Volume 1, No 2.

 
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The cultural industries in Brazil: television and telenovelas

by Jose Marques de Melo

Thirty years ago, Brazil was a cultural archipelago of semi-autonomous geo-economic regions. Television programming was dominated by movies, cartoons and variety show, imported from the United States for a small urban elite. Television sets were few and the telenovela was a minor form of production. Today, much more of the population is urbanised, many more people have television sets, and television contributes to national identity and cultural unification. The telenovela genre has succeeded commercially in both domestic and export markets. It has been recognised by the viewing public, critics and scholars alike, as the hallmark of autonomous, contemporary Brazilian culture. The telenovela can claim to be evidence of a daring attitude to cultural production in Brazil, and the art of video fiction can be seen as a source of both self-esteem for the population and lucrative export earnings.

Public Diplomacy and public relations

by Michael Kunczik and Uwe Weber

The governments of most countries are interested in what kind of image their country, the government, or its policies project abroad. This is proven, among other things, by the vast amounts of money spent on international image cultivation, not only by states, but also private organisations which may, for example, want to attract foreign investment. Since most people’s scope of experience is naturally very limited, and their knowledge of complex social processes in other countries comes mainly from the mass media, there is always the danger that, due to the process of news selection, there are differences between ‘real reality’ and ‘media reality’. This paper examines advertising in Germany by foreign states.

The future of IC education in the United States

by Howard H Frederick, Marie-Jean S McCaw and Roselie VasQuez

This study concerns itself with the identity crisis which has beleaguered the field of international communication (IC) since its inception as an academic field of study in the late 1960s. This identity crisis has become increasingly apparent toward the end of the century as all channels of communication have become increasingly internationalised.

Mass Communications and the idea of a global public sphere

by John Tomlinson

Globalisation may be most broadly described as a process in which complex interconnections are rapidly developing between societies, institutions, cultures, collectivities and individuals worldwide. The most far-reaching political implication of this process is probably in its impact on the political integrity, authority and sheer competence of the nation state. Many recent authors have commented on the erosion of the powers of the modern nation state in the context of global modernity. Thus, to take the obvious examples of environmental threats – ozone depletion, global warming, the pollution of the oceans – it is clear that these are problems that cannot find their solution within the political sphere of the nation state, but which demand concerted ‘transnational action’.

Where is the New World Order: at the end of history or clash of civilisations?

by Majid Tehranian

is essay offers a critique of the prevailing discourses of the new world order while presenting an alternative reading of the emerging dialectics of globalism and localism. It argues that because of the contradictions and ambiguity of the signals of transition, the discourse has swung from euphoric optimism to dark pessimism, from declarations of a global triumph of liberal-democratic capitalism to foreboding about a coming ‘clash of civilisations between the Christian West and an emerging Confucian-Islamic alliance.

Communicating world order

by Naren Chitty

First, this paper identifies four ideal typical notions of world order and periodisations of world order. Second, it provides descriptions of world order in three periods viz. (1) evolutionary/ dialectical, (2) structuralist, and (3) post-structuralist. Third, it discusses a political economic cum cultural model of globalisation in international relations, a model which coincides with the post-structuralist period and employs the model to explore cultural imperialism and the notion of a ‘state’ of world order.

Globalisation means never having to say you’re sorry

by Carlos Monsivais

History must have its part in the negotiation of national identity, but what kind of history? In Mexico, there is the state-sponsored, official one, which is almost meaningless; the conservative history, which is full of rancour and medieval prejudices; and the leftist, which is incapable of proposing any substitute for its sacred explanation of class struggle as the key to it all. And if we look to traditions, certainly a part of national identity, they are changing rapidly, and only the strongest are surviving: the Virgin of Guadalupe, of course, the family; the communitarian impulse. The article provides examples of what’s happening today with tradition in the face of globalisation.

  
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