International Studies Compendium Project

Extract

Comment on this article   In recent decades, international communication has developed into a central issue of global politics, economics, and culture. Although communication has always influenced the development of human consciousness and societies, communication's impact only began to increase on a globally significant level during the mid-nineteenth century. Generally considered one of the central driving forces behind globalization, communication has provided the backbone for deep integration of trade, finance, culture, and so on. Constant invention and innovation, resulting in new information and communication technologies (ICTs), as well as geographic expansion, therefore became the fundamental driving force of systemic transformation in the global political economy, especially during the second half of the twentieth century. The microelectronic or digital revolution since the 1970s, combined with rapidly changing global politico-economic frameworks, has resulted in the next development stage of the capitalist market economy, which has become deeply embedded in the collective memory through terms such as the “knowledgeable society,” the “information age,” the “postindustrial society” or “digital capitalism.” As a result, global information and communication; the underlying infrastructure of large technological systems for its production, distribution, and storage; and related ... log in or subscribe to read full text