Pathways to Critical Media Education and Beyond (2003)

C h apter 3 Understanding Television as an Extension of Our Times and Taking Steps Towards Media Reform Sashi Kumar “Information without transformation is just gossip.” Tarzie Vittachi 3.1 Introduction The contemporary development of television in South Asia, ever since the advent of Direct Broadcast Technology (DBS) in the mid-eighties, seems to proceed along two contradictory lines. On the one hand, there is the palpable fact of the globalisation of the technology and a homogenisation of form and content. On the other, there is the democratising impulse, again innate in the technology and the way it is played out as well as in the manner in which the content is received and assimilated. The MNC image of television that is being consolidated and the corporate culture values the media therefore becomes subject to are reflected in names like Rupert Murdoch or Ted Turner who have wrested it from its regional or ‘national’ moorings and vested it with a standardised quality-tested character. Indeed, ‘Murdochism’ in this sense is a throwback to the ‘Fordism’ that was the hallmark of American industrialism. Henry Ford’s car factory was to exemplify the assembly line production method and organisational principle of twentieth century industrialism, so much so that even Stalin relied on this Fordist model in the industrialisation of the Soviet Union, even if Charlie Chaplin’s brilliant caricature of it (as the worker programmed to fix nuts and bolts on the assembly line in Modern Times) betrayed its non-creative and dehumanising character. Ford’s famous dictum that ‘any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants as long as it is black’ is, further, indicative of the notional choice such a dispensation offers. 35

Understanding Television as an Extension of Our Times and Taking Steps Towards Media Reform Fig. 1: Fordism to Murdochism INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION TO INFORMATION REVOLUTION = FORDISM TO MURDOCHISM In much the same manner, Murdochism, in a generic sense, sets the agenda and the menu for television today. There is a make-believe of choice in the fare purveyed while the reality is that a set of stereotypes, which emphasise cosmetic ‘commonalities’ of a virtual class of global television viewers and ignores or wishes away the ground reality of ‘differences’ in cultural context and experience, is perpetuated. This homogenising thrust is reinforced by the ongoing ‘convergence’ of the three broad sectors of (a) broadcasting and the movie industry, (b) newspaper and the publishing industry and (c) computer and cyberspace, all of which could in the not-too-distant future be delivered to the customer on a single screen. There is then the rather intimidating prospect of a supervening leviathan-like information structure that encompasses people across the world irrespective of national boundaries and regional, cultural, or social differences. 3.2 American Television Idiom and the Unipolar World The collapse of the Soviet Union, much of the erstwhile eastern bloc as well as of the Berlin Wall has been hastened as much by these DBS signals from the skies as by the contradictions on the ground. The American serial Dallas and its received image in the former East Germany in a case in point. The good- life-in-the-west projected by the serial, a life of runaway conspicuous consumption, became, as it turned out, a critical reference for viewers in East Germany (where it was beamed from West Germany across the Berlin Wall and widely viewed) about the American way of life. And even as Marxists saw in the excesses of Dallas a critique of capitalism, the average East Germany contrasted it with his/her own system, where all necessities were provided by the state, but where s/he would not have access to the luxurious life s/he believed his western counterpart generally enjoyed. This revolution of rising expectations that soon brought the Berlin wall crumbling down also, of course, brought in its wake the harsher reality of the East Germans becoming virtual refugees in the new unified Germany. 36

Understanding Television as an Extension of Our Times and Taking Steps Towards Media Reform However different the social and cultural context in South Asia, the fragility of a system that denies basic necessities to the vast majority of the population even as consumerism on television further alienates its miniscule beneficiaries from that silent mass cannot be overstated. Coke and Pepsi and washing machines and cooking ranges cannot be the norm of life even as in numerous villages across the country women trek long distances to fetch drinking water or gather firewood. There is thus a fractured reality, in a televisual sense, both in terms of the notion of the nation as well as in terms of a greater alienation of its people. The sheer plurality of national channels over the last decade has not meant any real democratisation, except in a purely structural sense or any real advance in terms of evolving an Indian identity of diversity. What we see is more of the same, with the American television idiom taking over to boot: an idiom, which as the former Managing Director of the BBC, John Tusa, points out, is expressed in a series of antitheses – “of more choice but less diversity; more information, but less knowledge; more action but less news; more gratification but less satisfaction; more viewers but fewer audiences; more entertainment but less engagement; more immediacy but less depth; more in the present, less in the past; more unto the minute, but less tradition; more on demand, less to wait for”. If these antitheses were to reflect the future trend of broadcasting, Tusa goes on, \"then television and radio would have largely ceased to be media of expression and communication as we have come to know them, and would instead have become more like any other public utility. TV and radio on tap; programmes on demand; running hot and cold information, entertainment and education…..gas, water, electricity, the media - all will be just a question of guaranteeing a safe, reliable and massively increasing supply at ever-decreasing cost”. In a post-Cold War unipolar world, the so-called globalisation of the information sector is tantamount to the accession and celebration of an Americanised world view, which incorporates regional variants to the extent that they subscribe to the ‘larger scheme of things’. Indeed, the process by which that larger scheme is forged in the United States itself has been meticulously argued in the path-breaking work by Noam Chomsky and Edward Hermann, tellingly titled Manufacturing Consent. There is in the US the authors argue, an implicit nexus between the mainstream media and the administration in ‘manufacturing’ consent on crucial matters of war and foreign policy which safeguards the American-centric global agenda. 37

Understanding Television as an Extension of Our Times and Taking Steps Towards Media Reform The acquisitions and mergers that mark the telecommunications industry, the ‘Hollywoodisation’ that has virtually killed or subsumed every other cinema in the world, the neo-colonial drive by the US into new information markets (south and south-east Asia and China) all point to an all round American supremacy in the information age. Fig. 2: The Character of the Unipolar World UNIPOLAR American-centric world-view WORLD Inner-city-centric media Rhetoric of ‘Think global, act local’ Agenda-setting function of media Television’s known and demonstrative role in rearranging our sense of time and space, fragmenting our cognitive faculty, is compounded, in this context, by literally pushing into oblivion the overwhelming reality of the vast majority of the world – particularly the vast rural hinterland that continues to dominate developing societies like in South Asia – so that it becomes a dark mass that exists around and outside the four corners of the television frame. No voices from the darkness really register on this screen; conversely no concern for what goes on out there is allowed to disturb the cocooned relationship the viewer and the viewed have forged between themselves. The screen has become the wish-fulfilling touchstone of the appetites and aspirations of the burgeoning middle class which, in neo-colonial terms, is the counterpart of the comprador mentality that looks up to the universally flaunted value systems of the Supreme Coloniser of our times – the United States of America. The aggressive and almost self-propelled process of colonisation itself is all the more insidious, because it is not so much in the physical realm of the land or its natural resources, but of the mind of the people. 38

Understanding Television as an Extension of Our Times and Taking Steps Towards Media Reform The wayward trajectory of the global media in the overarching scheme of globalisation has been the subject of a number of informed analyses and critical studies. They not only confirm our worst suspicions but also offer us useful insights into the shift into the information age. Chomsky and Herman, in their work already cited, expose the implicit and illicit collusion between the US administration and the US media in promoting and perpetuating an American-centric view of the world and an active pursuit of interventionist US foreign policy that subscribes to that view. They point out that the US media invariably subscribe to a ‘propaganda model’, which is arrived at through a series of news ‘filters’. There are five such definitive filters: (1) size, concentrated ownership, owner wealth and profit orientation of the dominant mass media firms; (2) advertising as the primary source of income; (3) the dependence of the media on information provided by the government, business and ‘experts’ funded by these primary sources and agents of power; (4) ‘flak’ as a means of disciplining the media; and (5) anti-communism as a national religion and control mechanism. Indeed, the recent emergence of the Gulf-based satellite TV channel, al-Jazeera, as an alternative voice at odds with such an orchestrated media and the arm twisting that goes on behind the scenes to bring it in step with the rest, has raised a whole set of new and interesting issues the media manipulation machinery in the US is working overtime to tackle. Robert McChesney in his study (also co-authored with Edward Herman) points to the appropriation of the global media by some three or four dozen large transnational corporations through a spate of acquisitions, mergers and joint ventures and the creation of oligopolistic markets. In another work, Rich Media, Poor Democracy, McChesney works the theme of the converse relationship between the prosperity of the media and the prospect of democracy in the US in a context where the hypercommercialised content limits the ability of Americans to act as informed citizens. Ben Bagdikian, in his classic study The Media Monopoly, shows how the ten top American corporations control almost everything we see, hear and read so that the US, in addition to its self-arrogated role of policing the world, casts itself as a centralised corporate ‘ministry of information’ not unlike many totalitarian dictatorships. 39

Understanding Television as an Extension of Our Times and Taking Steps Towards Media Reform To counter this alarming trend, Bagdikian urges grassroots activism and a return to public broadcast philosophy. The French scholar Pierre Bordieu, in his slim but profound analysis, On Television and Journalism, points to the agenda-setting role of television and observes how ‘we are getting closer and closer to the point where the social world is primarily described – and in a sense prescribed – by television’. He and others have also looked at television’s innate tendency to be trivial and reductive, its complicity in bestowing counterfeit intellectualism on those unable to acquire that status by right or merit, its helpless dependence on the ratings game and the paradox of standardisation and homogenisation – rather that difference and variety – in content that competition engenders. Much of this discourse on television and the media seem also in general to assume with Francis Fukuyama (in his latest book The Great Disruption) that the transition into the information society has already been made and the tenets of the new post-industrial age are operative. In this new economy, observes Fukuyama, ‘services increasingly displace manufacturing as a source of wealth. Instead of working in a steel mill or an automobile factory, the typical worker in an information society has a job in a bank, software firm, restaurant, university or social service agency. The role of information and intelligence, embodied in both people and increasingly smart machines, becomes pervasive and mental labor trends to replace physical labour’. The Fukuyama characterisation of modern society in terms of a Great Disruption brings to a head a schematic train of thought that emphasises rupture rather than continuity in history, hazarded by society-watchers like Alvin Toffler who, through a series of works since the 1970s, pushed the idea of a ‘Third Wave’ of computer-using societies replacing the earlier Industrial Age, just as the Industrial Age itself displaced the preceding agricultural era; or Daniel Bell who in 1973 suggested that, with the emergence of a new white collar work force, the old industrial system is behind us; of again, the MIT Media Lab founder Nicholas Negroponte’s dizzy vision of a digitally-taped-and- determined world. This new-fangled post-industrial school of thought utilises, as Dan Schiller (1996) points out, “its exceptionality premise (the uniqueness of ‘information’ and its production) to invoke a comprehensive but indemonstrable historical rupture, and therefore to draw back decisively from the predominating social relations of production and into schematic and false models of social development. ‘Information’ itself was given an aura of objectivity”. 40

Understanding Television as an Extension of Our Times and Taking Steps Towards Media Reform 3.3 The Represented is the Real At a theoretical level, that television as an instrumentality that mediates modernity can play such tricks on reality has, interestingly, been projected by philosophers like Feuerbach to whom a distinctive attribute of the present age is that it ‘prefers the sign to the thing signified, the copy to the original, representation to reality, the appearance to the essence’ so much so that ‘illusion only is sacred, truth profane’. A great insight into this theme is the critique of modern society by the French thinker Guy Debord who was a product of the Situationist International group that emerged into prominence in the late 1960s. Debord’s exposition titled The Society of the Spectacle almost intuitively captured the essence of images detached from everyday aspects of life and although the complexity and seemingly far-fetched nature of his new ideas saw him largely reviled during his lifetime, there is now a (much needed) rethinking on their relevance. \"In societies where modern conditions of production prevail\", Debord set out his proposition, \"all of life presents itself as an immense accumulation of spectacles. Everything that was directly lived has moved away into a representation\". \"The spectacle\", he continues, \"as the concrete inversion of life, is the autonomous movement of the non-living\". Guy Debord enthusiasts, in fact, go to the extent of calling his Society of the Spectacle the Capital of the new generation, and compare how just as ‘Marx wrote Capital to detail the complex and subtle economic machinations of capitalism, Debord set out to describe the intricacies of its modern incarnation and the means by which it exerts its totalizing control over lived reality’. This autonomous and spiralling growth of an alienative virtual-global-middle- class television culture that is at once self-perpetuating and self-serving and that ignores the peasantry as a class and ‘ruralness’ as a lived condition could be seen as facilitated by what economist Prabhat Patnaik, in the realm of the political economy, critiques as a misleading perception of a total ‘retreat’ is a feint that disguises a city-based intervention by the state and, like the economy, the information society is ‘witnessing… a transition from one paradigm of state intervention to another’. The US administration systematically pursuing its goal of hegemony in the information era beneath the velvet glove of free enterprise championship has been chronicled by Herbert Schiller (in his essay ‘Striving for communication dominance: a half century review’ in the collection Electronic Empires) to illustrate his point that the ‘US (capitalist) State, contrary to many reports, is alive and, if not 41

Understanding Television as an Extension of Our Times and Taking Steps Towards Media Reform well, at least still in charge’. Schiller also implicitly challenges the ‘rupture’ or Great Disruption theorists by pointing to the continuity through the latter half of this century of ‘government initiative, support and promotion of information and communication policies’ by the United States. Indeed the cause celebre of ‘free flow of information’ became a convenient alibi for the administration to propel the US into information ascendancy. As early as 1946, Assistant Secretary of State, William Benton, makes it clear that ‘the state department plans to do everything within its power along political or diplomatic lines to break down the artificial barriers to the expansion of private American news agencies, magazines, motion pictures and other media of communications throughout the world….Freedom of the press – and freedom of exchange of information generally – is an integral part of our foreign policy’. 3.4 Media in Practice An estimated one trillion dollars has been spent over the last fifty years (from the end of World War II until the end of the 1990s) to ensure US domination of information technology. The creation of the communications satellite undertaking, COMSAT, was a direct action by the state to elbow out its ally Great Britain, which commanded undersea cable, from the race. \"In sum\", as Schiller observes, \"the US state has played a pivotal role in achieving and maintaining American global cultural/information domination over the last fifty years, a domination enduring to this day. This has been a fully conscious and deliberate effort, carried out by each administration, from Truman’s to Clinton’s\". The state-led growth into global pre-eminence of an American information superstructure puts the US in a position ‘better than any other country to multiply the potency of its hard and soft power resources through information’ (Nye and Owens, 1996; Joseph S. Nye was former Asst. Secretary of Defence for International Affairs and Willian A.Owens former Vice- Chairman, Joint Chief of Staff). The US use of the ‘free flow of information’ slogan for its hegemonic design is, needless to say, a mockery of the debate on the New World Information and Communications Order of the 1970s or the McBride Commission Report’s concern about an information rich North versus a South at the receiving end. That discourse too is hijacked as new and emerging markets (read developing countries) are road-rollered into submission through the mechanism of the World Trade Organisation and a series of agreements to liberalise trade and information technology (signed in 42

Understanding Television as an Extension of Our Times and Taking Steps Towards Media Reform December 1996), telecommunications (February 1997) and financial services (December 1997) under its auspices. Even if the round of the WTO at Seattle was stymied by a combination of grassroot activism – and since then we have seen the protest by civil society gather momentum and clout, interestingly, through the use of the tools of information technology including internet and palm pilot – and organised resistance by the developing countries, the fact that North American markets are drying up and that relatively stricter regulatory systems are in place in the European Union makes the South, with some 2.5 billion television consumers, an urgent destination for corporate conglomerates of the information sector. And in the south, Asia, where cable and satellite TV growth is projected to leap to 206 million by the year 2004 (from 44 million in 1994), is a prime market. Fig 3: Media in Practice: Contradictions and Paradoxes • Set the media to catch the media • Hide by showing • Search for the unique leads to the uniform • Competition homogenises content • Competition segments market – reach and effective reach • More of the same - more is less • Tyranny of the ratings • Time is the essence of the show • The ‘gladiatorial debate model’ • Made for TV society-tailism of print media: dumbing down and tabloidisation. 3.5 Resistance and Alternative Perspectives That market is constituted by the burgeoning middle class in this part of the world, which craves to bond with a pan-national media-generated global community as co-equal consumers. What is more worrisome is the manner in which intellectuals in society - who one would imagine should be a cordon sanitaire or a court of last resort against the numbing, dumbing and destablishing effects of television – fall a prey to the lure of the media. Indeed intellectuals should at best be adversarial to, at least keep a safe distance from, the mass media. But the growing tendency of intellectuals to flirt with the media, or vice versa, is taking its toll on intellectualism itself on the one hand, and infusing the media with a false sense of power over intellectuals on the other. The problem of the mass media making inroads 43

Understanding Television as an Extension of Our Times and Taking Steps Towards Media Reform into intellectual space is one that exercises intellectuals themselves. In the words of Jacques Derrida, \"What I mean by this is not the normal desire to address a wider public, because there can be in that desire an authentically democratic and legitimate political concern. On the contrary, I call temptation of the media the compulsion to misuse the privilege of public declaration in a social space that extends far beyond the normal circuits of intellectual discussion. Such misuse constitutes a breach of confidence, an abuse of authority – in a word, an abuse of power\". When academics seek or accept the imprimatur of intellectualism outside of their community or peer groups and from the mass media, especially television which can quick-fix fast- thinking and glib-mouthed ‘thinkers’ and subject experts in the course of a single chat show, not only is the domain of original thought and serious study compromised (already, in India, the honorific of a doctorate has been devalued with politicians routinely having the title affixed to their names by one obliging university or the other), but their moral stature and power to move against the current, or oppose the herd mentality, is also rendered vulnerable. This media-induced heteronomy (understood as the loss of autonomy by being subject to external influence) in academia is a matter of serious concern to Pierre Bourdieu (On Television and Journalism). \"A good historian\", says Bourdieu, \"is someone good historians call a good historian… But heteronomy… begins when someone who is not recognized as a historian… (a historian who talks on television about history, for instance) gives an opinion about historians -- and is listened to\". He cites the study of the French literary field during the occupation by Gisele Sapiro which had shown ‘that the more people are recognized by their peers, and are therefore rich in specific capital, the more likely they are to resist. Conversely, the more heternomous they are in their literary practices, meaning drawn to market criteria… the more inclined they are to collaborate’. Bourdieu’s verdict is that such heteronomous individuals ‘contribute the Trojan horse through which heteronomy – that is, the laws of the market and the economy – is brought into the field’. Where the intellectual community stands, or should stand, vis-à-vis the mass media is important not only because that is the reservoir of knowledge that can make sense of and if necessary, intervene and counter the superficial excesses of information in the new era (one should hold steadfast to the distinction between ‘knowledge’ and ‘information’ in this new context), but also in terms of locating the media in the public sphere as against the private of reserved space intellectuals occupy. In his classic definition of the public 44

Understanding Television as an Extension of Our Times and Taking Steps Towards Media Reform sphere’ which merits being quoted at length to appreciate the total concept, Jurgen Habermas (1974) calls it ‘a realm of our social life in which something approaching public opinion can be formed. Access is guaranteed to all citizens. A portion of the public sphere comes into being in every conversation in which private individuals assemble to form a public body. They then behave neither like business or professional people transacting private affairs, nor like members of a constitutional order subject to the legal constrains of a state bureaucracy. Citizens behave as a public body when they conger in an unrestricted fashion – that is, with the guarantee of freedom of assembly and association and the freedom to express and publish their opinions – about matters of general interest. In a large public body this kind of communication requires specific means for transmitting information and influencing those who receive it. Today (1964) newspapers and magazines, radio and televisions are the media of the public sphere. We speak of the political public sphere in contrast, for instance, to the literary one, when public discussion deals with objects connected to the activity of the state’. The way the mass media have actually turned out, however, their public sphere identity is putative rather than real, driven as they are by the market and catering as they do only to the concerns of this market-based consumer. This is even more so as the media becomes globalised and for those already functioning as such, like, say CNN or the BBC World Service, the viewership size actually shrinks further to a miniscule elite across the world. The globalised part of the print media too is as elitist (and must know English, to boot), with studies showing that the average gross personal income of subscribers to the Financial Times outside of the UK numbering some 130,000, is $120,000 and that of the 64,000 readers getting the Wall Street Journal Europe is a staggering $196,000. The old attempts to realise the media as a democratised public sphere, even if they have been isolated instances at the fringe, like the experiment with aboriginal TV in Australia or the ongoing tussle between the indigenous Maori people and the government of New Zealand for control over the airwaves, become redeeming case studies to cling on to this scenario. The community television initiative in Ernabella in Southern Australia in 1985 was entirely by the local aboriginals who raised the funds among themselves (a surcharge of ten cents on all soft drink sales by the local store raised a good part of the capital) and evolved a mix of programmes that reflected their folklore, magical rites and local problems, which they produced on their own, as well as other programmes relating to aboriginal issues acquired from media 45

Understanding Television as an Extension of Our Times and Taking Steps Towards Media Reform institutions specialising in this area or recorded off mainstream telecasts like the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Although the success of the Ernabella model inspired other and larger schemes for an alternative aboriginal television regime in Australia, particularly under the ‘Broadcasting in Aboriginal Communities Scheme’ (BRACS), they turned out to be accommodative in nature rather than a space for aboriginal assertion. A more ambitious scheme by the Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association (CAAMA) to intervene in the federal government’s licensing of satellite television in the Northern Territory became, initially, a cause celebre of sorts, especially in the process of its struggle in the mid-eighties to muster the $6 million required for the licence fee. The ‘Imparja’ service, as it was called, catered to over sixty percent of all aboriginal groups and looked like the new hope of aboriginal articulation; but within a few years (and the beginning of the nineties) the hope had turned sour as the station was driven by the market into dependence on subsidy by the federal government and its programming staff and content became overwhelmingly white. As the Co-founder and Director of CAAMA, an aboriginal woman who quit her post in 1991, summed up the experience, \"our original aim was to get some control over the satellite so that we could use it to suit our purposes. We wanted to see a lot of black face, people speaking our local languages… we were especially interested in using it for educational purposes… but look at Imparja now, it’s no different to any other commercial TV station… In a way, it has become what we tried to stop\". In New Zealand, the indigenous Maori people, who constitute thirty percent of the population, are staking their claim for equal participation in, and control over, use of the airwaves with the whites, or Pakehas as they are called. Theirs is a larger and more original case, based as it is on their right under the Treaty of Waitangi of 1840, signed between their chiefs and the British Crown, which gives them total authority over all their resources. The airwaves over a country, seems the interesting thrust of the Maori argument, are as much part of its peoples’ resource as land or any other natural resource and entitlement to it is automatic under the Treaty. Indeed the government of New Zealand is not about to buy this argument and had in fact sought to preempt any dilution of its control over broadcasting by a legislation which, while it talks about the need for representative public broadcasting, forbade resort to the judicial process to correct any distortions. The whole issue continues, I believe, to be contested in the Waitingi Tribunal and other courts and even though the Maori cause is an uphill task, their demand opens up a 46

Understanding Television as an Extension of Our Times and Taking Steps Towards Media Reform whole new possibility of a basic right to airwaves. In such redefinitions and reassertions seem to lie the clue towards renegotiating the truly democratic media space. 3.6 Redeeming Facets and the Bagdikian Proposals for Media Reform If television and its experience, present and future, in our context seem a transnational trap from which there is no escape, there is some hope in the redeeming nature of the technology itself. Because at a subliminal level it also alters the way we see and draw meanings in contemporary reality. If the traditional way to think of a decisive action was articulated around the three tenses – past, present and future – the television state of consciousness propels us towards a two-tense system: real time and deferred, or reply, time. The segmentation of perceived reality through television because of the multiple channels and channel-switching and zapping replaces our conventional sense of ‘flow’ of information with one of simultaneity of grasp. Such segmentation moreover defies textual heirarchisation and total authorship of text. The consumers or viewers constantly redefine the information purveyed so that the intended message is often not the received message. Newer modes of anchoring and presentation also make for a degree of self-reflexivity (as when, say, the DJs on Channel V or MTV speak to the cameraperson or the recordist behind the camera) so that a space for critical rethink is engendered. There is, with the increasing habit of television and natural urge to critically assimilate it, a growing contradiction between television’s status as ‘authored text’ and its apparent ‘unwrittenness’ that allows the viewer access to the author’s role of meanings. In this sense, reading television between the lines becomes both a necessity and an inevitable consequence of continued participative viewing, thereby making for a media of semiotic democracy and an agent of diversity and difference. There is, moreover, even in the west, an increasing awareness of the need for an enabling role being played by the State in engendering a level playing field for public interest broadcasting. Media pundits of our times like Pulitzer prize winner and Dean Emeritus of the Berkeley School of Journalism, Ben Bagdikian, have argued forcefully for an activist plan to counter the ‘influence of private corporate money that improperly negates civic need and public choice’. Bagdikian, in fact, lists out several concrete steps towards 47

Understanding Television as an Extension of Our Times and Taking Steps Towards Media Reform media reform in this light (in the preface to the fifth edition of his classic work, The Media Monopoly) which, though addressed to the situation in the US, are relevant in part to our condition: a) The need for a non-partisan, non-governmental, non-corporate commission of citizens to study the present and desired future status, of the country’s media; whose report must be frank, specific and steering clear of any corporate interests or not sparing the status quo. b) The need for the creation of a National News Council for the broadcast media (much like the Press Council in India for the print media) that can examine complaints about its performance and recommend corrective action. c) Legislation in the field to be recast into a comprehensive new law that can ensure local community access and, using teeth or leverage of licensing, force broadcast stations to take up public interest programming; the public interest content could, moreover, be constantly monitored and objectively verified when the licences come up for renewal. Licence challenge procedures could be made more accessible to civic groups dissatisfied with their local broadcast stations. d) The need for a new non-political system to finance public broadcasting. The experience of appropriations by central or state legislatures to fund public broadcasting having proved self-defeating, since they are themselves heavily beholden to corporate interests; it would be wiser to widen the support base by levying a small surtax on mass media related consumer goods – computers, TV sets, radios and so on – which would be miniscule at the individual retail level but would add up to a huge fund that can launch and sustain a non-commercial multi-channel TV and radio system. e) The need to hold high the Fairness Doctrine and the Equal Time provision in news-related broadcasts, especially in the context of elections. 48

Understanding Television as an Extension of Our Times and Taking Steps Towards Media Reform f) Restriction on time allotted to commercials during News telecasts and a gradual elimination of commercials in News by gradual cross- subsidisation. g) The allocation of broadcast frequencies to stations in a manner that the fact that airwaves are owned by the public is not lost sight of. h) The need for easy, inexpensive licensing of low power, town-and- neighborhood-range radio and TV stations like in Japan so that local communities are not squeezed out by national broadcasters. i) The banning of paid political advertisements, especially during election time, and the mandatory provision of prime time opportunity to local and national candidates with fifteen-minute minimums to avoid slick sound bites without content. j) The need to introduce a serious media literacy and analysis into the curriculum at the school level in a situation where the average child can be expected to be spending a part, or most, of his time in front of a TV screen. ❖ 49



C h apter 4 The Landscape of Digital Convergence* Abe Cordero 4.1 Introduction From the discovery of fire as a source of energy, Humans invented tools like the ax, spear, bow and arrow in their search for food and for security. Through innovations over time, humans moved from scarcity (demand greater than supply) to abundance (supply greater than demand), navigating the Agricultural Society, Industrial Society, and Information Society to knowledge- based Society. In the Agricultural Society, humans started to till the soil and planted crops, spices and vegetables. This was the period of mass production of food and the creation of food security. It started trade between buyers and sellers and began the economics of supply and demand. The basis of work was seasonal - whether it was a rainy day or sunny day. The Industrial Society was the beginning of smokestack factories and assembly lines. This era was focused on metals, which produced powerful machines and brought nations to power. From fire, new energy sources were discovered to run machines from coal, oil to nuclear energy. Employees must be highly skilled in the blue-collar work force in order to compete in this job. Like in the agricultural society, physical strength and muscular skills were needed to run machines while work hours were usually an 8-hour job. The Information Society moved from three media generations starting from the newspaper age (the beginning of the printing press), the broadcasting age (radio and television) and the age we are in, the Internet age (network computers). * All diagrams in this chapter are copyrighted. 51

The Landscape of Digital Convergence It was also the development of new information technologies that replaced the abacus and adding machine brought about by large mainframe computers to mini-sized electronic calculators. From large printing presses to personal mechanical typewriters, these were enhanced by electric powered typewriters, which later evolved into personal computers with memory storage capability. Hardware and software were developed to run number computations to automatic sorting and searching of data, with added computing power component and store and forward capability. This complemented the post- industrial society and increased the demand for workers in the white-collar arena. It contributed to automating jobs and machines reduced redundancy in human work. Production became a 24-hour operation. It was also the period of improved communication systems,progressing from where people used to communicate over short distances using smoke signals to transmit a message between hills. When electricity was discovered, telecommunication innovations moved from the Morse code and telephone, evolving from the wired, to satellite and wireless technologies. In combining the media, new information technology and telecommunication, the convergence has evolved into the latest form of global digital communication and single content marketplace, the Internet. In the advent of the Internet, nations that were first in the Information age are now gearing towards the knowledge-based Society. This is the era where the network computer has evolved into a broadcast media more powerful than radio and television due to its interactive power and just-in-time delivery of information. Anyone can virtually dip her or his finger in the Internet, to search, browse and inquire about any information they need to know in text, audio or video. Purchase of goods on the Internet is now possible through electronic commerce. Information is fast becoming the most threatened resource next to natural resources. Getting the right information to the right people at the right time, the knowledge you create at any particular time will create vast opportunities if you ‘act on it’. Where misuse of information like spying, stealing and bugging dominated the information world, this has become a failure of Competitive Intelligence. 52

The Landscape of Digital Convergence In the knowledge-based era, Competitive Intelligence (CI) has become a major component to be safeguarded in promoting ethical means of gathering Competitive information and transforming this information Intelligence into actionable intelligence. CI is a relearning process about how knowledge-based information is produced, where to find it, what it is, who sent it, how and when it information was created. This is all done instantly and demands immediate action. In a fast industrial changing and evolving environment, CI tools help us to respond with the right agricultural market tactics, and short-term or long- term decisions about things that we need to do. In understanding the information and post-information transition in the context of new media, new ways to communicate the message have moved from the pulpit to written text, to radio and television broadcasts, and to Internet multicast systems. The consumer information process has moved from the newspaper age to broadcast age to and the age we have just entered, the Internet age. 4.2 Part One: The Process Of New Technologies All of the transitions and processes existed in many forms as systems of systems. The paradigm shift here is nothing more than a set of changing systems evolving within a system. It is predictable and sequential. a) Mechanical System (i) Like the discovery of fire in history, fuel was invented and developed into a combustion element that led to the invention of engines and automobiles and the construction of farm-to-market roads and to inter-state highways. (ii) Later, this led to innovations in the transportation system of land, sea, air and space and other related systems around it. 53

The Landscape of Digital Convergence Systems exist in many forms as systems of systems Mechanical System Biological System Organisational System Information System Interstate Highway Internet Ecosystem Industry Local Roads Local Area Network Automobile Animal Company Computer Engine Cardio Vascular System Business Unit Micro processor Heart Team (iii) History will determine how systems enable a new system and innovate it to grow to other systems; e.g. U.S. Highways brought McDonald’s to the roadside, which later evolved to serve over a billion hamburger eaters around the globe. Fuel combustion brought humans to space and eventually gave us possibility of developing space stations. b) Biological System (i) The same process can be seen in the biological system where we learn the process of the cell, relating this to how our bodies operate and how animals and ecosystems co-exist with all life forms. (ii) These processes evolved into another process called biotechnology with new evolving products like DNA identification, enzyme production, artificial sweeteners and cloning. c) Organisational System (i) Likewise in the organisational system, the process of work begins with an employee, developing into teams, then as a business unit, and transforming into a company and later operated as an industry. We can also observe how a community is built, how a church is made, and how a country develops. d) Information System (i) The same process is seen in how the information system has evolved with the introduction of information technologies, enhancing the computing power starting from the adding machine, to the microprocessor, computer, local area network (LAN), and Internet connectivity. The improvement in technology transformed atoms into bits and incremental work outputs changed exponentially. 54

The Landscape of Digital Convergence a) Human Development Follows a Process of Predictable Chaos The same process can be seen Human Development Follows a in human development with Process of Predictable Chaos regards to how we predict transitions in our lifetime. Dependence Independence V.Maturity Decline/Dependence/Death Mid-Life Crisis, Menopause, It affects our human Empty Nest (Age 45+/-) development based on how we are influenced by the IV. Career & Career/Marriage/Children change of time in our Family Building dependence stage of and how (Age 22+/-) we move on with our life in the independence stage. III. Coming of Age Puberty/Dating (Age 13+/-) II. Childhood Terrible Two’s/Potty Training (Age 2+) I. Infancy From Birth (Age 0+) Conception/Gestation b) Maslow's Hierarchy of Human Needs Another example of process is Maslow's theory on human needs. Human's behavior is determined according to a person’s strongest need at a given time. In order to get to a higher level, we must solve the lower level needs first. Maslow's theory has been the driving force in the development of communication, which is the tool for satisfying human needs. It is also used to analyse human behavior in the workplace in order to measure human motivations and aspirations on how human needs will be met. (i) We are always Maslow’s Hierarchy of concerned about (Timeless) Human Needs physiological needs dissatisfiers satisfiers V.self-actualization Competence • that would give us IV. esteem Achievement food, shelter and III. social/affiliation Status • Prestige • clothing. We are concerned about our Power Belonging • Acceptance • Validation safety and security on II. safety/security Health • Economic health and economics I. physiological Food • Shelter • Clothing issues on a day-to- day basis. We need socialisation and affiliation in order to have a strong sense of belonging, acceptance and validation. Maslow factored these needs as dissatisfiers or temporary needs. 55

The Landscape of Digital Convergence (ii) We also need self-esteem, which gives us a sense of status, prestige and power. We long for self-actualisation, which gives us a deeper feeling of competence and achievement in life. Maslow factored these needs as satisfiers or spiritual needs. (iii) The level of self-development and the qualities of a person can be measured against how these needs are satisfied and transformed for an individual to become a better person or the opposite. c) Kampas' Hierarchy of Timeless Information Needs As man reached his desire to accomplish these needs another important need has sprung up and developed into a system known as Kampas' Hierarchy of Information Needs. Using Maslow as an analogy, Paul Kampas of Cornell University explained how these information needs are transforming into a system in parallel to the paradigm of human needs. For the information needs to be satisfied, physical storage, processing and infrastructure must be in place for content and intelligence to flourish. This is enhanced by the taxonomy of information technology where we can understandTfauxrotnhoemr yhoowf Itnhfeorpmraotcieosns Toefcnhenwolotgeychnol-oginy is made into systems the same way as we programming i Artificial Intelligence learn how the engine runs Expert Systems, Fuzzy Logic, Neural Nets, Smart Agents - how our bodies and our Multimedia video, audio, games data/doc public/private surroundings work, and how organisations are personal sw group SW email, enterprise SW made. The taxonomy of word, spreadsheet, conferencing, finance, personnel, information technology graphics workflow manufacturing shown below has become the framework, the application/data infrastructure database, transaction, backbone and the engine object management, other middleware of the Knowledge-Based Society. platform user network infrastructure environment interface nw operating system, security interface As we see the correlation keyboard, mouse, management, hubs, switches, barcode, of these needs into the display, browser, vision, gui desktop, routers,wire/wireless robotics, system infrastructure operating system, security gps, sensors voice management, i/o buses, i/o control server client special embedded uniprocessor, handheld, video game, vehicles, multiprocessor, notebook, set-up box appliances, massively parallel desktop medical instruments memory tape disk printer pwr/package cache, main catridge magnetic laser, inkjet, enclosure pwr extended tape optical diskette impact supply, batteries framework of information needs, this has become a working paradigm to plan and strategise Information- related needs using technology. 56

The Landscape of Digital Convergence d) The Ascent of Technology Nicholas Negroponte, in order to determine which is analog or digital, defined the two as ‘atoms’ and ‘bits’. In the industrial revolution, we observed the process of how the enabling technology, which is the machine uses our bodies to produce atoms incrementally. Whereas in the information revolution, the enabling technology is the computer where we use our minds to produce bits. What we do with our minds, which is the most complex The Ascent of Technology structure in the universe, can be exponential. Information Physical Information transformed Systems (‘Bits’) Systems (‘Atoms’) into intelligence has People Mind become the major resource Body Information Industrial to create matter, wealth Revolution Revolution and power. Just as the (Exponential) (Incremental) machine is the enabling technology to produce Robots Machine something using our body, Computer the computer has become the enabling technology Technology enablers to produce something using our mind. As the economy shifted from an industrial to an information base, even the sense of time, volume and production have shifted from incremental to exponential, from atoms to bits, from body to mind, machines to computers. e) The Five Megawaves of the Information Revolution The Five Megawaves of the Information Revolution described by Paul Kampas previews how information evolved from language, and the written word to bits, transforming the entire information landscape. (i) Megawave One: The Record Keeping Stage is the beginning of stored information in language form (3500 B.C.), the paper (50 B.C.), and the start of the printing press (1452). Processing began with the use of the abacus (3000 B.C.) to the discovery of electricity (1882) and the invention of the transistor (1947). Communication Infrastructure 57

The Landscape of Digital Convergence to transmit information began the introduction of telegraphy (1837), telephony (1876) and later, radio (1920) and television (1936). Content was on printed books (1500), newspapers (1700), and photo [Kodak] paper (1839), long playing records (1847) and cinematic movies (1891). Artificial intelligence in this stage began with the term ‘robot’ coined in 1921. (ii) Megawave Two: The Millions of Instruction Per Second (MIPS) Stage being the period of paper [Xerox] copiers (1953), and CD-ROMS [Compact Disc-Read Only Memory] (1982). It began the development of Mainframes (1950), later shrunk to microprocessors (1971) and Personal Computers (1978) to 386 computers (1986). Infrastructure was focused on cable TV (1948), communication satellite (1962), U.S. Military Internet (1969), and local area network (1978). Content production was focused on accounting software and intelligence was focused on neural networks (1960) and expert systems (1968). (iii) Megawave Three: Wiring the World Stage (The stage we are currently in), multimedia information is digitally stored in terabyte and petabyte capacity (1990). From VHS tapes, videos are digitally stored in digital videodisc or DVD format (1997). Processing uses GHz speed Servers and Media Broadcast Servers. Infrastructure is focused towards the World Wide Web, Datacasting, Multicasting and Web TV. Content is heavily focused on digital animation, multimedia search engines, interactive toys and Internet webcasting. Intelligence of the system is focused on automation and decision-based computers as demonstrated by IBM Deep Blue beating Kasparov in 1997 in the game of chess. (iv) Megawave Four: The Multimedia Mania Stage storage capability will be controlled by electronic commerce, processing done by groupware, infrastructure maintained by online communities, content will be heavily focused on distance learning and interactive media and Intelligence focused on knowledge management. (v) Megawave Five: The Lots of Know-Bots Stage will carry on the storage, processing and infrastructure of the previous stages with higher bandwidth capabilities and content may probably focus on hypermedia virtual realities and holograms. Agents and androids will carry on the intelligence requirement of this period. 58

The Landscape of Digital Convergence Though nobody knows the future, but if one analyses known facts and follows the trends, one could reasonably and accurately determine the future trends in the relatively short term. However, if you follow a system, like in the information revolution's development process, it is following a highly predictable development process that will continue in the current direction within the next 20 to 25 years in the digital revolution stage. Our ability to create future success will be greatly enhanced by our ability to envision, embrace and exploit this process. We must learn to adapt by watching the next wave and position ourselves to take advantage of its challenges and opportunities. In becoming aware of the process, we can make better decisions and be able to respond immediately. 4.3 Part Two: Awareness Of Definitions, Facts, Threats & Opportunities Digital Convergence is the The Digital Revolution migration of previously divergent analog information Why Digital Information? formats (e.g. voice, audio, image, video, and data) to integrated Allows intermixing Lossless digital multimedia. Digital of media (voice, reproduction Convergence is poised to music, video, data, (perfect copies redraw the competitive image) of...) landscape of trillions of Increased Needs less dollars worth of products immunity to bandwidth/storage and services in information- noise/error during transmission because of compressibility related industries. The key issue here is the convergence of computer, broadcast, cable, telephone, satellite, wireless communications and media entertainment all becoming one single content marketplace - the Internet. The Internet is engendering new types of consumers and consumption patterns and encouraged change in the way audiences behave. It is benefiting 59

The Landscape of Digital Convergence not only from the economies of advertiser and consumer pays, but also from transactional economies. It is presenting itself both face-to-face to consumers in the form of browsers and interfaces. It is also embedding itself invisibly into a wide range of consumer devices and appliances. It is stimulating new economies and allowing us to restructure our media environment for greater personal empowerment. Companies in these industries, whose products and services span computers, copiers, photography, consumer electronics, communications, and content, must drastically reformulate their existing business definitions and competitive strategies, or stand and watch more visionary and proactive competitors pass them by. a) The Digital Revolution: Age of Anxiety and Disruption The digital revolution’s velocity and trajectory create more frequent and more disruptive ripples than did earlier technologies, giving everyone a permanent case of what Alvin Toffler many years ago termed as ‘future shock.’ We call this the phenomenon the Law of Disruption, which states that where social systems improve incrementally, technology improves exponentially. As the gap between the two increases, so does the potential for non- continuous, disruptive, and indeed, revolutionary change. Killer apps are examples of the Law of Disruption in action, a use of technology whose novelty turns the table on some previously stable understanding of how things work or work best. Killer apps create global competitors where only local players previously mattered. b) What Drives the Internet? Moore’s Law: Making Technology Faster, Cheaper and Smaller Every 18 Months Moore’s Law explains how computers, telecommunication services, and data storage systems defy the laws of gravity and commerce, becoming faster, cheaper, and smaller, all at increasing velocity. 60

The Landscape of Digital Convergence Metcalfe’s Law: Reaching Critical The Internet Law Mass Metcalfe’s Law Metcalfe’s Law demonstrates why Moore’s Law Coase’s Law these technologies have a tendency to spread quickly and how they move from early adoption to widespread acceptance in great leaps rather than smooth intervals. c) The Economic Theories of Ronald H. Coase: Law of the Diminishing Firm As the market becomes more efficient, the size and organisational complexity of the modern industrial firm becomes uneconomic, since firms exist only to the extent that they reduce transaction costs more effectively. In relation to these three elements, these theories have formed into a live and real demonstration of today's Internet experience where the value of the information increased exponentially especially when transformed into knowledge - whereby these technological and sociological phenomena can be considered as the Internet Law. Money Value Coase’s Law: Increases Diminishing Exponentially returns Programming Metcalfe’s Cash Potential Time of content Law: Flow Reward Reaching critical mass Platform Moore’s Law: Making technology faster, cheaper and smaller every 18 months INFORMATION IS EXPONENTIAL 61

The Landscape of Digital Convergence d) The Internet Time The Internet time Even ‘time’ has greatly affected our Incremental Time daily affairs. What we used to accomplish in a day can be done in seconds. 8 hours = 480 minutes 1 week = 2,400 minutes Whenever we need to look for 1 month = 9,600 minutes 1 year = 115,200 minutes information, we get it fast and quick. So we tend to act on the information- versus turned-knowledge for us to create Exponential Time something in a shorter span of time, which also increases our productivity. 24 hours = 1,440 minutes = 86,400 seconds 1 week = 10,800 minutes = 604,800 seconds 1 month = 40,320 minutes = 2,419,200 seconds 1 year =483,840 minutes = 29,030,400 seconds While we focus on different media forms of communication, we can only address a few hundreds or thousands at a span of time. In the Internet Age, we address millions by the seconds. The way we address our message must also be fast, concise and available. 4.4 Part Three: Competitive Intelligence Surviving and Thriving The Hyper-medium is the Hyper-massage in the 21st Century Using Knowledge-Based Outer Ring Audio Book/ Musical Strategies Traditional Voice Text Score Information \"Knowing is not enough, we must Willing is not Products we must do. In the end, we must Video Digital Hyper Synthe- (Film) Audio/ text sized Image Animation Photo Voice Hyper MusicDigital Digital Medium Sync apply. Video eNneowus/gh, Images acIRtnef\"of Video Info Game base (Goethe/Youngblood, SCIP) Virtual Desktop Reality Publish Hyper-medium is the Modeling Software Document Hyper-massage Inner Ring E-cash Email Appln Converging Knowledge-based strategies Money Manual Digital Routine Information Catalog Kampas/McLuhan Products are not only necessary to survive but will enable smart companies to thrive in today's hypercompetitive marketplace. In the early media days, the medium was the massage according to Marshall McLuhan. Today, the hyper-medium is the hyper-massage because the media has become open, converged, interactive, digital, seamless, multimedia, multi-person, multi-location, 62

The Landscape of Digital Convergence hyper-linked and object-based. Traditional analog information products are converging with digital information products. Because of the hyper-activity of communication, information has become the most threatened resource next to natural resources. Getting the right information to the right people at the right time will bring competitive edge to anyone who holds the knowledge. The knowledge you create at any particular time will create vast opportunities if you ‘act on it’. Where misuse of information like spying, stealing and bugging dominated the information world, this has become a failure of Competitive Intelligence. In the knowledge-based era, Competitive Intelligence (CI) has become a major safeguard in promoting the ethical means of gathering information and transforming this information into actionable intelligence. CI is a relearning process on how information is made, where to find it, what it is, who sent it, and how and when it was made. This is all done instantly and demands immediate action. Due to fast changing and evolving development, CI tools helps us to respond with the right market tactics, and short-term or long-term decisions about things that we need to do. In its most basic description, intelligence is ‘analysed information’ that helps a manager to respond with the right tactic or long-term decision. Intelligence Value Creation Sytem System Builders Intergrators Protectors Knowledge Analysts Decision informed Builders Makers action Secondary Researchers Primary Data Builders Competitive intelligence (CI) provides strategists with the ‘foreknowledge’ that is essential for developing these competitive and actionable strategies. 63

The Landscape of Digital Convergence 4.5 Part Four: Unlearning Scarcity, Hello Abundance a) Bandwidth There is no doubt that the hyper-competitive market will consume large bandwidth because of the competitive advantage being transformed by Internet, Intranets and Extranet-based networks. The 21st century IP-based bandwidth traffic is multimedia in format, where the convergence of audio, video and data is converted into one communication machine - the network PC. Efforts to develop knowledge-based networks are already taking place, which is supposed to be the next trend after the multimedia mania. The hyper-competitive market is addressing both the local and global community where it passes the same information superhighway. The demand for bandwidth in the future will be like water and electricity. With the convergence of content, information infrastructure and appliance, bandwidth will be delivered in every home, office, mall, point-of-sale equipment, school, bank, medical centre, or to any site that will need 21st century communication and information systems or knowledge-based society, the beginning of the digital evolution. This same network can provide value- added services like camera surveillance and calling booths on highways, central emergency centres for fire, safety and security, electronic commerce, shopping in the home, video conferencing, content convergence online multimedia libraries, video on demand, information on demand, and other infrastructure convergence creative exponential possibilities in the information landscape. appliance convergence 64

The Landscape of Digital Convergence This means bandwidth can be used to remotely control our lighting, water and communication system in our homes, remotely cook our food in the microwave, control our cooling or heating system, refrigerators and other appliances that will eventually be Internet protocol compliant. Bandwidth will be the lifeblood of all information technology applications and the most essential in communication. b) End of Limited Mobility In spite of any ongoing traffic congestion on the road, once Home Office the communication and information infrastructure is interconnected and the media has become open, converged, interactive, digital, seamless, multimedia, multi-person, multi-location, hyper-linked and object-based, mobility will no First Floor Legend: Grade 1 Grade 2 Grade 3 longer be an issue. Because of - Single Line White Tiles - Weather Proof Brown Cement unlimited bandwidth resource, even the homes can be used as a virtual office or any practical places in particular. programming The Post-Convergence Information Industry c) Integrated Media c.2020 The Internet has been i CONsulting Organisation • Business • Technical the focal nexus of smart hyper media integrated media. Entertainment • Education • Publishing • Info-services • Applications • Transacting Due to digital platform info superhighway & user interface convergence, it has Integrated Digital Multimedia Communication transformed the Infrastructure • Helmet • Gloves • Display • primary functions like Camera • Speakers • Microphone • etc. e-mail and browsing multimedia systems Wireless • Desktop • Servers • to a more integrated Disk • Tape • Printer • Batteries interaction of semiconductors Analog • Memory • Microprocessors • Logic • etc. activities capable of broadcast, datacast and multicast and 65

The Landscape of Digital Convergence converging in any media possible including the mobile phone. While analog will still be around, however, the need to transform the analog to digital on another platform has become the most challenging effort that would require different experts to fulfill depending on the media. Once the information is in digital form, integration through the network is seamless. d) Online Communities When two or more information marketplace libraries and/or organisations and individuals engaged in NInetweraeMdceuttdiaviineamenOtnlinLDeCReiCresaeotlraaamnttniimnincngguegnitiesjitMKkannnoowawgleeldemgdeegnet a common pattern of information and knowledge exchange through communication, this is networking. Distance debating Internet has long Teaming been subsidising the need for electronic Kampas global networking and commerce has transformed the world into an online community. It has thousands of libraries and search engines available worldwide that at the stroke of a finger, you can get any information you want. As more people get connected through the Internet, the online community will grow exponentially and virtually. 4.6 Summary and Conclusion This is thoroughly an era of digital landscaping in the digital revolution age. It is the era of emptying our teacup and work on getting fresh hot tea again. What we may have learned in the past may not be applicable today. Though the experience may have worked on a different system, because of innovation, systems may enable a new paradigm that is applicable on a particular time. 66

The Landscape of Digital Convergence Abraham Lincoln said, \"You don't just set your compass and head south - or you will quickly run aground. Instead, you steer from point to point according to how the river is running and the obstacles that appear in your path.\" We are following a trend where there will be lots of obstacles, disruptions and anxieties because of the gap between social systems and technological change. And we need competitive intelligence to navigate the sea of information and reformulate knowledge to our advantage and survival for us to gain the foreknowledge not to be off track with these challenges. Just like the railroad has allowed people to travel from one point to another, the ‘Bandwidth’ is considered the railroad of today and has become the pathway of modern communication and digital convergence. As the Internet increases our state of global consciousness, we need to grasp the process of digital change for us to understand the landscape of the New World - the cyberspace. The New World brings us shoulder to shoulder and in a comparable leap, a world that talks together will soon see together. Therefore, we need to explore all possible access in this New World for us to express ourselves digitally - to satisfy our timeless need for information and communication and to be able to take part in the digital landscape of this new era and soon experience the digital evolution. In the end, the final product in all these is human knowledge. ❖ 67

The Landscape of Digital Convergence References Interviews • Prof. Ben Gilad, Founder and President of the Academy of Competitive Intelligence, Washington, D.C. • Paul J. Kampas, Principal, Kampas Research, Adjunct Faculty, Cornell University • Peggy Miles, President of Intervox Communications, Washington, D.C. Books • Miles, Peggy & Dean Sakai, Internet Age Broadcasting, National Association of Broadcasters, Washington, D.C., 1998 • SCIP Competitive Intelligence Review (1997-1998) • Kahaner, Larry, Competitive Intelligence, Touchstone Book, 1997 • Linville, Robert L., Competitive Horizons, CI Boot Camp, SCIP, 1996 • Navigating Through the Gray Zone, a collection of corporate Codes of Conduct and ethical Guidelines, compiled by SCIP and the Conference Board's Council on Competitive Analysis • Winkler, Ira, Corporate Espionage, Prima Publishing, 1997 • Negroponte, Nicholas, Being Digital, 1996 • Sun Tzu, The Art of War • Barndt, Walter D., Jr., The Demand Side of Competitive Intelligence: The Missing Link, SCIP Websites • http://www.scip.org • http://www.gilad-herringACI.com • http://www.media.mit.edu/people/nicholas • http://www.cio.com • http://www.hbr.org Seminars & Conferences • National Association of Broadcasters, Las Vegas, April 1998 • 1998 Annual Internal Conference and Exhibit, Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals, Chicago, March 1998 • ISPCON98, San Francisco, August 1997 68

Chapter 5 Globalisation, Media and Culture: Interweaving a Web of Dehumanisation Conrad Saldanha 5.1 Introduction What is the common factor between globalisation, media and culture? A brief reflection would help us identify it as ‘Technology’. Technology’s enabling power interlinks globalisation, media and culture, creating a structural system that dehumanises. There are two interrelated aspects of technology viz. Digitisation and Convergence, which are working in synchrony to create a commonly held world-view which stems from reductionism. Digitisation is the process by which all communication is reduced to 0s and 1s 1. It is interesting to note that communication began with the 26 letters of the English alphabet system which was then reduced to the 3 signalling symbols of Morse Code and finally to the digits of ‘0’ and ‘1’ in the Information Age of Computers 2. These same ‘0’s’ and ‘1’s’ can be used to create words, sounds, images and movement. Consequently a convergence of the TV, the telephone and the computer can take place and is taking place. Diverse formats can be developed from the same basic 0s and 1s. The variety of delivery platforms is beginning to grow in quantum leaps. Mobile phones have now become TVs and Internet access points. But behind this dazzling phantasmagoria of seductive toys, one finds an insidious desire to reduce complexity to a lowest common denominator. This reductionism is seen in the role of technology sewing up the world into a tight little Global Village, which conjures up a very simplistic neighbourly feeling and glosses over, as well as masks, the complex web of domination and submission pervading the whole world today with its heinous consequences. In this web one really doesn’t know how one’s actions are going to influence the world, whether there will just be a slight ripple or an uncontrollable wave. This is amply seen in the 69

Globalisation, Media and Culture: Interweaving a Web of Dehumanisation Chaos Theory as discovered by Lorenz3 while he examined the prediction of weather as well as in the Fitness Landscapes4 being probed by biologists. In spite of this unpredictability because of the complexity arising from the compression and connectedness of the world, we still try to reduce this complex world to a simplistic image of technological connectivity which belies the reality. Because of complexity and interconnectedness there will be increased uncertainty. Now to reduce uncertainty, technology works in tandem with media to homogenise culture and behaviour. It’s something like reducing culture too to 0s and 1s, standardizing local cultures to a commonly aspired way of life. In a recent World Teen Study it was shown that ‘despite different cultures, middle class youth all over the world seem to live their lives as if in parallel universes. They get up in the morning, put on their Levi’s and Nike’s, grab their caps, backpacks, and Sony personal CD players and head for school’5. Everybody starts aspiring for the exaggerated representations of the good life portrayed in the media - the country club, the yacht, the superstar celebrity. Uncertainty is replaced with certainty in values and lifestyle. Complexity is reduced to a simplified standardisation. How does media work with technology to reduce the plurality of cultures into a homogenous sameness, into a mass? TV talks to the body and not the mind. This was proven through an experiment which Derek de Kerckhove allowed to be conducted on himself6. In front of the TV, we are passive receivers of predetermined points of view. There is also the principle of sub-muscularisation which is at work where the body needs to act out what has been communicated in order to better understand what has been communicated7. So TV not only legitimises behaviour but also influences behaviour. Naturally if there are so many divorces taking place it is the result predominantly of the content of soaps and entertainment programmes being viewed on TV. In fact John Naisbitt in his book titled High Tech High Touch has cited research into the Columbian killings which states that they were based on the videogame called ‘Doom’. Today because the entertainment angle is pervading all information, we find the dumbing down of information. This is ‘sound bite journalism’. Readers are encouraged not to think. They are encouraged to ‘Just do 70

Globalisation, Media and Culture: Interweaving a Web of Dehumanisation it’ as Nike’s slogan propagates. The belief is that the young generation or Generation@ is not interested in erudition. They are more interested in celebrity gossip and lifestyle. This dumbing down goes further to making life appear one big celebration which revolves around ‘radical hedonism’. All motivation to live is reduced to the lowest common denominator of sex and violence. Instant emotional satisfaction through the experience of thrills becomes the order of the day. There is reduction of the richness and variety of life into its basic instincts. 5.2 Brand Cultures And Multinationals The strongest motivation reason for homogenising cultures is the economic self-interest of multinational corporations. Multinationals create brands and therefore if multinationals have to grow then their brands will have to grow. Brands in their inception were just distinctive marks of quality products. But today they have evolved into becoming ‘a way of life, an attitude, a set of values, a look, an idea’8. In short, cultures by themselves. So multinationals try to spread their brand cultures worldwide. The brand culture is converted into a virus which is then let loose into any potential existing indigenous culture through a variety of channels viz. cultural sponsorships, political controversy, the consumer experience, and brand extensions. Public cultural space gets privatized. Events are sponsored, schools are used, sports are funded, and sometimes even entire neighbourhoods and cities are taken over. Just look at the spaces Nike has swallowed : superstores, hockey, baseball, basketball, tennis, soccer, T-Shirts, hats, underwear, schools, bathrooms and even human flesh like Nike tatooing9. National boundaries no longer hold. Against this background, Nike’s cultural values, for instance, gain hegemony. If brands are the purveyors of meaning and the value of media content is the meanings behind the messages, then a ‘made for each other’ synergy exists between brands and media. Brands use media to inculturate potential customers. Once a multinational has inculturated a consumer with its brand values then it has created a loyal stream of revenue which reduces the uncertainty of the future. No corporation likes an unexpected shift in the tastes of its publics. And what better way than to ensure this than by embedding a brand’s culture into the customer. 71

Globalisation, Media and Culture: Interweaving a Web of Dehumanisation But this can happen only by making potential customers live out the brand cultures irrespective of their indigenous cultures. This market driven globalisation doesn’t want diversity; quite the opposite. Its enemies are national habits and distinctive regional tastes. In a word, local culture. So a homogenised and commoditised culture is what multinationals spread throughout the world. Brands are the vehicles for accomplishing this task. These brand cultures have more or less the same underlying values. Their imagery and expressions may differ. This imagery and lifestyle generally coincide with the American way of life. So what is happening through this process is that a variety of cultures are being reduced to a similar set of values being exhibited through behaviour no matter in which part of the world one may be. A reduction of cultures to a basic common denominator of 0s and 1s. There is a veneer of variety in terms of brands and their different cultures but at the base it is the same values of convenience, speed, extreme individualism and entertainment which span the spectrum of all brands. Every brand of every multinational in some form or the other tries to deliver more and more convenience, with better and faster service, in a more and more customised and personalised manner and in an entertaining and experiential format which is embedded in the symbols and images of the American way of life. 5.3 Economies of Scale and Concentration of Power In any business there are economies of scale to be achieved through corporate expansion. There are various modes of expansion which corporations attempt to achieve. Expansion can take place through horizontal, vertical or diagonal routes10. For instance, in the media industry a TV company may purchase another TV company which would be horizontal expansion. Or a TV channel may purchase a content creation company which would be termed as vertical expansion. Or, a telecom operator could merge with a TV company which would be diagonal expansion. In all these types of expansion, companies are looking not only at achieving ‘critical mass’ or economies of scale but also objectives like greater market power through the maximisation of profits. In the media business there is an added advantage because 72

Globalisation, Media and Culture: Interweaving a Web of Dehumanisation besides achieving economies of scale one could also be looking at economies of scope. ‘An interview with a politician which is recorded for broadcast in a documentary might also be edited for inclusion in other news programmes, either on television or radio – the same television content can be repackaged into more than one product meant for different media\"11. This is economies of scope. Today because of digitisation and convergence this is becoming more and more feasible and therefore expansion and mergers within the media industry are on the rise. Because of heightened competition, the expansion or merger route becomes the way to achieve hegemony which results in the paradox of capitalism as Demers states. This is that increased global competition results in less competition in the long run. More power gets concentrated in fewer media companies. Whethre this endanger a diversity of opinion and pluralism and enhances the danger of creating homogenisation is something which needs to be reflected upon. 5.4 Advertising: The Media’s Financial Imperative Most media companies have two sets of audiences viz. the reader/ viewer and the advertiser. In order to synchronise with the multinationals’ needs, most media companies perceive themselves as being in the business of ‘delivering relevant audiences’. By relevant audiences is meant those audiences that can afford the lifestyle being projected by the brands of the multinationals. Consequently only the SEC A and B audiences (the upper class of audiences) are targeted by the media. ‘In the UK, for example, a breakdown of national readership patterns by socio-economic class indicates that As and Bs, who account for about 21% of the national population, have more press titles and TV programmes aimed at them than the C, D and E’s’12. So, therefore the content of media will necessarily be such that it attracts the A and B audiences, which the advertisers are interested in reaching. And, if that content is something which appeals to the lowest common denominator of money, sex and violence or sensationalism, then so be it. Its effect on society is not perceived to be the responsibility of the media. Media deliver whatever the audience 73

Globalisation, Media and Culture: Interweaving a Web of Dehumanisation wants. And the audience has been conditioned to want the line of least resistance. The ambience created by the media for the brand to exhibit its culture is most appropriate. Whether violent or anti-social behaviour erupts in society as a result of this ambience created by the editorial/ audiovisual content is not the responsibility of the TV/Press. Media companies perceive themselves as being just like any other organization, that sells products to maximise profits. Even though a media company has two streams of revenue viz. circulation i.e. cover price and advertising i.e. the rates charged to advertisers, almost all media companies subsidise the cover price and earn their revenues and profits from the advertising stream. And these profits can come only from the A and B classes of society because they are the ones who can afford to purchase the brands which multinational companies are marketing and media companies are aggregating. The financial imperative forces society to be perceived of only the upper classes at the expense of the other classes. In a way this is reducing society to a basic monetary metric. 5.5 Mechanistic View Of Life What we see happening is that technology overtly seems to be enabling and empowering people and corporations but covertly is actually creating a world-view that reduces the complexity of life into bits which are malleable and manageable. Technology is making us see human beings and life in a particular way. What is this mental model? It perceives the whole of life in a reductionist manner. In fact, as Richard Dawkins argues, this mental model believes that the whole of life can be reduced to information. Dawkins defines natural selection as ‘the non-random survival of randomly varying genetic instructions’. In other words, it is a two-stage process, the first being the production of random mutations in the genes of every new generation; the second the non-random effect of the environment on each individual gene, causing some to die, others to survive to pass on their mutations13. Even the famous philosopher, Daniel Dennett feels that consciousness can be explained in a very mechanical manner14. 74

Globalisation, Media and Culture: Interweaving a Web of Dehumanisation When the whole of life is viewed in a mechanical manner, it is no different from the mental model of Newton and Descartes, who felt this universe and life was one big ‘clockwork machine’ and one needed to know only four basic laws (the three laws of motion and the law of gravity) to understand this universe and the whole of life. Only this time the machine is the computer. If one develops life based on this model then one will necessarily believe that life cannot only be created by humans which is the result of the view that through the mapping of the gene one has literally conquered life, but that existing humans could be controlled and directed by those in power to influence his/her life. Life is reduced to something which can be controlled by humans themselves. Not only has the physical aspect of humans been reduced to something controllable but also our behaviour and values. All noble aspirations are reduced to the basest instincts. All variety of life is homogenised. Cloning is just one manifestation. We will then have the practicing of eugenics with the development of designer genes to satisfy and fulfill Nietzsche’s dream of the Superman. 5.6 Loss Of The Sacredness Of Life When all the manufacturing and media companies are targeting only the A and B segments of society, who will care to address the needs, desires, frustrations and pain of the other segments of society? Is the image of life defined only by the rich and famous? Whoever is not perceived as having an ‘exchange value’ in a society driven by free-market capitalism, does not have any value. Nobody cares about him/her. S/he need not exist. The old and the poor do not have any right to live! Every ‘body/thing’, including nature and the environment, is perceived to be of convenience and use for the amassing of wealth to achieve a standardised image of the lifestyle depicting that one has arrived. A culture of instantaneity where one does not want to waste any effort either in amassing wealth or in making relationships work becomes the 75

Globalisation, Media and Culture: Interweaving a Web of Dehumanisation norm. Adopt the line of least resistance because time is money and one’s life is ruled by speed. Corruption in the form of bribery becomes accepted as part of the system. Kleptocracy becomes rampant15. The end matters, not the means. In relationships, divorce becomes normal. Temporary relationships are the ‘in thing’. Why invest in a relationship that requires too much effort? Even families do not matter. Ego-nomics becomes a mainstream trend. Everything should be customized, in fact, personalized, and, relativism becomes predominant. Together with adversarialism, the dominant paradigm is ‘I am right, you are wrong’. Everything should focus on celebrating life in the form of satisfying every subjective desire which one has. The sacredness of life in all its humanity and community is lost. We have created a ‘culture of death’. 5.7 The New(s) Story Today we are experiencing a crisis of meaning and therefore what we need as Tom Berry stated is a ‘new story’. At the heart of this new mental model which needs to be communicated is that life is ‘organic’ and not ‘mechanical’. And the characteristics of being ‘organic’ versus being ‘mechanical’ are as follows. The body is the epitome of an organism. There are over a trillion cells in each body. All these cells are not of one type. There are over a hundred types of cells like nerve cells, muscle cells etc. So even though there are innumerable cells of different types still they collaborate to make the body function effectively. They are not homogenised. Their uniqueness is not obliterated. Similarly there are different systems within the body like the digestive system, the circulatory system, the immune system and so on. Though they are systems, i.e. complete by themselves, they cannot function in isolation. They are interdependent and Interconnected. Another interesting aspect is that the body keeps on renewing itself. As Deepak Chopra pointed out \"…the pancreas replaces most of its cells every 24 hours, the stomach lining every 3 days, our white blood cells are renewed in 10 days, and 98% of the protein in the brain is 76

Globalisation, Media and Culture: Interweaving a Web of Dehumanisation turned over in less than one month.\" The body is an open system. It is interdependent and interconnected with the outside world and uses this interaction to keep renewing itself. Lastly, when any part of the body is damaged either internally or externally, such as when it is cut or wounded, the whole body not only gets affected but the whole body rushes to that spot to heal the part which is damaged. When a limb or arm is lost, the remaining limb or arm takes on additional strength. When one loses one’s sight, one’s hearing and other senses increase in their scope as well as sharpness. The body is continually trying to heal itself from entropy. From this, one can conclude that the body thrives on diversity, interdependence, interconnectivity, renewal and continuous healing so that each member or element of the body is whole in order that the body may be whole. Individual fulfilment is experienced in and through communitarian fulfilment. With a mechanical or computerised frame of mind, we want to be able to predict outcomes because in that way we feel we would be in control. So, it is easier for us to view life in a mechanical manner. The irony is that the more we try to bring life under control the more chaotic it becomes. Consider a thermostat. If the ‘on/off’ switch were at the same position, then when it wanted to go ‘off’ it would go ‘on’ and when it wanted to go ‘on’ it would go ‘off’ causing total chaos. Therefore for the thermostat to function effectively the on switch must be placed in a slightly different place from the off position. They cannot coincide. An error of tolerance needs to be accepted. We need to move away from our understanding of perfection. We need to accept life’s little flaws because they have a place in the overall beauty of life. Appreciating the human achievement of an architectural design is quite different from admiring the beauty which emerges from the so called ‘wildness’ of nature like in the rainforests of Genting Highlands in Malaysia versus the manicured perfection of the gardens of Singapore. Life cannot be controlled in totality. Otherwise an artificial sameness will arise. 77

Globalisation, Media and Culture: Interweaving a Web of Dehumanisation Life always operates within constraints because it always acts in collaboration with something/somebody else. The earth in its shape, form and atmosphere has constraints. It is operating in collaboration with all the other elements in the universe. We are interconnected and therefore whatever we do impacts others. We co-evolve in coupled dancing landscapes. The couplings may be of different types: mutualists, competitors, or host and parasite or various other types of linkages. But no matter what type of linkages exist the best option for all and for each one are the patterns of behaviour which emerge at the edge between total chaos and total equilibrium and give rise to a greater fulfilment of the individual and the whole of humanity. Also, life is complex. Without a minimum amount of complexity life would not have appeared on this planet. Within the constraints and out of this complexity life self-organises itself by bringing order out of chaos. This happens because life always emerges at the boundary between the state of total equilibrium and the state of total chaos. It is at this boundary between the sub-critical and the supra-critical that ‘union differentiates’, that is, human beings arrive at decisions which are excellent for themselves and for the whole of humankind. This is the state of ‘self-organised criticality’. Human beings are continuously poised between the urge to ‘individualise’ and ‘communitise’. If they do neither, life will not evolve, it will decay. Life needs to multiply and diversify as well as converge and organise. These are the two fundamental processes of ontogeny or development: cell differentiation leading to cell diversity and morphogenesis or their ‘coordination into organised tissues and organs’. Because life is complex it cannot be treated in a linear manner. Methods for treating this ‘unstable, dynamic, infinite-dimensional machine’ still remain linear with disastrous consequences. ‘The underlying paradigm remains: one gene-one peptide-one enzyme-one neurotransmitter- one receptor-one animal behaviour-one clinical behaviour-one clinical syndrome-one drug-one clinical rating scale’16. This paradigm dominates all research and treatment in psycho-pharmacology. We also know that ‘quantum events are not determined absolutely by preceding causes. Although the probability of a given event (e.g. The radioactive decay of an atomic nucleus) is fixed by the 78

Globalisation, Media and Culture: Interweaving a Web of Dehumanisation theory, the actual outcome of a particular quantum process is unknown and even in principle unknowable’17. Life gradually evolves to giving more and more importance to the ‘within’ of humans rather than the ‘without’. There is a gradual spiritualising of the universe that takes place even as the complexity grows on the ‘without’. ‘We are seeking a qualitative law of development that, from sphere to sphere, should be capable of explaining first of all the invisibility, then the appearance and finally the gradual dominance of the within in comparison to the ‘without’ of things’. And to develop this we need to develop our capacity for loving. ‘Mankind, the spirit of the earth, the synthesis of individuals and peoples, the paradoxical conciliation of the element with the whole, and of unity with multitude – all these are called utopian and yet they are biologically necessary. And for them to be incarnated in the world all we may well need is to imagine our power of loving developing until it embraces the total of men and of the earth’18. We see this manifesting itself in the repeated playing of the game known as Prisoner’s Dilemma. The defect-defect strategy, known as the Nash Equilibrium, describes the normal way people behave. However, when this game is repeatedly played we see that ‘benign cooperation among selfish agents emerges despite the constant temptation to defect.’ Life is not large and gigantic but human-sized. Whenever life has tended to become larger than its human proportions, it has tended to disintegrate. The Roman civilization grew to a limit it could not govern or serve. The citizens became too enveloped with their conquests that they wanted to rest on their laurels and enjoy the spoils. Power over such a vast geographical area and people for that period bred disintegration. Britain grew into a large power where it was said that the sun would never set on Britain. It gradually dwindled. Today America sees its hegemony getting weaned away but it cannot face up to it and is becoming more belligerent. Gradually it too will dwindle. Similarly, businesses in the form of multinationals will also face disintegration. Nature has a way of making us realise that ‘small is beautiful’ even though we never learn from history. 79

Globalisation, Media and Culture: Interweaving a Web of Dehumanisation Another aspect of this mental model or new consciousness is the fact that businesses, work that people do, products and services that are produced and consumed, the political, legal and economic framework one develops should all coalesce into a synergistic whole which has as its essence a spiritualising of the whole of life. It is not enough to say that organisations draw up vision and mission statements. There needs to be a conscientisation that the material and social waste one has caused is the result of not seeing life in its spiritual dimension but only in its material dimension. Privatisation of public spaces will only increase profits but impoverish and alienate the vast majority. A trade union of the privileged cannot be sustained for long. There is no free- market capitalism. We need to understand the different shades of democracy and capitalism that can bring about a spiritualising effect on the whole of life. We also need to bring an understanding and experience of God that uplifts the whole of humankind. Today the Nietzchean philosophy is becoming pervasive. It can end exactly like Nietzsche ended his life, in total despair. Developing a Superman through ‘survival of the fittest’ alone is not the answer. Life is fragile and strong, all at the same time. Its strength lies in its acknowledgement of its weakness. When human beings become the centre, there is no place for God to witness His Power. The ‘I am right and you are wrong’ paradigm, which religions are today indulging in, will have to be transformed into something which is commonly discovered in all of them and which is beautiful and incarnated in the realities and struggles of daily living. 5.8 Strategy for Implementation To disseminate this new(s) story we need to work at two levels: the grassroots level and the macro level of policy change. We need to make citizens aware that they are not powerless and we need to make them realise the interconnectedness of problems they are facing so that they can choose to make this new(s) story a reality. In many countries, citizens have begun organising themselves into neighbourhood groups who work with the local government to create the neighbourhood they want. There is no adversarialism but rather collaboration. Each one’s needs are seen in the context of the needs of the whole neighbourhood. 80

Globalisation, Media and Culture: Interweaving a Web of Dehumanisation The Curitaba (Brazil) experience, based on the above principle, is gradually gaining ground19. To influence policy change at the macro level there could be various strategies. One could create an alternative newspaper on the world wide web or produce a multimedia which stands for this new(s) story and gives voice to the various initiatives being attempted just now around the world. One could even become members of different bodies so that one is able to make interventions which are in alignment with the new(s) story. And build up lobbies for different issues always in a spirit of collaboration rather than adversarialism. Change usually comes about when one experiences crisis and pain. Today the world is experiencing the pangs of disintegration and dehumanisation. It is seeking a new mental model and a new picture. The time is ripe to help life to evolve onto a more fulfilling plane. ❖ End Notes 1 Nicholas Negroponte, Being Digital. Vintage Books,Jan.1996, p. 11. 2 Derrick de Kerckhove, The Skin of Culture. Kogan Page, 1997, p. 39 3 James Gleick, Chaos. Minerva, 1997, p. 11. 4 Stuart Kauffman, At Home in the Universe. Oxford University Press, 1995, p. 222. 5 Naomi Klein, No Logo. Flamingo, 2001, p. 119. 6 Derrick de Kerckhove, The Skin of Culture. Kogan Page, 1997, p. 7 7 Ibid., p. 11. 8 Naomi Klein, No Logo. (Flamingo, 2001, p. 23 9 Ibid., pp. 20, 56 10 Gillian Doyle, Understanding Media Economics. Sage, 2002, p. 17. 11 Ibid., p. 15. 12 Ibid., p. 121. 13 Sian Griffiths, Predictions. Oxford University Press, 1999, p. 57. 14 Ibid., p. 67 15 Thomas L. Friedman, The Lexus and the Olive Tree. Anchor, 2000, p. 146. 16 James Gleick, Chaos. Minerva, 1997, p. 298. 17 Paul Davies, The Mind of God. Penguin, 1992, p. 61. 18 Teilhard de Chardin, The Phenomenon of Man. Fontana, 1969, p. 292. 19 Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, and L. Hunter Lovins, Natural Capitalism. Little Brown and Company, 1999, p. 285. 81



Media Education/Media Reforms: Methodologies, Interventions and Pathways