International Studies Association
"Wherever there is oppression there is resistance." "Globalize Resistance." These are the mantra of contemporary protest movements. For much of human history oppression and resistance were localized, and connection between resistance movements was slow. Contemporary global communication changes such dynamics dramatically. The technology of communication has become smaller, cheaper, faster and more powerful. Recording devices have become small enough to carry around in your hand and cheap enough for a network to have as many as needed. Satellites with uplink and downlink have made it possible to move information from anywhere to anywhere in real time except for the second or two delay involved in covering thousands of miles. Increasingly powerful computers, which are also rapidly dropping in price, make encoding and editing easier and faster than ever before. However, the economic organization of news broadcasting remains largely national, notwithstanding the potential embedded in the changes in technology. There are a few networks that aspire to a global audience instead of a national audience. CNN, during Ted Turner's ownership, was one, and WorldView was their flagship news broadcast. The program frequently began with the phrase "broadcast live around the world." BBC World is a second network that aspires to a global audience. It is not the same as BBC 1 and 2, but is a separate division that broadcasts in the U.K, and around the world.In this report we show how networks that aspire to a global audience handle protests and demonstrations. Hence, how resistance becomes a part of an evolving global culture. We have recorded five years of news broadcasts: three years of CNN's WorldView and two years of BBC's World News. That is the database we use to characterize the practices of the two networks.