GLOBAL COMMUNICATION INFRASTRUCTURE

Topic

Global Communication Infrastructure

Instructions

  1. Analyse the impact of privatisation of Inmarsat and Intelsat on the world’s developing countries and explain two (2) challenges faced by them due to changes in pricing coverage in the field of telecommunication access.
  2. Critically evaluate the importance of three (3) WTO agreements of 1997 on international communication and their impact on today’s world.
  3. Evaluate the benefits of liberalisation, privatisation and deregulation of the global communication regime.
  4. Analyse any two (2) strategies used by media conglomerates to make a “foreign show” famous and culturally acceptable in your home country.
  5. “Partly as a reaction to perceived Westernisation of their cultures and partly as a reaction to the alleged distortion in representations of non-Western cultures in the global media, many countries have experienced a cultural revival, often influenced by religious groups and encouraged by political establishments, acting as a barrier to the flow of Western media products.” Using two (2) relevant examples, support the argument that ‘fears of global harmonisation of culture, due to the globalisation of Western television forms and formats may not be entirely justified.’
  6. Technological developments, combined with the liberalisation in trade and telecommunications, have acted as catalysts for e-commerce. Using three (3) examples of e-commerce businesses, critically evaluate how the internet has transformed international communication from ‘free flow of information’ to ‘free flow of commerce.’ The internet has triggered a downfall in quality, accuracy and context of news across the world. Using two (2) examples, defend or argue against the ‘need for an alternative to corporatized global communication and the need for a news agenda that covers issues of relevance to the majority’.

Answer preview

Privatization of Inmarsat and Intelsat brought certain challenges to the developing countries as far as telecommunication access is concerned. Formation of these global satellite systems, under United Nations implications, was purely meant for creating intergovernmental treaty organizations to offer affordable satellite capacity to support telecommunication services in a non-discriminatory basis (Thussu, 2000). Innovations on the satellite technologies and applied economies of scale enabled the global satellite systems to cut-down the rates of charges for the services provided. However, privatization led to development of new operational policies. Countries or regions that acquired high-density routes, such as Western Europe and North America, were the only ones qualifying for lower cost rated per circuit as opposed to low-density routes. The global satellite systems had entered into a business world since the members of international community were no longer in charge of funding its operations.

Word count: 4727