Reviews

Kai Hafez (2007) The Myth of Media Globalization

Cambridge: Polity. 224 pages. ISBN 0745639097. £14.99 paperback.

In tackling global media, Kai Hafez has chosen a thematically manifold, potentially chaotic, and intensely debated topic that has been tackled thus far mainly in either edited collections that portray diverse positions, or in monographs with a specific intervention into the debate. To his immense credit, Hafez has attempted to provide not only a balanced survey of most of the existing literature on the topic, but also a carefully structured narrative that touches on most of the relevant aspects of the subject. This is a commendable effort, particularly since his writing style is extremely approachable and student-friendly.

Correctly identifying one of the problems of media studies as its neglect of developments in other disciplines such as philosophy, political science and sociology, Hafez declares at the outset his intention to recuperate the concept of globalization through theoretical refinement and empirical evidence. He is right in his estimation that such a reworking of what constitutes 'global' developments is a prerequisite to the evaluation of the debates on global media. The conceptual framework that Hafez promotes in order to achieve this is based on systems theory, whose 'key characteristics and conceptual tools' he divides into three fields: 'system connectivity, system change, and system interdependence' (p.7). The first chapter is an elaboration of these concepts and fields, and contains a convincing rationale for their deployment in the systematic analysis of the claims and counter-claims being made on behalf of international media and communications. The headings of the chapters that follow reflect the clarity with which each of the areas of study comprising this field is examined, mainly with the help of existing research - developments and debates in the study of international news, satellite television, film export, the internet, and media policy are usefully surveyed. But in addition to these stalwarts in media studies Hafez also examines other complex themes that incorporate the media, including migration, national identity, and global capital. Threaded through these subject areas is a concern with the relevance of the state, and an engagement with the old bugbear of cultural imperialism. The demand for empirical support for assertions built on theory is well founded, and is adequately demonstrated in his argument regarding the continuing relevance of nation-based media that cater to the cultural tastes and contexts of the local populace.

With regard to the as yet unresolved debate on cultural imperialism, Hafez recommends steering a 'middle course' and, towards the end of an insightful critique of the limitations and questionable assumptions on display in both the extreme positions in the debate, arrives at a seemingly inconclusive verdict: 'The dissatisfying but realistic conclusion must therefore be: Western imports do not necessarily but may work to change cultures' (p.86, emphasis in the original). This apparent equivocality is instructive: the parameters of the dispute have contributed to a series of well-argued positions and empirical evidence that support opposing standpoints. On that basis Hafez is right in arguing that the case for either (or any) position in the debate is necessarily inconclusive. On the other hand, the question arises as to whether the framework of the debate could be drawn differently, whether its limitations are manifest not only in its unresolvable contestations, but also in the indeterminate conclusions that he arrives at.

There is an urgent need to look beyond the confines of existing orthodoxies that reproduce the West versus the Rest dichotomy, and beyond the simplistic formulations of cultural imperialism as the 'destruction' of non-Western local cultures. Schiller's argument about cultural levelling is more productively considered within the context of contemporary formations of global economy, in which membership to the transnational elite includes, self-evidently, representatives from populations from diverse regions. Persisting with older versions of geopolitics hinders a more nuanced engagement with debates on cultural imperialism and, more damagingly, neglects current forms of inequality.

But this is more a comment on the intransigence of an unproductive framework than a criticism of Hafez's contribution to debates on global media. It must be said however, that while Hafez has taken care to engage with most of the relevant research and literature on the various constituents of the debates, he has missed the opportunity to bring to them work from outside the Euro-American context. The cover of the book - displaying a young black woman reading a broadsheet newspaper on an unspecified street, and a South Indian man reading a Malayalam newspaper on his doorstep - paradoxically underlines this lacuna in the book by pointing to the need to engage with studies done by researchers from these regions, and not merely on behalf of those populations.

At the culmination of his survey Hafez makes a case for the continuing necessity of the myth of globalisation. It is difficult to disagree with his plea for a systematic and dispassionate analysis of developments on the cultural, economic, and political aspects of globalisation, in all of which the media can be seen to play a role, and all of which contribute to shaping contemporary global media. Overall Hafez's is a timely, careful, and important intervention, presented in a style that invites a readership that will include both students and researchers.

Ramaswami Harindranath, University of Melbourne.