Daya Kishan Thussu

The `Murdochization' of news? The case of Star TV in India

Global media magnate Rupert Murdoch has been a key player in the exponential growth of the Indian television market, attracted by the large and increasingly affluent urban middle classes. The success of his Star network in India reflects marketdriven strategies, which include the skilful localization of content. This article examines the case of Star News as exemplifying the trend in television news towards infotainment in the context of a more general ‘Murdochization’ of the media in India. It then goes on to analyse its impact on the quality of public discourse in television news. This, the article argues, has implications for the role of the media in a developing country where one-third of the population is illiterate.

Privatizing the airwaves: the impact of globalization on broadcasting in India:

Media globalization and the resultant expansion of mainly Western transnational media empires have transformed broadcasting in India. An exponential growth in the number of television channels from one state-controlled channel in 1991 to nearly 70 in 1998 (18 of which are national in reach and in Hindi or English, others are regional), within such a short span of time, has profoundly changed the electronic media landscape, as India adapts its broadcasting industries to the deregulated and privatized media environment of the late 1990s. India’s growing economy, a vast, rapidly expanding middle class (variously estimated to be between 200 and 250 million) with aspirations to a Western lifestyle, and a fast-growing advertising sector have made the Indian media market exceptionally attractive for US-dominated transnational broadcasters. With its huge numbers of potential consumers, India provides transnational media corporations with unrivalled opportunities — it is one of the fastest growing and potentially one of the biggest English language media software markets in the world. An established satellite network provides cheaper and quicker nationwide coverage of broadcasting in a continental-size country, while the diversity of cultures in India means that demand for a wide array of satellite channels, catering to different languages and tastes, is even stronger than in Europe or the USA. The impact of globalization on the Indian media should be considered in the context of the media’s evolution and the role of the press as a fourth estate in the world’s largest democracy, where the past 50 years of multi-party polity have ensured a diverse, vibrant and relatively free press. On the other hand, as in most countries of the South, electronic media in India were, until recently, for the most part, a propaganda tool for the government.

From Macbride to Murdoch: The Marketisation of Global Communication

Abstract The report of the MacBride Commission is credited to have brought information- and communication-related issues onto the global agenda and therefore occupies a prominent place in the history of international communication. After revisiting the New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO) debates closely associated with the MacBride Report, this article contends that, despite many advances in democratization of the media, some of the key criticisms in the report are as valid in 2005 as they were in 1980, when it was published. Focusing on the global South, the article argues that the globalisation, privatisation and marketisation of the media, exemplified by what it terms as “Murdochisation,” has undermined public discourse in a global media culture predicated on entertainment and infotainment.

De-Americanising Media Studies and the Rise of “Chindia”

AbstractThe creation of a global market has not only contributed to the globalisation of Western and, more specifi cally, American media around the world, but also opened up the media and communication sectors in large and hitherto highly regulated countries such as China and India. The resultant flow of media products from such countries has created more complex global information, infotainment and entertainment spheres. This article examines the increasing importance of China and India in global communication and media discourses and the challenge that the rise of “Chindia” poses for the study of media and communication. It argues that the globalisation of media industries and audiences, combined with the internationalisation of higher education – reflected in the changing profile of both faculty and students – requires a new approach for research and the teaching of media and communication. While global media and their study remain firmly embedded in a Western or, more accurately, American discourse, t...Abstract The creation of a global market has not only contributed to the globalisation of Western and, more specifi cally, American media around the world, but also opened up the media and communication sectors in large and hitherto highly regulated countries such as China and India. The resultant flow of media products from such countries has created more complex global information, infotainment and entertainment spheres. This article examines the increasing importance of China and India in global communication and media discourses and the challenge that the rise of “Chindia” poses for the study of media and communication. It argues that the globalisation of media industries and audiences, combined with the internationalisation of higher education – reflected in the changing profile of both faculty and students – requires a new approach for research and the teaching of media and communication. While global media and their study remain firmly embedded in a Western or, more accurately, American discourse, the new realities of the post-2008 world warrant a re-evaluation of how we define the global. The article concludes by considering what “Chindia” might mean in a de-Americanised media world.

Media and terrorism: global perspectives

Media and Terrorism brings together leading scholars to explore how the worlds media have influenced, and in turn, been influenced by terrorism and the war on terror in the aftermath of 9/11. Accessible and user-friendly with lively and current case studies, it is a perfect student text and is an essential handbook on the dynamics of war and the media in a global context.

Media Wars and Public Diplomacy

Abstract This article examines the dynamics between Western public diplomacy and the mediation of international military conflicts by US-dominated global television news. It looks at aspects of television coverage of wars in the post-Cold War era, in particular the 1999 Kosovo crisis and argues that only the wars in which the West has a geo-strategic interest appear to receive adequate coverage by Western television. NATO’s bombing of Yugoslavia in March-June 1999 was the most extensively covered military action since the 1991 Gulf War. In both cases, Western television news channels, notably Cable News Network (CNN), consistently reproduced the agenda set by the United States and moulded public opinion in support of war. NATO’s campaign in Kosovo was represented as a “humanitarian” involvement instead of it being an action aimed at establishing a precedent for intervention into the internal affairs of a sovereign state and outside its area of operation. The article assesses international implications of such coverage, arguing that given the global reach and influence of Western television and the dependence of world’s broadcasters on US-supplied television news footage, the dominant perspectives on a conflict can be American, although the US, more often than not, may be actively involved in the war. Recognising this, the article argues, that Western diplomacy has become sophisticated in packaging public information in a visually astute fashion and television networks, which often operate in a symbiotic relationship with the authorities, tend to conform to the geo-political agendas set by powerful governments.AbstractThis article examines the dynamics between Western public diplomacy and the mediation of international military conflicts by US-dominated global television news. It looks at aspects of television coverage of wars in the post-Cold War era, in particular the 1999 Kosovo crisis and argues that only the wars in which the West has a geo-strategic interest appear to receive adequate coverage by Western television. NATO’s bombing of Yugoslavia in March-June 1999 was the most extensively covered military action since the 1991 Gulf War. In both cases, Western television news channels, notably Cable News Network (CNN), consistently reproduced the agenda set by the United States and moulded public opinion in support of war. NATO’s campaign in Kosovo was represented as a “humanitarian” involvement instead of it being an action aimed at establishing a precedent for intervention into the internal affairs of a sovereign state and outside its area of operation. The article assesses international implications of s...

Turning terrorism into a soap opera

Last November’s television coverage of the attacks in Mumbai was sensationalist and marked by fevered speculation that led to the transmission of many falsehoods. It also sparked a controversial debate about whether it might be necessary to regulate reporting during an unfolding emergency. Daya Thussu, Professor of International Communication at the University of Westminster, explores the issues and raises questions about the commercial imperative that drives TV to present atrocity as spectacle.

Contra-Flow in Global Media

Abstract The focus of this paper is on the global flows and contra-flows of visual media, mainly television and film as, despite the exponential growth of the Internet in the last decade, it was being used only by about 15 per cent of the world’s population in 2006, while television and film had a much larger audience base. The paper proposes a typology to divide the main media flows into three broad categories: global, transnational and geo-cultural. It then goes on to examine what it terms as the “dominant flows”, largely emanating from the global North, with the United States at its core; followed by contra-flows, originating from the erstwhile peripheries of global media industries—designated “subaltern flows”. While celebrating the global circulation of media products from a wider range of hubs of creative and cultural industries, the paper emphasises the disparities in the volume and economic value of such flows in comparison to the dominant ones and cautions against the tendency to valourise the rise of non-Western media, arguing that they may reflect a re-figuring of hegemony in more complex ways.

India in the international media sphere

The media world has changed profoundly in the past two decades, reflecting the cumulative impact of liberalization, privatization and deregulation of the media and communication sector, together with the digitization of content, enabling global and instantaneous circulation of cultural products from across the continents. Nevertheless, the imbalance in the flow of media products – from the media-rich North (and within it a US–UK core) to the South – continues to define global communication. Yet in an era of multi-vocal, multilayered and multi-directional flows, the traditional domination of western, or specifically American, media is diminishing, and, more importantly and arguably, being challenged.

The soft power of popular cinema – the case of India

Among BRICS nations, India has the most developed and globalised film industry, and the Indian government as well as corporations are increasingly deploying the power of Bollywood in their international interactions. India’s soft power, arising from its cultural and civilizational influence outside its territorial boundaries, has a long history. Focusing on contemporary India’s thriving Hindi film industry, this article suggests that the globalisation of the country’s popular cinema, aided by a large diaspora, has created possibilities of promoting India’s public diplomacy. It examines the global imprint of this cinema as an instrument of soft power.