Global Media

Published: April 22, 2009, midnight

b'This panel explored theoretical, methodological, and practical issues surrounding the study of media circulation in an age of increasing global connectivity. \\u201cGlobal media\\u201d often serves as a placeholder for media outside Anglo-American academic settings, with \\u201cglobal\\u201d gesturing towards \\u201cOther\\u201d media ecologies. This panel brought together scholars and practitioners who wrestle with the simultaneous indispensability and inadequacy of Anglo-American paradigms \\u2013 both for media practitioners and scholars \\u2013 in Asian, African, and Latin American contexts. In what ways can we move away from the \\u201cnational\\u201d as the pre-eminent analytic frame? How do media producers in the global south grapple with the challenges and opportunities of globalization? What role are audiences playing in shaping media circuits? In tackling these and other questions, panelists Jonathan Gray, Communication and Media Studies, Fordham University; Carolina Acosta-Alzuru, Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Georgia; African filmmaker Abderrahamane Sissako; and CMS alum Aswin Punathambekar SM \\u201903, Communication Studies, University of Michigan explored ways in which recent developments in diverse settings worldwide might inform and revitalize our understanding of how media circulates. Henry Jenkins will moderate this forum which kicks off the sixth Media in Transition conference at MIT.'