A BRICS Internet and the de-Westernization of media studies

In our dynamic, digitized, 24/7 media age, multilingual communication is increasing, with the BRICS countries playing a key role. The global presence of BRICS media is likely to expand with the growing convergence of mobile communications technologies and content via the increasingly multi-lingual Internet. China already has the world’s largest population of Internet users, ahead of India, mainly using mobile phone platforms. Russia, Brazil, and South Africa are also seeing rapid growth in online communication. In the last ten years, Runet, the Russian-language Internet, has expanded greatly, while the Chinese government and cyber companies such as Alibaba have taken the lead in promoting the country’s Internet to support its position as the world’s second largest economy. India, with its ambitious ‘Digital India’ program and the world’s largest film industry, as well as its position as a hub for the global IT industry, has growing potential for cultural exports. In Brazil, the Internet is also expanding rapidly and the government has launched innovative experiments in Internet governance, while mobile internet expansion in South Africa is set to accelerate as 4G connections become more affordable. What impacts will this digital connectivity have on global news flows, the organization of information and communication, and media plurality around the world? What will the implications be for information, communication, and media studies, a field that has developed in the West? Our paper suggests that the BRICS nations have the potential to reframe global research on communication, contribute to the democratization of global media in a polycentric world and thus to further the de-Westernization of the media and media studies.