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Research into International Television Flows: A Methodological Contribution 15

A two-step approach to effects of transnationalization

COUNTRY X

Substantial effects

Second level of effects
Transnationalization
First level of effects
INTERNATIONAL TELEVISION FLOWS
First level of effects

Transnationalization
Second level of effects

Substantial effects

COUNTRY Y

FIGURE 2.1 A TWO-STEP APPROACH TO EFFECTS OF TRANSNATIONALIZATION
At the first level transnationalization is a dependent variable and at the second level an
independent variable.
The independent variable at the first level is ‘television flows’. At the second level the dependent
variable is ‘substantial effects’.

systematic approach which is clearly related to communication theory, or a
consistent vocabulary which could be used by other researchers – and which
might have improved the accumulated results of this research by preventing the
fragmentation of approaches and reported findings.
As a modest beginning towards a general, systematic approach I suggest a
two-level understanding of international television flows. First, the flows as
defined by Mowlana (1986: 4, see note 1) should be considered as an independent
variable influencing or determining the dependent variable, transnationa-
lization, which will be defined in detail below when the basic framework is
developed. This means that transnationalization is understood as a ‘first-level’
effect of international flows.
The second level conceives transnationalization as an independent variable
creating or determining the dependent variable, that is, the (substantial) effects
which actually can be perceived from a cultural, economic or consumer point of
view, such as the formation of values, the contents of television, conditions for
national public service broadcasters or patterns of programme consumption (see
Figure 2.1).