GLOBAL ECONOMY AND INTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATIONS NETWORKS

Qaiss Aakif
Com 2303
Dr. Ibahrine
Chapter 3



GLOBAL ECONOMY AND INTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATIONS NETWORKS


I. PREMODERN WOLRD

a. The world was very different from today in the 13th century.
b. Foreign product were rare.
c. Few people had access to them.
d. Foreign product were mainly made of exotic products.
e. These products were easy to transport.
f. Everyday goods were made by local people.

II. DIVISION OF LABOR

a. The modern world is distinguished by the use of the division lf labor in the production process.
b. Instead of one groups are working together within a factory.
c. The division of labor creates interdependencies.
d. Interdependencies required coordination and control in order to keep the production going smoothly.
e. Division of labor is a devil’s bargain.
f. It increases the production via specialization, but creates many problems of coordination and control.
g. Henry Ford’s automobile factory is a good illustration of this division of labor.

III. IMPERIALISM

a. In the 13th century the world was multipolar gathering multiple center of power.
b. Decentralization trade circuit.
c. The picture change with the emergence of Portuguese and Spanish empires in the 14th and 15th centuries.
d. The western powers transformed the multipolar world into a monopole one.
e. The development of technologies in the western world gave them technologically superior weapons.
f. One of the reasons the imperial powers were interested in acquiring colonies was to gain access to raw materials for their growing industries.
g. These industries were in need of cotton, rubber, jute, indigo.

IV. ELECTRONIC IMPERIALISM

a. Global Media Flows

i. After World War II the age of imperialism came to its end as colonies were getting their independence.
ii. The center of the world moves across the Atlantic to the USA.
iii. The USA projects its power through economy and cultural means.
iv. Scholars argue that the global political structures created during the age of imperialism remain in place.
v. Even though the days of the gunboat diplomacy has gone.
vi. The USA dominates the cinema and the television screen all over the World.
vii. Some countries are more concerned about his cultural influence of films.
viii. Developing countries considerer the import of US movies as a new kind of invasion.
ix. When we look to global communication flows, it is obvious to see that they are disproportionately from the center (USA) and the peripheries (rest of the world).

b. Transborder Data Flow

i. Services changed a little because they required an intense amount if interaction between the service provider and the consumer.
ii. Modern communication and information technologies have radically changed many things.
iii. The trade in services assumes a great importance in global economy.
iv. As global division of labor has progressed, manufacturing jobs have moved overseer from the USA to developing countries.

V. EMERGING NETWORK STRUCTURES

a. The coat of programs production and transmission make television a top-down mode.
b. TVs were amenable to centralized control.
c. Emergence of new transmission systems.
d. Internet looks like a democratic medium because nobody seems to control it.
e. Nevertheless rich countries with 16 % of the world population is in possess of 97% of all Internet hosts.
f. Network investment pattern suggest that in the future we will see the emergence of regional networks and Europe and Asia.

VI. TOWARD A NEW WOLRD SYSTEM

a. There has been center and peripheries through history.
b. The specific places that played roles of center and periphery have varied over time.
c. From colonial era to World War II and after the center moved a cross the Atlantic to reach the USA.
d. Nowadays the center of global communication in mainly the USA.