CM2001 International and Global Communication
Week 1 Readings: The Worlds we Live in................................................................................. 1
Fukuyama, (1989) The end of history?.............................................................................. 1
Huntington, (1996) Clash of Civilizations........................................................................... 2
Week 1 Lecture Notes............................................................................................................. 4
Week 2 Readings: Storytelling, from ancient to popular culture............................................ 7
Beckerman (2021), What about the heroine’s journey?.....................................................7
Snowden (2021), Why do conspiracy theories flourish? Because the truth is too hard to
handle................................................................................................................................ 7
Week 2 Lecture Notes............................................................................................................. 8
Week 3 Readings: An initiation to strategic mass communication...................................... 12
Hobbs (2020), Propaganda in an Age of Algorithmic Personalization: Expanding Literacy
Research and Practice.....................................................................................................12
Knuutila, Neudert and Howard (2022), Who is afraid of fake news? Modelling risk
perceptions of misinformation in 142 countries................................................................14
Week 3 Lecture Notes........................................................................................................... 15
Week 4 Readings: Hollywood...................................................................................................18
Shaheen (2000), Hollywood’s Muslim Arabs................................................................... 18
Karniouchina, Carson and Reilly (2022), Women and Minority Film Directors in
Hollywood: Performance Implications of Product Development and Distribution Biases 19
Week 4 Lecture Notes........................................................................................................... 21
Week 5 Readings: Public Relations......................................................................................... 24
Bates (2006), To inform and persuade: public relations from the dawn of civilization..... 24
Walker, Fitzpatrick and Wang (2022), Exploring US public diplomacy’s domestic
dimensions: purviews, publics and policies..................................................................... 28
Week 5 Lecture Notes........................................................................................................... 32
Week 6 Readings: The Middle East..........................................................................................36
Britannica, Arab-Israeli Wars........................................................................................... 36
McInnes (2023),‘It’s not a fad’: the truth behind Saudi Arabia’s dizzying investment in
sport................................................................................................................................. 37
Week 6 Lecture Notes........................................................................................................... 39
Week 7 Readings: Terrorists and freedom fighters................................................................43
Ganor (2002), Defining Terrorism: Is One Man's Terrorist another Man's Freedom Fighter?43
White (2021), Why “Dissident” Irish Republicans Haven't Gone Away..................................45
Week 7 Lecture Notes........................................................................................................... 47
Week 8 Readings: Global weirding and the futures of IGC................................................... 50
Climate change in the American mind: November 2019....................................................... 50
National Intelligence Council (2021), Global Trends 2040: A more contested world.............51
Week 8 Lecture Notes........................................................................................................... 52
Tips............................................................................................................................................. 56
,Week 1 Readings: The Worlds we Live in
Fukuyama, (1989) The end of history?
- Fukuyama noted that Western liberal democratic traditions have maintained their place
in politics over the last hundred years despite the successive rise of alternative systems
of government: liberal democratic government has outlasted monarchism, fascism and
communism.
- In fact, it can be said that liberal democracy has survived to increasingly become the
choice of political system for all nations.
- Fukuyama’s central thesis in The End of History and the Last Man is that human history
is moving towards a state of idealised harmony through the mechanisms of liberal
democracy.
- For Fukuyama, the realisation of an ideal political and economic system which has the
essential elements of liberal democracy is the purpose behind the march of history.
- ‘Liberal democracy’ does not necessarily mean the exact type of constitutional
democracy found in the United States. It can manifest itself in a number of ways, but its
consistent features are freedom of speech, free and fair elections, and the separation of
powers.
- Fukuyama argues that there are no ‘contradictions in human life’ that cannot be resolved
within the context of liberalism; or more generally, that there is no longer an alternative
political and economic structure that can offer solutions to problems such as the need for
freedom, protection, and human rights.
- In making his claim about history having a process and a goal, Fukuyama is following in
the footsteps of the early Nineteenth Century German philosopher Georg Hegel
(1770-1831). This famous philosopher saw a ‘dialectical’ process as the driving force
behind human history that will eventually achieve a final goal for humanity.
- This Hegelian dialectic is a logical process manifest in the events of history and
unfolding over time. Hegel maintained that the operation of this Idea or ‘Spirit’ (Geist) in
history will continually produce opposite, and conflicting, ways of thinking, thesis and
antithesis: once the thesis has been formulated there will eventually be an antithesis
opposing it.
- The result is a conflict of beliefs that somehow must be resolved. The resolution takes
the form of a compromise between the thesis and antithesis. Thus a synthesis provides
a temporary solution, until it too becomes the new thesis, or in the historical sense, the
new ideological state of society, which in its turn is also opposed; and this dialectical
process continues until the development of the ultimate society.
- For instance, as Fukuyama agrees with Hegel, human beings are alike in the sense that
they have basic needs, such as food, shelter and self-preservation, and that the human
spirit also demands a recognition of our worth. We instinctively want to say to others, “I
am greater than you, I want you to look up to me and give me respect.” Peoples’ desires
taking the form of wanting other people to recognise their superiority creates conflict with
their fellow beings. This is, in essence, a struggle for dignity. Because all people desire
dignity, no party is initially prepared to give ground, so a struggle for superiority ensures.
Hegel refers to this struggle as the master-slave dialectic or relationship. There will
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, always be a winner and loser; so someone will be master, and someone is always going
to be delegated to the status of slave. According to Hegel, people will eventually attempt
to overcome their subservient status and fight for the sake of their self-importance, their
highest ideal being the desire to make the enemy respect their abilities, and so
recognise their humanity. (It’s the regaining of self-consciousness too.)
- These and other conflicts are played out through history as dialectical processes. But
Hegel believed that at the last stage in history, every human and every country will
achieve a final synthesis. Fukuyama similarly believes that all humanity will shortly arrive
at the final goal of history – liberal democracy. Fukuyama cites evidence that over time,
more and more countries are turning to a liberal democratic system to solve their
problems.
- Like Hegel, Fukuyama believes this process towards the end of history will not be
smooth and linear. Some countries will continue to fall in and out of democracy; but in
the end they will return to the democratic style of government because it is the only form
of government that can satisfy the human need for dignity.
Huntington, (1996) Clash of Civilizations
- Hypothesis: the fundamental source of conflict in the new world will not be primarily
ideological or primarily economic, but cultural.
The nature of civilizations
- A civilization is a cultural entity.
- Civilization: the highest cultural grouping of people and the broadest level of
cultural identity people have short of that which distinguishes humans from other
species.
- Defined both by common objective elements (language, history, religion, customs,
institutions) and by the subjective self-identification of people.
- E.g. A resident of Rome may identify themself as Roman, Italian, Catholic,
European etc.
- Civilizations are dynamic - rise and fall, divide and merge.
Why civilizations will clash
- Civilizations are differentiated from each other by history, language, culture, tradition and
religion.
- The differences among civilizations are the product of centuries and they will not
soon disappear.
- Difference does not necessarily lead to conflict and conflict is not necessarily
violent, but differences in civilizations have generated the most prolonged and
violent conflicts.
- The world is becoming a smaller place.
- The interactions between peoples of different civilizations are increasing and
enhance civilization consciousness and awareness of difference.
- In turn, invigorates differences and animosities stretching or thought to stretch
back deep into history.
- The processes of economic modernization and social change throughout the world are
separating people from long standing local identities.
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