ABSTRACT
The biggest single change in communications research during the last twenty years is that it has become more international.1 A spate of comparative and international media studies – usefully reviewed in separate pieces by Oliver Boyd-Barrett and Daya Thussu – have been published in recent years.2 A rapidly expanding, academic cottage industry is investigating globalization and culture.3 Perhaps most important of all, communications researchers now more often take account of research outside their own country than was formely the case. This is exemplified by Michael Schudson’s celebrated overview of the sociology of news production. When his essay was first published in 1989, it focused mainly on American news media. By contrast, its fifth version, published in 2005, draws extensively on evidence and examples drawn from around the world.4
