20/11/2025 (Thursday) 13:00-14:00 E21-G002
Rethinking Communication in Global Geopolitics: Competing Narratives and Infrastructures
Abstract:
While global geopolitics and its mediatization continues to be dominated by the US-led Western nations and corporations based there, in the past two decades there have been visible changes in the way it is conducted and communicated in an increasingly digitized and connected world. The traditional conceptions of geopolitics are being challenged by the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries, notably China and Russia, and, to a lesser extent, by India. Such countries have contributed to the transformation of the global media and communication landscape, and thus challenging the analytical frameworks of communication governance, which remain deeply embedded within a Western discourse. Competing narratives on global affairs – be it related to contemporary conflicts – such as wars in Ukraine and Gaza – or debates surrounding a ‘democratic’ vs. an ‘authoritarian’ version of AI, are beginning to undermine Western discourses at a time when the West appears to be in decline, while the ‘rest’ is on the rise. This talk, based on the speaker’s new book Changing Geopolitics of Global Communication analyses these changes within such domains as digital infrastructure, commerce, and digital for development, supported by recent examples, to underscore the primacy of communication in international relations.
Bio:
Daya Thussu is Professor of International Communication at Hong Kong Baptist University. He is the President of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR). He was, for many years, Professor of International Communication at the University of Westminster in London. For the academic year 2018-2019, he was Distinguished Visiting Professor and Inaugural Disney Chair in Global Media at Schwarzman College, Tsinghua University in Beijing. Professor Thussu is the author or editor of 20 books, including International Communication – Continuity and Change, third edition (Bloomsbury Academic, 2019) and, most recently, Changing Geopolitics of Global Communication (Routledge, 2024) on which this talk is based.
