International news contraflow in the United States and Canada: struggles over North American media markets and regulation of Al Jazeera and China Central Television

Abstract

In this dissertation, I examine news media contraflow, flows of news and information from historically underrepresented parts of the globe into advanced media systems. I assess North American governance of news media flows in light of increased availability of nonwestern news organizations. The research in the following chapters examines the cases of the Al Jazeera Network (AJ) and China Central Television (CCTV) to more fully account for transformations in the gatekeeper roles of regulatory bodies, media distribution industries and communication norms that govern North America’s engagement with these emergent news providers. The proliferation of foreign news broadcasters makes examining institutions of reception – state regulators, public activist groups and distribution industries – increasingly important. Through case studies, I look, first, to recent changes in the production of international news in the neoliberal landscape of global communication. I examine significant new news content creators and identify what I call a hybrid media production model. State media enterprises are becoming savvy users of communication networks transformed by neoliberalism. In the second part of the dissertation, I outline the inchoate “foreign media policies” of the United States and Canada by analyzing the complex of law, norms and market conditions that influenced the reception of AJ and CCTV.