El Mehdi Zeroual
Dr. Ibahrine
COM 2303
11 September 2007
Drawing a Bead on Global Communication Theories
“Normative” theories
- the authors of “Four Theories of the Press” set out to create what is sometimes called a taxonomy which means dividing up all the various versions and aspects of a topic into systematic categories and sometimes subcategories as well.
- The taxonomy the authors proposed was that the world’s various media systems could be grouped into four categories: authoritarian, Soviet, liberal and social responsibility.
- Authoritarian effectively meant dictatorial, and the authors had especially in mind the nightmare fascist regimes of Hitler and Mussolini.
- Soviet referred to the communist dictatorships at that time in Russia and its surrounding ring of client regimes.
- By liberal, the authors meant not “left-wing,” as in current American parlance, but free market-based, which is the sense of the term in current continental European parlance.
- By social responsibility, the authors effectively meant a different order of reality again: namely, media operating within a capitalist dynamic but simultaneously committed to serving the public’s need.
- A strong underlying assumption in all in all four models was that news and information were the primary roles of media.
- The authors did not seek simply to explain or contrast comparative media systems but to define how those systems ought to operate according to certain guiding principles.
- The development model meant media that addressed issues of poverty, health care, literacy, and education.
- Participatory media typically designated local, small-scale, and more democratically organized media, such as community radio stations or public access video, with their staff and producers having considerable input into editorial decisions.
- Communist media in the former Soviet bloc claimed their purpose was to serve the general public, the industrial workers, and the farmers who made up the vast majority of the population.
Dr. Ibahrine
COM 2303
11 September 2007
Drawing a Bead on Global Communication Theories
“Normative” theories
- the authors of “Four Theories of the Press” set out to create what is sometimes called a taxonomy which means dividing up all the various versions and aspects of a topic into systematic categories and sometimes subcategories as well.
- The taxonomy the authors proposed was that the world’s various media systems could be grouped into four categories: authoritarian, Soviet, liberal and social responsibility.
- Authoritarian effectively meant dictatorial, and the authors had especially in mind the nightmare fascist regimes of Hitler and Mussolini.
- Soviet referred to the communist dictatorships at that time in Russia and its surrounding ring of client regimes.
- By liberal, the authors meant not “left-wing,” as in current American parlance, but free market-based, which is the sense of the term in current continental European parlance.
- By social responsibility, the authors effectively meant a different order of reality again: namely, media operating within a capitalist dynamic but simultaneously committed to serving the public’s need.
- A strong underlying assumption in all in all four models was that news and information were the primary roles of media.
- The authors did not seek simply to explain or contrast comparative media systems but to define how those systems ought to operate according to certain guiding principles.
- The development model meant media that addressed issues of poverty, health care, literacy, and education.
- Participatory media typically designated local, small-scale, and more democratically organized media, such as community radio stations or public access video, with their staff and producers having considerable input into editorial decisions.
- Communist media in the former Soviet bloc claimed their purpose was to serve the general public, the industrial workers, and the farmers who made up the vast majority of the population.
A different approach I: comparing and contrasting media
- Soviet media had a strong overlap with media under other dictatorships and with so-called development media.
- In the world at large, issues of extreme poverty, economic crisis, political instability even to the point of civil war, turbulent insurgent movements, military or other authoritarian regimes, and violent repression of political dissent are the central context of media.
Political power
- Communist media were seen as simple mirror-opposites of media in the West.
- Communism equaled repression and censorship.
- Soviet media were the favorite counterexample for proving what was right with Western media.
- When photocopy machines came into use, access to them was governed in microscopic detail.
- The media credibility dilemma is a significant one in any dictatorship. And perhaps the longer the dictatorship lasts, the worse the dilemma.
Economic crisis
- Economic crisis was a daily experience for the majority of Russians, especially from the time of the Soviet bloc’s collapse up to the time of writing this essay.
- Russian media, until the last few years of the old Soviet Union, were silent about this decline in living standards and stagnation in productivity, and asserted that the capitalist countries were suffering from acute and irremediable economic problems.
Dramatic social transitions
- World War I opened the way to the 1917 revolution and the three-year civil war that followed the revolution (Soviet Union).
- Colonial rule, invasion, war, vast social movements, civil war, entrenched ethnic conflicts, wrenching changes of government, and dictatorships were common experiences across the planet.
- Media in Russia also went through many transitions during the 20th century.
- In the decade that followed Stalin’s death, some Russian media professionals made cautious attempts to open up the media.
- Some other brave dissidents who tried to publish works critical of the regime were sentenced to long terms of hard labor in highly publicized trials meant to scare off any would-be imitators- another media transition.
- In the world at large, issues of extreme poverty, economic crisis, political instability even to the point of civil war, turbulent insurgent movements, military or other authoritarian regimes, and violent repression of political dissent are the central context of media.
Political power
- Communist media were seen as simple mirror-opposites of media in the West.
- Communism equaled repression and censorship.
- Soviet media were the favorite counterexample for proving what was right with Western media.
- When photocopy machines came into use, access to them was governed in microscopic detail.
- The media credibility dilemma is a significant one in any dictatorship. And perhaps the longer the dictatorship lasts, the worse the dilemma.
Economic crisis
- Economic crisis was a daily experience for the majority of Russians, especially from the time of the Soviet bloc’s collapse up to the time of writing this essay.
- Russian media, until the last few years of the old Soviet Union, were silent about this decline in living standards and stagnation in productivity, and asserted that the capitalist countries were suffering from acute and irremediable economic problems.
Dramatic social transitions
- World War I opened the way to the 1917 revolution and the three-year civil war that followed the revolution (Soviet Union).
- Colonial rule, invasion, war, vast social movements, civil war, entrenched ethnic conflicts, wrenching changes of government, and dictatorships were common experiences across the planet.
- Media in Russia also went through many transitions during the 20th century.
- In the decade that followed Stalin’s death, some Russian media professionals made cautious attempts to open up the media.
- Some other brave dissidents who tried to publish works critical of the regime were sentenced to long terms of hard labor in highly publicized trials meant to scare off any would-be imitators- another media transition.
A different approach II: globalization and media
- Comparing and contrasting media is then one way to get a clearer focus on what is that media actually do in our world.
- A second, complementary approach is to focus on the current trends toward the globalization of media and of other cultural processes.
- Globalization signifies structural economic changes, or it is applied as well to cultural and media processes.
- For some writers, globalization more or less means Americanization.
- Some analysts have sharply criticized the “imperialism” school, arguing that it falsely assumes global media audiences are more moldable plastic in the hands of global media firms and pointing to research that shows how differently varying audiences around the world react to U.S. media.
- Some from this claim that people’s cultural resistance is proof against cultural invasion, but more commonly, writers of this approach use the terms hybridization and hybridity to try to capture what they see happening.
- A problem with the hybridity approach is that it can become rather wooly and vague.
- A second, complementary approach is to focus on the current trends toward the globalization of media and of other cultural processes.
- Globalization signifies structural economic changes, or it is applied as well to cultural and media processes.
- For some writers, globalization more or less means Americanization.
- Some analysts have sharply criticized the “imperialism” school, arguing that it falsely assumes global media audiences are more moldable plastic in the hands of global media firms and pointing to research that shows how differently varying audiences around the world react to U.S. media.
- Some from this claim that people’s cultural resistance is proof against cultural invasion, but more commonly, writers of this approach use the terms hybridization and hybridity to try to capture what they see happening.
- A problem with the hybridity approach is that it can become rather wooly and vague.
A different approach III: small-scale alternative media
- The term refers to the hand-circulated pamphlets, poems, essays, plays short stories, novels, and, at a later stage, audio- and videocassettes (magnitizdat) that began to emerge in Soviet bloc countries from the 1960s onward. They contained material that was banned by the Soviet regimes.
- Samizdat contained widely varied messages- some religious, some nationalist, some ecological, some reformist, some revising the myths of official Soviet history, some attacking Soviet policies, some defending citizens victimized by arbitrary arrest and imprisonment.
- The term samizdat literally means “self-published,” in contradistinction to “state-published,” that is approved by the Soviet regime as “safe.”
- BBC World, Radio Liberty, Radio Free Europe would read samizdat texts over the air as part of their programming and thus amplified their message outside the major urban centers, which were normally the only places where samizdat were circulated.
- Samizdat contained widely varied messages- some religious, some nationalist, some ecological, some reformist, some revising the myths of official Soviet history, some attacking Soviet policies, some defending citizens victimized by arbitrary arrest and imprisonment.
- The term samizdat literally means “self-published,” in contradistinction to “state-published,” that is approved by the Soviet regime as “safe.”
- BBC World, Radio Liberty, Radio Free Europe would read samizdat texts over the air as part of their programming and thus amplified their message outside the major urban centers, which were normally the only places where samizdat were circulated.
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