邱林川

Jack Linchuan Qiu

ICTD、全球南方、南方傳播研究、階級、網絡、華南地區

ICTD, Global South, southern communication research, class, network, South China

何為骨骼健全的新世紀華人傳播學？本文以筆者近年在華南地區的調研和對全球南方國家的觀察為基礎，重點討論新媒體產業在全球化背景下日益「南方化」的現實情形。一方面整理相關文獻，特別是亞非拉地區關於信息傳播科技與發展（Information and Communication Technologies and Development, ICTD）的研究成果，一方面探討華南地區正在形成的新工人階級在全球南方新媒體發展過程中的關鍵性地位。文章藉此強調，「南方」維度的關鍵是階級差異，及由此產生的網絡媒體分層格局；「南方」傳播研究亟待解決的問題包括需求與欲求、社會創新、階級矛盾與合作等；而此種「南方的想像」可為華人傳播研究在新世紀的發展帶來重要契機。

How to define a fully developed field of Chinese communication research? Based on years of fieldwork in South China and observation in the Global South, this article presents a focused discussion on the increasingly “southernized” reality of the new media industry against the backdrop of globalization. It builds on a review of literature including especially recent studies on ICTD (information and communication technologies and development) in the context of Asia, Africa, and Latin America, while examining the centrality of an emerging new working class in South China for the development of new media in the Global South overall. In so doing, it stresses that understanding class differences and stratified network formations based on such differences is key to the “southern” perspective;
that it is imperative for “southern” communication studies to tackle issues of informational needs (versus wants), social innovation, class contradiction and cooperation. Broader implications for future Chinese communication research are also discussed.