ABSTRACT
I am presenting here a preliminary analysis of the coverage of international and global communication in (1) the teaching programmes of a number of US universities, and (2) some of the most widely used introductory media studies textbooks for undergraduates. The significance of these findings lies in the considerable hegemony that US university communication programmes wield across the planet, given the number of departments globally which have been founded and staffed by doctoral graduates of those programmes. Equally, these introductory foundation textbooks and degree courses will shape US undergraduates’ framing of this field, as they either graduate in the field or retain a memory of those priorities and issues while pursuing other academic pathways. In their subsequent professional careers, too, in or out of the communication industries or the academy, these formative influences will in many cases continue to exert a pull. In this study I have focused on the extent to which global media issues are
or are not taught, or how far they are engaged with in introductory textbooks, within the United States. I have not, however, engaged with a critique of the detailed content of courses and textbooks covering these issues, which would be a worthwhile but mammoth task.
