy and proximity, as factor in ethical framework for global
information flow, 35 communication, 243-246
and human potential, 238-239
Canada, spread of American consumerism international communication as field of
in, 16 study, 5-6, 207, 210

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262 Index

communication, cont economic and strategic consequences of,

international compared with intercultural 227
communication, 5-6, 147 expansion of, 100
new perspective of global communication, as factor in information flow, 35-36
239-242 hardware and software, 14- 1 5, 3 1 -33
regulation of, see regulation impact on communication research, 2 1 2
revolution in impact o n sovereignty, 225
communication and communications, and national development, 174-177
2 1 8, 234 and policy, 219-220
effect on First and Second Worlds, problem of regulating, 227
197-198 reliability of, 228
see also communication technology revolution in, 1 7 5
role in development, 1 85, 189- 190 conceptualizations of, 169- 1 7 1 ,
role of humans in, 1 32 1 72-1 73, 182-183
role of technology in, 3 1 -33 role in international communication,
traditional means of, 1 7 1 - 1 72, 1 80 3 1-33
combined with modem, 172, 193, see also informatics; networks; satellites
201-202 Communication Technology Satellite (CTS),
utilization by different countries, 178- 1 8 1 86
see also information flow; interpersonal computer conferencing, 1 50- 1 5 1
communication; networking computers
communication infrastructures, 176, communication using, see transborder
1 93-194 data flow
communication policy and planning, growth of personal computers, 1 0 1 ,
1 68-169 1 8 1 - 1 82
conceptual framework for, 177- 1 82 hardware and software markets, 14- 1 5
in developing countries, 178-179, 219 conferences, 148-1 5 1
in field of informatics, 173-174 factors affecting flow o f information,
implications for, 1 82- 1 83 149- 1 50
research approaches to, 177-178 role of communication technology,
trends in national policies, 220 1 50- 1 5 1
see also regulation consolidation pattern of transborder data
communication research flow, 1 1 1
concepts of knowledge and reality in, consumerism, spread of American, 16, 97
2 1 1-212 content, as factor in information flow, 36
critical, empiricist and postmodernist content analysis, 36
approaches, 2 1 2-214 of magazines, 56-57
dealing with social reality, 208-209 of news, 44, 53, 54
future of, 2 1 2, 229-23 1 control, as factor in information flow, 33-34
imbalance in, 220-221 , 223 Council of Europe Convention, 1 1 5
on international communication, critical theory approach to communication,
2 1 5-218, 221 212, 2 1 3
journals on, 95 CTS (Communication Technology Satellite),
linear and causal models of, 21 1 86
models underlying, 208 cultural differences
neglect of human aspect in, 1, 27 influence on news content and flow, 59
political nature of theory, 207-208, 210 neglected in communication theory, 210
transition to new paradigm of, 209-210 cultural ecology, communication as, 235-237
WesternlNorthern orientation of, 210, cultural identity
221, 223 and magazine and newspaper content, 54,
communication technology 56
at conferences, 1 50-1 5 1 relationship with communication, 241
combined with traditional see also national sovereignty
communication, 172, 193, 201-202 cultural imperialism, impact on tourist flow,
in developing countries, 75, 219 142

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 Index 263

culture socialist model of, 1 89, 194-195

exchange students as mediators of, 1 54, structural models of, 193- 194
1 58 and communication revolution in First
impact of international advertising on, 97 and Second Worlds, 197-198
impact of television on, 72-73 and communication technology, 174-177
influence on perceptions of exchange concept of, 185-186
students, 1 52-154 in Eastern Europe and former Soviet
international flow of cultural information, Union, 204-205
146 economic growth and classical school of,
respect for others', 245 188
see also sociocultural dimensions effect of educational and cultural
cybernetics, 175- 1 76 exchange on, 1 54, 161-163
relationship with informatics, 1 74 models of modernization, 187- 1 88,
190- 191
Dahlgren, Peter, 68 political development, 187-188
DARPA, 1 2 role of communication in, 1 85
data, compared with information, 1 76 Rostow's theory of economic growth, 1 88
data processing service bureaus, 1 10 theoretical approaches to, 186-187, 234
DBS, see direct broadcast satellites see also economic growth and
decision-making, impact of networking on, development; Westoxification
200 diffusion models, of communication and
decision-making elite theory, 1 64 development, 191-193
developing and Third World countries direct broadcast satellites (DBS)
application of inappropriate cost of, 82-83
communication theory to, 2 1 0 debate on, 80-81
book trade in, 92 early experiments with, 85-86
'brain drain' from, 154, 1 56 education role of, 85-86
communication policy and planning in, problem of sovereignty and spillover, 8 1 ,
1 78-179, 219 83-85
communication research on, 221 problems and advantages of, 82-83, 85
communication technology in, 75, 219 regulation of, 81
factors affecting television in, 74-75, 84 types of broadcasting, 8 1 -82
and imbalance of information flow, distribution pattern of transborder data flow,
2 1 8-219 111
impact of and access to transborder data
flow, 108, 1 1 1 , 1 1 3, 1 16-1 17, 1 19 'E phenomenon', in international
impact of privatization of satellite systems communication, 18
on, 13 East-West pattern of news flow, 46-47
magazine coverage of, 56-57 Eastern Europe, development in, 204-205
news flow in, 44-47, 49, 51 -52 ecology, see cultural ecology
television news coverage of, 67, 68 economic approach
tourism in, 142, 143 to international communication, 6, 7-8,
traditional forms of communication in, 14-17
1 7 1 - 1 72 to international relations, 2
Westoxification of, 6, 1 86 economic dimension
development of global flow of news, 59
approaches to communication and, 28 of international information flow, 34, 227
causal models of, 1 89-191 of international strategic communication,
diffusion model of, 191 -193 13
inadequacies of paradigms of, economic growth and development
197-198 classical school of development, 188
liberal/capitalist model of, 188- 189, role of communication in, 189- 190
194-195 Rostow's theory of economic growth, 188
postmodern models of, 195-196 economies, impact of tourism on, 1 36-137
proposals for theory of, 196 editorials, content analyses of, 53

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264 Index

education Mexico as gatekeeper in television flow,

and human potential, 238-239 69
role of direct broadcast satellites, 85-86 tourism industry as gatekeeper, 135
educational exchange programs Geosat, 126
choice of country, 155- 1 56 Gerbner, George, 7 1 , 73-74
effects of Germany, publishing industry in, 93
impact on development, 1 54, 1 6 1 - 163 Global Information Infrastructure (GIl), 14
international understanding, 1 57- 1 59 globalization of information, 8
perceived national benefits of, 1 58-160 governments
perceptions of host country, 1 52-1 53, control of broadcasting, 84
1 57-158 role in book production in Soviet Union,
students as mediators, 1 54, 1 58 93
financial aid for, 1 56, 1 60 role of intergovernmental organizations in
growth of, 147 transborder data flow, 1 09
influence of culture on, 1 52-1 54 role in international tourism, 1 34
patterns of flow, 1 55-1 56, 1 61 - 1 63 role in radio broadcasting, 77
research on, 1 5 1-155 role in television programming, 72, 74,
educational information, international flow 75
of see also States
conferences, 148- 1 5 1 graphics, study of newspaper graphics, 54
educational texts, 90, 94, 95-96 Guback, Thomas, 96
potential of, 146 Gunther, G., 1 76
see also scholarly and scientific journals
electronic publishing, 95 Haas, Ernst, 226
elite activities in international Hadith, databases on, 202
communication, 18, 1 64 hardware, 14- 1 5, 3 1-33
Ellul, Jacques, 9, 1 0 hegemony, impact of networking on, 201
emigration, and 'brain drain' phenomenon, Holland, publishing industry in, 93-94
1 54, 1 56 homogeneity, impact of networking on, 200
empiricist approach to communication, Howa magazine, 56
212-21 3 human communication
epistemological orientations in as determinant of social processes, 239
communication research, 27, 21 1-214 importance of, 242-243
EROS Space Centre, 122 see also interpersonal communication
ethical framework, for global human movement, 1 3 1 , 1 32
communication, 243-246 international conferences, 148-1 5 1
events-interaction analysis, 43 types of, 132
exchange programs, see educational see also educational exchange programs;
exchange programs tourism
Experiment in International Living (ElL), human potential, communication and,
1 55 238-239
human rights and dignity, 245
film recordings, 1 6, 96 humans, role in international
see also video technology communication, 1 32
financial transactions, in transborder data
flows, 1 10, 1 1 5-1 16 IAMCRIUNESCO project, 52-53
Flack, Michael J., 1 5 1 - 1 52 IBI (Intergovernmental Bureau of
foreign correspondents, 30, 58-59 Informatics), 109, 1 17, 172-1 73
Frankfurt School, 2 1 0, 212 IBM, 14- 1 5
Fulbright program, 1 60 Ibn Khaldun, I
idealist approach, to international relations,
Galtung, Johan, 44 2
gatekeeping idealistic-humanistic approach, to
by national news agencies, 50-51 international communication, 6, 7
concept of, 42-43 image studies of news, 52

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 Index 265

images of societies, portrayed by travel see also news; radio broadcasting;

industry, 144 television
industrial society, transition of, 1 69- 1 70 infrastructural approach, to communication
inequality and development, 1 76, 193-1 94
and control of communication systems, Institute of International Exchange (lIE),
16- 1 7 1 52
and imbalance i n communication institutional approach
research, 220-221 , 223 in information flow studies, 28
and imbalance of information flow, to communication policy and planning,
218-219 1 78
of physical resources and information intellectual property rights, 14, 1 5
distribution, 1 5 INTELSAT (International
informatics Telecommunications Satellite
definition of, 1 72-173, 182- 1 83 Organization), 13, 109
expansion of, 1 02 Intercosmos satellites, 123
policy-making in field of, 1 73-174 intercultural communication
relationship with cybernetics, 174 and conflict, 1 7-19
relationship with information society, definition of, 5, 147
1 74 as field of study, 5-6
role of microelectronic technology, 1 73 prospects for future intercultural relations,
information 240
access to, 1 7, 226 see also educational exchange programs
concepts of, 25, 175-176 Intergovernmental Bureau of Informatics
as economic power, 6, 7-8 (lBI), 109, 1 1 7, 172-1 73
fundamental to development, 175 Intergovernmental Conference on Strategies
globalization of, 8 and Policies in Information (SPIN),
sovereignty of, 1 15 1 17, 1 73
information age, 176, 2 1 7 intergovernmental organizations, role in
relationship with informatics, 1 74 transborder data flow, 109
information analysis, and studies of political international conferences, 148- 1 5 1
economy, 1 1-12 international economic communication,
information flow 14- 1 7
channels of, 23-24 international information systems,
definition of, 26 management of, 225-226
directionality of, 2 1 8-2 1 9 international organizations
elements and implications of, 33-36 importance of, 242-243
economic and strategic factors, 34-35, role in radio broadcasting, 77
227 see also multinational corporations;
management and control, 33-34, transnational corporations
225-226 international political communication,
regulation, 226-227 8-12
reliability and quality, 227-228 international relations
flaws in analysis of, 222-223 approaches to, 2-3, 28, 164
future research on, 223 influence of communication theories on,
human movement as, see human II
movement integrative model of tourism as, 1 37
imbalance in, 2 1 8-219 role of communication and information
increase in, 1 5 issues in, 224-225
international focus o f research, 223-224 role of conferences in, 148
quality and quantity of, 219 role of public in, 1 3 1 - 1 32
study of, 26-27 as subject of study, I
expansion of research, 23, 2 1 5-21 8 international strategic communication,
framework for, 30-33, 36 12- 1 3, 227
measurement of, 29-30, 36 International Telecommunications Satellite
perspectives on, 27-9 Organization (lNTELSAT), 13, 109

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266 Index

International Telecommunications Union legal issues

(ITU), 8 1 , 109, 170 of intellectual property, 14, 1 5
international understanding see also regulation
role of communication in, 241 -242 legal perspective, in information flow studies,
role of exchange programs in, 157- 1 59 29
Internet Lerner, Daniel, 190, 1 9 1
access to, 1 04, 105 Lewin, Kurt, 42-43
advantages of, 103, 105 liberal/capitalist model of communication
control over content of, 103-104 and development, 1 88-189, 194-195
growth of, 102-103 linguistic approach to communication, 1 1 ,
social implications of, 104 208
interpersonal communication Lipset, Seymour Martin, 1 9 1
analysis of, 163 'locals', see 'nationals'
decline of, 235 Lotus Development Corporation, 1 5
in developing countries, 1 7 1-172
in diffusion model of development, 193 McClelland, David c . , 1 9 1
effect of Internet on, 104 Machlup, Fritz, 177
in Lerner's theory of development, 190 magazines
as part of ethical framework for global studies of, 55-57
communication, 245 see also journals
see also conferences; educational exchange management, of international information
programs; tourism systems, 225-226
Iran Marine Observation Satellite-1 (MOS-1),
cultural relations with USA, 161-1 63 123
inadequacies of international relations Martelanc, Torno, 7 1
theory of, 164-165 mass communication
study of news flow in, 53-54 in Lerner's theory of development,
Islamic societies, networks in, 201-202 1 90- 1 9 1
ITU (International Telecommunications mass informatics, 174
Union), 8 1 , 109, 170 traditional forms of, 172
traditional model of, 163
jamming, of direct broadcast satellites mass media
(DBS), 84-85 concept of, 171
Japan decentralization and decline of, 172
MOS-l satellite system, 123 in diffusion model of communication and
publishing industry in, 94 development, 193
Johnson, Jeffrey, 70-71 in Lerner's theory of development,
journalists, see foreign correspondents 190-191
journals mass society
international flow of, 90, 94-96 concepts of, 1 7 1
see also magazines theory of, 164
Triple-M theory of, 1 7 1 , 214-2 1 5
Kayhan newspaper, 53 mathematical approach to communication,
Kelman, Herbert c., 1 53, 1 57 1 1 , 208
knowledge, definitions of, 176-177 media
communication research focus on, 214,
Landsat system, 120, 121-123, 124, 125, 222
126 mergers and consolidations, 56, 72, 92-93
Lasswell, Harold, 1 1 ownership of, 57
Latin America theories on influence of, 209, 2 1 1
privatization of telecommunications in, see also mass media
195-196 media research journals, 95
research on international flow of news, 40 media units and technology, as factor in
television flow in, 69, 7 1 information flow, 35-36
Lazaras, William, 125 Merritt, Richard, 1 57

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Mexico, role in television flow, 69 New International Economic Order (NIEO),

Mickiewicz, Ellen, 153, 1 57 216
microelectronic technology, influence on New World Information/Communication
informatics, 1 73 Order (NWICO), 193, 2 1 6
military, see strategic communication New York Times, 54
Mishler, Anita, 1 57 news
modernization direction of flow, 55-60
Lerner's theory of, 190-1 9 1 effects of international flow, 60
models of, 187-188 factors influencing flow, 44, 59
see also development image studies of, 52
MOS-I (Marine Observation Satellite-I), patterns of flow, 44-47
1 23 problems of data on international flow,
motion pictures, see film recordings 41-43
multinational corporations problems of defining, 4 1 , 42
role in transborder data flow, 109, 1 10 problems of international news, 52
as threat to national sovereignty, 1 15-1 16 research on international flow of, 40-41 ,
use of telecommunications networks, 203 43-44, 58
see also transnational corporations research on television news, 67-68
multinational network pattern, of role of magazines, 55-56
transborder data flow, I I I role of news agencies, 47-51
music industry, 96 studies of cultural identity and, 54
Myer, Richard, 1 6 1 news agencies, 47-51
news exchange, and regional news agencies,
national focal points (NFPs), 226 5 1-52
National Geographic, 55 newspapers
National Information Infrastructure (NIl), 14 neglect of non-news in studies of, 55
national integration, role of direct broadcast study of newspaper graphics, 54
satellites in, 85 Newsweek, 55
national news agencies, 50-51 NFPs (national focal points), 226
National Oceanic and Atmospheric NOAA (National Oceanic and
Administration (NOAA), 1 23, 124 Atmospheric Administration), 1 23,
national policies, see communication policy 1 24
and planning Non-Aligned News Pool, 47-48
national sovereignty Nordenstreng, Kaarle, 66-67
and debate over DBS spillover, 8 1 , 83-85 North-South pattern
and debate over remote sensing, 120 of news flow, 45-46
erosion of, 225 in radio broadcasting, 77
and international tourism, 141-142 of tourism flow, 142
and problems of transborder data flow, Novotny, Eric, 1 10, 1 1 3
1 1 3-1 14, 1 1 5- 1 1 7
and transborder data flow, 125, 126-127 OECD (Organization for Economic
'nationals' Cooperation and Development),
exchange students' interaction with, 1 57 1 14
role of 'locals' in tourism, 133-134, operational data, in transborder data flows,
143-144 1 10
networking oral communication, 1 7 1 -1 72
concept of, 198-199 outer space, communication technology in,
development of networks in Eastern 12- 1 3
Europe and Russia, 204-205 see also remote sensing; satellites
effects of, 1 99-200 ownership
in Islamic societies, 201-202 control of communications systems,
organizations' use of, 202-203 16-17
sociocultural dimensions of, 200-201 , 204 as factor in information flow, 33
telecommunications networks, 203-204 of media, 57
types of international networks, 20 I of national news agencies, 5 1

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peace, in ethical framework for global Qur'an, databases on, 202

communication, 244-245
periodicals, see journals; magazines radio broadcasting
Persian Gulf War, impact on tourism, 141 actors involved in, 77-78
personally identifiable data, in transborder advertising, 98
data flows, 1 1 0, 1 14-1 1 5 audience analysis, 76, 79, 80
policy, see communication policy and factors influencing flow, 78-79
planning impact of, 79
political communication, 8-12 lack of research on, 76
propaganda, 8-10, 84 patterns of flow, 76-77
political development, models of, 1 87- 1 88 purpose of, 78
political economy approach to regional, 79
communication, 1 1 -12, 29, 208 religious broadcasting, 79-80
political influences Readers Digest, 55
on information flow at conferences, realist approach, to international relations,
149-1 50 2-3
on news content and flow, 59 records, 96
and use of new communication regional news agencies, 5 1 -52
technology, 1 0 1 regional radio broadcasting, 79
political proselytization approach, to regulation
international communication, 6, 7 of DBS, 81
positive empiricist approach to and intellectual property laws, 14, 15
communication, 212-2 13 of international communication, 2 19-220,
postmodernist approach to communication, 226-227
195-196, 2 1 3-214 of remote sensing, 120- 1 2 1 , 1 24-126
poststructuralist approach to of tourism, 1 34
communication, 2 1 3 of transborder data flow, I l l , 1 18
power individual privacy rights, 1 14-1 1 5
and communication policy, 168- 169 see also communication policy and
dimensions of, 3-5 planning; management
and distribution of information, 30-1 reliability of information, 227-228
impact of networks on, 200, 201 religion, role of network technology, 202
information as economic and political religious radio broadcasting, 79-80
power, 6, 7-8 remote sensing
Pratt, C.B., 57 applications and impact of, 121- 123,
privacy, and problems of transborder data 1 26
flow, 1 14-1 1 5 commercialization of, 128
private organizations definition of, 1 19-120
influence on communication policy, 1 68 economic aspects of, 1 23-124
role in radio broadcasting, 77-78 Landsat, 1 20, 121-1 23, 1 24, 125, 126
role in transborder data flow, 109- 1 10 legal and regulatory aspects of, 1 20- 1 2 1 ,
see also multinational corporations; 124-126
transnational corporations literature on, 127
propaganda, 8-10, 84 political factors, 124
property, intellectual property rights, 14, revolutions
15 in communication and communications,
public, role in international relations, 218, 234
1 3 1 - 1 32 of communication in First and Second
publishing industry, 92-93 Worlds, 197-198
international comparisons, 93-94 in communication technology, 1 69-1 7 1 ,
see also books; journals 172-173, 175, 1 82-1 83
as quest for dialogue, 234-235, 240
quality Rogers, Everett M., 69, 1 9 1 , 1 92
of information, 227-228 Rostow, Walter, 1 88
and quantity of information flow, 219 Ruggie, John Gerard, 226

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Ruggles, W. Lee, 1 9 1 students, see educational exchange

Russia programs
development in, 204-205 survey samples, used in study of news flow,
see also Soviet Union 42
Sweden, television flow in, 70-7 1
Satellite Instructional Television Experiment
(SITE), 85-86 teachers, international exchange of, 1 59
Satellite Television Corporation (STC), 86 technological approach to communication,
satellites 29, 178
advertising via satellite broadcasting, 99 technology, see communication technology
impact on radio broadcasting, 77 telecommunications
INTELSAT, 1 3 , 109 growth of networks, 203-204
strategic use of, 12 impact of and access to networks, 204
see also direct broadcast satellites; remote multinational corporations' use of
sensing networks, 203
Schiller, Herbert, 126 privatization of, 195-196
scholarly and scientific journals, 94-96 and tourism industry, 1 37-140, 203
Schramm, Wilbur, 49, 191 teleconferences, 1 50- 1 5 1
scientific information teletext, 102
international exchanges as means of television
gaining, 1 54- 1 55 advertising on, 98, 100
role of conferences in flow of, 148-150 commercial and public broadcasting, 69,
in transborder data flows, 1 1 0 72
SITE (Satellite Instructional Television expansion of flow, 66, 69
Experiment), 85-86 factors effecting flow of, 74-75
social processes, communication as gatekeeping in Latin America, 69
determinant of, 239 impact and effects on viewers of, 72-74
social psychological approach to maintenance of stereotypes by, 73
communication, I I , 208 measurement of flow, 74
social structure, networks and, 199 news on, 48-49, 67-68
socialist model of communication and perspectives on flow of, 66-69, 75-76
development, 189, 194-1 95 research on flow of, 70, 7 1
sociocultural dimensions role o f governments in programming, 72,
of international flow of news, 59 74, 75
of networking, 200-201 , 204 violence on, 71, 73
software, 14-15, 3 1-33 see also direct broadcast satellites; video
sound recordings, 96 technology
sovereignty terrorism, impact on tourism, 141
of information, 1 1 5 Third World, see developing and Third
see also national sovereignty World countries
Soviet Union Time, 55
book production in, 93 Torde, Gabriel, 192
development after fall of, 204-205 tourism
see also Cold War actors involved in, 1 33-134
space, see outer space factors influencing, 133
Spain, publishing industry in, 94 global context of, 141-143
SPIN conference, 1 1 7, 1 73 impact of, 1 36, 143-144
Star Wars project, 12 impact of war and terrorism on, 141
States as mode of communication, 132-136
impact of networking on power of, 20 I motivation for travel, 1 33, 135
role in transborder data flow, 109 networking in, 203
see also governments patterns of flow, 1 34, 142
strategic communication, 12-13, 227 regulation of, 1 34
structural models of communication, 29, World Travel and Tourism Council
193-194 (WTTC), 140

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tourism industry, 1 36-1 37 United Kingdom, publishing industry in, 93

portrayal of societies by, 144 United Nations, 80, 1 86
role of, 1 34, 135 United States of America
and telecommunications, 1 37-140, 203 consumerism in, 1 6, 97
tourists cultural relations with Iran, 1 6 1 -163
mass tourists, 1 35-136 educational exchange programs in, 1 55,
motivation for travel, 133, 135 1 58-160, 1 62
role of, 133 Landsat system, see Landsat system
types of interaction with hosts, 133-134, publishing industry in, 93
143-144 role in computer technology and
transborder data flow communication, 1 07
access to and impact on developing see also Cold War
countries, 108, I l l , 1 1 3, 1 1 6- 1 1 7, urbanization, and development, 1 9 1
119 utilitarian approach to communication, see
actors involved in, 108- 1 1 0 diffusion models
barriers to, 1 16
content and impact of, 1 1 8- 1 1 9 Varis, Tapio, 66-67, 96
definition and nature of, 107, 108 video technology, 100-102
diverse patterns of flow, 1 1 1- 1 1 3 videoconferencing, 1 50
diversity of data, 1 10 videotex, 1 02
issues of privacy, 1 14-1 1 5 violence, on television, 7 1 , 73
issues of sovereignty, 1 1 3-1 14, 1 15-1 1 7
national policies on, 1 17 war
regulation of, 1 1 1 , 1 1 5, 1 1 8 impact on tourism, 141
remote sensing, see remote sensing prevention of, 244-245
research on, 1 1 8-1 19 role of international strategic
translation communication, 12- 1 3
of printed material, 9 1 , 95 role of propaganda, 8-9
simultaneous translation at conferences, see also Cold War
149 WARC-ST (World Administrative Radio
transnational corporations Conference for Space
advertising practices of, 97, 98 Telecommunications), 81
in tourism industry, 140 Wasmuth, E., 1 76
see also multinational corporations wealth, concentration of, 1 6- 1 7
transnational network pattern, of Weaver, David, 49-50
transborder data flow, I I I Westney, Eleanor, 54
travel, see human movement Westoxification, 6, 186
travel agents, threatened by transnational Wiener, Norbert, 1 75-176
corporations, 140 Wilhoit, G. Cleveland, 49-50
triangular pattern of news flow, 46-47 women
Triple-M theory, 1 7 1 , 214-2 1 5 concepts in television of, 74
Howa magazine for, 56
UNCOPUOS (United Nations Committee World Trade Organization (WTO), 1 18
on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space), 1 19, World Travel and Tourism Council
125 (WTTC), 140
UNCTC, 1 1 9
UNESCO, 52-53, 71 -72 Youth For Understanding (YFU), 1 55

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