Welcome!

Hello and welcome to the official blog for PUBD 516, International Broadcasting: Influence and Power in the Age of Information. The purpose of the blog is to monitor several international broadcasters over the course of the semester and examine how each broadcaster covers international events differently and why.

Curious about the course? Course Description (from the syllabus):

This course examines the role of international broadcasting (IB) in the practice of public diplomacy. IB has, historically speaking, been essential to the success of public diplomacy efforts, particularly during World War II and later during the Cold War. Yet, today’s information environment has changed dramatically, altering the roles, goals and measures of success and failure of international broadcasters. Drawing from historical examples and theory, this course will examine contemporary broadcasters in an effort to better answer the meta-question: what role do/can international broadcasters play in contemporary public diplomacy efforts and, more broadly, international politics?

Typically, when someone hears the words “international broadcasting,” they immediately think of the great state-backed broadcasters of the 20th century, like the BBC and Voice of America. But IB is much broader than state-funded broadcasters, and today includes a diverse set of public and private actors around the world. For example, Al-Qaeda broadcasts its messages worldwide via the Internet. Chinese-Canadians broadcast their thoughts on living in Montreal to their homeland via pod and video-cast. Moreover, foundational IB organizations, like the BBC, are dramatically reforming their programming to become more participatory and development-oriented, particularly in Africa and Asia. At the same time, we are witnessing a substantial resurgence of more traditional state-funded and, in some cases, state-controlled broadcasters, including: Russia Today (Russia), Al-Jazeera English (Qatar), Press TV (Iran), Telesur (Venezuela), France 24 (France), and of course, Al Hurra and Radio Sawa (US).

Not only are there more actors engaged in IB, but their purposes also vary. A consequence of globalization has been the mass migration of millions of people from the developing world to the developed, a reality that has resulted in the creation of niche diasporic media, whereby migrant groups are staying connected to cultural and political developments in their home country via these niche IB efforts. Importantly, this process is bi-directional: not only are Iranians living in Los Angeles staying up-to-date to on Iranian politics via IB, but Iranians living in Tehran are learning about American politics and culture through private IB efforts, streamed through the Internet, generated right here in Los Angeles. Religious broadcasting is on the rise as well. For example, each year the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia funnels millions of dollars into international broadcasters who focus on Islamic talk shows and programming. International broadcasting is no longer simply a top-down form of communication, utilized by powerful nation-states in an effort to control the flow of global communications. Rather, IB is now best described as a battle between “flow and contra-flow,” whereby international broadcasters – private and public, dominant and disenfranchised – are competing for the attention of people as a means of gaining influence.

This course will synthesize scholarship exploring the significance and lessons drawn from the history of IB, theories of media globalization and contemporary efforts that exemplify the best and worst cases of IB today in order to answer the question, what role do/can international broadcasters play in contemporary public diplomacy efforts and, more broadly, international politics?

Each week’s lesson will pair a theory relevant to the influence of international broadcasting to several case studies that will help us understand and evaluate the relevance of certain conceptions of IB in today’s age of information. Each lesson will provide practical lessons for the class, both in terms of understanding how to best exercise influence via IB in a range of contexts, as well as understanding how to recognize, analyze and respond to antagonist international broadcasting efforts. Moreover, each week will include a discussion of our findings from the Global Media Monitoring project, outlined above.