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The role of media in contemporary international relations: culture and politics at the crossroads

ABSTRACT The purpose of this article is to reflect on the role of media in contemporary international relations and the ecological aspects of international communication in the technological age through the life and work of Edgar Snow, an American pioneering writer on China–US relations and an exemplary internationalist. The article postulates that the battlefield of international politics has shifted from geographical and physical levels to cultural and communication levels with modern media playing a crucial role in perceptions and image-making. Consequently, we are increasingly removed from experience and becoming overly dependent on the representations of reality that come to us through media. We have often lost our place within an actual community and our touch with a particular natural landscape that had always grounded us. The article therefore posits that a new paradigm and an ethical way of communicating across cultures for mutual dialogue, respect, and dignity are required if we desire to move toward a more equitable and just global community. We must learn to seek out and intentionally create expectations of morality and conduct especially at the international level. As Snow understood long before it became clear to most anyone else, the Western concept of reductionist science and its linear and short-term communication approach to our environment also need to be augmented by the holistic and organic notion of communication and science emanating from the East.