Media and Globalisation MEVIT 3220 MEVIT 4220 Globalisation

Media and Globalisation MEVIT 3220 & MEVIT 4220 Globalisation and National Responses: Policy and Regulation Dumisani Moyo

Main Texts for today’s lecture • Van Binsbergen and van Dijk • Tomasellis & Heuva, Horwitz: Resistance, negotiation • Sonwalker: Murdochisation • Miller: Global Hollywood and division of labour

National Responses: Policy & Regulation • Intro: • Weak states, failed states, the nation-state project? • Africa in the global debate – – – Relevance to global economy - Castelles Source of raw materials, little processing Victimhood Colonisation, plunder and dispossession National TV, foreign images Global media situation: M-Net, CFI, BBC, VOA, etc

Cultural imperialism debate • Cultural imperialism and resistance: the 60 s (particularly in Latim America) – Expansion of American TNCs to S. America in 60 s and 70 s gave rise to this debate; along with American mass culture, mass products – Cultural imperialism debate & NWICO debates – Walter Rodney: How Europe Underdeveloped Africa – Belgian Amand Mattelart, Hebert Schiller (USA), and Canadian Dallas Smythe – Influenced by Gramsci, the Frankfurt School

Critique & decline of cultural imperialism • Central to cultural imperialism thesis was the aspect of victimhood … Cultural domination N/S, atomised society at mercy of cultural industry • But by the late 70 s, questions were being raised about the claimed international influence of mass culture, about passive receivers of mass mediated messages • Katz and Liebes (1984) Once Upon a Time in Dallas: different readings, sociao-cultural frames in decoding - diversity rather than homogeneous

Critique and Decline: Cultural imperialism… • Challenge also came from ‘active audience’ theories - audience resistance • John Fiske (1986) - polysemic reading of texts • Stuart Hall (1973) - preferred meaning (Encoding and Decoding …) • Oppositional meanings, e. g. portrayal of women

Critique and Decline: Cultural imperialism… • So, is cultual imperialism dead? ? – Not quite – Term expanded to mean not just American domination, but also TNCs from Europe, Asis, etc. though USA still dominant – Oliver Boyd Barrett’s work on news flows between North and South still influential – Cultural imperialism and literary theory – Still many forms of resistance to cultural imperialism active and passive – Ngugi wa Thiong’o - there has always been resistance

Neoliberalism and the Developing World • Dying down of resistance discourse (cultural imperialism and NWICO) and ascendance of neo-liberalism in the 80 s • IMF/WB, trade regimes such as GATTs, WTO and the drive for privatisation, deregulation opening up of markets • Role of consultants, global civil society in spreading the new ideas • Reforms in telecomms

The wider context … The Four waves of marketisation • 1. Policy changes in the USA from the 1980 s onwards • 2. Changes in other industrialised countries (Western Europe, Canada, Australia, etc). See, e. g, Humphreys, 1996; Collins and Murroni, 1996; Levy 1999 etc. • 3. Changes in transitional and mixed societies (see, e. g. Curran and Park, 2000; Price et al. 2002) • 4. Convergence, and new laws that seek to reflect these changes (Hesmondhalgh, 2002)

African responses … • Van Binsbergen and van Dijk: African Agency in Appropriation of Global Culture – Responses of African societies to various forms of globalisation: reinterpretation of Christian faith and domestication of certain practices – Creative appropriation of global culture - the new ICTs and the traditional mass media – Reflexivity – Gewald and the hijacking of CNN - linked to Sonwalker’s article on Murdochization

African responses: some cases … • But how did African countries respond in terms of media policies? • South Africa: Negotiated liberalisation (Horwitz, 2001; Heuva and Tomasellis, 2004) • Zambia: Reluctant liberalisation • Zimbabwe: Musical chairs?

Media Policy and Regulation Supranational Ragulatory Frameworks • SADC Protocol on Transport and Communications • TRASA Telecoms Regulators Association of Southern Africa • COMESA – towards harmonisation of ICT policy • African Charter on Broadcasting (MISA, USAID, OSISA) • Declaration on Human and People’s Rights

South African response • Robert Horwitz’ central argument is that, • “Though globalisation creates pressures, opportunities, and constraints, communications reforms are shaped largely by domestic actors through domestic political institutions” (Horwitz, 2001). • Domestic political environment shapes media policy

South African Response • Brief historical background: SA - First colonised by the Dutch, then the British - Under Apartheid grip for since the late 1940 s - The media served white interests, and used as a tool of repression - Broadcasting in particular was used as a tool for divide and rule (Bantustan radio) - Public service broadcasting and John Reith

South African response • Converging interests on the eve of independence in 1993: • The NP feared the prospect of having broadcasting in the hands of a black majority government in the post-independence era • Nelson Mandela’s ANC on the other hand feared the idea of going into elections with the SABC in the control of the NP • The NP therefore wanted to move with haste to privatise the SABC, which would guarantee continued white ownership

South African Responses … • Broadcasting and nation-building: 11 official languages • Three tier broadcasting system comprising of public service, commercial and community broadcasters - all mandated with a public service role

South Africa and the region … • Some recent developments: • SA has moved way ahead of even most European countries in terms of setting up a converged regulator (ICASA) (Collins, 2004). • Influence of South African model in the Southern African region

Zambia • Reluctant despite donor pressure – Licensing Christian community broadcasters – Selective implementation of new laws (the ZNBC Act and the IBA Act of 2002 – Monopoly has been broken, but state broadcaster remains dominant – No independent regulator appointed despite new law

Zimbabwe • Change without change: playing musical chairs – Extreme resistance: 75% local content – Ban on foreign ownership in broadcasting – Ban on foreign reporters operating within – More repressive laws – No independent regulation – State monopoly broadcasting persists

Some implications … • The state still matters – Policy still shaped at the national level despite weakness of the African state – Global pressure for communications reform have produced varied instead of homogeneous responses – The poor can creatively appropriate, negotiate and even domesticate global culture – African film, URTNA, SABA, Nollywood – Cultural imperialism? – Unbalanced flows sill persist …