Chapter2: Approaching to Theorizing International Communication

The chapter assets in understanding the concept of international communication by presenting some theories that will help us in approaching this subject.

Theories of international communication has started to emerge with the growth of economic and industry that made communication easier. One of the very first theories of communication developed by the French philosopher Claude Henri who argued that the development of a system of communication routes and money was a necessity for an industrializing society, these elements helped in the distribution of nutrition while channels of information (press, telegraph, radio..) are the ways of distribution of “nutrition” to the nervous system. In the twentieth century a huge debate was around the role of communication on affecting the public opinion.

The chapter represented two approaches to theorizing communication:

The political-economy approach: communication (the control of means of communication as a way of controlling people by the ruling classes. They regulate the production and distribution of ideas.

Free flow of information: for the supporters of capitalism, the primary goal of international communication is to promote the meaning of democracy. The concept of free flow of information reflected Western

Modernization theory: international communication was a way to modernize what was called “third world” International communication could be used to spread modernity and transfer the economic and political models

Dependency theory: emerged as a result of the political situation in America with increasing US support for right-wing authoritarian governments. Ignored the question of media form and content. And the role of the audience. The fulfillment of one party’s needs and goals is reliant on the resources of another party. The main focus of the theory is the relationship between media and audiences. In industrialized and information-based societies, individuals tend to develop a dependency on the media to satisfy a variety of their needs, which can range from a need for information on a political candidate’s policy positions (to help make a voting decision) to a need for relaxation and entertainment.

Structural Imperialism: The world consists of developed and underdeveloped states. Either developed or underdeveloped countries, they both possesses developed ‘core’ and underdeveloped ‘periphery’ Structural imperialism is defined as a “sophisticated type of dominance relation. The interest of the elite in the underdeveloped countries coincide with the elite in the developing countries.

Galtung defines five types of imperialism that depend on the type of exchange between center and periphery nations: economic, political, military, communication and cultural. Communication imperialism reinforce the dominance relationship of the center over the periphery.

Theories of the information society: Communication helped in processing information easily into our societies. The convergence of telecommunication and computing technologies and the reduction of the cost of computing made the access to information easier. Some others, believe that the creation of an information society was via the creation of internet. Which link between home and outsiders.