International Communication Association, Singapore 2010
Conceived and organized by:
Daya Thussu, Professor of International Communication and Director of India Media Centre at the University of Westminster, London
Supported by:
Mass Communication Division of the ICA and by the Center for Global Communication Studies, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania
Call for papers:
The transformation of communication and media in China and India – the world’s two most populous countries and fastest growing economies – has profound implications for what constitutes the ‘global’. Jairam Ramesh, currently India’s Environment Minister, is credited with the notion of ‘Chindia’, representing what has been termed as the ‘rise of the rest’. Trade between the two Asian neighbours – negligible at the beginning of the 1990s – grew to $40 billion by 2008, with China becoming India’s largest single trading partner. Such economic exchanges have coincided with cracks within the neo-liberal model of US-led Western capitalism. The combined economic and cultural impact of ‘Chindia’, aided by their worldwide diasporas, is creating globalization with an Asian accent, a phenomenon that is likely to influence globalized media and its study.
With more than 70 dedicated news channels, India has one of the world’s most linguistically diverse media landscapes, while China has emerged as the planet’s biggest mobile telephone market, having the world’s highest blogger population and as the largest exporter of IT products. The study of media and communication is rapidly growing in both countries: more than 700 communication and media programmes are operational in Chinese universities, while the opening up of the media and communication sector in India has led to mushrooming of media institutes. In addition, both countries provide a considerable number of media and communication postgraduate and research students to Western universities.
Though both countries have experienced different trajectories of growth in recent decades and represent two distinct political and media systems, they also demonstrate interesting similarities. The rise of ‘Chindia’ offers exciting opportunities as well as challenges to media and communication researchers.
This preconference – a pioneering intellectual venture – aims to bring together scholars from around the world, especially from China and India, to examine and explore this phenomenon.
Among the topics we wish to cover are: The rise of ‘Chindia’ and its impact on international media research; globalization of Indian media and cultural industries; China’s soft power; communication and cultural exchange between China and India; re-envisioning diasporic and developmental communication;
Chindia – cooperation or competition?
The Communication and Media Research Institute (CAMRI) of the University of Westminster, which was officially rated in 2008 as the UK’s top media research department, is home to both the China Media Centre and the newly established India Media Centre. This unique combination of expertise should ensure high quality international participation, especially from China and India. A selection of papers presented at the preconference will be published in a special themed issue of the Sage journal Global Media and Communication.
Speakers to include: Professor Yuezhi Zhao, Simon Fraser University, Canada; Professor Daya Thussu, University of Westminster, UK; Professor Ang Peng Hwa, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore; Professor Bella Mody, University of Colorado in Boulder; Professor Hu Zhengrong, Communication University of China, Beijing; Professor Vibodh Parthasarathi, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi; Dr Xin Xin, University of Westminster; Professor Oliver Boyd-Barrett, Bowling Green State University, USA and Professor Joseph Chan, Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Registration: Participants are required to pay a fee of $100, which includes tea, coffee and lunch, and the payment goes through ICA.
Prospective participants should submit an abstract (200-300 words) to Professor Daya Thussu (D.K.Thussu@westminster.ac.uk) and Ranita Chatterjee (R.Chatterjee@westminster.ac.uk) by 7 December 2009.