Comparative Communication Research: Australian and New Zealand Communication Research in an International Context

Abstract

This article raises the question of whether comparative national models of communications research can be developed along the lines of Hallin and Mancini's (2004) analysis of comparative media policy, or the work of Perraton and Clift (2004) on comparative national capitalisms. Taking communications research in Australia and New Zealand as its starting point, the article considers what might be the relevant variables in shaping an ‘intellectual milieu’ for communications research in these countries, compared with those of Europe, North America and Asia. Some possibly relevant variables include: type of media system (e.g. how significant is public service media?); political culture (e.g. are there significant left-of-centre political parties?); dominant intellectual traditions; level and types of research funding; the overall structure of the higher education system; and where communications sits within it. In considering whether such an exercise can or should be undertaken, we can also evaluate, as Hallin and Mancini do, the significance of potentially homogenising forces. These would include globalisation, new media technologies, and the rise of a global ‘audit culture’. The article raises these issues as questions that emerge when we consider, as Curran and Park (2000) and Thussu (2009) have proposed, what a ‘de-Westernized’ media and communications research paradigm may look like.