Volume 3, No 2.

 
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Introduction: Tempestuous times - unmasking the twentieth century

by Naren Chitty

Communications regionalisation and internationalisation in Thailand

by Glen Lewis

This essay focuses on Thailand’s recent experience with communications regionalisation and internationalisation. Thailand is at the geographical centre of mainland Southeast Asia and has played a leading part in many of the post-1945 regional alliances, from SEATO in 1954, ASEAN in 1967, to APEC in 1989. The strategy of this paper is first to outline the main constraints on Thai foreign policy in relation to Thailand’s changing role in Southeast Asia, then to examine how one of the leading Thai communications magnates, Thaksin Shinawatra, recently acted as foreign minister. Last, the main communications groups promoting Thai regional business expansion are identified.

An examination of the international telecommunication network

by George A. Barnett, Thomas Jacobson, Young Choi and Sulien Sun-Miller

The development of new communication technologies has brought extensive changes in the global system. Rapid advances in computer and telecommunication technologies are making it possible to generate information which is instantaneously transmitted around the world, resulting in the creation of the so-called "global village". One change is the increase in the frequency of individual, organisational, and national interaction. Advanced communication technology allows people to exchange ideas, to coordinate their behaviour, and to influence each other more than ever before, increasing the rate of international interaction. This study examines the international telecommunication network from a world systems theoretical perspective

When systems collide: trial of foreign communist media in U.S. Courts

by T.Y. Lau, Todd F. Simon and Regina Chan

This paper examines the legal and political implications of two libel cases involving a Soviet-owned newspaper and a Communist Chinese-owned newspaper in the US courts. The Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia has dismissed a libel suit brought by a former national of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) against the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the PRC. Similarly, the District Court in California has held that the Soviet newspaper, Izvestia, was entitled to sovereign immunity from a libel claim brought by an American exporter. The paper examines how the legal system in the US deals with the issues raised in these cases.

Global-diaporic and subnational - ethnic: audiences for satellite television in South Asia

by Amos Owen Thomas

Satellite technology applied to television has meant that costs of broadcasting are made independent of distance, costs of downlinking and redistribution of signals are low, and uplinking is possible from mobile earth stations anywhere within its footprint. Advocates of such new communication technologies claim that access to information will lead to greater economic development and political democratisation in developing countries, whereas dissenters point out that in reality such technologies perpetuate the status quo of the capitalist world economy. From a cultural imperialism perspective, state-of-the-art communications technologies such as satellites remain concentrated in the hands of developed or ‘core’ countries and are disseminated to the ‘periphery’. Although an increasing number of developing countries have launched satellites for domestic purposes, they continue to be dependent on technology manufacture and maintenance by developed countries. Developing countries are also relatively minor players on the global stage, more often in the footprint of satellites owned by developed countries and their multinational corporations (MNCs) than vice-versa.

Tammany hall on the Seine: Gregory J. Newell and the 1984 U.S. Withdrawal from Unesco

by Allen W. Palmer

The withdrawal of the United States from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1984 stands as one of the most dramatic developments in international communication of this century. Expressing its displeasure at the course of UNESCO policies, the Reagan White House announced in December 1983 that because of irreconcilable differences with Paris-based UNESCO the United States would cancel its membership in the organisation. This paper discusses the role of key figures in the withdrawal process.

Seems link old time: U.S. Foreign policy, media audiences and the limits of resistance

by Andy Ruddock

This study argues that quantitative research methods can be used to address important questions in critical cultural studies. Qualitative audience studies often fail to connect with the generalised ideological structures defining a particular historical moment. Consequently, they often overemphasise the autonomy of the television viewer. Through an analysis of surveys conducted by the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations, this paper shows how surveys can be used to describe the discursive parameters that limit audiences’ interpretive activities in ways that allow us to describe how polysemy and hegemony can live the same moment.

  
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