ABSTRACT
Many of the recent studies of ‘global media’ have focused on television: its expansion and reach as a clear indication and evidence of the end of national media. Yet television has remained a national medium, and even the advocates of globalization inevitably use ‘national’ examples to map out the emergence of a new global media environment. There are good reasons for such nationally focused studies. Languages as well as political and cultural frameworks, among other things, remain overwhelmingly national. Yet across the Southern hemisphere and in countries with few resources, television has been a complex blend of national and global. It has been nationally organized, fi nanced, and controlled, either through direct state intervention or through family media businesses that have sought power and profi ts via political connections and patronage.
