Integrating the Chinese Media Industry into Global Capitalism - Essay Example

Discuss the implications of the Chinese media industrys integration into global capitalism Introduction Globalisation has deep implications on many countries of the world today affecting economies, political systems, communication, and not to mention culture. Even more than ever are perhaps the implications of globalisation on media systems of the world because it has important international dimensions. According to Mosco (2009), developments in communication imply development in political economy through communication, regional integration, decreased resistance, and national liberalisation. But most importantly media development is important for opening up local trade channels to other countries and inevitably joins the global village. It is within this context that China during the 1970s had liberalised its media industry. What does imply to the global capitalism shall be discussed in the following sections from a political economy point of view. Chinese media industrys integration into global capitalism Chinas media industry before the 1970s had been heavily influenced by state control. It operated with the view to legitimise the Chinese government, and showed no sign of development. However, by the 1970s, policy changes to liberalise China have shifted the media voices, industry and images. According to Sen and Lee (2008), China has embraced the global capitalist structure but still preserved its communist regime in the political power structure. By adopting selective elements of capitalism, the Chinese media has become the instrument for party publicity. This strategy is based on the Marxist theory of political economy and the media. Marxist theory posits that economic ownership and dissemination of information legitimate the power influence on the society. That is why the ruling class usually concentrate on owning the media to manipulate the working class through political communication (Sen and Lee 2008). This approach is repressive and goes against the capitalist media system as practiced around the world. Unlike the Chinese, most Western scholars like Smythe (1994) believe that China through its reforms and policy on the digital revolution is trying to converge domestic bureaucratic regime with international corporate capital. In reality, what China is really orienting its market towards is globalisation and the market forces which govern it. By developing information communication technology (ICT) it would be able to inform, educate and encourage mass participation in the global reform. Moreover, the adoption of the digital revolution would ease the burden of coordination, acceptance and state informatization. This it has found not in the traditional media system but in the mobile phone and modern media industry to connect with its disparate cultural groups (McQuail 2010; Zhao 2007). The government believes that through media responsiveness, resources for global integration can be implemented not only at the urban level but also at the rural level. It would also be the source for balancing the deepening economic inequality prevalent in the Chinese society today. In the process, China has achieved unprecedented wealth as its telecommunication sector has grown considerably. Western scholars believe that China has leapfrogged into the modern era and integrated successfully into the global communication networks. This is far from the truth. Despite robust progress through the digital revolution, the economic divide and social inequality has widened considerably so that fundamentalist movements and anti-modern groups are protesting against global integration. They are of the view that the media industry may have revolutionised but for the benefits of the elite. The majority of the working class remain poor and largely dependent on the upper class and bureaucracy for their livelihood. In such a scenario information technology has become the digital elite and the force that control China not to liberalise it. Urban industrial workers for example are still different from the rural farmer because they have a better living. The urban industrial worker is different from the elite who own the industries because their wages are way below the minimum. Such stratification has become the central problem for progressing China into the global capitalist economy (Zhao 2007). Indeed, according to Li (2000) China has far from achieved the power and autonomy characteristic of capitalist economy. This is because the country is still very much run by bureaucrats despite efforts to disperse industrial ownership to entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and foreign investors. The economys projects and resources are still under the governments control while its government is party-state controlled with the majority of the countrys economic sectors under the governments rule. However, if China manages to resolve these problems it would be on the road to global capitalism but not as the Western scholars perceive. In fact it would be more to the tone of Marxist capitalism in which the state control the media while the media glean its characteristics from the social needs and requirements. Through the digital revolution China already has been able to build the infrastructure to transition into the global political economy. What it really needs is a social revolution to match with it in which its people, political parties, and culture adapt to the capitalist environment. The media would be instrumental to hasten this process (Zhao 2007). Conclusions In the above discussion it is clear that Chinese media industry is the key to integration into global capitalism. Not only has the media industry been instrumental in leapfrogging the digital revolution of the 1970s and 1980s but it has also been instrumental in political communication for establishing a capitalist approach to economic integration into the global economy. The ICT infrastructure development has been one of the most revolutionary and wise step that the Chinese government has ever taken to progress its massive population and orient it towards the digital age. Even though there are minor hiccups, Chinas digital revolution is the key to its social and economic revolution. Chinas approach is unconventional but congruent to the Marxist theory of political economy which is different from the Western approach to social, economic and media integration. This is why it is difficult for Western scholars to understand how the integration of capitalism and communism under one bracket can work for China whereas the two political economic philosophies conflict with each other. References Li, J. (2000) Power, money, and media: communication patterns and bureaucratic control in Cultural China Media Topographies. Northwestern University Press. McQuail, D. (2010) McQuails Mass Communication Theory. SAGE Publications Ltd. Mosco, V. (2009) The Political Economy of Communication. SAGE Publications Ltd. Sen, K. and Lee, T. (2008) Political regimes and the media in Asia. Routledge. Smythe, D. (1994) “After bicycles? What?” In Counterclockwise: Perspectives on communication, Dallas Smythe, ed. T. Guback, Boulder, CO: Westview Press, pp. 230-244. Zhao, Y. (2007) After Mobile Phones, What? Re-embedding the Social in China’s “Digital Revolution”. International Journal of Communication 1 pp.92 Read More