International communication

International communication (also referred to as global communication or transnational communication) is the communication practice that occurs across international borders. The need for international communication was due to the increasing effects and influences of globalization. As a field of study, international communication is a branch of communication studies, concerned with the scope of "government-to-government", "business-to-business", and "people-to-people" interactions at a global level. Currently, international communication is being taught at colleges across the United States. Due to the increasingly globalized market, employees who possess the ability to effectively communicate across cultures are in high demand. International communication "encompasses political, economic, social, cultural and military concerns".

Efficient communication networks played crucial roles in establishing ancient imperial authority and international trade. The extent of empire could be used as an 'indication of the efficiency of communication'. Ancient empires such as Rome, Persia and China, all utilized writing in collecting information and dispersing, creating enormous postal and dispatch systems. As early as in fifteenth century, news had been disseminated trans-nationally in Europe. 'The wheat traders of Venice, the silver traders of Antwerp, the merchants of Nuremberg and their trading partners shared economic newsletters and created common values and beliefs in the rights of capital.'

In 1837, Samuel Morse invented telegraph. Given its speed and reliability in delivering information, telegraph offered opportunities for capital and military expansion. As showed in Table 1.1, the establishment of cable hardware signifies global power order in late nineteenth and early twentieth century.

Table 1.1 Cabling the world

The newspaper industry and international telegraph networks mutually facilitated each other. As the supply and demand of newspaper industry rapidly increased in nineteenth century, news agencies were established successively. The French Havas Agency was founded in 1835, the German agency Wolffin 1849 and the British Reuters in 1851. These three European agencies, which started to operate internationally, were all subsidized by their respective governments.

Western countries seized the chances to implement radio communication after the first radio transmissions of human voice in 1902. But the two mechanisms of radio broadcasting were distinctively different. In the USA, the Radio Act of 1927 confirm its status as an advertising-funded commercial enterprise, while in Britain, the public broadcasting pioneer British Broadcasting Corporation set up in the same year. During the First World War and the Second World War, radio broadcasting played a significant role in both domestic public opinion management and international diplomacy propaganda abroad. Even in the Cold War times, this radio-dominated international communication still featured in propaganda respective ideologies. The prominent example is the Voice of America, which ran a global network to indoctrinate "American dream" to its international audience.

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