Chapter 1: What is global communication?
The news about news
Alisa Miller at ted 2008
➔ US News coverage (Feb 2007)
• 79% focus on US news
• 21% Irak
• 1% Russia, China, India
• Focus on local news or news that is of direct economic or political influence
• Top Story – Death Anne Nicole Smith
• Underrepresentation/ no coverage of certain continents in American News
• Local coverage is increasing
• Only 12% is about international news
• Distorted world view
• Europa does a bit better, but still very focused on local news ↔ we think we live in a very globalized world
• Focus on entertainment
➔ Reasons
• Foreign Bureaus Closed
• Foreign news rewrites of AP and Reuters
• With the internet, we have enormous recourses of news, but we still remain in being interested in proximity
• News agencies collects news and redistributes it
➔ Global communication
• Localization of news in globalizing times
• Role of geo – political proximity
• = our newspapers used to have multiple correspondents
How China is changing your internet
• We often look at ICTs from Western point of view
• China has taken different developmental path
o Has not allowed Western players into its markets
o Developed ’alternative services’
o Is now becoming a player in other markets – Asia, Africa, Europe
o Some of its applications more advanced than in West
• Global communication is about… learning from other countries, cross – Influences over borders and omparative
communication
1
,How China is changing Hollywood
• Intranet in china, blocked from the rest of the world
• No facebook, google, but copycats
• Wechat (Super app)
o Can do everything on 1 app = makes it very powerful
o Can order food, a taxi, chat, can see how crowded places are, can transfer money, all without leaving the
app
o Everything can go viral, dogwashers, restaurants
o Makes possible for wechat to collect the most data (data from fb, paybal, google all together in one app)
o Companies and government can track every movement you make
• Who’s choice is it ( the company / government or is it of the user?)
o Europe / America aren’t the center of the world anymore, other parts of the world keep up with the
technology or are even further than us
o Now with tiktok, is a Chinese app, popular in western world, how do we let them integrate in our lives
• In Europe we think the internet is an open space, but more and more we see that governments start to control
them
o For example in Cuba you can not acces some sites, because Microsoft blocks them (America doesn’t
want you to acces them there), also Cuba itself blocks some sites, because it doesn’t want you to acces
some information about the rest of the world
VOX 2016
• China major new market for Hollywood
o Rise of China’s middle class – preference for US movies (Vast pirate market)
o Import quota for US movies – Also present in other markets
o Adaptation of content to fit in China’s ‘logic’ – No direct obligation
o Chinese versions of block – buster movies
• Global communication
o Adaptation of content in international markets not uncommon
▪ De – Localization:
• Minimizing local aspects of content to appeal to
international markets
▪ Localization:
• Adaptation of global content to appeal to a
specific cultural group
• Often remakes or local adaption of global
formats/productions
2
, • Marketing to Chinese Audience market
o Limit to exportation of international movies in china
o Chinese government had its own movie industrie, but wasn’t working that well
o So import of American movies (only 35 movies allowed)
o Can do it in different ways
▪ Revenue sharing (America only gets a small amount)
▪ Co – producing
o American movies will talk good about china (use Chinese person, locations, advertisements)in their
movies, so that it has more chances to be shown in China
o China wants its own movies to outplay foreign films, through different instruments (co production, has an
impact on the content, if it becomes to Chinese it doesn’t resonate with the American audience)
▪ Sometimes you have two movies, because one is going to resonate with one market and the
other with an other one
o Hollywood wants its movie to appeal to large audiences
• Formats
o ↔ movies that try to appeal to every audiences
o Formats can be adapted to local preferences/context
o We know formats work (in a risky business)
o E.g: THE OFFICE, boer zoekt vrouw
Representation of other cultures
Frank duck brings ‘em back alive’
• Video fragment ‘Frank Duck Brings ‘Em Back alive’
o Walt Disney Productions 1946
o Donald Duck = Frank Duck = Explorer
▪ Bringing modern technology (boot) to the jungle
▪ Bringing literacy
o Goofy = Wild, Illiterate, Tree climbing man
• How to read Donald Duck (1971)
o Donald Duck reflection Western capitalist ideology
o Establish ‘hegemonic’ ideas about capitalism, race, gender
The story of sibu
• Research Collaboration with University of the Western Cape
o Sibu wit the university, tried identifying the people in the town without an education, but could still have
an education
3
, Current work of COLAB
• Partnerships for upskilling the country (figures since 2019)
o Train the trainer programs and content development
o 10.000 citizens trained in basic digital and mobile literacy
o 500 small businesses participated in MobileTech courses
o 1.500 citizens participated in cyber security courses
o 367 youth participated in Future Innovation Lab training
Long standing collaboration between UWC – VUB
• SMIT – VUB: Studies on Media, Innovation and Technology
o Established research center 90+ researchers
o Focus in innovation (users, economics, policy)
o Digital Inclusion and Digital & Media Literacy Skills
• CoLAB – UWC
o CoLab for Social Innovation and Digital Inclusion
o Research and community development
o Part of South Africa’s initiatives to use universities in community
development
• VLIR – IUS DDBS and RIP
➔ Colabs and future innovations lab
What is international communication?
Different closely related concepts
• Definition: information flow of values, norms, culture and information between and the effects for individuals,
groups, states and regions
• International often refers to processes that occur among states, like in international relations
• Critique on taking nation state as defining element
o States are becoming less important → globalization – liberalization
o International and supra – national organizations → policy level
o Media technologies are global in scope, but local in use → Internet Global network
▪ And local variations Weibo, Telegraph, Threema
o Diaspora communities → Transnational media
• State still important defining element
o US/UK/China protectionist tendencies – Economic, geographic (borders)
o Internet controls and censorship increasing worldwide
➔ Shifting of preferences , where in the past people liked local content, now foreign contents strats to become more
loved
4
The news about news
Alisa Miller at ted 2008
➔ US News coverage (Feb 2007)
• 79% focus on US news
• 21% Irak
• 1% Russia, China, India
• Focus on local news or news that is of direct economic or political influence
• Top Story – Death Anne Nicole Smith
• Underrepresentation/ no coverage of certain continents in American News
• Local coverage is increasing
• Only 12% is about international news
• Distorted world view
• Europa does a bit better, but still very focused on local news ↔ we think we live in a very globalized world
• Focus on entertainment
➔ Reasons
• Foreign Bureaus Closed
• Foreign news rewrites of AP and Reuters
• With the internet, we have enormous recourses of news, but we still remain in being interested in proximity
• News agencies collects news and redistributes it
➔ Global communication
• Localization of news in globalizing times
• Role of geo – political proximity
• = our newspapers used to have multiple correspondents
How China is changing your internet
• We often look at ICTs from Western point of view
• China has taken different developmental path
o Has not allowed Western players into its markets
o Developed ’alternative services’
o Is now becoming a player in other markets – Asia, Africa, Europe
o Some of its applications more advanced than in West
• Global communication is about… learning from other countries, cross – Influences over borders and omparative
communication
1
,How China is changing Hollywood
• Intranet in china, blocked from the rest of the world
• No facebook, google, but copycats
• Wechat (Super app)
o Can do everything on 1 app = makes it very powerful
o Can order food, a taxi, chat, can see how crowded places are, can transfer money, all without leaving the
app
o Everything can go viral, dogwashers, restaurants
o Makes possible for wechat to collect the most data (data from fb, paybal, google all together in one app)
o Companies and government can track every movement you make
• Who’s choice is it ( the company / government or is it of the user?)
o Europe / America aren’t the center of the world anymore, other parts of the world keep up with the
technology or are even further than us
o Now with tiktok, is a Chinese app, popular in western world, how do we let them integrate in our lives
• In Europe we think the internet is an open space, but more and more we see that governments start to control
them
o For example in Cuba you can not acces some sites, because Microsoft blocks them (America doesn’t
want you to acces them there), also Cuba itself blocks some sites, because it doesn’t want you to acces
some information about the rest of the world
VOX 2016
• China major new market for Hollywood
o Rise of China’s middle class – preference for US movies (Vast pirate market)
o Import quota for US movies – Also present in other markets
o Adaptation of content to fit in China’s ‘logic’ – No direct obligation
o Chinese versions of block – buster movies
• Global communication
o Adaptation of content in international markets not uncommon
▪ De – Localization:
• Minimizing local aspects of content to appeal to
international markets
▪ Localization:
• Adaptation of global content to appeal to a
specific cultural group
• Often remakes or local adaption of global
formats/productions
2
, • Marketing to Chinese Audience market
o Limit to exportation of international movies in china
o Chinese government had its own movie industrie, but wasn’t working that well
o So import of American movies (only 35 movies allowed)
o Can do it in different ways
▪ Revenue sharing (America only gets a small amount)
▪ Co – producing
o American movies will talk good about china (use Chinese person, locations, advertisements)in their
movies, so that it has more chances to be shown in China
o China wants its own movies to outplay foreign films, through different instruments (co production, has an
impact on the content, if it becomes to Chinese it doesn’t resonate with the American audience)
▪ Sometimes you have two movies, because one is going to resonate with one market and the
other with an other one
o Hollywood wants its movie to appeal to large audiences
• Formats
o ↔ movies that try to appeal to every audiences
o Formats can be adapted to local preferences/context
o We know formats work (in a risky business)
o E.g: THE OFFICE, boer zoekt vrouw
Representation of other cultures
Frank duck brings ‘em back alive’
• Video fragment ‘Frank Duck Brings ‘Em Back alive’
o Walt Disney Productions 1946
o Donald Duck = Frank Duck = Explorer
▪ Bringing modern technology (boot) to the jungle
▪ Bringing literacy
o Goofy = Wild, Illiterate, Tree climbing man
• How to read Donald Duck (1971)
o Donald Duck reflection Western capitalist ideology
o Establish ‘hegemonic’ ideas about capitalism, race, gender
The story of sibu
• Research Collaboration with University of the Western Cape
o Sibu wit the university, tried identifying the people in the town without an education, but could still have
an education
3
, Current work of COLAB
• Partnerships for upskilling the country (figures since 2019)
o Train the trainer programs and content development
o 10.000 citizens trained in basic digital and mobile literacy
o 500 small businesses participated in MobileTech courses
o 1.500 citizens participated in cyber security courses
o 367 youth participated in Future Innovation Lab training
Long standing collaboration between UWC – VUB
• SMIT – VUB: Studies on Media, Innovation and Technology
o Established research center 90+ researchers
o Focus in innovation (users, economics, policy)
o Digital Inclusion and Digital & Media Literacy Skills
• CoLAB – UWC
o CoLab for Social Innovation and Digital Inclusion
o Research and community development
o Part of South Africa’s initiatives to use universities in community
development
• VLIR – IUS DDBS and RIP
➔ Colabs and future innovations lab
What is international communication?
Different closely related concepts
• Definition: information flow of values, norms, culture and information between and the effects for individuals,
groups, states and regions
• International often refers to processes that occur among states, like in international relations
• Critique on taking nation state as defining element
o States are becoming less important → globalization – liberalization
o International and supra – national organizations → policy level
o Media technologies are global in scope, but local in use → Internet Global network
▪ And local variations Weibo, Telegraph, Threema
o Diaspora communities → Transnational media
• State still important defining element
o US/UK/China protectionist tendencies – Economic, geographic (borders)
o Internet controls and censorship increasing worldwide
➔ Shifting of preferences , where in the past people liked local content, now foreign contents strats to become more
loved
4
