International Telecommunications

Catalog description

Impact of globalization, regulation, and new technologies on media and telecommunications COMM 491 International Telecommunications (3) This course will provide a forum for students to investigate and debate ongoing or anticipated conflicts in international telecommunications. Students will learn how international bodies and non-governmental organizations such as the ITU, WTO, WIPO, ICANN, WSIS, and United Nations influence telecommunications. The course also will examine how various nations have organized and reorganized the telecommunications sector. In this portion, we will consider such developments as privatization, liberation, deregulation and globalization. Students will explore how technology, culture, and law interact within a nation or region to shape the development and structure of its telecommunications industries. Students will study how media and communications firms and regulators in a given nation respond to technological change and how a nation's specific geographic, cultural, and political environment shapes its response. Students will also examine how the nation's regulatory scheme and the structure of its telecommunications industries impact freedom of expression, political discourse, and commerce.