Encountering global media before Satellite and Internet: media practices on the periphery

This special section offers a new perspective on global communication history by shifting focus from Western media practices to those in post-colonial, semi-colonial and peripheral settings. Four articles examine the cultural and political implications of transnational media and communication practices in Afghanistan, China, Kenya and Romania from the late 19th century through the 1980s. These articles are based on research presented at the Going Global before Satellite and Internet Preconference of the 2024 International Communication Association Conference. This collection fills a gap in the historical study of global media by providing diverse case studies that explore how publics and institutions encountered global media through transnational networks, infrastructures, and organizational and ideological frameworks. This Introduction provides brief overviews of these studies and situates them within the broader global media history scholarship.