ABSTRACT
Dickens’s (1859) famous opening lines in A Tale of Two Cities aptly describe the developments in the global academic/scholarship structure of the modern world-system, particularly as it relates to the media and (mass) communication field:
It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.
It was the age of wisdom; it was the age of foolishness …
It was the season of Light; it was the season of Darkness.
It was the spring of hope; it was the winter of despair
