Internationalizing "international communication"

International communication as a field of inquiry is, in fact, not very "internationalized." Rather, it has been taken as a conceptual extension or empirical application of U.S. communication, and much of the world outside the West has been socialized to adopt truncated versions of Pax Americana's notion of international communication. At stake is the "subject position" of academic and cultural inquirers: Who gets to ask what kind of questions? It is important to note that the quest to establish universally valid "laws" of human society with little regard for cultural values and variations seems to be running out of steam. Many lines of intellectual development are reckoning with the important dimensions of empathetic understanding and subjective consciousness. In Internationalizing "International Communication," Lee and others argue that we must reject both America-writ-large views of the world and self-defeating mirror images that reject anything American or Western on the grounds of cultural incompatibility or even cultural superiority. The point of departure for internationalizing "international communication" must be precisely the opposite of parochialism – namely, a spirit of cosmopolitanism. Scholars worldwide have a moral responsibility to foster global visions and mutual understanding, which forms, metaphorically, symphonic harmony made of cacophonic sounds.

International communication as a field of inquiry is not very "internationalized." It has been taken as conceptual extension or empirical application of U.S. communication. Worse yet, much of the non-west has been socialized to adopt truncated versions of Pax Americana's notion of international communication. At stake is the "subject position" of academic and cultural inquirers: Who get to ask what kind of questions? It is important to note that the quest to establish universally valid "laws" of human society with little regard for cultural values and variations seems to be running out of steam. Many lines of intellectual development are reckoning with the important dimensions of empathetic understanding and subjective consciousness. In Internationalizing "International Communication" Lee and others argue that we must reject both America-writ-large views of the world and self-defeating mirror images that reject anything American or western on the grounds of cultural incompatibility or even cultural superiority

International communication research : critical reflections and a new point of departure /Chin-Chuan Lee --Window shopping : on internationalizing "international communication" /Elihu Katz --Beyond Lazarsfeld : international communication research and its production of knowledge /Tsan-Kuo Chang --Beyond modernization and the four theories of the press /Jan Servaes --Professional models in journalism : between homogenization and diversity /Paolo Mancini --Conditions of capital : global media in local contexts /Michael Curtin --The enduring strength of Hollywood : the "imperial adventure" genre and Avatar /Jaap van Ginneken --Resurrecting the imperial dimension in international communication /Colin Sparks --De-Westernization and cosmopolitan media studies /Silvio Waisbord --Local experiences, cosmopolitan theories : on cultural relevance in international communication research /Chin-Chuan Lee --Theorizing media production as a quasi-autonomous field : a reassessment of China News studies /Judy Polumbaum --Translation, communication, and East-West understanding /Zhang Longxi --Public spheres, fields, networks : Western concepts for a de-Westernizing world /Rodney Benson --Cosmopolitanism and international communication : understanding civil society actors /Peter Dahlgren --Postcolonial visual culture : arguments from India /Arvind Rajagopal.