Media Globalization
Description:
Media globalization is one of the most prominent factor that shapes the global world. When the Bali bomb exploded in Indonesia, less than five minutes people could see the news on TV or internet. Media has a significant role to spread the news all over the world. With its wide-coverage network, media could reach almost any place in the world to give us information which has become our daily consumption.
We could not imagine how we can live without CNN, BBC, MTV, or Hollywood movies for instance. Those media has been there to accompany us wherever we go. They give us information about recent Dowjones market index, interest rates, oil price, top 40 songs, Box office movies, etc. They also give us information about new products, sales, vacation packages through their advertising which always attracts us to watch and listen. Those media somehow has also changed the way we perceive the world around us. They has changed our habits, hobbies, preferences, and even cultures that we might never realize. They introduce new ways of thinking; thinking about the world and all processes on it. They shape our oppinions to like something that might have seemed unfavorable or the other way around. They introduce the so called pop cultures to people in different regions as if those cultures are the most appropriate to adopt to be considered part of the global civilization.
CNN, BBC, MTV, Hollywood movies and many others are some agents of this media globalization. They convey information, news, advertising, and even culture from one country to another. They link and connect all part of the world with their media infrastructure; and in this respect media globalization has become an important factor that might explain the future of the 'global village'.
Enablers:
- The advance of information and communication technology
- Telecommunication & broadcast reform in 3rd world countries
- Democratization
- The emergence of transnational media corporations
Inhibitors:
- Regulations from local government
- Culture clashes
- Revitalization of local cultures such as Bollywood movies in India
- Competition with local media
Paradigms:
- Pop cultures
- Press freedom
Experts:
- Marshal McLuhan, The Medium is the Massage
- Nancy Morris, Media and Globalization: Why the State Matters
- Monroe E. Price, Media and Sovereignty
Timing:
The notion of the effects of media globalization emerged in 1960s - 1980s when NWICO (New World Information and Communication) literature critized the presence of foreign media, especially from the United States, as a threat to cultural autonomy in the developing world (Dorfman and Mattelart 1972; International Commission for the Study of Communication Problem).