Course Unit: MECHANISMS OF INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION AND POLICY, MASTERS JKUAT by Aime MUYOMBANO KEEN ADVANCED INSTITUTE OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

Course Unit: MECHANISMS OF INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION AND POLICY, MASTERS JKUAT by Aime MUYOMBANO

Course Unit Masters: MECHANISMS OF INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION AND POLICY, MASTERS JKUAT by Aime MUYOMBANO

BY Aime MUYOMBANO

Pre-requisite: None

a) Course Purpose:

Introduce Mechanics of International Communication and Diplomacy.

b) Course objectives

At the end of this unit the students should be able to:

a) Compare and contrast global mass communication and media systems under varying social, political and economic systems.

b) Discover the underlying trends of global communication

c) Analyse the current trends of global communication paradigms and the political and economic factors that influence them.

d) Describe the flow of national and international communication across the globe.

e) Explain the role of media as an instrument of international diplomacy.

c) Course Description

The unit offers a comparative study of global mass communication and media systems under varying social, political and economic systems. Topics include development of the global information society, structures, functions and the current state of global communication paradigms and the political and economic factors that influence them. Other topics are factors that facilitate or restrict the flow of national and international communication across the globe; the role of the media as instruments of international diplomacy and an analysis of major issues in international communication.

d) Teaching methodologies

The course will be conducted using the following approaches:

Lectures, Group/class discussions, presentations, case studies.

e) Instructional material/equipment

Overhead projector, LCD, Flipcharts, whiteboard.

f) Course Assessment

C.A.Ts, Assignments, presentations 40%

Exam 60%

Total 100

g) Course textbooks

Andrew, P.H. (1986) International communication and diplomacy Dubuque, IA:Wm.C. Brown

Sless, D. (1988) Media Magic. Media information, Austalia, No.48, Pg 21024

h) Reference Textbooks

Mcquail, D. Mass Communication theory. New Delhi: vistaar publicationl

i) Course Journals

j) Reference Journals

TOPIC. I. COMPARE AND CONSTRAST GLOBAL MASS COMMUNICATION AND MEDIA SYSTEMS UNDER VAYING SOCIAL, POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC SYSTEM

I.0. INTRODUCTION

Global mass communication and media system has created greater uncertainty in what have been relatively stable global oligopolistic media, computer and telecommunication markets. Through media convergence the global media system is thought of as part of a converging global communication system. The importance of this development for late global capitalism can hardly be exaggerated. Since the early 1980s there has been a dramatic restructuring of national media industries, along the emergence of a genuinely global commercial media market.

In addition to concentration of Global mass communication and media system power, the major feature of the global media order is its thoroughgoing commercialization and associated market broadcasting and the applicability of public service standards. Such a concentration of global media power in organizations dependent on advertiser support and responsible primarily to shareholders is a clear and present danger to citizens participation in public affairs, understanding of public issues and thus to the effective working of democracy under good governance and Diplomacy context.

Global mass Communication and media systems are the central units of analysis in comparative socio-media context. In times of growing globalization, however, it is increasingly difficult to treat Global mass Communication and media systems as isolated cases. a dilemma that undermines the traditional logic of comparative communication. A careful examination of the core conceptual challenges leads this component to conclude that global processes of diffusion do by no means spell the end of the comparative context of media systems. Global processes of diffusion do however demand for comparative designs that account for the fact that national media systems are becoming increasingly interconnected. This note makes three practical suggestions to tackle these challenges:

Ø 1^st Suggesting to include additional levels of analysis below and above the nation state level;

Ø 2^nd Suggesting to incorporate theories from the field of International Communications;

Ø and the 3^rd to remain cautious about the extent to which globalization penetrates national media systems.

There is still reason to presume that Global mass Communication and media systems can be compared along the lines of national boundaries. We are required to modify and extent our tools though.

I.1. GLOBAL MEDIA IN PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

I.1.1. Global media

Global media is the inventions of a man. It includes TV, Radio, and Newspaper etc. Global media gives us information about different things like different kind of animal, weather reports etc. It is a way to express a person’s feelings.

Global media gives us information about current affairs. It’s basically a media that has been spread all around the world.

I.1.2. Public diplomacy

Public diplomacy" deals with the influence of public attitudes on the formation and execution of foreign policies. It encompasses dimensions of international relations beyond traditional diplomacy; the cultivation by governments of public opinion in other countries; the interaction of private groups and interests in one country with those of another; the reporting of foreign affairs and its impact on policy; communication between those whose job is communication, as between diplomats and foreign correspondents; and the processes of inter-cultural communications.

I.1.3. Global media in public diplomacy

Global media in public diplomacy has increasingly proved its usefulness in recent years. Many governments have competitively engaged in a war of public diplomacy through media to make their countries look attractive and friendly to foreigners while also setting the stage for others to understand their positions in the international arena.

The success or failure of public diplomacy through media, however, can only be judged by its intended audience. The most critical criterion is the media’s credibility, which can be achieved by the independence of media as well as freedom from editorial bias. Furthermore, only when such media activities are combined with cultural programs and people-to-people exchanges can its synergy effects be maximized. However, as seen in past cases of cartoons, photos and video clips, carelessness and negligence can seriously damage the public diplomacy efforts of major powers. To prevent these types of incidents, public awareness campaigns should be arranged to encourage every citizen to join in the public diplomacy activities. Furthermore, global media is expected to play a constructive role in the expansion of common ground for promoting peace and harmony among citizens of neighbouring countries through consultations with counterpart media in the same region.

In their stocktaking about the state of the art in comparative communication Michael Gurevitch and Jay Blumler (2004) pointed out that this field of Social component has overcome its early state and become a true sub-discipline in its own right. In a way, this “maturation” has brought about the need to review theoretical concepts and to study the designs and methodology of comparative Global mass Communication and media.

It also seems timely to discuss methodological developments and the challenges that must be met by theoretical reflection. In this vain, the course unit aims to discuss the challenges for learners in comparative media systems that rise from globalization and trans nationalization of communication systems. “New realities” regarding the comparative approach to the study of media systems derive from the fact that as a consequence of globalization, national boundaries are overcome through new brands of information flow, economic exchange and governance.

I.2. GLOBAL MASS COMMUNICATION AND MEDIA SYSTEM

I.2.1. Mass Communication

Mass communication is a process in which a person, group of people, or an organization sends a message through a channel of communication to a large group of anonymous and heterogeneous people and organizations. You can think of a large group of anonymous and heterogeneous people as either the general public or a segment of the general public. Channels of communication include broadcast television, radio, social media, and print. The sender of the message is usually a professional communicator that often represents an organization. Mass communication is an expensive process. Unlike interpersonal communication, feedback for mass communication is usually slow and indirect.

Some of the following component is types of mass communication:

Advertising, which consists of communications attempting to induce purchasing behaviour

Journalism, such as news

Public relations which is communication intended to influence public opinion on a product or organization

Politics ex. Campaigning

I.2.2. Media System

The term "media system", although frequently used in subject literature, does not posses a normative or a clear-cut, unambiguous definition so far. The author attempts to label this term, based on a critical analysis of its definitions taken from media studies' dictionaries. He treats the media system as an internally complex, autonomous entity being part of a greater whole, such as a country, also treated as a system.

The media system is comprised of institutional structures and final products which recipients use directly and frequently as they are addressed to them (newspapers, journals, radio and TV programmes) as well as entities (such as press agencies, distributors) with which people are less familiar with but which, nevertheless, are crucial to the functioning of the media system.

I.2.3. Global Mass Communication and Media System

The question arises as to whether and to what degree the discrimination of nationally bounded communication systems is still a valid and meaningful concept for social scientific inquiry. If the answer is yes, we need to ask how we can readjust our approach to compare media systems facing global phenomena of governance and communication. In this course unit, we want to stimulate the debate on the impact of globalization on comparative media systems by raising four points:

first of all, Globalization as a starting point of media development, reflect on the nature and the meaning of “global”. Does such a perspective exist, how should it be conceived? Does the affirmation of global research equate with the end of the comparative approach and in particular the comparative analysis of media systems? Our argument here is that global social science research must not be re-defined in terms of the level of global or national analysis. Instead, we wish to stress that fundamental social change like globalization that must be addressed by refocusing our research questions instead of the level of analysis. As globalization affects all levels of society, it does not free us from comparative research. Quite the contrary, we need to study the effects of globalization with comparative designs on the micro, meso, macro and supranational levels.

Regarding politics and political communication, globalization leads to more trans nationalized forms of governance. As a consequence, we also face new forms of legitimization and therefore political communication that transcend the nation state, while at the same time media systems are bound to national political cultures and communication infrastructures. Thus, the fit between the national communication systems and factual supranational political decision making has become precarious.

We can illustrate this dilemma with the example of the European Union. In the light of transnational governance we need to discuss how we can conceptualize transnational linkages between the media that develop beyond the national structures. As an answer we propose to introduce additional categories above and below the nation state that seem valuable tools for analysing transnational flows of information, communication and politics.

The nation state is therefore not the only context for media systems analysis. Although global influences cause substantial cultural and structural shifts within media systems, these shifts are not identical across all systems.

If global influences are to be incorporated into comparative research, however, we

need to broaden our view and revisit theoretical concepts about communication flows

within and across media systems. In a world of global communication and

communication systems, theories that explain communication across societies must

be reconsidered. This means, as we will argue further, to systematically incorporate

theories of international communication into our framework of analysis.

We think the contribution in this special issue as a glimpse at a larger set of questions, each of which deserves deep reflection. However, our intention is to point out challenges that stir up new thoughts and to further reasoning in comparative communication studies. Needless to say, it is easier to raise new questions than to provide substantial

I.2.4. The Power of Global mass communication and Media in the Foreign Policy-

making Process

The progress of technology in mass communication has allowed media to reach every corner of the world more quickly with vivid graphics. Therefore, global media plays a very important role in international relations, and most policymakers depend on live news coverage provided by different media Institutions and other outlets. This phenomenon provides a positive effect, as it introduces democratic and humanitarian aspects in the policy-making process. On the other hand, it causes a bigger burden to both policymakers and reporters. Under the time pressure required by global media live coverage, journalists may take risks by reporting what they see without deeply analysing the situation and politicians may respond quickly without carefully considering their overall situation.

In spite of this problem, global media has become one of many tools each government employs in conducting its own public diplomacy programs. The British Broadcasting Corporation BBC and Voice of America have demonstrated their powerful influence in the foreign policy-making process, and other major media are following suit, including China Central Television (Broadcasting company) CCTV, Russia Today, and France 24. Furthermore, new media are also targeting special groups of people with less sense of rebuttal from their targeted audiences. Radio Sawa, Al Hurra Television, and other broadcasters of special languages are some good examples.

As the influence of mass media continues to grow, policy-makers tend to utilize the media for their own benefit, publicizing their policies and positions on certain issues. In the case of Al-Jazeera TV, American government officials initially refrained from attending Al-Jazeera’s programs for several years because of its unfavourable stance towards the U.S. However, after 2005 State Department officials began engaging Al-Jazeera more actively because the U.S. concluded that appearing on TV results in more benefits than not appearing at all. By explaining American policies on TV, the U.S. government hoped to improve its overall image.

In such context, President Barack Obama had an interview with Al-Arabiya Television, one of the most influential Arabic broadcasters, during the first week of his first term in order to directly appeal to Arabic and Islamic people. In the same token, the media tends to enthusiastically accommodate politicians’ wishes to attract viewers if it has news value.

As such, politicians go beyond the simple norm of public diplomacy and try to provide more detailed and comprehensive information through sophisticated techniques. This trend has encouraged big powers such as the U.S., China, Russia, and the EU to allocate increasingly larger budgets to their own global media. In short, they are now fully engaged in a war to win the hearts and minds of people of the world.

However, global media is not the panacea for public diplomacy. Without sufficient reliability of the media, it is hard to expect effective results. A long period of time and specific strategy is required to yield results. A survey involving university students from five Arab countries examined the credibility of two American broadcasts, Radio Sawa and Al Hurra Television.

The survey found that there was no apparent correlation between the frequencies of the audience’s tuning into the media and the audience’s perception of media credibility. If this finding is accurate, it deserves closer analysis on the usefulness of the media. Efforts may be made to correct this phenomenon and to find ways to improve credibility. One of the solutions to enhance the reliability of media might be to receive audience feedback through Social Networking Services (SNS), which is discussed below. Another solution may be to combine cultural exchange programs and people-to-people visiting programs as well as scholarship exchange programs since face-to-face programs yielded many positive results.

Another issue that needs to be examined is the limited effect of global media. As many parts of the world do not welcome or otherwise lack access to global media, diplomats need to engage the local media. In order to do so, diplomats need to be comfortable with the local language as well as have a deep knowledge of local politics. Only then can diplomats substantially participate in debates on TV. This is one of the reasons why each government puts a considerable amount of energy in training regional experts.

I.3. SOCIAL, POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC SYSTEM

I.3.1. Social System

The patterned series of interrelationships existing between individuals, groups, and institutions and forming a coherent whole: Ex. Social Structure.

The formal organization of status and role that may develop among the members of a relatively small stable group (such as a family or club)

I.3.2. Political System

A political system is a system of politics and government. It is usually compared to the legal system, economic system, cultural system, and other social systems. However, this is a very simplified view of a much more complex system of categories involving the questions of who should have authority and what the government's influence on its people and economy should be.

I.3.2. Economic System

An economic system is a system of production and exchange of goods and services as well as allocation of resources in a society. It includes the combination of the various institutions, agencies, entities (or even sectors as described by some authors) and consumers that comprise the economic structure of a given community. A related concept is the mode of production.

Economic systems are the category in the Journal of Economic Literature classification codes that includes the study of such systems. One field that cuts across them is comparative economic systems. Subcategories of different systems there include:

Planning, coordination, and refor

Productive enterprises; factor and product markets; prices; population

Public economics; financial economics

National income, product, and expenditure; money; inflation

International trade, finance, investment, and aid

Consumer economics; welfare and poverty

Performance and prospects

Natural resources; energy; environment; regional studies

Political economy; legal institutions; property rights.

Market Structure

Quick Reference to Basic Market Structures
Market Structure	Seller Entry Barriers	Seller Number	Buyer Entry Barriers	Buyer Number
Perfect Competition	No	Many	No	Many
Monopolistic competition	No	Many	No	Many
Oligopoly	Yes	Few	No	Many
Oligopsony	No	Many	Yes	Few
Monopoly	Yes	One	No	Many
Monopsony	No	Many	Yes	One

The demand and supply equations of a good and Services and how you can calculate the equilibrium price and Quantity

Example 1.

4P = −Qd + 240,

5P = Qs + 30.

Determine the equilibrium price and quantity.

Solution

4P = −Qd + 240, P= Qd=240-120

5P = Qd + 30.

a) 4x30= - Qd+240 Qd= 120

9P=240+30 120= - Qd+240

b) 5x30=Qs+30 -Qs=30-150

150=Qs+30 Qs=120

The demand and supply functions of a good are given by

P = −Qd + 125

2P = 3Qs + 30.

Determine the equilibrium price and quantity

I.3.4. Social, Political and Economic System.

We live in a time of rising complexity both in the internal workings of our social, economic and political systems and in the outcomes that those systems produce. Increasing complexity has implications for social science: it hinders our ability to predict and explain and to prevent large deleterious events. To make headway on the problems that animate social and behavioural scientists: economic inequality, health disparities, achievement gaps, segregation, climate change, terrorism, and polarization among voters we must acknowledge their complexity through interdisciplinary teams.

Harnessing complexity will require several changes: we must develop practical measures of social complexity that we can use to evaluate systems; we must learn how to identify combinations of interventions that improve systems; we must see variation and diversity as not just noise around the mean, but as sources of innovation and robustness; and finally, we must support methodologies like agent-based models that are better suited to capture complexity. These changes will improve our ability to predict outcomes, identity effective policy changes, design institutions, and, ultimately, to transform society.

I.4. MEDIA EFFECTS

The effects of mass media are theoretically applicable to the fluctuations in economic development and are either direct or indirect. McGuire noted several of the most commonly mentioned intended media effects are; (a) the effects of advertising on purchasing, (b) the effects of political campaigns on voting, (c) the effects of public service announcements (PSAs) on personal behavior and social improvement, (d) the effects of media ritual on social control (McGuire, 1989). McGuire also pointed out the most commonly mentioned unintended media effects; (a) emotional behavior, (b) the impact of media images on the social construction of reality, (c) the effects of media bias on stereotyping, and (d) how media forms affect cognitive activity and style (McGuire, 1989).

In addition to these media effects, McGuire’s partner, McQuail, summarizes that the main streams of effects research of other areas of media effects are; (a) knowledge gain and distribution throughout society, (b) diffusion of innovations, (c) socialization to societal norms, and (d) institution and cultural adaptations and changes (McQuail 1972). A more in-depth analysis will be explored on specific media effects in this body of work.

I.4.1. Media System and Globalization

The rapid development of new media has been the main force accelerating the trend of globalization in human society during the last few decades. With its distinctive and unique nature, new media has brought human interaction and society to a highly interconnected and complex level.

Through this convergence the mutual enhancement of new media and globalization has led to the transformation of almost all the aspects of human society. New media being considered “new” is not only because of its successful integration in the form of the traditional interpersonal and mass media, but also because of its new functions that enable individuals to equally control messages in interpersonal media, which allows them to control messages in mass media (Crosbie, 2002). New media functionally allows people to interact with multiple persons simultaneously with the ability to individualize messages in the process of interaction. New media enjoys five distinctive characteristics: digitality, convergency, interactivity, hypertextuality, and virtuality (Chen & Zhang, 2010; Flew, 2005; Lister, Dovery, Giddings, Grant, & Kelly, 2009).

First, digitalization is the most prominent feature of new media. New media or digital media dematerializes media text by converting data from analogy into digital form, which allows all kind of mathematical operations. New media also makes it possible for a large amount of information to be retrieved, manipulated, and stored in a very limited space.

Second, new media converges the forms and functions of information, media, electronic communication, and electronic computing. The convergence power of new media can be easily demonstrated by the emergence of the Internet in terms of its powerful function embedded in computer information technologies and broadband communication networks. This also leads to the industry convergence displayed by the constant merger of big media companies and the product and service convergence evidenced by the successful connection and combination of media’s material, product, and service in the media industry.

Third, the interactive function of new media, i.e., between users and the system regarding the use of information resources, provides users a great freedom in producing and reproducing the content and form of the information during the interaction.

Finally, the cyberspace formed by new media allows people to generate virtual experience and reality. The invisible cyberspace not only induces a gap between reality and virtuality, but also effectuates the free alternation of one’s gender, personality, appearance, and occupation. The formation of virtual community that crosses all the boundaries of human society definitely will challenge the way we perceive reality and have traditionally defined identity.

I.4.2.The Impact of New Media on Intercultural Communication

With its distinctive features new media has brought human society to a highly interconnected and complex level, but at the same time, it challenges the very existence of human communication in the traditional sense. New media not only influences the form and content of information/messages, but it also affects how people understand each other in the process of human communication, especially for those from different cultural or ethnic groups.

This cultural gap has caused difficulty in understanding or communication between generations and among people in the same culture. New media also extrinsically breeds communication gaps between different cultural and ethnic groups. The fragmented nature of new media has switched traditional cultural grammar, cultural themes, or cultural maps to a new pattern, resulting in the loss of traditional cultural logic.

I.5. CHANGING SOCIETIES, CHANGING MEDIA SYSTEM

The current era of economic crisis and political turmoil comes in the aftermath of four decades of social and economic change, commonly lumped under the heading “globalization.” Critics of this era typically refer to its guiding ethos as neo-liberalism, which broadly refers to an ideology of market deregulation that was typically sold politically with the promise that individuals would experience great freedom of choice in an enhanced consumer marketplace.

I.5.1.The Political marketing

The political marketing slogan for this broad transformation of public and private life is typically a variation on “free markets, free people.” The global trend to deregulate markets even touched many once protected public goods and services such as health care, education, public broadcasting funding and public utilities.

As these policy reforms swept through various societies, they were accompanied by a number of secondary (and often unimagined) consequences, including: the fragmentation of social institutions, the individuation or separation of people from those social institutions, and the gradual replacement of modern social structures based on groups, class, and common memberships and status with more fluid social relations, ushering in an era that has been described variously as “liquid modernity” (Baumann 2000) and the “networked society” (Castells 2010).

Noting that these networked forms of social economic and political relations are often made stable and effective through innovative communication technologies, Bimber (2003) has termed the emerging era a “post bureaucratic society.” The fragmentation and personalization of social structures along with the proliferation of communication technologies and information sources have changed communication processes in many societies.

There are, of course, also important variations across those societies. In addition, the legacy media of modern society continue to exist, which may distract scholars from attending to what is changing. For example, there are still plenty of newspapers and television news programs carrying the messages from elite’ sources and the spin from legions of communication and image consultants that Jay Blumler and his colleagues associated with the last era of political communication.

The result is that audiences are no longer captives of a few mass media channels (Prior 2007). To this, it seems important to add that younger generations nearly everywhere have moved away from traditional news and political attention patterns, and toward more lifestyle-

These patterns appear in countries as different as Sweden, Norway, Germany, and the U.S. This does not mean that younger generations are necessarily apathetic or cut off from important issues.

However, they are less likely to seek information from official institutional channels and more likely to define their interests in terms of personal lifestyle values and related activities such as buying fair trade products or changing personal living habits to address environmental concerns. What seems missing in many nations is a natural connection between these lifestyle issues and conventional political attachments through parties and voting. In addition to finding more diverse information sources and political outlets, increasing numbers of citizens of all ages seek like-minded information sources

The fragmentation of public life including the breakdown of broad social membership institutions such as unions, churches, public education systems, and related shifts in political party loyalties. This fragmentation of mass society corresponds to the rise of largescale networked publics, which contributes to… Changing media systems and communication processes new technologies and channels enable more fine-grained “many-to-many” communication within fragmenting societies. Communication has become increasingly personalized, both in the way messages are framed, and how they are shared across social networks.

The extent of these changes varies in different societies. Some countries such as the US and the UK have embraced them more fully than others, such as Germany, which still displays a higher degree of modernist social structure and communication. Current frameworks for comparing media systems note general similarities and differences (Hallin and Mancini 2004), the change processes transforming communication systems in the digital age are not yet well established in theory, research or teaching.

This analysis sketches the broad changes, illustrates them with examples from different countries, and shows how they impact communication and journalism research and education. The Reorganization of Public Life As publics became persuaded of the merits of deregulated markets, consumer lifestyles and economic growth that seemed limitless before the financial crash of 2008, even many of the parties on the left rushed toward so–called “third way” thinking about reduced commitments to labor protections, public goods, and social welfare.

In many cases, parties on the left actually led the way with market reforms in core public sectors such as social services, health care and education. The ironic result was a political boomerang that benefited center right parties who charged the social democratic left (with some good reason) with becoming a pale imitation of the freedom loving center right. And so, the 21st Century opened with the helpless drift of the legacy socialist parties in the UK, Sweden, Italy, Germany and elsewhere. The resulting race to re-brand seemingly empty political vessels led to further disillusionment with the political process for many younger citizens.

The separation of younger generations from guiding institutions such as parties and the press (which derives a good deal of its content from parties and government) left citizens with few stable models for managing distress and confusion. As many social scientists observed, individuals experienced an increased sense of personal risk and responsibility for managing their own life chances during these times of rapid social change (Beck 1992; Giddens 1991). Cast adrift from broad party agendas, younger citizens increasingly attached themselves to issues connected to their lifestyles and personal values (Inglehart 1997; Bennett 1998).

Under these conditions the usual sources of information such as mass media news become increasingly doubted, and in the case of younger generations, abandoned. The result is a series of changes in media systems and how people use them. Changing Media Systems Citizens seeking more relevant coverage of their personal issue clusters create growing strains on journalism, which, in most places, continues to deliver government agenda-driven news to broad audiences. The legacy modern press system persists of course, but is followed mainly by older and more affluent demographics that support the old institutional order into which they were born.

Meanwhile, younger citizens are turning to alternative sources of information, including non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that create information rich environments around their issues, and often personalize their communication through environmental policy messages using cute baby animals or fair trade and development policies pegged to endorsements from rock stars and actors. The emergence of vibrant issue communities on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites also suggests different kinds of information production and distribution than commonly studied in conventional approaches to news production and framing.

Even when young people report following the news through publications or online ‘zines,’ the communication formats typically involve narratives shaped around lifestyle concerns, rather than with reports of conventional politics, politicians and parties. For example, lifestyle zines such as Neon in Germany have captured large segments of the young audience demographic now being lost to newspapers and public service broadcasting.

The Neon formula is an explicitly youth oriented mix of music, shopping, technology gear, reader profiles, meeting places, and pages of direct video and photo blog posts from readers about the cool things they do. Interspersed in this lifestyle cocktail are selected political stories designed to tap interest in the world beyond. Here is how a founding editor of Neon explains what kinds of stories are interesting to his audience: We’re searching for something to identify with, where people would say ‘I like that’ or ‘this is like me or like I want to be. We don’t have a policy of ‘elected officials are a no-go.’ However, I think that most young people are not interested in politics. They are interested in political issues or topics though. But in Germany there is a great distance and almost cynical attitude toward this party spectacle…A story such as ‘The New Shooting Star of the FDP, I think people couldn’t care less.

But political topics in general, dealing with problems in our society, do engage people very much. It’s either the question of ‘what has it to do with my life?’ or ‘I’ve heard so much about it, you can learn a little bit more.’1 As noted earlier, longitudinal studies of generation cohorts show that conventional newspaper readership and television news viewership has declined with each generation in most of the OECD nations, particularly in public service and “quality” journalism sectors. Despite persistent faith among journalists (and more than a few scholars) that younger citizens will acquire a taste for quality news when they grow older, most longitudinal cohort studies show that younger citizens do not return to the fold of dutiful citizenship later in life.

The modes of encounter may involve passing by headlines on the way through Internet service portals, or sharing relevant lifestyle issues with friends on Facebook. When I asked a large undergraduate class at my university in the U.S. if they had watched a nightly news program recently, barely 25 percent raised their hands. When I asked if they had seen a YouTube video “KONY 2012” about a mercenary army and child slavery in Africa, nearly all of them raised their hands.3 these shifting demographic trends in traditional information production and consumption have many implications for the communication processes we study and how we conceive of them. Among the most notable areas of change involve the gatekeeping or authoritative filtering of public information, upon which much of the research on media effects, persuasion, cueing, agenda setting, and public opinion formation depends (Bennett and Iyengar 2008). As publics invest less authority in officials, journalists, and professionally spun communication (which defined the heart of the modernist mass.

TOPIC II. DISCOVER THE UNDERLYING TRENDS OF GLOBAL COMMUNICATION

II.0. INTRODUCTION

In the early 1990s there were important trends observable in the field of world communication that had a considerable impact on the daily lives of people around the world. Major trends originate in the 1980s and mature in the l990s. They were: digitization, consolidation, deregulation and globalization.

II.1. GLOBAL COMMUNICATION TRENDS

According to Jeremy Galbraith on his article, 10 Global Communication Trends were raised for assisting the global communication, these major trends in communication are finely balanced between the emotional: periods of crisis, loss of trust, the desire for personalised communication, the drive towards greater transparency, and the rational: purposeful, strategic counsel with tangible, evidence-based outcomes.

II.1.1. Global Trends

Global trends are based on futurology. Futurology combines researches about the demographic, economic, politic and scientific development of humanity ex. MDG soon SDG.

II.1.2. Communication Trends

Even ten years ago, no one could have predicted the speed and clutter of communications businesses face every day. As a result, every day it gets more and more difficult to get your marketing message out, let alone to the people you need to reach.

As the environment has changed, tactics have too. And if your business hasn't adapted, or is not prepared to, you're going to be left behind as your competitors (or others) do.

II.1.3. Shift to Mobile and Beyond

The biggest trend with the greatest immediate impact on communication is the shift to mobile. Global mobile traffic currently represents 17.4% of all internet traffic and is rapidly increasing. Mobile internet use is expected to surpass traditional desktop internet use in 2014. Mobile has become so deeply embedded in our lives by offering convenience through immediacy, simplicity and context. Through mobile and soon wearable, technology each of us can receive individualised content which also points to another major trend, that of personalisation.

II.1.4. Personalisation or the “Youniverse”

This idea of creating your own “Youniverse” is a perfect example of tapping into our emotional desire to be seen as unique personalities. Public relations professionals must assist companies in learning how to move from more traditional tactics in favour of smarter approaches that extend their personalisation capabilities beyond the PC. The ability to deliver relevant communication across multiple channels will transform these marketing efforts from an unwanted intrusion into a valued service.

II.1.5. Social Media Impact on Communication

Public relations professionals need to keep pace with this fast-evolving environment. The challenge is dealing every day with two huge data explosions: the expanding universe of ‘digital influencers’ and the massive volume of social media conversations and real-time mentions that concern your brand, industry and competition.

Digital influencers have grown 30-fold in less than two years. A crucial difference with traditional media is the need for engagement. The sheer volume of mentions requires brands to prioritise: find out who matters, determine what they’re saying, how it sways others and how best to engage with them. Balancing the emotional (dialogue) with the rational (measurement of influence) is the key.

II.1.6. Brand Journalism

Social media broke the traditional media model in one fundamental way: media organizations are no longer gatekeepers of information & audiences. The very definition of “news” is changing, and this evolution creates the opportunity for PR & content marketing pros to create timely content that earns credibility, earns media and generates ongoing (and relevant) visibility for the brand. The key to finding and telling great stories in a way that will make your audience not only want to engage with them but share and even repurpose them is to commit to trying new things. Brand journalism isn’t content marketing, nor is it sponsored content. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. It is meaningful, quality storytelling.

II.1.7. Crisis in the “Always On” Era

Since the advent of “always on” social media, companies have to guard their reputations even more vigilantly. Viral videos can wreak havoc on brands. Legal responses like attempting to pull videos from YouTube only inflame the situation. Speed is of the essence and ultimately the only answer at times like this is timely, honest and transparent communication. This leads us to another key trend: hyper-transparent communication.

II.1.8. Transparency is King

In our hyper-connected world, the trend is increasingly towards hyper-transparent communication. Consumers and other stakeholders have many more channels at their disposal for exposing and discrediting companies for any lack of honesty. As difficult a concept as that is for many, transparency is the only answer and any failures in this area are punished with alarming speed and efficiency. Brands that embrace this hyper-honesty trend will reap the benefits in consumer trust.

II.1.9. Evidence-Based

A major trend in public relations is that of measurement from the outset and throughout a campaign to measure impact and effectiveness. Burson-Marsteller has developed an evidence based approach to communication with the use of research among target audiences to test messages and measure results. Digital campaigns are particularly easy to track as many social media channels like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have their own analytics which make it possible to demonstrate the reach of these campaigns by the number of views, shares, retweets, likes, etc. But it’s pushing beyond simple measurement into actionable insight that will be the game- changer for communications.

II.1.10. Image is All

Studies have shown that people remember only 20% of what they read (are you still with me?) and that 83% of learning occurs visually. The massive popularity of visual social networks like Instagram, Pinterest and Tumblr, demonstrates the emotional power of images to tell stories in a way that is proven to be far more memorable than mere words. In the same way, viral videos tell more powerful stories and allow greater engagement with consumers. The rise of infographics also shows the capacity of visuals to break large chunks of data into digestible portions. The bottom line is, we all have ever shorter attention spans and compelling images and visualisations are the key to making your story stand out from the crowd.

II.1.11. Power of Communicating Purpose

The world has fundamentally changed. Globalisation, democratisation of information, the rise of social media and the global financial crisis have forced corporate leaders to reassess the strategic path for their brands and organisations. They do so at a time when the central objectives of communication, reputation and trust, have shifted shape, perhaps irrevocably. In today’s hostile business environment, there is more need than ever for companies to explain why they are here, the rationale and the context. Our 2013 Power of Purpose study builds on those we carried out in 2008, 2010 and 2011 but with a new focus on how Corporate Purpose impacts on challenges which are increasingly relevant for companies in today’s business environment: the need for transparency, managing successful organisational change and reputation recovery after a crisis.

II.1.12. Integrated Communication

The digital age has heralded a polar – and some might argue generational – shift in the way that the communications industries of PR, marketing, and advertising operate. It is increasingly evident that the future lies in full integration of all the communication disciplines. Previous (above and below) lines of demarcation are slowly but surely being dissolved. Driven by the fast pace of technological innovations, we can expect the industry evolution towards integrated communication to gather pace.

II.2. GLOBAL COMMUNICATION

Global communication is the ability to provide and access information across cultures through speaking, listening, or reading and writing. Global communication skills are particularly vital in a business environment, where language and cultural barriers can impact efficiency.

The role of global communication changed in the 20th century. This was particularly evident after the Cold War when technological advances were on the rise and the importance of communication and international relations was just being recognized.

Global communication has become increasingly significant as globalization has evolved. U.S. relations with China, for example, have been improved dramatically in the areas of trade and cultural understanding.

II.2.1. Benefits of Global Business Communication

Whether or not you realize it, almost all business takes place at the global level now. Even the items for sale at your local businesses may have been made, sourced, or shipped from another part of the country, or another country entirely. With this new global economy comes the requirement for and the benefits of global communication in the business world.

One benefit of global business communication is the ability to do business with other countries and areas.

Your product is no longer constrained to geographic regions or countries that speak the same language as you. With the trend towards global business communication, a person in Australia can purchase your product as easily as a person down the street. Because of this, your sales will increase and your business will generate more revenue and isn’t that the idea anyway

Another benefit to global business communication is the ability to search other countries for cheaper rates on labor, raw materials, or finished goods. Because of this you can locate developing countries that may offer a similar product or service at a more competitive price than businesses in your region. A computer programmer in India, for example, may write the software you need less expensively than a programmer in Silicon Valley, California. These savings increase your bottom line.

II.2.2. Communicating Across Cultures

Communicating across cultures is challenging. Each culture has set rules that its members take for granted. Few of us are aware of our own cultural biases because cultural imprinting is begun at a very early age. And while some of a culture's knowledge, rules, beliefs, values, phobias, and anxieties are taught explicitly, most of the information is absorbed subconsciously.

The challenge for multinational communication has never been greater. Worldwide business organizations have discovered that intercultural communication is a subject of importance not just because of increased globalization, but also because their domestic workforce is growing more and more diverse, ethnically and culturally.

High-Context vs. Low-Context

All international communication is influenced by cultural differences. Even the choice of communication medium can have cultural overtones. The determining factor may not be the degree of industrialization, but rather whether the country falls into a high-context or low-context culture.

High-context cultures (Mediterranean, Slav, Central European, Latin American, African, Arab, Asian, American-Indian) leave much of the message unspecified, to be understood through context, nonverbal cues, and between-the-lines interpretation of what is actually said. By contrast, low-context cultures (most Germanic and English-speaking countries) expect messages to be explicit and specific.

Sequential vs. Synchronic

Some cultures think of time sequentially, as a linear commodity to "spend," "save," or "waste." Other cultures view time synchronically, as a constant flow to be experienced in the moment, and as a force that cannot be contained or controlled. In sequential cultures (like North American, English, German, Swedish, and Dutch), businesspeople give full attention to one agenda item after another.

In synchronic cultures (including South America, southern Europe and Asia) the flow of time is viewed as a sort of circle, with the past, present, and future all interrelated. This viewpoint influences how organizations in those cultures approach deadlines, strategic thinking, investments, developing talent from within, and the concept of "long-term" planning.

Orientation to the past, present, and future is another aspect of time in which cultures differ. Americans believe that the individual can influence the future by personal effort, but since there are too many variables in the distant future, we favor a short-term view. Synchronistic cultures’ context is to understand the present and prepare for the future. Any important relationship is a durable bond that goes back and forward in time, and it is often viewed as grossly disloyal not to favor friends and relatives in business dealings.

Affective vs. Neutral

In international business practices, reason and emotion both play a role. Which of these dominates depends upon whether we are affective (readily showing emotions) or emotionally neutral in our approach. Members of neutral cultures do not telegraph their feelings, but keep them carefully controlled and subdued. In cultures with high affect, people show their feelings plainly by laughing, smiling, grimacing, scowling, and sometimes crying, shouting, or walking out of the room.

Reason and emotion are part of all human communication. When expressing ourselves, we look to others for confirmation of our ideas and feelings. If our approach is highly emotional, we are seeking a direct emotional response: "I feel the same way." If our approach is highly neutral, we want an indirect response: "I agree with your thoughts on this."

It's easy for people from neutral cultures to sympathize with the Dutch manager and his frustration over trying to reason with "that excitable Italian." After all, an idea either works or it doesn't work, and the way to test the validity of an idea is through trial and observation. That just makes sense doesn't it. Well, not necessarily to the Italian who felt the issue was deeply personal and who viewed any "rational argument" as totally irrelevant!

When it comes to communication, what's proper and correct in one culture may be ineffective or even offensive in another. In reality, no culture is right or wrong, better or worse just different. In today's global business community, there is no single best approach to communicating with one another. The key to cross-cultural success is to develop an understanding of, and a deep respect for, the differences.

II.3. GLOBAL COMMUNICATION AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

Global communication at the turn of the 21st century has brought about many effects. On the one hand, it is blurring technological, economic, political, and cultural boundaries. Print, photography, film, telephone and telegraph, broadcasting, satellites, and computer technologies, which developed fairly independently, are rapidly merging into a digital stream of zeros and ones in the global telecommunications networks (The Economist, March 10, 1990; October 5, 1991; September 30, 1995). Economically, separate industries that had developed around each of these technologies are combining to service the new multimedia environment through a series of corporate mergers and alliances

II.3.1. Politically, global communication

Politically, global communication is undermining the traditional boundaries and sovereignties of nations. Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS) is violating national borders by broadcasting foreign news, entertainment, educational, and advertising programs with impunity. Similarly, the micro-media of global communication are narrow casting their messages through audio and videocassette recorders, fax machines, computer disks and networks, including the Internet and the World Wide Web. Culturally, the new patterns of global communication are creating a new global Coca-Colonized pop culture of commodity fetishism supported by global advertising and the entertainment industry.

On the other hand, global communication is empowering hitherto forgotten groups and voices in the international community. Its channels have thus become the arena for contestation of new economic, political, and cultural boundaries. Global communication, particularly in its interactive forms, has created immense new moral spaces for exploring new communities of affinity rather than vicinity.

In Burma or Myanmar, as it is officially known, both government and opposition have employed the Internet in their political struggles. E-mail has been used to achieve rapid global mobilization for withdrawal of Western companies from Myanmar in protest against the government's repressive policies (The Economist, August 10, 1996: 28).

These are only a few examples. However, they demonstrate that accelerating technological advances in telecommunications and their worldwide dissemination are profoundly changing the rules of international relations. On the one hand, they are facilitating transfers of science, technology, information, and ideas from the centers to the peripheries of power. On the other, they are imposing a new cultural hegemony through the "soft power" (Nye 1990) of global news, entertainment, and advertising. Globalizing the local and localizing the global are the twin forces blurring traditional national boundaries.

II.3.2. Conduct of foreign relations through traditional diplomatic

The conduct of foreign relations through traditional diplomatic channels has been both undermined and enhanced by information and communication resources available to non-state actors. The emergence of a global civil society in the form of over some 30,000 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) alongside nearly some 200 state actors as well as intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), transnational corporations (TNCs), and transnational media corporations (TMCs), has added to the complexity of international relations.

II.3.3. Role of Telecommunications in Economic

Telecommunications is contributing to changes in the economic infrastructures, competitiveness, trade relations, as well as internal and external politics of states. It also affects national security, including the conduct and deterrence against wars, terrorism, civil war, the emergence of new weapons systems, command and control, and intelligence collection, analysis, and dissemination. The Persian Gulf War provided a glimpse of what future wars might look like. The emergence of an international politics of cultural identity organized around religious, ethnic, or racial fetishisms suggests what the future issues in international relations might be.

TOPIC III: ANALYSE THE CURRENT TRENDS OF GLOBAL COMMUNICATION

PARDIGMS, THE POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC FACTORSTHAT INFLUENCE

III.0 INTRODUCTION

The Globalization of Political Economy The political economy of communication has always contained an important international dimension. For example, two founding figures, Dallas Smythe and Herbert Schiller, joined Armand Mattelart to assist the Chilean government of Salvatore Allende to build a democratic media system. Moreover, research outside the developed core began as a response to what was perceived to be media imperialism in the West. Nevertheless, on balance, most of the research in political economy had nationalist tendencies and distinct regional emphases.

For example, the bulk of Smythe’s major book Dependency Road addresses Canada’s dependency on U.S. media and asks why the Canadian nation-state permitted this to continue for so long. Nationalism became an alternative to U.S. media imperialism. Similarly, resistance to Western media domination over the developing world was met with calls for national resistance along the lines of the national liberation movements that had won independence for many nations after World War II.

III.1. GLOBAL COMMUNICATION PARDIGMS, THE POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC

FACTORSTHAT INFLUENCE

III.1.1. Global Communication Paradigms

Global communications has changed the way people think and behave in the society about issues surrounding them. According to Hocking & Smith (1995:108), Global Communications is defined as the “combined processes that are used to enhance communication on a world-wide level, on issues involving political, social, economy, culture, education and etc.” Mingst (2004:2) defines international relations as the “interactions among various actors that participate in international politics, including states, international organizations, nongovernmental organizations, subnational entities, like local governments, unions and individuals”.

It is evident that we live in the interconnected world in a global village with enhanced communication technologies that enable us to send a message from one place to another. The aim of this essay is to elaborate to the statement given below and relate the statement to the South African democratic context.

III.1.2. Economic Factorst

A consideration regarding how a consumer's disposable income and other financial resources tend to impact their buying activities. For example, the marketing team of a manufacturing business might do an analysis of how changes in every significant economic factor relevant to their target consumer market tend to affect consumption patterns for their product type.

III.1.3. Global Communication Pardigms, the Political and Economic Factorst that Influence

In addition to the tendency to focus on nationalist resistance to globalizing media, political economy developed specific regional tendencies that made it difficult for scholars to work together across their spatial and intellectual divides. Today, these regional differences have substantially diminished.

Political economists from different regions are working together on common projects and it is no longer unusual to see research from one region taking up themes that were once prominent in another. North American scholarship has made substantial contributions to political economic theory, once the primary emphasis of European research.

This includes research on the integration of digital technologies into a capitalist economy, the relevance of Marxian theory to communication scholarship, and the application of autonomist theory to social movements that make use of new media. It also is just as likely that one would find concrete studies of media problems, once the focus of North American work, such as the commercialization of media and the decline of public media, in European scholarship.

III.1.4. Global political Economy

The process of globalizing political economy is proceeding rapidly. Some of this is the result of the sheer movement of scholars, a development that has sped up over the last two decades. For example, the Canadian political economist Robin Mansell established a base for institutional political economy at the London School of Economics.

Yuezhi Zhao, who has provided the foundation for a political economy of China’s media and telecommunications system, moved from that country to the United States and from there to Canada establishing important connections among scholars in all three countries.1 One of her students A.J.M. Shafiul Alam Bhuiyan (2008) came to Canada from Bangladesh and has produced important work on political economy from the perspective of a postcolonial subject. The Korean political economist Dal Jong Yin moved to the University of Illinois, Urbana and worked with Dan Schiller to complete a dissertation on the political economy of telecommunications in South Korea.

He has since joined Yuezhi Zhao and Robert Hackett to continue the historically strong presence of a political economy perspective at Simon Fraser University in Canada. In addition to formal and informal movements of scholars across regions, universities with a strong political economy orientation have established an institutional base concentrating on international research.

The organization continues to grow and to support political economic research with an international orientation. Under the leadership of its recent president Robin Mansell and through the hard work of political economy sections heads, including Janet Wasko, Graham Murdock, and Helena Sousa, the IAMCR provides a genuine home to political economists worldwide. The establishment of the Herbert Schiller and Dallas Smythe awards to recognize the work of young scholars offers the kind of recognition and incentive for continuing the political economy tradition that these founding figures were so instrumental in developing.

III.1.5.The global integration of corporate, government, and social class structures

This is a work in progress. It is fraught with risks, tensions and contradictions. There also is considerable opposition evidenced in the rise of social movements that have protested this development at meetings of international agencies like the World Trade Organization and other international bodies like the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) which aims to extend opposition into the communication industry. Political economists have not only examined these developments, they also have taken praxis seriously and participated at the political and policy levels.

In doing so, they acknowledge the importance of the trend to trans nationalize the political economy of communication. They also recognize the need to create transnational democracy and a genuine cosmopolitan citizenship.

III.1.6. Political Economy Approach to the History of Communication

Recent years have brought about significant growth in the amount of historical research and important departures from earlier work. Research from the mid-1990s to the present has continued the trend to pursue historical analysis from a political economy perspective.

More significantly, it has departed from more traditional forms of historical analysis in communication studies. Specifically, current political economy research demonstrates that media systems in place today are the result of a deeply contested history, involving not just duelling capitalists and their allies in government, but labour unions, citizens groups, consumer cooperatives, religious enthusiasts, and social justice organizations of all stripes. McChesney (1993) firmly established the importance of this approach in his analysis of the battle for control over radio in the United States.

In addition to New Deal liberals, it included social democrats, socialists and some communists. It gained strength in the Great Depression and withered in the 1950s when business marshalled a massive counter attack, including the reactionary movement known as McCarthyism. Communication scholars writing history today from a political economic perspective are explicitly and implicitly telling the detailed story of the media’s role in the cultural front. Some have continued to enrich the story of radio.

Political economy has also addressed the historical trajectories of other media, especially print journalism. For example, Tracy (2006) has written about the crucial role of the International Typographical Workers Union in battles to control the labour process and the introduction of new technologies in the printing industry. These culminated in a 1964 strike that shut down the newspaper business in New York City for four months. Drawing on interviews with the leader of the labour action, Tracy documents labour’s once powerful voice in the media industry and assesses its strengths as well as its weaknesses, such as hanging on to a narrow craft ideology that ultimately contributed to muting that voice.

One also can find major recent examples that document the history of resistance in the telecommunications and computer industries. Countering the traditional great inventor, 51 Current Trends in the Political Economy of Communication technicist, and pro-corporate readings of AT&T’s story, Venus Green (2001) examines the significant interplay of race, gender and class in the company’s history. Dan Schiller (2007b) recounts the struggles in the workplace and in policy-making circles that challenged business efforts to control the postal and telephone system. Pellow and Park (2002) take the analysis into Silicon Valley by telling the story of the struggles first of indigenous people, then of agricultural workers, and now those of immigrant women who do the dirty hardware work and of more privileged but often exploited young software workers.

III.1.7. Standpoints of Resistance Historical research

in the political economy of communication has begun to emphasize resistance and not just the admittedly important story of how the powerful dominate. The emphasis on resistance is increasingly generalized in research on the contemporary political economy marking a shift in the central standpoint from a focus on capital, dominant corporations, and elites to alternatives that draw from feminist and labour research.

Developed by Hartsock (1999) in the early 1980s, feminist standpoint theory has flourished in the work of Harding (2003), Haraway (2003) and others who maintain that women’s subordination provides a uniquely important basis for understanding a wide array of issues from the most general philosophical questions of epistemology and ontology to such practical issues as the appropriate social science techniques to deploy in research.

Specifically, the shift from regulation in the public interest to a more intense commercial model leads companies to eliminate jobs and, using advanced technologies, impose tighter controls on those that remain. This gendering of political economy offers a rich reading of an experience that all too often is simplistically described as the inevitable consequence of technological change and global imperatives. Chapters such as this enable Meehan and Riordan to provide the empirical detail that carries out a genuine integration of feminist and political economic theory. In their 2007 book Feminist Interventions in International Communication Sarikakis and Shade take a further step to advance a feminist standpoint.

This volume engages with central issues that political economists address but from a more explicitly feminist starting point. Like many political economic analyses, the book addresses power, technology, labour, and policy but it views them from the entry point of gender. So, for example, the globalization of media industries is tightly connected to women’s employment in media and new technology. In using a feminist standpoint, they enable us to rethink the study of international communication. Yes, traditional issues such as flows of news between rich and poor nations do matter.

III.1.8. The Transition from Old to New Media

Some political economists have responded by emphasizing continuities between old and new media. For them, old media issues endure in the world of new media. For others, the emphasis is on discontinuities or the new connections that the networked media make possible. Still others have focused a sceptical eye on the promises that new media experts and gurus promote, while some concentrate on newer issues that today’s media raise.

To understand how political economists approach the shift from older to newer media, it is useful to consider each of these points. Political economy has tended to give considerable attention to describing and analyzing capitalism, a system which, in short, turns resources like workers, raw materials, land, and information, into marketable commodities that earn a profit for those who invest capital into the system. Political economists of communication have focused on media, information, and audiences as resources and charted the ways in which they are packaged into products for sale.

In such markets, what was once a largely national system of governance and government regulation has proven to be inadequate. Global systems of governance are necessary if only to insure the coordination of something as complex as the Internet address system. As a result, we have a new alphabet soup of international organizations such as the ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) which provides Internet addresses.

However, such solutions create new problems as the U.S. tries to protect its interests by controlling the ICANN and many of the world’s nations protest because they view it as little more than an extension of American power. Nevertheless, amid the changes, contradictions, opposition, and conflict, there is a consistency in the central tendency to deepen and expand the capitalist market system.

Capitalism is based on the market and a system of private property. Both require legal controls that set limits on what people can do. Copyright, trademark, and patent law constrain people’s use of information and ideas that others own. Markets establish the value of products including the information products that are increasingly prominent today.

According to autonomists, the widespread availability of information and communication technology makes it very difficult for capitalism to preserve the legal regime of private property that historically limited flows of communication and information. It is now more difficult than ever to figure out what capitalism is doing when technologies challenge traditional ideas of production and consumption, use and exchange value.

The ease of freely downloading music and video, of sharing files containing data, audio, and video, and of copying material of all sorts, challenges the ability of capitalism to maintain and police its property and market regimes. Like the common lands that were once widely available to all until capitalism made them private property, cyberspace was once available to all. But in order to make money it too needs to be turned into property, in this case the intellectual property of Microsoft, Google, Disney and the other commercial giants (Terranova, 2000). But unlike the commons of old, cyberspace is difficult to fence in because it is a fundamentally immaterial resource.

TOPIC IV. THE FLOW OF NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION

ACROSS THE GLOBE

IV.1. INTRODUCTION

IV.1. THE FLOW OF NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION

ACROSS THE GLOBE

IV.1.1. National Communication

The discipline of communication focuses on how people use messages to generate meanings within and across various contexts, cultures, channels, and media. The discipline promotes the effective and ethical practice of human communication.

Communication is a diverse discipline which includes inquiry by social scientists, humanists, and critical and cultural studies scholars. A body of scholarship and theory, about all forms of human communication, is presented and explained in textbooks, electronic publications, and academic journals. In the journals, researchers report the results of studies that are the basis for an ever-expanding understanding of how we all communicate.

IV.1.2. International communication

International communication (also referred to as global communication or transnational communication) is the communication practice that occurs across international borders.[1] The need for international communication was due to the increasing effects and influences of globalization. As a field of study, international communication is a branch of communication studies, concerned with the scope of "government-to-government", "business-to-business", and "people-to-people" interactions at a global level.

IV.1.3. The Flow of National and International Communication across the Globe

Economically, separate industries that had developed around each of these technologies are combining to service the new multimedia environment through a series of corporate mergers and alliances. Politically, global communication is undermining the traditional boundaries and sovereignties of nations.

Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS) is violating national borders by broadcasting foreign news, entertainment, educational, and advertising programs with impunity. Similarly, the micro-media of global communication are narrow casting their messages through audio and videocassette recorders, fax machines, computer disks and networks, including the Internet and the World Wide Web. Culturally, the new patterns of global communication are creating a new global Coca-Colonized pop culture of commodity fetishism supported by global advertising and the entertainment industry.

In Iran, it facilitated the downfall of a monarchical dictatorship in 1978-1979 through the use of cheap transistor audiocassette recorders in conjunction with international telephony to spread the messages of Ayatollah Khomeini to his followers within a few hours of their delivery from his exile in Paris. In the Philippines, the downfall of the Marcos regime in 1986 was televised internationally for all to witness while alternative media were undermining his regime domestically.

In Saudi Arabia, a BBC-WGBH program on "The Death of a Princess," banned by the Saudi government as subversive, was smuggled into the country by means of videotapes the day after its premier showing on television in London. In China, despite severe media censorship, the democracy movement in Tiananmen Square spread its message around the world in 1989 via the fax machines. In the Soviet Union, computer networkers who opposed the Moscow coup of 1991 and were sympathetic to Yeltsin, transmitted his messages everywhere despite severe censorship of the press and broadcasting.

In Mexico, the Zapatista movement managed to diffuse its messages of protest against the government worldwide in 1994 through the Internet. In this fashion, it solicited international support while embarrassing the Mexican government at a critical moment when it was trying to project a democratic image for admission to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). In Burma or Myanmar, as it is officially known, both government and opposition have employed the Internet in their political struggles. E-mail has been used to achieve rapid global mobilization for withdrawal of Western companies from Myanmar in protest against the government's repressive policies

The emergence of a global civil society in the form of over some 30,000 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) alongside nearly some 200 state actors as well as intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), transnational corporations (TNCs), and transnational media corporations (TMCs), has added to the complexity of international relations (Commission on Global Governance 1995). Telecommunications is contributing to changes in the economic infrastructures, competitiveness, trade relations, as well as internal and external politics of states. It also affects national security, including the conduct and deterrence against wars, terrorism, civil war, the emergence of new weapons systems, command and control, and intelligence collection, analysis, and dissemination.

Global communication is thus redefining power in world politics in ways that traditional theories of international relations have not yet seriously considered. More specifically, it is bringing about significant changes in four major arenas of hard and soft power (Nye & Owens 1996; Cohen 1996). Hard power refers to material forces such as military and economic leverage, while soft power suggests symbolic forces such as ideological, cultural, or moral appeals. Major changes seem to be taking place in both hard and soft power conceptions and calculations.

First, information technologies have profoundly transformed the nature of military power because of emerging weapons systems dependent on laser and information processing.

Second, satellite remote sensing and information processing have established an information power and deterrence analogous to the nuclear power and deterrence of an earlier era.

Third, global television communication networks such as CNN, BBC, and Star TV have added image politics and public diplomacy to the traditional arsenals of power politics and secret diplomacy.

Fourth, global communication networks working through NGOs and interactive technologies such as the Internet are creating a global civil society and pressure groups (such as Amnesty International or Greenpeace) that have served as new actors in international relations. Although no grand theoretical generalizations on the dynamics of hard and soft power are yet possible, trends indicate that the latter is assuming increasing importance.

International Relations theory has been dominated by five major schools of thought: Realism, Liberalism, Marxism, Communitarianism (also known as Institutionalism), and Postmodernism. Table 1 provides a synopsis of the major propositions, principles and processes, units of analysis, and methodologies of these schools. Realists have primarily focused on the geopolitical struggles for power, employed the nation-state as their chief unit of analysis, considered international politics as devoid of moral consensus and therefore prone to violence, and argued that the pursuit of national interest in the context of a balance of power strategy is the most efficient and realistic road to international peace and security

Table 1. International Relations: A Typology of Normative Theories

	Major Proposition	Axial Principle & Processes	Unit of Analysis	Methodology
Realism	IR is a struggle for power and peace through balance of power in a political environment devoid of moral consensus and prone to use of force. In such an environment, national interest and strength must be the guiding principles.	Order: Balance of power among competing states	Nation-state	Historical Method
Liberalism	IR is struggle for power, peace, and freedom through balance of power in a political environment in which increasing interdependencies have created a need for the rule of law and cooperation through intergovernmental organizations (IGOs)	Freedom: International division of labor, trade, and development	Nation-state + IGOs	Historical Method + Game Theory+ Simulation, etc.
Marxism	IR is a class struggle for equality between those who own the means of production and those who do not. Under the world capitalist system, the struggle has been waged between the bourgeoisie and the revolutionary working classes, peasantry, and intelligentsia. As the Highest stage of capitalism, imperialism has transformed the struggle into a global class war that cuts across national boundaries.	Equality: Leveling of wealth and income through international class struggle	World+System +TNCs+TMCs+Revolutionary & counter-revolutionary states & movements	Historical & Dialectical Materialism
Communitarianism	IR is a struggle for power, peace, and community through democratic cooperation and institution building from local to global in a political environment of contesting power and moral claims that need to be negotiated through global communication, adjudication, or mediation of conflicts without recourse to violence	Community: Integration of international community through institutions of cooperation	Civil Society+ TNC TMCs+ NGOs +IGOs + States	Eclectic & Multi-Disciplinary
Postmodernism	IR is a struggle for hegemonic power through competing truth claims that need to be understood intertexually as negotiations of knowledge and power.	Identity: Hegemony and resistance through identity formations	Culture	Interpretive

IV.1. 1. . Idealism/ Liberalism Theory

Realism has been the dominant school of thought, in both theory and practice focusing on peace through national strength, armament, and balance of power. For Realists, order is the primary normative value and historical analysis is the soundest methodology to pursue.

Idealism/ Liberals, by contrast, have pointed to the integrating forces of the world market as a new reality creating considerable international interdependency in the postwar period.

They have argued that increasing levels of free trade, development, deepening and broadening of interdependency, and international cooperation through intergovernmental organizations are the surest path to peace (Keohane & Nye 1989). For liberals, freedom in property ownership, politics, and trade is the primary normative value. In their studies of international relations, Liberals supplement historical analysis with a variety of quantitative and qualitative methods such as time-series, correlation analyses, and simulation games.

IV.1.2 Realism theory

Realism is an international relations theory which claims that world politics is driven by competitive self-interest.

According to Walter Johnson, the idealism is a decision-making based upon ideas, rather than other causes such as material self-interest or passion. In International Relations, idealism holds that older models of international interaction, based on the concern for power, can be discarded and states can interact based on things such as human rights, humanitarian concerns or peace. As a result, idealism in Int. Relations stresses international cooperation and international law.

IV.1.3. Marxists and Neo-Marxists

This theory was first developed by Karl Marx, a German philosopher (19th century) who observed the existence of inequity between the rich and poor in society and the tendency for the wealthy, more powerful classes to exploit the poorer, weaker ones. Marxists consider the international relations as an extension of the struggle between the classes, with wealthy countries exploiting poor countries.

Marxists mainly study the imperialism; a practice of powerful nations to control and influence weak nations. The theory of imperialism was developed by Vladmir Lenin before the 1917 Communist Revolution in Russia and sees the economic relationships as both the cause of and potential solution to the problem of war.

Marxists and Neo-Marxists, although in decline politically, continue to present powerful theoretical arguments that have an appeal in the peripheries of the world. They view international relations primarily in terms of class conflict within and among nations and argue that since the 16th century, capitalism has increasingly incorporated the peripheries into a world system of domination and exploitation through imperialism, colonialism, and neo-colonialism (Wallerstein 1974; Schiller 1981, 1985).

Postmodernism deconstructs the truth claims of all of the foregoing schools by casting doubt on their meta-narratives. But it also posits its own meta-narrative of relativism as a truth claim. Tensions among the five theoretical schools clearly reveal the tensions among the competing aims of democracy: order, freedom, equality, community, and identity.

On the other hand, global communication has also served as a channel for theoretical integration. Political leadership in international relations has increasingly come to mean moral leadership in such great debates as colonialism, development, population, environment, nuclear weapons, human rights, women and minority status, etc. Global communication has thus historically broadened and deepened the parameters of discourse from Realism to Liberalism, Marxism, Communitarianism, and now Postmodernism.

Each school of thought has had to respond to the concerns of new layers of the international community as they have emerged from conditions of oppression and silence. International relations theory has thus progressively incorporated the new democratic claims for equality, self-determination, and cultural identity.

IV.1.4. New World Order

The term "new world order" has been used to refer to any new period of history evidencing a dramatic change in world political thought and the balance of power. Despite various interpretations of this term, it is primarily associated with the ideological notion of global governance only in the sense of new collective efforts to identify, understand, or address worldwide problems that go beyond the capacity of individual nation-states to solve.

One of the first and most well-known Western uses of the term was in Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points, and in a call for a League of Nations following the devastation of World War I. The phrase was used sparingly at the end of World War II when describing the plans for the United Nations and the Bretton Woods system, and partly because of its negative associations with the failed League of Nations.

For example, the slogan of "New World Order" has gone through several mutations in this century. For the Axis powers in WW II, it meant a new world system making room for the imperial ambitions of Germany, Italy, and Japan. For the Allies, it meant a reorganization of the world around the United Nations principles of collective security policed by the five permanent members of the Security Council. To the Group of 77 at the United Nations calling for a New World Economic Order in a 1974 General Assembly resolution, the new order meant a revamped international economic system to redress the terms of trade in favor of the LDCs.

The Brandt (1980, 1985) and MacBride (1980) Commission reports set out those policy agendas (Traber 1986; Galtung & Vincent 1992; Frederick 1993). Following the largely fruitless North-South negotiations of the 1980s, the discourse of the new order was resurrected and co-opted by President Bush. To mobilize international support for a war effort against Saddam Hussein, Bush employed the slogan at the wake of the Persian Gulf War in 1990-1991 with maximum effect. It now meant a new international regime of "law and order" under the aegis of the United Nations supported by the unanimity of the five permanent members of the Security Council and, whenever that fails, under alliances such as NATO or ultimately superpower action.

Views of the international system and its most urgent reform needs are thus as fractious as the world itself. The complexities of the world demand international relations theories that can focus on growing gaps and interdependencies, conflicts and cooperation, violence and peace-building. They also call for policies recognizing that global communication plays a central role in problem definition and negotiation for solutions. But meaningful international communication calls for technical competence and equality of access to the means of communication a requirement that is sorely lacking in today's world.

Over the past 122 years, diverse Organs have aspired to create new knowledge about the human condition, and disseminate that knowledge to our students, patients, and public. Their commitment to the different discipline of education has been unswerving, but ever changing. Over the last few decades, their profession has become less art, and more scientific and evidenced based. The study of biology has provided the framework for understanding the function of an organism.

As each generation has been steeped in the tradition of scientific inquiry and advanced our understanding of biology, the Academy has unraveled the complexities of human function, and the pharmaceutical industry has produced some extraordinary therapies to treat human disease. Despite this long legacy of progress, I propose that the skill sets and tool kits of our generation will be insufficient to create the next generation of physician-scientists, who must work in a team-oriented, multidisciplinary arena, and require more rigorous education in a defined scientific discipline.

Science, in the broadest sense, has become a continuum, so that new insights in, physics, for example, rapidly enlighten a biological process. In 2005, on the eve of its 125th anniversary, Science magazine published an issue with the 125 most important unanswered questions in science (1). What is remarkable about the list of questions is not their diversity, which ranges from understanding the universe to the human organism, but rather the interdependence of the potential answers across all fields.

IV.1.6. The Cultural Arena or identity

Cultural Arena or identity is the identity or feeling of belonging to a group. It is part of a person's self-conception and self-perception and is related to nationality, ethnicity, religion, social class, generation, locality or any kind of social group that has its own distinct culture. In this way, cultural identity is both characteristic of the individual but also of the culturally identical group of members sharing the same cultural identity.[1] Cultural identity is similar to and overlaps with identity politics.

The impact of global communication on international cultural life is perhaps the most visible of its effects. Traveling along the Silk Road in 1992, I was persistently followed by the CNN, BBC, and Star TV. CocaCola, Michael Jackson, and Madonna were ubiquitous wherever I went--from the Great Wall of China to Urumchi (capital of Sinkiang, China's Western province) to Almaty (capital of Kazakstan), Dushanbe (capital of Tajikistan), Tashkent (capital of Uzbekistan), Ashkabad (capital of Turkmenistan), Baku (capital of Azarbaijan), and Tehran (capital of Iran). In Almaty, in August 1992, I encountered Jimmy Swaggert preaching the Gospel in fluent Kazak on the national television. In Tehran, in June 1994, courtesy of CNN and DBS, I witnessed O. J. Simpson on the run on the Los Angeles freeways. And despite Islamic edicts, MTV musical videos with their postmodern messages of sensuality, pluralism, and skepticism were reaching into the sanctity of Islamic living rooms. This was viewed by the Iranian government authorities as a cultural invasion no less menacing than the U.S. armed fleet off the coasts of the Persian Gulf.

However, it would be misleading to think of media effects as uni-linear and uniform. Technological effects are always socially mediated and constructed. Each new technology has to find its own cultural space in the life of a society before it can have any meaningful impact on social relations. In the case of the media, where technologies range from the simplest to the most complex, and from the readily accessible to those accessible only by a small elite, the effects are even more complex and ambiguous. A distinction between macromedia, meso-media, and micro-media might illustrate the point. The macromedia of communication (satellites, mainframe computers, the Internet, and its offshoot, the World Wide Web) seem to be acting as agents of globalization.

The micro-media of communication (telephone, copying machines, audio and videocassette recorders, musical tapes, and personal computers) have primarily empowered the centrifugal forces of dissent at the peripheries of power. All three types of media are, however, closely interlinked via social networks of governments, markets, and civil societies. Without contextualizing their social and political functions in historically and cultural specific situations, media effects would therefore remain largely mystifying and incomprehensible.

IV.1.7. Competing Paradigms and Policies

We live in a complex world, and global communication is not making it any less so. But if we view modernization as the overall theme of international relations in the last 500 years of world history and possibly the next 500 (Tehranian 1995), the paths to modernity may be considered to have fluctuated within four political paradigms, i.e. capitalism, communism, totalitarianism, and communitarianism. Figure 1 remaps the conventional half-circle political spectrum into a full-circle around these four polarities.

World politics has been characterized by a struggle among the proponents of these four paths. The Blues, or the pioneers of the industrial revolution (England, France, and the United States), took the liberal democratic, capitalist road with the industrial bourgeoisie leading the way, preoccupied with the rights of private property and individual freedom, following a high accumulation strategy of development and free trade policies designed to open up the markets of the rest of the world.

The Reds, the communists, were led by the revolutionary working class and intelligentsia aiming at the same goal of industrial revolution through national planning with a focus on social equality, national self-sufficiency, and high mobilization strategies of development and self-sufficiency. Last but not least, the Greens have been led by the intelligentsia to argue for socially, culturally, and environmentally responsible strategies of development prizing "community" and for high integration strategies of development. The Communitarians range in perspective from Gandhian revolutionaries in the LDCs (India, South Africa, Sri Lanka) to the social Democratic and Green Parties in the West.

Global communication has already placed the democratic norms of order, freedom, equality, and community on national agendas. The central task of the media in democratic societies may be considered to be twofold: (1) to allow for the diversity of voices in society to be heard and (2) to channel that diversity into a process of democratic integration of public opinion and will formation. Without free and vigorous debate among competing views, no nation can achieve the level of integrated unity and determination necessary for democratic societies to act on public issues.

Generally speaking, media pluralism would serve these purposes better than a media system exclusively dominated by state, commercial, public, or community media. Pluralism in structures of ownership and control are therefore needed in order to obtain pluralism in perspectives and messages. However, structural pluralism is hostage to the presence of independent market institutions and voluntary associations (political parties, trade unions, religious and civic organizations). The existence of a strong civil society to counter the powers of the state and the market is therefore a precondition for media pluralism.

A. Cultural Policies.

The central dilemma of how to balance cultural diversity with national unity is a perennial problem for any national cultural policy. Perhaps the most important issue in cultural policy is how a country defines itself with respect to its cultural identity, heritage, goals, and values. Although most democratic governments pay lip service to cultural diversity, national unity is often a higher priority.

Even in North America and Western Europe, where cultural diversity has been accepted as a democratic value (witness the US motto: E pluribus unum), multiculturalism has come under attack in recent years (Schlesinger 1992). Under communism, the Soviet Union defined itself as a bastion of the international proletariat. Composed of over 100 nationalities, however, it had to deal with the problem of nationality. Under Stalin, the Soviet empire was divided into 15 autonomous republics based on nationality.

While Soviet policies succeeded in maintaining the hegemony of the Soviet Communist Party for over 70 years, they could not destroy ethnic and religious loyalties. It is no surprise, therefore, to witness the resurgence of such loyalties to fill the vacuum that is left by the de-legitimization of the Communist ideology. As a result, in the newly independent republics, national histories, identities, goals, as well as place and family names have been revamped to fit the new circumstances. Such cultural restorations included a change from Leningrad to St. Petersburg, Leninabad to Khojand.

Competing myths and historical memories powerfully shape the cultural configurations of society. They are preserved in national monuments, libraries, national and religious rituals, textbooks, and the literature of a country. Cultural policy decides what myths and historical memories to preserve, which to discard, and what to repress. In monarchical Iran, for instance, the myths and memories of the pre-Islamic Iranian monarchy were glorified, while in Islamic Iran, they are being repressed at the same time that the Shi'a Islamic myths and memories are revived and embellished (Tehranian 1979, 1993).

The religious policy of a state thus has profound consequences for its cultural policy. Whether a state adopts a national religion, as in England, or pursues a policy of separation of church and state, as in the United States, has important implications for the type of schooling allowed or subsidized. Similarly, language policies affect educational practice. Since its independence in 1917, Finland has required Swedish language instruction in its schools. However, Finland's entry into the European Union has raised questions about the value of Swedish in contrast to English or French as bridges to the European community. By adopting bilingualism, Canada has attempted to keep Quebec within its federation. But Quebec's refusal to require bilingualism within its borders has undermined Canadian unity. To protect and enhance European identity vis-à-vis American TV programs, the European Union is imposing limits on the proportion of foreign programs on television

.B. Information Policies.

The dilemma of how to reconcile freedom of information with the dictates of national security and rights of privacy seems to be at the center of any democratic national information policy. A telling example of this dilemma is the controversy in the United States on the Clipper Chip and V(iolence) Chip. In 1993, the National Security Agency introduced a new encryption technique to be used for security and privacy on the National Information Infrastructure (NII). This new technique, commonly known as the Clipper Chip, was designed in secret by the NSA and remains classified so that its inner workings are unknown.

It also has an additional "feature" the government keeps the keys for you, so if they want to wiretap anyone, they can. This proposal met with nearly universal opposition from the public and industry. In January 1994, many of the world's top cryptographers and computer security experts wrote to President Clinton asking him to withdraw it. Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR, Internet Memo, February 3, 1994) created a listserv for an Internet Petition to Oppose Clipper. Public concern with pornography and violence has clashed with the First Amendment rights in other arena as well. The U.S. Communication Decency Act of 1995 made the dissemination of pornography on the Internet a criminal act. It also required the installation of Violence-Chips in TV sets allowing parents to control the programs their children can watch. However, in 1996, a few U.S. courts declared any infringement of freedom of speech proscribed in the Act as unconstitutional.

However, as long as a country has not signed the Geneva Convention on Copyright, it can continue reproducing intellectual properties without compensation to the authors and publishers. The U.S. has brought considerable pressure on some of the Asian countries to sign and abide by the Geneva Convention. Some have; others continue to refuse to sign on the grounds that their Asian heritage has been pillaged for centuries without compensation and it is now their turn to borrow or steal. In this instance, the interface between national information and foreign policies could not be any closer. Foreign policy can no longer confine itself only to the issues of security; it must also develop positions with respect to cultural identity, media freedom and protection, and information trade.

A democratic information policy would increasingly provide electronic libraries for the public and the rights of citizen access to public information. Some Sunshine Laws in the United States provide this. However, a thornier issue is the question of the rights of access of an individual to the information held about her or him. A variety of government and business files such as tax, credit, employment, and court records contain errors or facts that may be detrimental to an individual. The central policy dilemma here revolves around the question of how far the law should extend the individual rights of access and reply before government or employer rights are compromised.

C. Media Policies

Many of the dilemmas of cultural and information policies also confront those who shape national media policies. However, in multicultural societies, the dilemma of how to allow freedom of speech without encouraging hate speech is the central question (Masuda et al. 1993). Different media philosophies would, of course, respond differently to this question. Authoritarian media policies often follow the dictates of tradition.

Libertarian media policies tend to value free speech above politically correct speech. Proponents of a ban on hate speech, however, argue that it is equivalent to crying fire in a crowded theater, thus constituting a "clear and present danger." Hate speech should not be tolerated because it seriously threatens ethnic and racial peace. As the Report of the Project on Ethnic Relations in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union suggests (Internet Memo, August 24, 1994), the problem can be tackled in several different ways:

· First, through constitutional checks and balances.

· Second, through intermedia checks and balances.

· Third, through journalists' own codes of ethics.

· Fourth, through better historical and cultural education for journalists.

· Fifth, through better coverage of news contexts in relation to news events.

· Sixth, through shaming the aggressors by publicizing information about the political persecution of minorities provided by such organizations as Amnesty International.

· Finally, through bringing international pressure to bear on violators of human rights.

Communitarian media policies face a different set of problems in ethnic and religious conflicts. By definition, such policies value one religion or language or ethnicity over others because they consider it of vital importance to their national unity. Other religions or cultures are either repressed or not equally valued. Iran's persecution of the Baha'is, Turkey's persecution of the Kurds, Iraq's persecution of the Shi'ites and the Kurds, and Israel's persecution of Palestinians all fall within this category. Global communication can make a contribution to human rights through international censure for such systematic violations of its provisions.

National policies are often formulated in the context of global forces and policies. But who decides global policies- There is no global sovereign government comparable to national governments. Instead, we have a complex variety of players or stakeholders on the global scene each taking part in formulating policies that inevitably enhance or constrain national governments in the pursuit of their goals.

From a bottom-up perspective, small and medium-size powers as well as revolutionary and opposition parties and non-governmental organizations also influence policies. From a mediation perspective, the global communication networks and media act as negotiating arenas among conflicting authorities, legitimacies, and identities of governments and opposition groups. The table spells out the possible roles of the stakeholders in these three processes.

IV.1.8. Conclusion

This essay has catalogued the problems, puzzles, and policies associated with the impact of global communication on international relations. Although the essay argues that the impact has been significant and wide-ranging, the author does not wish to suggest that he has discovered any particularly dominant trends.

In the absence of persuasive evidence, such claims as the end of history, the end of journalism, the end of work, the end of the university, the end of modernity, and the emergence of an information society, global village, or electronic democracy, should be considered with a grain of salt. This essay has emphasized a "multiple effects" thesis while recommending caution on any single generalization.

The only exception to this rule is the following central argument. While each technology brings forth its own bias to the social scene by extending this or that human power (e. g. cars extending speed, computers extending information processing), it is the social mediations, constructions, and applications of technologies that ultimately determine their social effects. Radio communication has a bias for two-way communication, but when introduced into a commercial or government controlled social environment, it assumes the character of one-way broadcasting. It was not until the introduction of a cellular phone that the two-way potential or radio communication was fully exploited.

In international relations, global communication seems to have at once encouraged globalism and its discontents, i.e., nationalism, regionalism, localism, and fundamentalism (Tehranian, 1993). Because of the uneven levels and rates of economic development of nations, resistance against globalism may be considered to be a chronic problem. As a force perhaps as powerful as globalism in modern history, nationalism was initially fostered by print technology (Anderson 1983).

However, the other forms of resistance against globalism are also facilitated by communication technologies. Historically, the ideological thrust of nationalism in the modern nation-states has been toward uniformity in religion, language, and ethnicity. It is no wonder, therefore, that the major wars of the 20th century have revolved around clashing national identities. The Cold War temporarily shifted the emphasis to ideological issues. The post-Cold War era is clearly marked by a return to national, ethnic, and religious rivalries and conflicts. In the meantime, globalism is facilitated by expanding global communication networks with English as their lingua franca.

At the threshold of the 21st century, the world is faced with many contradictions, our awareness of which owes much to global communication. On the one hand, as Francis Fukuyama (1989) has argued, liberal capitalism appears to have triumphed to put an end to the history of ideological contestations. On the other hand, history has just begun for those marginalized nations whose growing access to the means of global communication is bringing them to the attention of the rest of the world.

Some 3000 to 5000 nationalities around the world are increasingly clamouring to be subjects rather than objects of history. We may thus expect the 21st century to be an arena for competing territorial and moral claims. The hegemonic state-corporate system will continue to be challenged by sporadic but persistent acts of resistance unless the world learns to respect and celebrate diversity by devolutions of power to sub-communities of a national entity.

In the absence of a more egalitarian world, Marshall McLuhan's global village has proved to be a place not of harmony but of colliding moral spaces and sporadic violence. The lords of the electronic castles and the rebellious serfs, shamans, and jesters surrounding them have confronted each other in physical, political, economic, cultural, and environmental encounters. In this context, global communication channels can serve the cause of world peace and reconciliation only if they can be turned into channels of international and inter-civilizational dialogue. In place of exclusive national sovereignties, the global commons of outer space, ocean resources, geostationary orbit, and electromagnetic spectrum, must come under inclusive global sovereignties. In place of zones of protracted violence, such as Palestine, Kurdistan, Kashmir, and Palestine/Israel, zones of peace and shared sovereignties must be built. To turn global communication into global dialogue, however, we need to rethink the problems of sovereignty, governance, economy, human rights, civic responsibilities, and media systems in order to accommodate the human unity in diversity. That diversity can be ignored only at our own peril.

TOPIC V. ROLE OF MEDIA AS AN INSTRUMENT OF INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMACY

V.0 INTRODUCTION

In international relations, public diplomacy or people's diplomacy, broadly speaking, is the communication with foreign publics to establish a dialogue designed to inform and influence. There is no one definition of public diplomacy, and may be easier described than easily defined as definitions vary and continue to change over time. It is practiced through a variety of instruments and methods ranging from personal contact and media interviews to the Internet and educational exchanges.

V.1. DIPLOMACY AS AN INSTRUMENT OF GOOD GOVERNANCE

V.1.1. Diplomacy

Diplomacy is the art of helping groups to get along and even work together. If you have a gift for diplomacy, you can get bickering siblings to cooperate.

The conduct by government officials of negotiations and other relations between nations, the art or science of conducting such negotiations and skill in managing negotiations, handling people, etc

V.1.2. Good Governance

Good governance is accountable

Accountability is a fundamental requirement of good governance. Local government has an obligation to report, explain and be answerable for the consequences of decisions it has made on behalf of the community it represents.

Good governance is transparent

People should be able to follow and understand the decision-making process. This means that they will be able to clearly see how and why a decision was made – what information, advice and consultation council considered, and which legislative requirements (when relevant) council followed.

Good governance follows the rule of law

This means that decisions are consistent with relevant legislation or common law and are within the powers of council. In the case of Victorian local government, relevant legislation includes the Local Government Act 1989 and other legislation such as the Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008, and the Equal Opportunity Act 2010.

Good governance is responsive

Local government should always try to serve the needs of the entire community while balancing competing interests in a timely, appropriate and responsive manner.

Good governance is equitable and inclusive

A community’s wellbeing results from all of its members feeling their interests have been considered by council in the decision-making process. This means that all groups, particularly the most vulnerable, should have opportunities to participate in the process.

Good governance is effective and efficient

Local government should implement decisions and follow processes that make the best use of the available people, resources and time to ensure the best possible results for their community.

Good governance is participatory

Anyone affected by or interested in a decision should have the opportunity to participate in the process for making that decision. This can happen in several ways; community members may be provided with information, asked for their opinion, given the opportunity to make recommendations or, in some cases, be part of the actual decision-making process.

It is important to remember that under the Local Government Act 1989 the council is required to either make decisions or delegate the decision-making power to officers or Special Committees.

V.1.3. Diplomacy as an Instrument of Good Governance

To begin with I should like to stress that for modern diplomacy, whose only asset is the software, it is important to maintain a balance between traditional innovations. Despite all the changes in the international environment the past experience of diplomacy is of great value and it is ultimately important to keep links in time. The classical texts on diplomacy of François De Calliers, Harold Nicolson, Ernest Sato and Jules Cambon are as useful reading for a diplomat today as they were a century ago.

One of the major lessons in the history of diplomacy is that the personal factors continue to play a key role. As far back as in seventeenth century, a great Frenchman in diplomacy, François De Calliers wrote: "The good diplomat must have an observant mind, a gift of application which rejects being diverted by pleasures or frivolous amusements, a sound judgement which takes the measure of things as they are and which goes straight to the goal by the shortest and most natural paths without wandering into meaningless and endless refinements and subtleties.

The diplomat must be quick, resourceful, a good listener, courteous and agreeable. Above all, the good negotiator must possess enough self-control to resist the longing to speak before he has thought out what he actually intends to say. He must have a calm nature, be able to suffer fools gladly, which is not always easy, and should not be given to drinking, gambling or any other fantasies. He should also have some knowledge of literature, science, mathematics, and law."

At the threshold of the twentieth century, another famous author, the British diplomat Ernest Sato, described diplomacy as an application of intellect and tact to conduct foreign affairs. In my view, a modern diplomat is discreet, practical, careful, and with a sense of responsibility. I also think that in modern diplomacy the feeling of momentum is of crucial importance. As a whole, diplomats are very good at preserving the traditions of their profession. However, there is a lot in the legacy of the past that diplomacy has to abandon.

According to the political stereotypes of the Cold War, diplomats of different countries are considered to be opponents, each trying to reach his goal at the expense of the other. No doubt, the primary mission of a diplomat is to protect the national interests of his country. However, we all have common aim good governance both on global and national levels. We all strive for a better world, a world without violence and poverty, a world that provides security and justice for all.

Thus, diplomats must learn to co-operate without sacrificing the national interests of their countries. In many other professions one can witness the existence of a corporate spirit. Unfortunately it does not happen often among diplomats. However, such club relations could be of great help to each and all of them.

The corporate spirit of the diplomatic community does not mean that corporatism should prevail over the national interest of the country which a diplomat represents. By articulating the national interests of his country the diplomat provides the possibility to better understand its position. This makes the country predictable in its international behaviour which is of supreme importance in our time of change. Attempts to please both a foreign government and his own government render disservice to the diplomat.

V.2. CONCEPTS OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

International relations are often viewed in terms of levels of analysis. The systemic level concepts are those broad concepts that define and shape an international milieu, characterised by anarchy.

V.2.1. International relations

International relations (IR) or international affairs, depending on academic institution, is either a field of political science or an interdisciplinary academic field similar to global studies, in which students take a variety of internationally focused courses in social science and humanities disciplines. In both cases, the field studies relationships among countries, the roles of sovereign states, inter-governmental organizations (IGOs), international non-governmental organizations (INs), non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and multinational corporations (MNCs). International relations is an academic and a public policy field, and so can be positive and normative, because it analyses and formulates the foreign policy of a given State.

The history of international relations can be traced back to thousands of years ago; Barry Buzan and Richard Little, for example, consider the interaction of ancient Sumerian city-states, starting in 3,500 BC, as the first fully-fledged international system.

The history of international relations based on sovereign states is often traced back to the Peace of Westphalia of 1648, a stepping stone in the development of the modern state system. Prior to this the European medieval organization of political authority was based on a vaguely hierarchical religious order. Contrary to popular belief, Westphalia still embodied layered systems of sovereignty, especially within the Holy Roman Empire.[5] More than the Peace of Westphalia, the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713 is thought to reflect an emerging norm that sovereigns had no internal equals within a defined territory and no external superiors as the ultimate authority within the territory's sovereign borders.

V.2.2. Sovereignty in International relation

Preceding the concepts of interdependence and dependence, international relations relies on the idea of sovereignty. Described in Jean Bodin's "Six Books of the Commonwealth in 1576, the three pivotal points derived from the book describe sovereignty as being a state, that the sovereign power(s) have absolute power over their territories, and that such a power is only limited by the sovereign's "own obligations towards other sovereigns and individuals".[20] Such a foundation of sovereignty permits, is indicated by a sovereign's obligation to other sovereigns, interdependence and dependence to take place. While throughout world history there have been instances of groups lacking or losing sovereignty, such as African nations prior to Decolonization or the occupation of Iraq during the Iraq War, there is still a need for sovereignty in terms of assessing international relations.

V.2.3. Power in International relation

The concept of Power in international relations can be described as the degree of resources, capabilities, and influence in international affairs. It is often divided up into the concepts of hard power and soft power, hard power relating primarily to coercive power, such as the use of force, and soft power commonly covering economics, diplomacy and cultural influence. However, there is no clear dividing line between the two forms of power.

V.2.4. National interest in International relation

Perhaps the most significant concept behind that of power and sovereignty, national interest is a state’s action in relation to other states where it seeks to gain advantage or benefits to itself. National interest, whether aspirational or operational, is divided by core/vital and peripheral/non-vital interests. Core or vital interests constitute the things which a country is willing to defend or expand with conflict such as territory, ideology (religious, political, economic), or its citizens. Peripheral or non-vital are interests which a state is willing to compromise. For example, in the German annexation of the Sudetenland in 1938 (a part of Czechoslovakia) under the Munich Agreement, Czechoslovakia was willing to relinquish territory which was considered ethnically German in order to preserve its own integrity and sovereignty.

V.2.5. Non-state actors in International relation

In the 21st century, the status-quo of the international system is no longer monopolized by states alone. Rather, it is the presence of non-state actors, who autonomously act to implement unpredictable behavior to the international system. Whether it is transnational corporations, liberation movements, non-governmental agencies, or international organizations, these entities have the potential to significantly influence the outcome of any international transaction. Additionally, this also includes the individual person as while the individual is what constitutes the states collective entity, the individual does have the potential to also create unpredicted behaviors. Al-Qaeda, as an example of a non-state actor, has significantly influenced the way states (and non-state actors) conduct international affairs.

V.2.6. Power blocs in International relation

The existence of power blocs in international relations is a significant factor related to polarity. During the Cold War, the alignment of several nations to one side or another based on ideological differences or national interests has become an endemic feature of international relations. Unlike prior, shorter-term blocs, the Western and Soviet bloc’s sought to spread their national ideological differences to other nations. Leaders like U.S. President Harry S. Truman under the Truman Doctrine believed it was necessary to spread democracy whereas the Warsaw Pact under Soviet policy sought to spread communism. After the Cold War, and the dissolution of the ideologically homogenous Eastern bloc still gave rise to others such as the South-South Cooperation movement.

V.2.7. Polarity in International relation

Polarity in international relations refers to the arrangement of power within the international system. The concept arose from bipolarity during the Cold War, with the international system dominated by the conflict between two superpowers, and has been applied retrospectively by theorists. However, the term bipolar was notably used by Stalin who said he saw the international system as a bipolar one with two opposing powerbases and ideologies. Consequently, the international system prior to 1945 can be described as multipolar, with power being shared among Great powers.

V.2.8. Interdependence in International relation

Many advocate that the current international system is characterized by growing interdependence; the mutual responsibility and dependency on others. Advocates of this point to growing globalization, particularly with international economic interaction. The role of international institutions, and widespread acceptance of a number of operating principles in the international system, reinforces ideas that relations are characterized by interdependence.

V.2.9. Dependency in International relation

Dependency theory is a theory most commonly associated with Marxism, stating that a set of core states exploit a set of weaker periphery states for their prosperity. Various versions of the theory suggest that this is either an inevitability (standard dependency theory), or use the theory to highlight the necessity for change (Neo-Marxist).

Diplomacy is the practice of communication and negotiation between representatives of states. To some extent, all other tools of international relations can be considered the failure of diplomacy. Keeping in mind, the use of other tools are part of the communication and negotiation inherent within diplomacy. Sanctions, force, and adjusting trade regulations, while not typically considered part of diplomacy, are actually valuable tools in the interest of leverage and placement in negotiations.

The allotment of economic and/or diplomatic benefits such as the European Union's enlargement policy; candidate countries are only allowed to join if they meet the Copenhagen criteria.

The international diplomatic partnership is now more feasible than before, in particular because of the gradual unification of the national styles of diplomacy. International organisations and multilateral diplomacy are effective "melting pots" of cultural differences. Diplomatic methods are becoming universal.

However, national styles still exist and should be studied and taken into consideration in the practical diplomatic work. National style is difficult to define though it is an important ingredient of the art of diplomacy. But of course a national style should not be mixed up with an inappropriate behaviour when a so-called diplomat disregards local cultural, religious and specific features of other nations.

Another stereotype concerns confidentiality in diplomacy. Diplomacy is often accused of too much secrecy and indeed, for centuries diplomacy was conducted entirely in private. The Cold War has tremendously strengthened this pattern of behaviour. However, in the world of openness and free information flows, the cult of diplomatic confidentiality looks rather archaic. Though every professional diplomat knows that in certain situations confidentiality is unavoidable, it does not mean that the profession requires him to keep quiet. Lack of openness and in particular misconstruing the truth is incompatible with modern diplomacy. This leads to the important problem of interaction between diplomacy and mass media which deserves particular attention nowadays.

V.3. DIPLOMACY

Diplomacy is the art and practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of states. It usually refers to international diplomacy, the conduct of international relations through the intercession of professional diplomats with regard to issues of peace-making, trade, war, economics, culture, environment, and human rights.

International treaties are usually negotiated by diplomats prior to endorsement by national politicians. In an informal or social sense, diplomacy is the employment of tact to gain strategic advantage or to find mutually acceptable solutions to a common challenge, one set of tools being the phrasing of statements in a non-confrontational or polite manner.

V.3.1. the birth of Diplomacy

One of the earliest realists in international relations theory was the 6th century BC military strategist Sun Tzu (d. 496 BC), author of The Art of War. He lived during a time in which rival states were starting to pay less attention to traditional respects of tutelage to the Zhou Dynasty (c. 1050–256 BC) figurehead monarchs while each vied for power and total conquest. However, a great deal of diplomacy in establishing allies, bartering land, and signing peace treaties was necessary for each warring state, and the idealized role of the "persuader/diplomat" developed.

From the Battle of Baideng (200 BC) to the Battle of Mayi (133 BC), the Han Dynasty was forced to uphold a marriage alliance and pay an exorbitant amount of tribute (in silk, cloth, grain, and other foodstuffs) to the powerful northern nomadic Xiongnu that had been consolidated by Modu Shanyu.

After the Xiongnu sent word to Emperor Wen of Han (r. 180–157) that they controlled areas stretching from Manchuria to the Tarim Basin oasis city-states, a treaty was drafted in 162 BC proclaiming that everything north of the Great Wall belong to nomads' lands, while everything south of it would be reserved for Han Chinese. The treaty was renewed no less than nine times, but did not restrain some Xiongnu tuqi from raiding Han borders. That was until the far-flung campaigns of Emperor Wu of Han (r. 141–87 BC) which shattered the unity of the Xiongnu and allowed Han to conquer the Western Regions; under Wu, in 104 BC the Han armies ventured as far Fergana in Central Asia to battle the Yuezhi who had conquered Hellenistic Greek areas.

V.3.2. Koreans, Japanese and China Cooperation

The Koreans and Japanese during the Chinese Tang Dynasty (618–907 AD) looked to the Chinese capital ofChang'an as the hub of civilization and emulated its central bureaucracy as the model of governance. The Japanese sent frequent embassies to China in this period, although they halted these trips in 894 when the Tang seemed on the brink of collapse. After the devastating An Shi Rebellion from 755 to 763, the Tang Dynasty was in no position to reconquer Central Asia and the Tarim Basin. After several conflicts with the Tibetan Empire spanning several different decades, the Tang finally made a truce and signed a peace treaty with them in 841.

In the 11th century during the Song Dynasty (960–1279), there were cunning ambassadors such as Shen Kuo andSu Song who achieved diplomatic success with the Liao Dynasty, the often hostile Khitan neighbor to the north. Both diplomats secured the rightful borders of the Song Dynasty through knowledge of cartography and dredging up old court archives. There was also a triad of warfare and diplomacy between these two states and theTangut Western Xia Dynasty to the northwest of Song China (centered in modern-day Shaanxi). After warring with the Lý Dynasty of Vietnam from 1075 to 1077, Song and Lý made a peace agreement in 1082 to exchange the respective lands they had captured from each other during the war.

V.3.3. Ancient India

Ancient India, with its kingdoms and dynasties, had a long tradition of diplomacy. The oldest treatise on statecraft and diplomacy, Arthashastra, is attributed to Kautilya (also known as Chanakya), who was the principal adviser to Chandragupta Maurya, the founder of the Maurya dynasty who ruled in the 3rd century BC, (whose capital was Pataliputra, today's Patna, the chief city of Bihar state). Arthashastra is a complete work on the art of kingship, with long chapters on taxation and on the raising and maintenance of armies. It also incorporates a theory of diplomacy, of how in a situation of mutually contesting kingdoms, the wise king builds alliances and tries to checkmate his adversaries. The envoys sent at the time to the courts of other kingdoms tended to reside for extended periods of time, and Arthashastra contains advice on the deportment of the envoy, including the trenchant suggestion that 'he should sleep alone'. The highest morality for the king is that his kingdom should prosper. It is also good to note that Lord Krishna, in the epic Mahabharata, acted as a divine diplomat and statesman between the Kuru and Pandava dynasties.

V.3.4. Modern Asia

Diplomatic Personnel

Diplomatic relations within the Early Modern era of Asia were depicted as an environment of prestige and Status. It was maintained that one must be of noble ancestry in order to represent an autonomous state within the international arena. Therefore, the position of diplomat was often revered as an element of the elitist class within Asia. A state's ability to practice diplomacy has been one of the underlying defining characteristics of an autonomous state. It is this practice that has been employed since the conception of the first city-states within the international spectrum. Diplomats in Asia were originally sent only for the purpose of negotiation. They would be required to immediately return after their task was completed. The majority of diplomats initially constituted the relatives of the ruling family. A high rank was bestowed upon them in order to present a sense of legitimacy with regards to their presence. Italy, the Ottoman Empire, and China were the first real states that perpetuated environments of diplomacy. During the early modern era diplomacy evolved to become a crucial element of international relations within the Mediterranean and Asia.

V.3.5. Europe

V.3.5.1. Ancient roots

The ability to practice diplomacy is one of the defining elements of a state. Diplomacy has been practiced since the inception of civilization. In Europe, diplomacy begins with the first city-states formed in ancient Greece. Diplomats were sent only for specific negotiations, and would return immediately after their mission concluded. Diplomats were usually relatives of the ruling family or of very high rank in order to give them legitimacy when they sought to negotiate with the other state.

The origins of diplomacy are in the strategic and competitive exchange of impressive gifts, which may be traced to the Bronze Age and recognized as an aspect of Homeric guest-friendship.[4] Thus diplomacy and trade have been inexorably linked from the outset. "In the framework of diplomatic relations it was customary for Byzantine emperors and Muslim rulers, especially the 'Abbāsids and the Fātimids, as well as for Muslim rulers between themselves, to exchange precious gifts, with which they attempted to impress or surpass their counterparts," remarks David Jacoby, in the context of the economics of silk in cultural exchange among Byzantium, Islam and the Latin West:[5]merchants accompanied emissaries, who often traveled on commercial ships. At a later date, it will be recalled that the English adventurer and trader Anthony Sherley convinced the Persian ruler to send the first Persian embassy to Europe (1599–1602).

V.3.6. Ancient Greece

The Greek City States on some occasions sent envoys to each other in order to negotiate specific issues, such as war and peace or commercial relations, but did not have diplomatic representatives regularly posted in each other's territory. However, some of the functions given to modern diplomatic representatives were in Classical Greece filled by a proxenos, who was a citizen of the host city having particular relations of friendship with another city – a relationship often hereditary in a particular family.

V.3.7. Ancient Rome

Byzantine Empire (principles, methods, mechanisms, ideals, and techniques that the Byzantine Empire espoused and used in order to negotiate with other states and to promote the goals of its foreign policy)

The key challenge to the Byzantine Empire was to maintain a set of relations between itself and its sundry neighbors, including the Georgians, Iberians, the Germanic peoples, the Bulgars, the Slavs, the Armenians, the Huns, the Avars, the Franks, the Lombards, and the Arabs, that embodied and so maintained its imperial status. All these neighbors lacked a key resource that Byzantium had taken over from Rome, namely a formalized legal structure. When they set about forging formal political institutions, they were dependent on the empire. Whereas classical writers are fond of making a sharp distinction between peace and war, for the Byzantines diplomacy was a form of war by other means. With a regular army of 120,000-140,000 men after the losses of the seventh century,[6] the empire's security depended on activist diplomacy.

Byzantium's "Bureau of Barbarians" was the first foreign intelligence agency, gathering information on the empire’s rivals from every imaginable source.[7] While on the surface a protocol office its main duty was to ensure foreign envoys were properly cared for and received sufficient state funds for their maintenance, and it kept all the official translators it clearly had a security function as well. On Strategy, from the 6th century, offers advice about foreign embassies: "(Envoys) who are sent to us should be received honourably and generously, for everyone holds envoys in high esteem. Their attendants, however, should be kept under surveillance to keep them from obtaining any information by asking questions of our people.

V.3.8. Modern Europe

In Europe, early modern diplomacy's origins are often traced to the states of Northern Italy in the early Renaissance, with the first embassies being established in the 13th century. Milan played a leading role, especially under Francesco Sforza who established permanent embassies to the other city states of Northern Italy. Tuscany and Venice were also flourishing centres of diplomacy from the 14th century onwards. It was in the Italian Peninsula that many of the traditions of modern diplomacy began, such as the presentation of an ambassador's credentials to the head of staten regions. Milan was the first to send a representative to the court of France in 1455.

However, Milan refused to host French representatives fearing espionage and that the French representatives would intervene in its internal affairs. As foreign powers such as France and Spain became increasingly involved in Italian politics the need to accept emissaries was recognized. Soon the major European powers were exchanging representatives.

Spain was the first to send a permanent representative; it appointed an ambassador to the Court of England in 1487. By the late 16th century, permanent missions became customary. The Holy Roman Emperor, however, did not regularly send permanent legates, as they could not represent the interests of all the German princes (who were in theory all subordinate to the Emperor, but in practice each independent).

During that period the rules of modern diplomacy were further developed. The top rank of representatives was an ambassador. At that time an ambassador was a nobleman, the rank of the noble assigned varying with the prestige of the country he was delegated to. Strict standards developed for ambassadors, requiring they have large residences, host lavish parties, and play an important role in the court life of their host nation. In Rome, the most prized posting for a Catholic ambassador, the French and Spanish representatives would have a retinue of up to a hundred. Even in smaller posts, ambassadors were very expensive. Smaller states would send and receive envoys, which were a rung below ambassador. Somewhere between the two was the position of minister plenipotentiary.

Diplomacy was a complex affair, even more so than now. The ambassadors from each state were ranked by complex levels of precedence that were much disputed. States were normally ranked by the title of the sovereign; for Catholic nations the emissary from the Vatican was paramount, then those from the kingdoms, then those from duchies and principalities. Representatives from republics were ranked the lowest (which often angered the leaders of the numerous German, Scandinavian and Italian republics). Determining precedence between two kingdoms depended on a number of factors that often fluctuated, leading to near-constant squabbling.

V.3.9. Middle East

V.3.9.1. Ancient Egypt, Canaan, and Hittite Empire

Some of the earliest known diplomatic records are the Amarna letters written between the pharaohs of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt and the Amurru rulers of Canaan during the 14th century BC. Following the Battle of Kadesh in c. 1274 BC during the Nineteenth dynasty, the pharaoh of Egypt and ruler of the Hittite Empire created one of the first known international peace treaties which survives in stone tablet fragments.

V.3.9.2. Ottoman Empire

Relations with the government of the Ottoman Empire (known to Italian states as the Sublime Porte) were particularly important to Italian states.[11] The maritime republics of Genoa and Venice depended less and less upon their nautical capabilities, and more and more upon the perpetuation of good relations with the Ottomans.[11] Interactions between various merchants, diplomats and clergy men hailing from the Italian and Ottoman empires helped inaugurate and create new forms of diplomacy and statecraft.

Eventually the primary purpose of a diplomat, which was originally a negotiator, evolved into a persona that represented an autonomous state in all aspects of political affairs. It became evident that all other sovereigns felt the need to accommodate themselves diplomatically, due to the emergence of the powerful political environment of the Ottoman Empire. One could come to the conclusion that the atmosphere of diplomacy within the early modern period revolved around a foundation of conformity to Ottoman culture.

The sanctity of diplomats has long been observed. This sanctity has come to be known as diplomatic immunity. While there have been a number of cases where diplomats have been killed, this is normally viewed as a great breach of honour. Genghis Khan and the Mongols were well known for strongly insisting on the rights of diplomats, and they would often wreak horrific vengeance against any state that violated these rights.

Diplomatic rights were established in the mid-17th century in Europe and have spread throughout the world. These rights were formalized by the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which protects diplomats from being persecuted or prosecuted while on a diplomatic mission. If a diplomat does commit a serious crime while in a host country he may be declared as persona non grata (unwanted person). Such diplomats are then often tried for the crime in their homeland.

Diplomatic communications are also viewed as sacrosanct, and diplomats have long been allowed to carry documents across borders without being searched. The mechanism for this is the so-called "diplomatic bag" (or, in some countries, the "diplomatic pouch"). While radio and digital communication have become more standard for embassies, diplomatic pouches are still quite common and some countries, including the United States, declare entire shipping containers as diplomatic pouches to bring sensitive material (often building supplies) into a country.

In times of hostility, diplomats are often withdrawn for reasons of personal safety, as well as in some cases when the host country is friendly but there is a perceived threat from internal dissidents. Ambassadors and other diplomats are sometimes recalled temporarily by their home countries as a way to express displeasure with the host country. In both cases, lower-level employees still remain to actually do the business of diplomacy.

V.4. TYPE OF DIPLOMACY

There are a variety of diplomatic categories and diplomatic strategies employed by organizations and governments to achieve their aims, each with its own advantages and disadvantages.

V.4.1. Preventive diplomacy

Preventive diplomacy is action to prevent disputes from arising between parties, to prevent existing disputes from escalating into conflicts and to limit the spread of the latter when they occur. Since the end of the Cold War the international community through international institutions has been focusing on preventive diplomacy.

V.4.2. Public diplomacy

Public diplomacy is exercising influence through communication with the general public in another nation, rather than attempting to influence the nation's government directly. This communication may take the form of propaganda, or more benign forms such as citizen diplomacy, individual interactions between average citizens of two or more nations. Technological advances and the advent of digital diplomacy now allow instant communication with foreign publics, and methods such as Facebook diplomacy and Twitter diplomacy are increasingly used by world leaders and diplomats.

V.4.3. Soft power

Soft power, sometimes called hearts and minds diplomacy, as defined by Joseph Nye, is the cultivation of relationships, respect, or even admiration from others in order to gain influence, as opposed to more coercive approaches. Often and incorrectly confused with the practice of official diplomacy, soft power refers to non-state, culturally attractive factors that may predispose people to sympathize with a foreign culture based on affinity for its products, such as the American entertainment industry and music.

V.4.4. Counterinsurgency diplomacy

Counterinsurgency diplomacy, developed by diplomats deployed to civil-military stabilization efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, employs diplomats at tactical and operational levels, outside traditional embassy environments and often alongside military or peacekeeping forces. Counterinsurgency diplomacy may provide political environment advice to local commanders, interact with local leaders, and facilitate the governance efforts, functions and reach of a host government.

V.4.5. Gunboat diplomacy

Gunboat diplomacy is the use of conspicuous displays of military strength as a means of intimidation in order to influence others.

It must also be stated that since gunboat diplomacy lies near to the border between peace and war, victory or defeat in an incident may foster a shift into a political and psychological dimensions: a standoff between a weaker and a stronger state may be perceived as a defeat for the stronger one. This was the case in the Pueblo Incident in which the Americans lost face with regard to North Korea.

V.3.6. Appeasement

Appeasement is a policy of making concessions to an aggressor in order to avoid confrontation; because of its failure to prevent World War 2, appeasement is not considered a legitimate tool of modern diplomacy.

V.3.7. Nuclear diplomacy

The ministers of foreign affairs of the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, Germany, France, China, the European Union and Iran negotiating in Lausanne for a Comprehensive agreement on the Iranian nuclear programme (30 March 2015).Nuclear diplomacy is the area of diplomacy related to preventing nuclear proliferation and nuclear war. One of the most well-known (and most controversial) philosophies of nuclear diplomacy is mutually assured destruction (MAD).

V.3.8. Economic diplomacy

Economic diplomacy is the use of foreign aid or other types of economic policy as a means to achieve a diplomatic agenda.

Economic diplomacy is concerned with economic policy issues, e.g. work of delegations at standard setting organizations such as World Trade Organization (WTO). Economic diplomats also monitor and report on economic policies in foreign countries and give the home government advice on how to best influence them. Economic diplomacy employs economic resources, either as rewards or sanctions, in pursuit of a particular foreign policy objective. This is sometimes called "economic statecraft"

V.3.9. Cultural diplomacy

Cultural diplomacy a type of public diplomacy and soft power that includes the "exchange of ideas, information, art and other aspects of culture among nations and their peoples in order to foster mutual understanding."

The purpose of cultural diplomacy is for the people of a foreign nation to develop an understanding of the nation's ideals and institutions in an effort to build broad support for economic and political goals. In essence "cultural diplomacy reveals the soul of a nation," which in turn creates influence. Though often overlooked, cultural diplomacy can and does play an important role in achieving national security aims.

V.3.10. Commercial or Trade diplomacy

Commercial diplomacy is a method of diplomacy. It concerns an activity conducted by public and private actors with diplomatic status to support business promotion between a home and host country. It aims at generating commercial gains in the form of trade and inward and outward investment by means of business and entrepreneurship promotion and facilitation activities in the host country.Commercial diplomacy is pursued with the goal of gaining economic stability, welfare, or competitive advantage.

V.3.11. Military or Defence Diplomacy

In international politics, defence diplomacy refers to the pursuit of foreign policy objectives through the peaceful employment of defence resources and capabilities.

Defence diplomacy as an organizing concept for defence-related international activity has its origin in post-Cold War reappraisals of Western defence establishments, led by the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence, and was a principle “used to help the West come to terms with the new international security environment.” While the term originated in the West, the conduct of defence diplomacy is by no means confined to Western countries

V.4. COMPLEXITY OF A DIPLOMATE

Career diplomats and Political appointees

Though any person can be appointed by a state's national Government to conduct said state's relations with other state(s) or international organization(s), a number of states maintain an institutionalized group of career diplomats that is, public servants with a steady professional connection to the country's foreign ministry. The term "career diplomat" is used world-widely in opposition to political appointees (that is, people from any other professional backgrounds who may equally be designated by an official government to act as a diplomat abroad). While officially posted to an embassy or delegation in a foreign country or accredited to an international organization, both career diplomats and political appointees enjoy the same diplomatic immunities.

Regardless of being a career diplomat or a political appointee, every diplomat, while posted abroad, will be classified in one of the ranks of diplomats (Secretary, Counsellor, Minister, Ambassador, Envoys, or chargé d'affaires), as regulated by international law (namely, by the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961).

Diplomats can be contrasted with consuls and attachés, who represent their state in a number of administrative ways, but who don't have the diplomat’s political functions.

Diplomats in posts collect and report information that could affect national interests, often with advice about how the home-country government should respond. Then, once any policy response has been decided in the home country's capital, posts bear major responsibility for implementing it. Diplomats have the job of conveying, in the most persuasive way possible, the views of the home government to the governments to which they are accredited and, in doing so, of trying to convince those governments to act in ways that suit home-country interests. In this way, diplomats are part of the beginning and the end of each loop in the continuous process through which foreign policy develops. Advocacy, Negotiation, Status and public image and Psychology and loyalty

Proposed, Nomination Letter, addressed to the host country and wait the response, credential Letter, recall letter, appointment letter, Provision Letter, Agreement Letter, Vetting Letter (request an agreement to represent his/her country), Diplomatic corps

V.4.1. Form of Diplomats

Diplomatic and consular missions are: Permanent diplomatic missions and Consular missions.

Permanent diplomatic missions are Embassies, which are established in other countries and Permanent missions to international organisations established in places where the organizations are based.

Consular missions may be established with the following rank: consulate general: consulate, vice consulate and consular agency depending on the scope of bilateral relations, scope of economic cooperation or the size of the expatriate community (diaspora).

V.4.2. Functions performed by a permanent diplomatic mission

A permanent diplomatic mission performs the duties which are within the field of responsibility of the Ministry and belong to the representative and foreign-policy functions envisaged in international treaties and the diplomatic practice.

In the performance of duties falling in its competence, the permanent diplomatic mission is bound to act in accordance with the Constitution, laws, generally accepted rules of international law and ratified international treaties, as well as by-laws of a general nature, including the instructions given by the Minister and in line with such instructions and guidelines provided by the heads of the relevant internal units of the Ministry. The Embassy also performs consular functions

V.4.3. Duties performed by a consular mission

A consular mission performs those tasks within the competence of the Ministry belonging to the consular functions envisaged in international treaties and the diplomatic and consular practice.

In the performance of duties falling in its competence, the consular mission acts in accordance with the Constitution, laws, generally accepted rules of international law and ratified international treaties, as well as by-laws of a general nature, including the instructions given by the Minister and in line with such instructions and guidelines provided by the heads of the relevant internal units of the Ministry, and by the Ambassador accredited in the receiving State.

V.5. TOOLS USED IN DIPLOMACY

Different tools are used in International Relations as communications, information. Diplomatic Note or Note verbale, Exchange Letter, Interpretative letters, Bilingual acts, Conventions, Treaties, Order Letters, Accredentials Letter, Agreement Letter, Request Letter, Briefs, Memo, Cabinet Letter, JPC, MoU, Ratification, Recall Letter, Agreement, International commitments, Joint communiqués, Diplomatic Bag, Transmission Letter and so on………..

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