This volume interrogates what "global" means in the context of "communication," and who benefits from global communication practices and industries. Emerging scholars contribute their unique perspectives in communication scholarship, charting innovative directions for research that connects empirical evidence with pressing questions of social significance. This critical reflection leads to considering problems that result from the way global communication becomes mobilized, in the practice of journalism and development as well as the ICT industry. Global Communication defines the term "globalization," through understanding the cultural geography of global, regional, national, and local media. Critical evaluations of media production, distribution, and consumption practices, within cultural contexts, offer insights into how people "mediate" the global. Chapters draw attention to communications in Latin America, the Arab World, and South Asia, complicating territorial boundaries and exploring how local audience and industry practices work within global as well as local configurations.

This book explores the empirical and theoretical significance of understanding television as a dynamic technology, a creative industry, and a vibrant cultural form that is "at large" in South Asia. Bringing together prominent scholars who have shaped television studies in South Asia, as well as emerging scholars who address new topics, this book decisively positions television as a key site in the study of South Asian History and Culture. In doing so, it also positions the study of television in South Asia and the South Asian diaspora as crucial in the rethinking of global television history and opens up new directions for the future of television studies. This volume will be essential reading for scholars and teachers of media and communication studies, media history, anthropology, and sociology, besides being of great interest to policymakers and media professionals. This book was originally published as a special issue of South Asian History and Culture.

This volume interrogates what "global" means in the context of "communication," and who benefits from global communication practices and industries. Emerging scholars contribute their unique perspectives in communication scholarship, charting innovative directions for research that connects empirical evidence with pressing questions of social significance. This critical reflection leads to considering problems that result from the way global communication becomes mobilized, in the practice of journalism and development as well as the ICT industry. Global Communication defines the term "globalization," through understanding the cultural geography of global, regional, national, and local media. Critical evaluations of media production, distribution, and consumption practices, within cultural contexts, offer insights into how people "mediate" the global. Chapters draw attention to communications in Latin America, the Arab World, and South Asia, complicating territorial boundaries and exploring how local audience and industry practices work within global as well as local configurations.

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aEverybody knows that TV is crucial to globalization. Now, thanks to Lisa Parks and Shanti Kumar, we know why and how television matters globally. With TV studies moving out of the classroom and onto the world stage, this volume is an indispensable passport.a
--Toby Miller, editor of "Television & New Media"

From the 1967 live satellite program "Our World" to MTV music videos in Indonesia, from French television in Senegal to the global syndication of African American sitcoms, and from representations of terrorism on German television to the international Teletubbies phenomenon, TV lies at the nexus of globalization and transnational culture.

Planet TV provides an overview of the rapidly changing landscape of global television, combining previously published essays by pioneers of the study of television with new work by cutting-edge television scholars who refine and extend intellectual debates in the field. Organized thematically, the volume explores such issues as cultural imperialism, nationalism, postcolonialism, transnationalism, ethnicity and cultural hybridity. These themes are illuminated by concrete examples and case studies derived from empirical work on global television industries, programs, and audiences in diverse social, historical, and cultural contexts.

Developing a new critical framework for exploring the political, economic, sociological and technological dimensions of television cultures, and countering the assumption that global television is merely a result of the current dominance of the West in world affairs, Planet TV demonstrates that the global dimensions of television were imagined intoexistence very early on in its contentious history. Parks and Kumar have assembled the critical moments in television's past in order to understand its present and future.

Contributors include Ien Ang, Arjun Appadurai, Jose B. Capino, Michael Curtin, Jo Ellen Fair, John Fiske, Faye Ginsburg, R. Harindranath, Timothy Havens, Edward S. Herman, Michele Hilmes, Olaf Hoerschelmann, Shanti Kumar, Moya Luckett, Robert McChesney, Divya C. McMillin, Nicholas Mirzoeff, David Morley, Hamid Naficy, Lisa Parks, James Schwoch, John Sinclair, R. Anderson Sutton, Serra Tinic, John Tomlinson, and Mimi White.

View the Table of Contents
Read the Introduction

aEverybody knows that TV is crucial to globalization. Now, thanks to Lisa Parks and Shanti Kumar, we know why and how television matters globally. With TV studies moving out of the classroom and onto the world stage, this volume is an indispensable passport.a
--Toby Miller, editor of "Television & New Media"

From the 1967 live satellite program "Our World" to MTV music videos in Indonesia, from French television in Senegal to the global syndication of African American sitcoms, and from representations of terrorism on German television to the international Teletubbies phenomenon, TV lies at the nexus of globalization and transnational culture.

Planet TV provides an overview of the rapidly changing landscape of global television, combining previously published essays by pioneers of the study of television with new work by cutting-edge television scholars who refine and extend intellectual debates in the field. Organized thematically, the volume explores such issues as cultural imperialism, nationalism, postcolonialism, transnationalism, ethnicity and cultural hybridity. These themes are illuminated by concrete examples and case studies derived from empirical work on global television industries, programs, and audiences in diverse social, historical, and cultural contexts.

Developing a new critical framework for exploring the political, economic, sociological and technological dimensions of television cultures, and countering the assumption that global television is merely a result of the current dominance of the West in world affairs, Planet TV demonstrates that the global dimensions of television were imagined intoexistence very early on in its contentious history. Parks and Kumar have assembled the critical moments in television's past in order to understand its present and future.

Contributors include Ien Ang, Arjun Appadurai, Jose B. Capino, Michael Curtin, Jo Ellen Fair, John Fiske, Faye Ginsburg, R. Harindranath, Timothy Havens, Edward S. Herman, Michele Hilmes, Olaf Hoerschelmann, Shanti Kumar, Moya Luckett, Robert McChesney, Divya C. McMillin, Nicholas Mirzoeff, David Morley, Hamid Naficy, Lisa Parks, James Schwoch, John Sinclair, R. Anderson Sutton, Serra Tinic, John Tomlinson, and Mimi White.

Shanti Kumar's "Ghandi Meets Primetime examines how cultural imaginations of national identity have been transformed by the rapid growth of satellite and cable television in postcolonial India. To evaluate the growing influence of foreign and domestic satellite and cable channels since 1991, the book considers a wide range of materials including contemporary television programming, historical archives, legal documents, policy statements, academic writings and journalistic accounts. Kumar argues that India's hybrid national identity is manifested in the discourses found in this variety of empirical sources. He deconstructs representations of Mahatma Gandhi as the Father of the Nation on the state-sponsored network Doordarshan and those found on Rupert Murdoch's STAR TV network. The book closely analyzes print advertisements to trace the changing status of the television set as a cultural commodity in postcolonial India and examines publicity brochures, promotional materials and programming schedules of Indian-language network to outline the role of vernacular media in the discourse of electronic capitalism. The empirical evidence is illuminated by theoretical analyses that combine diverse approaches such as cultural studies, poststructuralism and postcolonial criticism.