BRICS Media: Reshaping the Global Communication Order?

329 Pages·2021·30.169 MB·English

by  Daya Kishan Thussu and Kaarle Nordenstreng

BRICS MEDIA

Bringing together distinguished scholars from BRICS nations and those with deep interest
and knowledge of these emerging powers, this collection makes a significant intervention in
the ongoing debates about comparative communication research and thus contributes to the
further internationalization of media and communication studies.
The unprecedented expansion of online media in the world’s major non- Western nations,
exemplified by BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), is transforming global
communication. Despite their differences and divergences on key policy issues, what unites
these five nations, representing more than 20 per cent of the global GDP, is the scale and
scope of change in their communication environment, triggered by a multilingual, mobile
Internet. The resulting networked and digitized communication ecology has reoriented
international media and communication flows. Evaluating the implications of globalization
of BRICS media on the reshaping of international communication, the book frames this
within the contexts of theory- building on media and communication systems, soft power
discourses, and communication practices, including in cyberspace. Adopting a critical
approach in analysing BRICS communication strategies and their effectiveness, the book
assesses the role of the BRICS nations in reframing a global communication order for a
‘post-A merican world’.
This critical volume of essays is ideal for students, teachers and researchers in journalism,
media, politics, sociology, international relations, area studies and cultural studies.
Daya Kishan Thussu is Professor of International Communication at Hong Kong Baptist
University. For many years he was Professor of International Communication at the
University of Westminster in London. Author or editor of 19 books, he is Managing Editor
of the Sage journal, Global Media and Communication.
Kaarle Nordenstreng is Professor Emeritus of Journalism and Mass Communication at
Tampere University in Finland. A former Vice- President of the International Association for
Media and Communication Research and President of the International Organization of
Journalists, he has written or edited more than 60 books.
Internationalizing Media Studies

Series Editor: Daya Kishan Thussu
Internationalizing Media Studies
Daya Kishan Thussu
Popular Media, Democracy and Development in Africa
Herman Wasserman
The Korean Wave: Korean Media Go Global
Youna Kim
Mapping BRICS Media
Kaarle Nordenstreng and Daya Kishan Thussu
Contemporary BRICS Journalism
Svetlana Pasti and Jyotika Ramaprasad
China’s Media Go Global
Daya Kishan Thussu, Hugo de Burgh, Anbin Shi
Location Technologies in International Context
Rowan Wilken, Gerard Goggin and Heather A. Horst
BRICS Media
Reshaping the Global Communication Order?
Edited by Daya Kishan Thussu and Kaarle Nordenstreng
Digital- Age Resistance
Journalism, Social Movements and the Media Dependence Model
Andrew Kennis
For a full list of titles in this series, please visit https:// www.routledge.com/
Internationalizing- Media- Studies/ book- series/ IMS
BRICS MEDIA

Reshaping the Global
Communication Order?
Edited by Daya Kishan Thussu
and Kaarle Nordenstreng
First published 2021
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2021 selection and editorial matter, Daya Kishan Thussu and Kaarle Nordenstreng;
individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Daya Kishan Thussu and Kaarle Nordenstreng to be identified as the
authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters,
has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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British Library Cataloguing- in- Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Thussu, Daya Kishan, editor. | Nordenstreng, Kaarle, editor.
Title: BRICS media: reshaping the global communication
order? / edited by Daya Kishan Thussu and Kaarle Nordenstreng.
Description: New York: Routledge, 2020. |
Series: Internationalizing media studies |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020028327 (print) | LCCN 2020028328 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781138604025 (hardback) | ISBN 9781138604032 (paperback) |
ISBN 9780429468759 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Intercultural communication– Developing countries. |
Communication– Political aspects– Developing countries. | Mass media– Political
aspects– Developing countries. | Developing countries– Foreign relations. | BRICS.
Classification: LCC HM1211.B745 2020 (print) |
LCC HM1211 (ebook) | DDC 303.48/2 09724– dc23
LC record available at https:// lccn.loc.gov/ 2020028327
LC ebook record available at https:// lccn.loc.gov/ 2020028328
ISBN: 978-1 -1 38-6 0402- 5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1 -1 38-6 0403- 2 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0 -4 29-4 6875- 9 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by Newgen Publishing UK
CONTENTS

List of contributors viii

Foreword: Understanding global communication in a polycentric world xv

Barry K. Gills
Introduction 1

Daya Kishan Thussu and Kaarle Nordenstreng
PART I
Challenging dominant discourses in a new world order 21

1 The BRICS paradox 23

Marko Juutinen and Jyrki Käkönen
2 Shifting paradigms in communication research 39

Muniz Sodré, Raquel Paiva, Kaarle Nordenstreng and
Leonardo Custódio
3 Moving beyond Western models in the study of BRICS
media systems 53

Savyasaachi Jain
vi Contents
PART II
Media and communication structures and systems 73

4 The Brazilian media system in a turbulent environment 75

Fernando Oliveira Paulino and Liziane Soares Guazina
5 A post- analogue hybrid media system: The Russian case 90

Elena Vartanova
6 Media systems and structures in India 108

B. P. Sanjay
7 Beyond convergence: Rethinking China’s media system
in a global context 124

Zhengrong Hu, Deqiang Ji, Peixi Xu and Kriti Bhuju
8 South Africa: Beyond democratic deficit in public service
broadcasting 138

viola candice milton and Winston Mano
PART III
BRICS and global strategic communication 157

9 Brazil and corporatist soft power 159

Joseph Straubhaar
10 Russian soft power from USSR to Putin’s Russia 177

Dmitry Gavra and Elena Bykova
11 India: Culture as soft power 193

Daya Kishan Thussu
12 China’s cultural power reconnects with the world 209

Ying Zhu and Michael Keane
13 Contending soft powers: South African media on the
African continent 223

Herman Wasserman and Musawenkosi Ndlovu
Contents vii
PART IV
BRICS and changing communication practices 239

14 BRICS journalism as a new territory for localizing
journalism studies 241

Jyotika Ramaprasad and Svetlana Pasti
15 Neoliberal capitalism and BRICS on screen 262

Tatu Laukkanen and Iiris Ruoho
16 BRICS de- Americanizing the Internet? 280

Daya Kishan Thussu
Index 302
CONTRIBUTORS

Kriti Bhuju is completing her PhD at the Communication University of China.
A former journalist and a development communicator in Nepal, her research
interests include international and development communication, new media and
technology and media literacy.
Elena Bykova, PhD, is Professor at the Higher School of Journalism and Mass
Communications, St. Petersburg State University. She received a PhD in Philological
Sciences in 2012 and her research interests include journalism and mass communi-
cation, advertising, theory of speech activity and semantics. Author of more than 80
academic books and articles, among her publications is Speech Structure of a Modular
Text (2011).
Leonardo Custódio, PhD, is a postdoctoral researcher in Minority Studies at Åbo
Akademi University, Finland. His research focuses on how people who suffer from
social and racial inequalities engage in media activism for justice and change. He is
the author of Favela Media Activism: Counter-p ublics for Rights in Brazil (Lexington
Books, 2017). He is also one of the coordinators of the Anti-R acism Media Activist
Alliance, a three-y ear activist-r esearch initiative (2018– 2020) that promotes know-
ledge exchange and international networking among anti-r acist scholars and
activists in Finland, Brazil and other countries.
Dmitry Gavra is Professor and Chair of Business communication and Public
Relations at School of Journalism and Mass Communications of St- Petersburg
State University, where he was Director of the Sociological Research Center (1996–
2000). He was Deputy Director of the St- Petersburg Center for Public Opinion
Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences (1989–1 996) and since 2017 he has
been President of the Russian National Public Relations Education Association.
Notes on contributors ix
Author of eight books as well as more than 120 articles, his current research relates
to the sociology of journalism, political consulting, business communications and
public relations.
Barry Gills is Professor of Global Development Studies, Department of Political
and Economic Studies, University of Helsinki, Finland. He is the Editor- in- Chief of
the Globalizations journal and a book series editor for the Rethinking Globalizations
series (Routledge). He has written widely on world system theory, globalization,
the political economy of development, global crises, democratization, the politics of
resistance and social transformations in the global South. He is a fellow of the World
Academy of Art and Science.
Liziane Soares Guazina is Professor and Vice Dean at the Faculty of
Communication, University of Brasilia, where she is also leader of the Culture,
Media and Politics Research Group and coordinator of the Study Center on Media
and Politics. She was visiting scholar at Università Degli Studi di Milano (2019–
2020). Her current research includes political communication, political journalism,
public communication and the relationship between populism and the media.
Zhengrong Hu, PhD, is Editor-i n- Chief of China Education Television and also
Vice Chairman of Chinese TV Artists Association and Chairperson of Journalism
and Communication Discipline Evaluation Group, the National Degree Committee
of the State Council. He was President of the Communication University of China
(2016– 2018), Chair of the National Journalism and Communication Discipline
Supervisory Committee (2013–2 017) and President of the China Communication
Association (2006– 2010). He has published widely both in English and Chinese,
including the Annual Report of China’s International Communication (2014– 2018),
Global Media Industries (2011– 2018), Thirty Years of Chinese Media: 1978–2 008
(2008), and a number of refereed journal articles. He was a research fellow at
Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University (2005) and Leverhulme
Visiting Professor (2006) at University of Westminster in London.
Savyasaachi Jain, PhD, is a Senior Lecturer at Cardiff University. He teaches jour-
nalism and documentary, drawing upon his vast experience as a journalist, docu-
mentary filmmaker and international media trainer. His research interests lie in
international journalism, Indian media, global media systems and the development
of journalistic practices and standards.
Deqiang Ji, PhD, is Associate Professor of International Communication and Vice
Dean of the ‘Institute for A Community with Shared Future’ at the Communication
University of China. He serves as Vice Chair of the International Communication
Section of the International Association for Media and Communication Research and
Member of the Program Committee of Dialogue of Civilizations Research
Institute (Berlin). His research covers several interrelated fields, including media