TELEVISION AND COMMUNICATIONAL SPACE

Abstract

For the first time in history, religion is being discussed for what it truly is—dominant ideology of the most dangerous kind propelled by myth and ritual that is backed by enormous institutional force. In the case of Islam, the ultimate goal is nothing less than a totalizing global hegemony that aims to impose the religion on everyone—the ‘ummah’. Terrorism is but the most visible, ragged, sharp edge of a much larger and ultimately more dangerous movement. The hegemony of Western—especially American‐Anglo—power and interests has long been recognized and properly criticized. And for now, the policies and rhetoric of George W. Bush and Tony Blair have undermined any remaining moral authority the West might offer. The modern world has been stuck in recent years with the wrong messengers to respond to the Islamists' ambitions. However, what's been dubbed ‘TVIII’ is about more than simply TV: it encompasses television and the Internet, together with the culture industries and personal communications technologies, all of which can work together to create ‘communicational space’ where competing hegemonies become much more transparent than ever before. This paper explores why the undetermined, open spaces of global communication offer the greatest hope for a long‐term reduction of threats posed by any variety of global power.