Challenges to comparative research in a globalizing media landscape

This chapter argues that the process of globalisation means that comparative research is no longer a choice but rather a necessity. Since, also, the transnational critiques of cross-national research appear compelling, comparative approaches now require a sound theoretical and political as well as methodological underpinning. Using examples from media and communications research, I argue that approaches which seek to do away with the importance of ‘nation’ go too far, and that instead the role of the nation, as a unit of analysis, should be rethought in terms of a civic/democratic or civic republican model rather than either extreme of the ethno-cultural nation or the cosmopolitan ideal.