Contact
- (852) 3411 8265
- dayathussu@hkbu.edu.hk
About
Analysing the impact of emerging giants China and India on the geopolitics of global communication is the ambitious task that Professor Daya Thussu has decided to set himself. He is working on a monograph, The Changing Geopolitics of Global Communication, which will draw on two decades of work on the political aspects of international communication. The book suggests that a new global communication order is emerging. Professor Thussu calls for a more innovative, inclusive and cosmopolitan research dialogue, cutting across disciplinary and intellectual boundaries to address the emerging landscape of global communication in a poly-centric world. The availability of media material emanating from major non-Western centres of production complicates the discourse about global communication, he argues.
Professor Thussu spent 14 years at the University of Westminster in London before joining the Department of Journalism in September 2019. However, he is no stranger to Asia’s giants. At Westminster, he was Co-Director of its India Media Centre, and a Research Advisor to its China Media Centre. Before taking up his HKBU post, he was Visiting Professor and inaugural Disney Chair in Global Media at Schwarzman College, Tsinghua University, Beijing. Born in India, he continues to pay close attention to developments there. His book Communicating India’s Soft Power: Buddha to Bollywood (2013) was a major contribution to scholarship on the country’s public diplomacy and soft power. The book informed a documentary produced for the Public Diplomacy Division of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, in which he featured.
Professor Thussu is passionate about internationalising media research. “Being a student of international politics, I was struck by how much of the international media and communication discourse was shaped by the US-led Western institutions and industries,” he says. “American communication and media schools have produced the majority of textbook and journal publishing in the area, closely followed by Britain. I believe, as in many other fields, the ‘rise’, or should it be ‘return’, of China and India to global prominence, coinciding with the crisis in the neo-liberal model of US-led Western capitalism, will challenge traditional thinking and research paradigms for international media and communication as power begins to swing away from the West.”

The third edition of Professor Thussu’s highly acclaimed 2000 book, International Communication: Continuity and Change, was released in 2019. It is being translated into Chinese and Korean. He is also finishing a co-edited book, BRICS Framing a New Global Communication Order, for Routledge. Professor Thussu is the founding editor of the Sage journal Global Media and Communication. His research has involved him in numerous projects with international bodies such as UNESCO, the United Nations Development Programme and the British Council. He has been invited to contribute to policy formulation by think-tanks and policy fora including the Deutsche Welle Akademie, Bonn; the World Media Summit in Qatar; the N-Ost policy forum for journalists, Berlin; the East-West Centre, Washington; the World Public Forum in Rhodes; and the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi. He was honoured with a Distinguished Scholar Award by the International Studies Association, a first for a non-Western scholar in the field of International Communication
Achievements
- Distinguished Scholar Award, the International Communication Section of the International Studies Association (2014)
Research Outputs
- Thussu, Daya K. & Kaarle Nordenstreng (Eds.) BRICS Framing a New Global Communication Order. London: Routledge, 2020 (Forthcoming).
- Thussu, Daya K. International Communication: Continuity and Change. Third edition. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2019.
- Thussu, Daya K. “BRI: Bridging or breaking BRICS?” Global Media and China 3.2 (2018): 117-122.
- Thussu, Daya K. “A new global communication order for a multipolar world.” Communication Research and Practice 4.1 (2018): 52-66.
- Thussu, Daya K. “Globalization of Chinese Media: The Global Context.” China’s Media Go Global. Eds. Thussu, Daya K., Hugo de Burgh & Anbin Shi. London: Routledge, 2017. 17-33.
- Thussu, Daya K. Communicating India’s Soft Power: Buddha to Bollywood. New Delhi: Sage, 2016.
- Thussu, Daya K. “The soft power of popular cinema – the case of India.” Journal of Political Power 9.3 (2016): 415-429. Also published in Emerging Powers in International Politics: The BRICS and Soft Power. Eds. Chatin, Mathilde & Giulio Gallarotti. London: Routledge, 2018.
- Thussu, Daya K. “The Scramble for Asian Soft Power in Africa.” Les Enjeux de l’Information et de la Communication n°17/2 (2016): 225-237.http://lesenjeux.u-grenoble3.fr/2016-dossier/15-Thussu/
- Thussu, Daya K. “The Voice of the Global South? TV News from India.” Translated into French as “La voix des pays du Sud? Les informations televisees en Inde.” Geopolitique des televisions transnationales d’information. Eds. Koch, Olivier & Tristan Mattelart. Paris: Mare & Martin, 2016. 227-246.
- Thussu, Daya K. “Where Infotainment Rules: TV News from India.” The Rise of 24-hour News Television: Global Perspectives. Second Edition. Eds. Cushion Stephen & Richard Sambrook. New York: Peter Lang, 2016. 295-306.
- Thussu, Daya K. “Reinventing ‘Many Voices’: MacBride and a Digital New World Information and Communication Order.” Javnost – The Public (Journal of the European Institute for Communication and Culture) 22.3 (2016): 252–263.
- Thussu, Daya K. “Digital BRICS: Building a NWICO 2.0?” Mapping BRICS Media. Eds. Thussu, Daya K. & Kaarle Nordenstreng, K. London: Routledge, 2015. 242-263.
- Thussu, Daya K. “Making sense of growing global media contra-flow.” New Trends in Communication Studies. Ed. Hong, Junhao. Beijing: Tsinghua University Press, 2014 (Translated into Chinese by Professor Junhao Hong). 123-146.
- Thussu, Daya K. “De-Americanizing Soft Power Discourse?” CPD Perspectives on Public Diplomacy 2 (2014): 5-25.
- Thussu, Daya K. “Bollywoodization of the War on Terror.” Media Watch 5.2 (2014): 198-208.
- Thussu, Daya K. “De-Americanizing Media Studies and the rise of ‘Chindia’.” Javnost – The Public (Journal of the European Institute for Communication and Culture) 20.4 (2013):31-44.
- Thussu, Daya K. “India in the international media sphere.” Media, Culture & Society 35.1 (2013): 155-161.
- Thussu, Daya K. “Paying for News?: The changing face of journalism in the world’s largest democracy.” Global Media Journal (Chinese edition) 13 (2013): 29-41 (Translated by Wang Yao).
- Thussu, Daya K. “India and a new cartography of global communication.” The Handbook of Global Media Research. Ed. Volkmer, Ingrid. Oxford: Wiley Blackwell, 2012. 276-288.
- Thussu, Daya K. “A Million Media Now! The Rise of India on the Global Scene.” The Round Table: The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs 101.5 (2012): 435-446.
- Thussu, Daya K. “Bollywood Globalise.” Bollywood: Industrie des images. Eds. Dagnaud, Monique & Kristian Feigelson. Special themed issue of Théorème 16, Paris, 2012. 105-113
- Thussu, Daya K. (Ed.) Editor’s Introduction International Communication. Volume 1 (A four-volume set, part of Sage Benchmarks in Communication series). London: Sage, 2012. xxi-xli
- Thussu, Daya K. (Ed.) Theorizing Communication. Volume 2 of International Communication (A four-volume set, part of Sage Benchmarks in Communication series). London: Sage, 2012.
- Thussu, Daya K. (Ed.) Politics and Communication. Volume 3 of International Communication (A four-volume set, part of Sage Benchmarks in Communication series). London: Sage, 2012.
- Thussu, Daya K. (Ed.) Culture and Communication. Volume 4 of International Communication (A four-volume set, part of Sage Benchmarks in Communication series). London: Sage, 2012.
- Thussu, Daya K. “South Asia and the frontline of the ‘war on terror’.” Media and Terrorism: Global Perspectives. Eds. Thussu, Daya K. & Des Freedman. London: Sage, 2012. 167-183.
- Thussu, Daya K. “Where big money controls content.” British Journalism Review 22.4 (2011): 73-78.
- Thussu, Daya K. “Media Studies for a ‘post-American world’.” Anglistentag 2010 Saarbrucken Proceedings. Eds. Frenk, Joachim and Lena Steveker. Germany: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, 2011. 143-155
- Thussu, Daya K. “Infoentretenimiento S.A.: la ascensión de una ideología global.” Periodismo en television: Nuevos horizontes, nuevas tendencias. Eds. Ripollés, Andreu Casero & Javier Marzal Felici. Spain: Comunicación Social Ediciones y Publicaciones, 2011. 29-42.
- Thussu, Daya K. “The Business of ‘Bollywoodized’ Journalism.” The Changing Business of Journalism and its Implications for Democracy. Eds. Levy, David & Rasmus Nielsen, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. Oxford: University of Oxford, 2010.
- Thussu, Daya K. (Ed.) International Communication – A Reader. London: Routledge, 2010.
- Thussu, Daya K. “Why internationalize media studies and how.” Internationalizing Media Studies. Ed. Thussu, Daya K. London: Routledge, 2009. 13-31.
- Thussu, Daya K. Globalization of the Media in The International Encyclopedia of Communication. Oxford: Blackwell, 2008.
- Thussu, Daya K. News as Entertainment: The Rise of Global Infotainment. London: Sage, 2007.
- Thussu, Daya K. “The ‘Murdochization’ of News? The Case of Star TV.” India, Media, Culture & Society 29.4 (2007): 593-611.
- Thussu, Daya K. “Mapping Global Media Flow and Contra-Flow” Media on the Move: Global Flow and Contra-Flow. Ed. Thussu, Daya K. London: Routledge, 2006. 11-32. (Included in The Globalization Reader. Fourth Edition. Eds. Lechner, Frank & John Boli. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011.
- Thussu, Daya K. International Communication – Continuity and Change. Second edition. London: Hodder Arnold, 2006.
- Thussu, Daya K. & Katharine Sarikakis (Eds.) Ideologies of the Internet: Concepts, Policy, Uses. New Jersey: Hampton Press, 2006.
- Thussu, Daya K. “‘Murdochisation’ of the Media: An Asian Perspective.” compos 18 (2008).http://www.compos.com.br/e-compos
- Thussu, Daya K. “From Macbride to Murdoch: The Marketisation of Global Communication.” Javnost (The Public) 12.3 (2005): 47-60.
- Thussu, Daya K. “Selling Neo-imperialism, Television and US Public Diplomacy.” Mass Media and Society. Fourth Edition. Eds. Curran, James & Michael Gurevitch. London: Arnold, 2005. 271-284. Also published in Medien Journal: Zeitschrift fur Kommunikationskultur 3 (2005): 67-76.
- Thussu, Daya K. “Mapping the ‘Murdochisation’ of the Media in Asia (in Chinese).” Journalism and Communication Review 211, Wuhan Publishing House (2004): 101-109.
- Thussu, Daya K. “Media Plenty and the Poverty of News.” International news in the twenty-first century. Eds. Sreberny, Annabelle & Chris Paterson. Luton: University of Luton Press, 2005.
- Thussu, Daya K. International Communication – Continuity and Change (Chinese translation). Beijing: Xinhua Publishing House, 2004.
- Thussu, Daya K. International Communication – Continuity and Change (Korean translation). Seoul: Hanul Publishing Group, 2004.
- Thussu, Daya K. “Murdoch’s War – A Transnational Perspective.” War, Media and Propaganda: A Global Perspective. Eds. Kamalipour, Yahya & Nancy Snow. London: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004.
- Thussu, Daya K. “Taming the Dragon and the Elephant: Murdoch’s Media.” Asia, Media Development LI.4 (2004): 34-42.
- Thussu, Daya K. “Live TV and bloodless deaths – war, infotainment and 24/7 news.” War and the Media: Reporting Conflict 24/7. Eds. Thussu, Daya K. & Des Freedman. London: Sage, 2003. 117-132.
- Thussu, Daya K. “Managing the Media in an era of round-the-clock news: notes from India’s first tele-war.” Journalism Studies 3.2 (2002): 203-212.
- Thussu, Daya K. “Hollywood’s Poorer Cousin – Indian Cinema in an era of Globalization.” Asian Cinema 13.1 (2002): 17-26.
- Thussu, Daya K. “Communicazione internazionale: La dimensione Nord-Sud (in Italian).” Comunicazione Globale – Democrazia, sovranita, culture. Ed. Padovani, Claudia. Torino: UTET Libreria, 2001. 206-226.
- Thussu, Daya K. “Lost in Space.” Foreign Policy 124 (2001): 70-71.
- Thussu, Daya K. “Media Wars and Public Diplomacy.” Javnost (The Public) 7.3 (2000): 5-18.
- Thussu, Daya K. International Communication – Continuity and Change. London: Arnold and New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.
- Thussu, Daya K. “Legitimizing ‘Humanitarian Intervention’? CNN, NATO and the Kosovo Crisis.” European Journal of Communication 15.3 (2000): 345-361.
- Thussu, Daya K. “‘Privatizing the airwaves – the impact of globalization on broadcasting in India.” Media, Culture and Society 21.1 (1999): 125-131.
- Thussu, Daya K. “‘Infotainment International – A View from the South.” Electronic Empires – Global Media and Local Resistance. Eds. Thussu, Daya K. London: Arnold and Oxford University Press: New York, 1998. 63-82.
- Thussu, Daya K. “Mapping News Technology in the Digital Age.” Journal of Communication 48.2 (1998): 164-169.
- Thussu, Daya K. “Diasporic Distances and Anniversary Antics.” International Journal of Cultural Policy 4.2 (1998): 455-461.
- Thussu, Daya K. “Globalization of the Infotainment Industry.” Third World Quarterly 18.2 (1997): 391-396.
- Thussu, Daya K. “Development News.” Unit for MA in Mass Communications by Distance Learning. Leicester: Centre for Mass Communications Research, 1996.
- Thussu, Daya K. & Oliver Boyd-Barrett. “NWICO Strategies and Media Imperialism: The Case of Regional News Exchange.” Beyond National Sovereignty: International Communication in the 1990s. Eds. Nordenstreng, Kaarle & Herbert I. Schiller. New York: Ablex, 1993.
- Thussu, Daya K. & Oliver Boyd-Barrett. Contra-Flow in Global News: International and Regional News Exchange Mechanisms. London: John Libbey, in association with UNESCO, 1992 (translated into Farsi in 2012).
Feature
Surveying the changing global communication landscape
This story is part of a series about the Talent100+ initiative.
In a time when geopolitics and an ongoing pandemic have significantly impacted media systems and interactions at an international level, the process of studying global communication has been challenging, but also fascinating. That is how Professor Daya Thussu, Professor of International Communication in the Department of Journalism, sees it.
"We are living in such an interconnected world today," he says. "You cannot conduct communication research without also approaching it from a global perspective."