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The Myth of Media Globalization, by Kai Hafez (trans. Alex Skinner). Cambridge: Polity Press, 2007. 232 pp. $24.95 (paper). ISBN 978–0745639093

As an explanatory concept, globalization is of relatively recent vintage. Even though the word “global” is more than 400 years old, the use of the term “globalization” in a processual sense only emerged in the 1960s and 1970s. However, despite its recent conceptual lineage as well as a lack of concensus about its definition, the notion of globalization perceived both within empirical trends, such as the heightened interconnectedness of commodities, capital, people, places, ideas, and images over time and the intensified subjective consciousness of these trends, has gathered considerable currency in both academic and popular discourse. Crucially implicated in analyses of this process are media and communication technologies, which are perceived as either drivers or exemplars of the forces of globalization. In fact, a significant thrust of the globalization debate within the field of media studies has centered on the global transformation of media landscapes and the implications of this transformation for societies and cultures across the world. On one side of this debate are those who tend to view the phenomenon negatively, as just another form of Western domination that produces a flow of cultural products to developing nations, resulting in the growth of cultural uniformity and the homogenization of local cultures. On the other side are those who, while acknowledging the global presence of Western media and cultural products, question the notion that global media flows represent either a form of domination or even a type of one-way traffic, arguing that there exists a contra flow of cultural production from the periphery to the center as well as between geocultural markets, especially in the area of television and film production. Kai Hafez’s work, The Myth of Media Globalization, however, situates itself outside of this terrain in that Hafez does not focus on the impact of media globalization but on the more basic question of whether the process can actually be said to be occurring. Thus, in contrast to the majority of globalization theorists who, while espousing varied views on the implications of the phenomenon, do not actually question its existence, Hafez adopts the role of global skeptic, arguing that despite the hype, there is little empirical evidence to indicate that a global media system is actually emerging. As he puts it: “It was for long assumed that global interactions are increasing. In many fields of cross-border communication this is in fact less true than previously imagined” (2). To make this case, he analyzes the state of current crossborder communications at the global level, using a three-dimensional model derived from systems theory. The model seeks to evaluate system connectivity, system change, and system interdependence—a trifecta of conditions whose achievement he seems to identify as the hallmark of globalization. In the first part of the book, Hafez is critical of the tendency to study globalization effects primarily in terms of the Internet and so-called new media. He proceeds to examine a broad spectrum of issues related to international media, ranging from international reporting, broadcasting, and satellite television to film and television program imports and the impact of the Internet. Although he analyzes varied aspects of international media developments, his basic contention regarding each of them remains the same: none of the so-called exemplars of media globalization actually engenders connectivity (defined as the extent, speed, and intensity of international exchange of information), system change (media-driven change within the political, economic, and cultural systems of nation states), or system interdependence (the transformation of autonomous