Global Economy and International Telecommunications Networks

Detailed outline
Introduction
Global economy affects our personal lives in many ways. For instance, we are influenced by fashion from all over the world so everyone of us have many pairs of jeans from everywhere. Adding to this, the price of gas is determined by global oil markets, the ups and downs of interest rates are prompted by global money flows, and the availability of jobs is greatly affected by activities of global corporations.

Pre- modern World
The world in the past was different from the one of today. For instance, what we used to wear in the past was made by local people living with you in the same town. The only foreign products used were for kings and rich people, the close were made of materials naming gems, silk, and other products that were easy to transport but yet were expensive.

Division of labor:
One of the things that distinguished the modern world from the pre-modern one was the extent to which division of labor was used in the production process. As the division of labor increased, the production increased as well. As a result, specialization accompanied the division of labor, and thus resulted in increasing efficiency.
This new system required coordination between different workers who have different tasks to do in order to give a final product.
In many ways, division of labor is a devil’s bargain. It increases productivity via specialization, which in turn creates problems of coordination and control. The managers were taking these problems seriously and were trying to solve them by controlling (face-to-face level). However, when business owners started realizing that some components could be made more cheaply in other parts of the world, they moved away from centralized production. The lower cost was due to the easy access to raw materials, and cheap labor worker.
Thus, the global division of labor is tied to modern communication technologies, while the telecommunications technologies allow for global coordination and control.

Imperialism:
The world in the 13 century was multipoler, for instance, Indian and Italy traded with each other via Egypt and Iraq. This situation changed with the emergence of the Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, French, and British Empire in the 14 century. The Western power transformed the multipolar world into a monopolar one. Thanks to the development on technologies and advances in weaponry, Western powers could control. These countries were interested on cotton, rubber, and other raw materials. To obtain that imperial powers used divide and conquer strategy to weaken potential opposition. Today, we have moved from the era of imperialism to electronic imperialism.

Electronic Imperialism:
Global media flows:

After independence of many countries, the center of the world also moved across the Atlantic to the United States. The main power if the US was its economic power rather than its military one. Today the US is in the center; it dominated the world through culture as well. For instance, it dominated the cinema and TV (Hollywood). As a result, the US tends to look at its media through business prospective.
Developing nations consider the import of US films to be a new kind of invasion, a cultural one. Electronic imperialism is from the center the US to the periphery the rest of the world, which is a one-way flow.

Transborder Data Flow:
With the improvement in transportation technologies, international trade progressively moved beyond lightweight, high –value items to heavier and bulkier commodities. One of the main reasons that services changed was that they required an intense amount of interaction between the service provider and the consumer. For instance, computer software needs to be done by a trained human being.
As the global division of labor has progressed, manufacturing jobs have moved overseas from the US to developing countries with much cheaper labor cost.
To sum up, the industrialized countries remains the brains of the world, while the developing countries are the brawn.
Toward a new world system:
With the shift of power from one part of the world to another one can think of the following questions:
Once the US power declines, will the center merely pass from the US to another country? Or will there be an emergence of a multipolar world like the one of the 13 century.

Chapter 2

Normative theories
A different approach I: Comparing and contrasting media
i. Political power
ii. Economic Crisis
iii. Dramatic social transitions
A different approach II: Globalization and media
A different approach III: Small-scale alternative media
conclusion

First Chapter: Following the Historical paths of global COM

Geography of space is your location geographically. Today how people are located is not isolated as it used to be.

Nowadays, we moved to the space of experience. This one enables people to be connected due to the space of flows.

The space of flows is a term used by Manuel Kaster. It is defined as the material and the immaterial components of the global information networks through which more economy is connected

Geography and mythical: Frances Cairncross argued that the speed of COM creating a world where the miles have little to do with our ability to result from these trends. Example we have diminishing need to emigration.

System of COM: which are informal networks of travelers and traders that resulted in a trade and culture exchanges. In the past trade existed with traditional means like books, now the means changed.

Mapmaking was an integral part of COM history. Two reasons behind that: business and military for expansion

Benedic Anderson argued the idea of imagined communities that gives a detailed analysis of nation building projects and their relationship to print media.

Growth of telegraph: in the 19C expanding system of imperial COM, made the transmission of information rapid ensured secrecy and protection.

The Era of new agencies: the essential agencies are: French Havas Agency, Germany Agency Wolff, British Reuters.

In 1945, the flow of information moved from London to New York.

The rise of Reuters: relationship between capital, the control, and the influence on information.

Radio: cheap and could be sold as a mass scale compared with telegraph
Radio was first used by Nazi German then by other including leaders of the Arab states like Naser. Sawa use by the US to target new audience when in the past U.S used radio in Europe against the Soviets.

Outline First Chapter

Outline of the first chapter

Following the historical Paths of Global Communication

1. Geographical Space: A Barrier to communication
2. Geography and the mythical world
3. Ancient encounters of societies and cultures
4. Global explorers: Migrants, holy people, merchants
5. Mapmakers in the Medieval world
6. Inventors: Signals and semaphores
7. The printing press, literacy, and the knowledge explosion
8. Scientists and international networks
9. The international electric revolution
10. Summary: global immediacy and transparency