Detailed outline chapter 3: Global Economy and International telecommunications Networks

Lamiae Mejjane
Dr. Ibahrine
Fall 2007
outline: Global Economy and International telecommunications Networks

• Global economy is closely related to global communication

A) Premodern World

• The products bought by a person exist only in the village where the person lives: no foreign products are sold in the market

B) Division of Labor

• it creates specialization of labor which creates efficiency
• the flip side to division of labor is that it creates interdependencies (coordination and working in sync with each other)
• division of labor increases productivity via specialization, which in turn creates problems of coordination and control.
• in small factories, the division of labor is controllable (face-to-face interaction between the laborers and the boss)
• in a capitalist world where companies seek to capitalize on the locational advantage of each place, the interaction and coordination is more difficult.

C) Imperialism

• in 13th century, the world was multipolar
• 15th century, a monoplar world (with western powers)
• the economic relationship between the imperial powers and the subject territories changed in the age of imperialism.
• imprialism: a method to acquire raw materials
• Global telegraph network was used by the British to manage their vast empire

-it was first London-centric (mono-centric)

-lateral lines were rare

D) Electronic Imperialism
1- Global media flows

• many scholars argue that although the formal empires have been dissolved, the global political structures created during the age of imperialism remain in place (relation of interdependence between the rich and poor countries)
• USA dominates cinema and screens all over the world==> cultural invasion
• many countries called for a new world information order (NWIO)

2-transborder data flow

• modern telecommunications network can support a level of interaction between the service provider and the client that could be achieved only face-to-face in the past
• the USA has become the command-and-control node for global business activities
• Transborder data flow (TDF): computer to computer communication across national boundaries
• the developed countries are the brain of the world system and the developing countries the brawn
• developing countries see the flow of information as a way to blur national boundaries and threaten national sovereignty
• the center almost dominates the periphery

E) Emerging network structures

• TV: a top-down mode of communication where the sources are few and the receivers are many
• An US-centric nature of the global internet
• Network investment patterns suggest that in the future we will see the emergence of regional networks in Europe and Asia
  F) Toward a New World System
• the nature of the center-periphery relationship has changed through time
• the USA projects its power over its periphery in different ways such as 'international communication systems'

outline chapter 3: Global Economy and International telecommunications Networks

Lamiae Mejjane
Dr. Ibahrine
Fall 2007

outline: Global Economy and International telecommunications Networks

A) Premodern World

B) Division of Labor

C) Imperialism

D) Electronic Imperialism

• Global media flows
• Transborder data flow

E) Emerging network structures

F) Toward a New World System

Detailed Outline : Drawing A Bead On Global Communication Theories.

Lamiae Mejjane
Dr. Ibahrine
Fall 2007

outline 2: Drawing A Bead On Global Communication Theories.

A) 'Normative' theories

• According to a book entitled Four theories of the Press: Taxonomy (the division of all the various versions and aspects of a topic into systematic categories and sometimes subcategories as well) was created.
• Media systems are grouped into these categories:

1. Authoritarian (dictatorial such as the media of the fuscist regimes of Hitler)
2. Liberal (left-wing as in current American Parlance)
3. Soviet Theory (which assigned the media a role as a collective agitator)
4. Social responsibility theory (media ownership is a form of public trust rather than an unlimited private franchise)
5. Development media theory
6. Democratic-participant media theory

• News and information were the primary roles of media

1. deontic of normative (explain and contrast comparative media systems)
2. development model (addressing issues of poverty)
3. participatory media (democratically organized media)

B) 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
• those who live in economically advanced and politically stable countries are in a poor position to understand how media work on much of the rest of the planet
  

1. Political Power: media was very controlled by the Soviet state
2. Economic Crisis: economic crisis in Russia was profound except in the 80s and 90s when oil revenues shot up.
3. Dramatic Social Transitions

• The soviet state went into its first media transition after the revolution
• the second media transition during the revolutionary era
• 3rd media transition: after the death of Staline
• Final media transition: after the collapse of the USSR in 1991

4. small-scale alternative media

C) A different Approach II: Globalization and Media

• Globalisation means 'liberalization' and 'privatization'
• Globalization also means 'cultural imperialism'
• Hybridity approach (ex: Spanglish, Hinglish)

D) A Different Approach III: Small-Scale Alternative Media

• Smizdat media: it refers to the hand-circulated pamphlets, poems, essays, plays, short stories, novels, and, at a later stage, audio- and video cassettes (magnitizdat) that began to emerge in Soviet Russia and later in other Soviet bloc countries from the 1960s onward. the term literally means 'self-published'

E) Conclusions

outline 2: Drawing A Bead On Global Communication Theories.

Lamiae Mejjane
Dr. Ibahrine
Fall 2007

Outline 2:Drawing A Bead On Global Communication Theories.
A) 'Normative' theories
B) A Different Approach I: Comparing and Contrasting Media

1. Political Power
2. Economic Crisis
3. Dramatic Social Transitions

C) A different Approach II: Globalization and Media

D) A Different Approach III: Small-Scale Alternative Media

E) Conclusions

Detailed Outline chapter 1

Lamiae Mejjane

Dr. Ibahrine

Following the Historical Paths of Global Communication

A. Geographical Space: A Barrier To Communicate.

• Geography of space
• Geography of experience
• 'Space of flows'=> We can move beyond geographical space. It meant the material and immaterial components of the global information networks through which more and more of the economy was coordinated, in real time across distances
• 'Internet is Network of all networks'

B. Geography and the Mythical World.

• Frances Cairncross, senior editor of the Economist, makes her case by arguing that the speed of communication is creating a world where the miles have little to do with our ability to work and interact together
• Cairncross predicts that much work that can be done on a computer can be done from anywhere
• Cairncross discusses about 30 major changes likely to result form the trends, including a diminishing need for countries to want emigration.

C. Ancient Encounters of societies and cultures.

• In additon to official systems of communication, there have also been informal networks of travelers and traders?
• The technology of international communication may be contemporary phenomenon but trade and cultural interchanges have existed for more than two millenia between the Graeco-Roman world with Arabia, India, and China
• Information and ideas were communicated across continents, as shown by spread by buddhism, Islam, Christianity; through the spread of the holy books

D. Global explorers: Migrants, holy People, Merchants.

• Migration: a mean to discover new cultures
• 'Geographia': its 'purpose is to represent the unity and continuity of the known world in its true nature and location'- Ptolemy

E. Map Makers and the Medival World.

• Mapmaking as an integral part of communication history
• Maps were widely considered to be valuable keys to unlocking unknown worlds
• Today; Google Earth

F. Inventors: Signals and Semaphores.

• Heliograph; invented by the Roman rulers, visual signal system using reflected sunlight
• Highway system used by the Roman to move troops, commerce and communication
• Middle Ages: Postal services around merchant centers
• Chinese: development of networks of messengers and couriers
• Magnetic Compass: introduced in Europe from CHina

G. the Printing Press: Literacy and the Knowledge Explosion.

• It was the Moslems, who developed paper technology and brought it to Europe
• In the 16th century, paper was available
• In 'Imagined Communities', Benedict Anderson gives a detailed analysis of nation building projects and their relationship to print media
• the printing media is behind the idea of nationalism

H. The Growth of the telegraph.

• Technological innovations in travel => changes in relations between nations
• The 2nd half of the 19th cent. witnessed an expanding system of imperial communication made at place by the electric telegraph
• telegraph made transmission of information rapid and ensured secrecy and protection of codes
• the speed and reliability of telegraphy were condidered essential for profit

I. The Era of news agencies.

• increasing demand among business clients for commercial information on business, stocks, currencies
• French Havas Agency (founded in 1935), ancestor of APF. Wolff (German)

J. The Rise of Reuters

• Its rise in parallel with the growth of the British empire
• British control of cable lines
• AP starts to challege Reuters
• Reuters Factor: the relationship between capital and communication was an aspect of what has been called the R.F, which function like a multiplier

K. Summary: Global Immediacy and Transparency.

• Communication across great distance has been a catalyst for many changes in human relationships
• Communication implicated in the sweeping social and political informationscape

outline 1: Following the Historical Paths of Global Communication

Lamiae Mejjane
International Communication
Dr. Ibahrine
Following the Historical Paths of Global Communication

A. Geographical Space: A Barrier To Communicate.
B. Geography and the Mythical World.
C. Ancient Encounters of societies and cultures.
D. Global explorers: Migrants, holy People, Merchants.
E. Map Makers and the Medival World.
F. Inventors: Signals and Semaphores.
G. the Printing Press: Literacy and the Knowledge Explosion.
H. Scientists and international Networks.
I. The International electric Revolution.
J. Summary: Global Immediacy and Transparency.