From NWICO to WSIS A Historical Perspective Peixi Xu Associate Professor The Communication University of China
Structure 1 Introduction 2 Academics 4 Academics NWICO (1976 1984) 1984) WSIS (2003 2005) 2005) 3 Politics 5 Politics 6 Conclusion
NWICO Academics: Cultural Imperialism Thesis Key concepts and evidence of cultural imperialism thesis proposed by critical political economists Dependency (Smythe, 1981) Domination (Schiller, 1976) Sovereignty (Schiller and Nordenstreng, 1979) Evidence: one way flow of information (Nordenstreng and Varis, 1974; Varis, 1985)
Challenging free flow of information
Cultural imperialism (domination)
Dependency 1981, Ablex Dependency Audience Commodity Thesis: the most important commodity produced by the media is the audience
National Sovereignty and International Communication 1979 Editors Herbert Schiller and Kaarle Nordenstreng Achievement Introducing the concept of national sovereignty into the field of international communication Purpose aiming at the decolonization of information conditions in the developing countries and in general advocating respect for the cultural and national sovereignty of all nations Relationship with the other two concepts Dependency and domination mark a clear directional relationship between the senders and receivers. The concept of sovereignty implies a protective and responsive strategy for the weak countries to protect themselves from being culturally dependent on or dominated by foreign countries.
Evidence: television programs The distribution patterns of the major program importing countries in the early 1970s Television Traffic A One way Street? (Nordenstreng and Varis:1974, UNESCO)
International Flow of Television Programs (1985, UNESCO) Author Tapio Varis Findings 1. In comparison with the 1973 figures, the present situation seems to repeat the earlier pattern and no clear changes in the main structure and in the volume of foreign programs have taken place. 2. In spite of this, there was a noticeable increase in regional exchanges particularly in the Arab States and Latin America, which have added an important dimension to the television flow map.
NWICO Academics: Cultural Imperialism Thesis Key concepts and evidence of cultural imperialism thesis proposed by critical political economists Dependency (Smythe, 1981) Domination (Schiller, 1976) Sovereignty (Schiller and Nordenstreng, 1979) Evidence: one way flow of information (Nordenstreng and Varis, 1974; Varis, 1985) Key concepts and evidence used in the criticisms of the cultural imperialism thesis by cultural studies scholars The active audience thesis (Ang, 1982; Liebes & Katz, 1993) The multi center thesis (Sinclair, 2000) The cultural linguistic aspect (Straubhaar, 2007) Evidence: the reverse flow argument (Rogers & Schement, 1984)
Evidence: The Latin American Case A major change toward a more balanced flow has been occurring in one media industry (television) and in one major region (Latin America)
Introduction (Rogers and Schement,1984)
Audience hours of Television Viewing in four Latin American nations (Antola and Rogers)
Percentage of imported television program in 1972 and 1982 for six Latin American countries
Watching Dallas (1982)
The Export of Meaning: Cross cultural Readings of Dallas (Liebes and Katz, 1993) Reason for research Theorists of cultural imperialism assume that hegemony is prepackaged in Los Angles, shipped out to the global village, and unwrapped in innocent minds and we wanted to see for ourselves. Methods For example, distinguishing three types of retelling: linear, segmented, and thematic Finding Arabs and Moroccan Jews prefer linearity and they emphasize the characters family roles. Russian immigrants are sensitive to the outer sources of ideological control. Americans are not concerned with the linearity of the narrative but with analyzing the problems of characters interpersonally.
The Decentering of Cultural Imperialism: Televisa ion and Globo ization (John Sinclair, 2000) Cultural Imperialism s blindspot: Bombay for the Hindi film industry, Hong Kong for Chinese genre movies, Cairo for Arabic film and television, and Mexico for film and television production in Spanish
World Television: From Global to Local (Joseph Straubhaar, 2007) Reaching a compromise? Of 25 countries or cultural markets studies in 1962, only 5 imported more than half of their broadcast television from the United States. The United States exports most to members of its cultural linguistic sphere.
NWICO Academics: Cultural Imperialism Thesis Key concepts and evidence of cultural imperialism thesis proposed by critical political economists Dependency (Smythe, 1981) Domination (Schiller, 1976) Sovereignty (Schiller and Nordenstreng, 1979) Evidence: one way flow of information (Nordenstreng and Varis, 1974; Varis, 1985) Key concepts and evidence used in the criticisms of the cultural imperialism thesis by cultural studies scholars The active audience thesis (Ang, 1982; Liebes & Katz, 1993) The multi center thesis (Sinclair, 2000) The cultural linguistic aspect (Straubhaar, 2007) Evidence: the reverse flow argument (Rogers & Schement, 1984) Critical political economists vs. cultural studies scholars Economic cultural connection vs. cultural exception Passive audience thesis vs. active audience thesis Protective cultural policy vs. open cultural policy Free and balanced flow of information vs. free flow of information
Analysis: some tricky aspects of the criticism Yuezhi Zhao (2008) In the academic domain: Criticisms of the cultural imperialism thesis From cultural imperialism to media imperialism, leading to media centric analysis From systematic integration into global capitalism to individual audience reception In decoding Dallas studies, the subject of empirical research was changed from the third world to European audiences and immigrant communities in Israel From politics /political economic relations to geography and culture: cultural industry/creative industry studies From seeing the third world state as a potential site of resistance to global capitalism to condemning the third world state as being hypocritical and repressive Most importantly, from imaging an alternative to capitalism to celebrating different forms of capitalism In the political domain: Reagan s withdrawal of the US from Unesco
NWICO Politics West East Topics South
WSIS Academics: Information Society Thesis Conceptions of information society thesis (moving to politics: Japan, US, EU, China) Post industrial society (Bell, 1973) Third wave (Toffler, 1980) Digital society (Negroponte, 1995) Network society (Castells, 1996) Conceptions of information society anti thesis (moving to grassroots: feminist, green, human rights, media reform: Communication Rights in the Information Society) Information commodity society (D. Schiller, 2007) Communication society (Unesco) Pay per view society (Mosco, 1989) Limited resources society (Tian, 2006)
WSIS politics: 3 stakerholder approach State Market Topics Civil Society
WSIS politics: 4 stakerholder approach Davos Tehran Topics Beijing Seatle
Topic 1: Freedom of expression China versus US, EU, civil society Existing mechanism represented by Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 19 (emphasizing freedom): Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. Article 29 (emphasizing duty): (1) Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible. (2) In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society. (3) These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations. Paragraph 4 in Geneva Declaration of Principles: We reaffirm, as an essential foundation of the Information Society, and as outlined in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, that everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; that this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. Communication is a fundamental social process, a basic human need and the foundation of all social organization. It is central to the Information Society. Everyone, everywhere should have the opportunity to participate and no one should be excluded from the benefits the Information Society offers.
Topic 2: Intellectual property: Brazil, civil society versus US, Microsoft Existing mechanism: TRIPS, WIPO copyright treaty Draft declaration of principles: Open standards and open source software are basic elements in the development of a more affordable access to ICTs Draft plan of action: Global consensus achieved on IPR issues in multinational organizations is insufficient to strike a fair balance between the owners and users, and that an appropriate legal framework should be defined for the development of a public domain of information and knowledge US: WSIS should remain neutral and the existing instruments are sufficient Brazilian proposal: Development and deployment of public copyleft software should be encouraged, and awareness of open source / freeware copyleft software should be created, especially in the developing countries Civil society statement: If everyone in your country uses a program that is secret and controlled by a single company, that is not development, that is electronic colonization Paragraph 4 in Geneva Declaration of Principles: Access to information and knowledge can be promoted by increasing awareness among all stakeholders of the possibilities offered by different software models, including proprietary, open source and free software, in order to increase competition, access by users, diversity of choice, and to enable all users to develop solutions which best meet their requirements. Affordable access to software should be considered as an important component of a truly inclusive Information Society
Topic 3: digital divide The real problem neglected Measuring digital divide Access to the Internet Diversity of online activities A voluntary digital solidarity fund: an innovative financial mechanism of a voluntary nature open to interested stakeholders
Topic 4: Internet governance US versus the world Existing mechanism: ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) manages the core resources of the Internet. ICANN is based in US and has contractual relationship with US Department of Commerce The meaning of the US dominance over the Internet: US theoretically has the ability to remove one country from the Internet, and other countries decision to set up top level domain name should obtain permission from the US Department of Commerce Results: WGIG (Working Group on Internet Governance) was established to sort out the issues as an outcome of Geneva summit. Another mechanism IGF (Internet Governance Forum) was set up to explore the issues further. Various IGF conferences were held in Athens (2006), Rio de Janeiro (2007), Hyderabad (2008), and Sharm El Sheikh (2009)