Making Sense of Communication Theory

While I was reading chapter 2 of Thussu, I noticed that all the theories of communication seem to have valid and logical points, all depending on the medium of communication in question and the goal of the communication. For example, American broadcast television seems to exemplify the "free flow" doctrine in reflecting freedom of expression and the role of "public watchdog." The public watchdog role of the media allows criticism of the United States government. Therefore the media set its own agenda and don't solely promote the message of the government.

I think the theories of modernization and dependency seem to go hand in hand. The basis of modernization is that international mass communication by developed countries can be used to modernize newly independent countries. This in my mind, could then continue to lead to dependency theory, where the new independent country is now dependent on the Western or developed country.

Galtung's "feudal" interaction principle says that there is interaction from the "centre" country to the "periphery" country, but not from one periphery nation to another. An Example used in Thussu is how this theory relates to global news flow to periphery nations. For example, a country that receives information from a developed media source will only receive information from neighboring countries that has been filtered by the developed country. This allows for media bias to flourish because there is no competition of media sources.