Social and Traditional Impacts of Globalization on Media - Essay Example

THE IMPACT OF GLOBALISATION ON MEDIA- SOCIAL AND TRADITIONAL Name: Course: Tutor: University: City and State: Date: The Impact of Globalization on Media- Social and Traditional Executive Summary This paper scrutinizes the subject of globalization from the media perspective. The principal vehicle of the global media aspect is the transnational organization. Media globalization has helped in both the fabrication and supply of information. Additionally, information is being created at an increased rate that is said to be four times higher than the information consumption. The notion of media globalization along with the cumulative profusion of media-text production has created numerous impacts, which are being investigated by information scholars. Media globalization comprises of film, internet, music, radio, television among digital media forms. This article will focus on specifically discussing the effects of globalization on social and traditional media. The entire negative and positive impacts of globalization will be discussed in this article. Additionally, this discussion is an explanation of changes that people perceive with respect to the outmoded model of communication compared with the new opportunities presented by the World Wide Web and the internet. The first part of the report discusses how globalization affects traditional media both positively and negatively. It also examines possible changes brought about by globalization on the two aspects of discussion. The other part examines the effects that globalization has had on social media. TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive Summary……………………………………………………………………………...2 Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………4 Traditional media Globalization…………………………………………………………………..4 Social Media Globalization……………………………………………………………………….6 Recommendation………………………………………………………………………………….8 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………..…8 References………………………………………………………………………………………10 Introduction Globalization is the integration and interaction among the governments, companies, and people of diverse nations, a practice which is compelled by investment and global trade and driven by information technology. The globalization process has had impacts on culture, media, economic growth, political systems and environment. It has enabled the prosperity on the physical well-being of all human beings. The most recognized aspect of globalization is the spread of communication technologies and information (Hjarvard, S. 2003, 8). The development of technology has introduced satellite communication, computers, telex systems, facsimile machines among other machines which have enabled communication over the past few years. The introduction of television, newspaper, internet and radio has vastly aided in spreading information and in bringing people of different diversities in contact with each other. Traditional Media Globalization Impacts The earliest methods of communication are the conventional mass communication means as practiced by different cultures and global communities from olden times. Traditional media has integrally required little audience input and has been considered to be easily manageable due to limited producers and fixed mediums (Hafez & Skinner, A. 2009, 15). Globalization has also had an impact on traditional media in that, television and print counterparts have been left behind by many media consumers as most of them prefer the use of new media but use it to rather complement the traditional media than to substitute it. With continued media globalization, traditional media is now turning to digital media whereby anything that can be accessed from the traditional channels can still be found online (Mjos, J. 2010, 65). For instance, newspapers can today be accessed online as well as viewing of news proceedings on television channel websites. Currently, there is solid news consumption habits area indication that it is hard to break news consumption habits. For instance, the major deterioration of newspaper readership is often caused by the generational gap rather than switching of behavior from already established readers. It is also clear that social media is surpassing the traditional newspaper as it provides rapid news items, articles and shorter news than found in the traditional newspaper which has longer articles(Hafez& Skinner, A. 2009, 45). The advancement of internet has made it possible for the popularization of internet radio. This however does not mean that people will stop listening to traditional radio. A lot of people find it easy to balance their time listening to radio traditionally and online. While at home or work people can listen to radio online which is more convenient as they will not struggle with bad reception finding their favorite channel. Though digital radio, people can easily access local events, weather news and traffic updates. Also, individuals can listen to their favorite presenters and music from all over the world without disruptions (Hafez, & Skinner, A. 2009, 17). With the continued technological developments, questions have been raised as to whether traditional television will survive the digital era. Research shows that online television has now outdone cable television by 30% rate. Internet television offers an excellent picture quality compared to traditional TV (Aneesh, A., Hall, L., & Petro, P. 2011, 15). The main difference between this two is the technology that transmits the signal as online TV is unicast while cable or satellite TV is broadcast. Audience prefers online television as they can watch unique and personalized adverts unlike in traditional broadcasting whereby people watch similar adverts. It is predicted that with continuous media globalization, online media may overtake traditional media by the year 2020. Other researchers argue that the process may take quite a shorter time as recent estimates have shown that 75million people worldwide watch television online (Aneesh, A., Hall, L., & Petro, P. 2011, 16). Social Media Globalization The 21st Century is changing into a period of technological progressions. The recent globalization focus of technology is the relationship created by social media networks. Social media is a communication tool that people can easily use to communicate with each other, share current information or even socialize and meet people all across the world. It can be effortlessly used by individuals who have access to it. Social media is used globally and has been able to create opportunities to people using it to outsource ideas. The use of social media is today being considered as a brilliant tool to implement change (Mjos, J. 2010, 67). Globalization has enhanced the rapid development of social media. With the unique and distinctive nature of social media, the society and human interaction have become complex and highly interconnected. Technology is enabling researchers to discover new social networks whereby people can equally control the flow of communication. Today people can link through social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, Badoo among others. The functionality of this type of media allows individual to interact instantaneously with the ability to personalize messages during the interaction process (Lule, J. 2012, 34). Social media is a very efficient communication tool as it helps in the rapid spread of information to a broad audience. With the rapid growth of technology and its availability worldwide, then social media is becoming more abundant. Social media continues to create global connections in that; it makes it probable for nations to express old and new apprehensions to all. Social media have distinctive characteristics which include convergence, hyper-textually, digitalism, virtually and interactivity (Mjos, J. 2010, 79). The most prominent feature of this type of media is digitalization. With new technologies initiated by globalization, analogue media text is converted to digital text and this makes it easier for a large amount of information to be manipulated, retrieved and saved in a very limited space (Hafez & Skinner, A. 2009, 45). Globalization has made it easy for social media to converge the functions and forms of media, electronic computing, electronic communication and information. The merging power of social media can easily be shown by the day-to-day use of the internet in terms of its functions entrenched in broadband communication systems and computer networking. Global networks offer profound opportunities due to its easiness to use as people using social networks to communicate use new technology to their advantage to initiate social movements (Hafez & Skinner, A. 2009, 49). Globalization has enhanced the growth of mobile technology which has increased the continued development of media usage on mobile phones. People today use mobile phones to browse the mobile web, download content and access applications which enable social communication. Smart-phones are today used by 60% of the worldwide population to post status update, post photos, reply and read messages or even read news feeds using their cell-phones (Hafez & Skinner, A. 2009, 21).With the introduction of high speed networks, and augmented public Wifi availability in public areas, people are able to interact anywhere and anytime considering the fact that they have adopted what is referred to as real-time social networking (Lule, J. 2012, 36). Globalization has also had a negative impact on social media in that the use of twitter, My Space, Skype, Facebook and other social networking sites has enables people to create their own micro-cultures and participate in activities considered to be dangerous in the society (Lule, J. 2012, 36). Cybercrime, fraud and youth addiction to social media are some of those activities. It is also hard to trust social media content because there is no truth about the information given. Information may be distorted and its meaning changed as it is passed from one person to another. Some of the social media sites like online blogs, online news portals, the SMS system can no longer be trusted s they are run by people with less or no media skills. The social media has enabled everyone to become a journalist and this means that its contents should not be depended on as it is filled with alterations and manipulations and it is therefore difficult to discrete the reality from everything else (Lule, J. 2012, 38). Recommendations Traditional media should learn to embrace the internet rather than shun away from it. The internet is and will still be there and will continue to pose challenges to the outdated media. They should also train their personalities to use the internet to do their researches but encourage them to get the facts of the story as information from the media can be exaggerated and outmoded (Landow, G. P., 2006, 275). Both traditional and social media practitioners should learn that everything is about value in the dissemination of news content to reach to various audiences whether it is rapid delivery value or insightful editorial commentary. News services will continue retaining the content, rigor and shape therefore people working in media houses should work hand-in-hand in trying to bridge the gap between these two (Sparke, M. 2013, 311). Conclusion The discussion has looked at the globalization phenomenon from media perspective. The effects of media on both traditional and digital have been presented also. The realm is unceasingly becoming more globalized. Individuals are continually sharing their culture pieces, ideas and news (Aneesh, A., Hall, L., & Petro, P. 2011, 15). Media houses should therefore work to keep social media at the forefront of media globalization thus aiding them extent their social prospective, instead of getting left in the darkness. There are two significant consequences for the way news can change our life, since the deliberation of mass-media proprietorship: to start with, news commercialization in a certain frame of professional, technical and aesthetic adjustment at the worldwide level; additionally, the aggregation of lenient media content, as a outcome of coalitions among the global political forces and media moguls (Sparks, C. 2007, 20). These two effects are aspects of the globalization process. References Aneesh, A., Hall, L., & Petro, P. (2011). Beyond Globalization Making New Worlds in Media, Art, and Social Practices. Piscataway, Rutgers University Press. Hafez, K., & Skinner, A. 2009. The Myth Of Media Globalization, Cambridge: Polity Press. Hjarvard, S. (2003). Media in a globalized society. Copenhagen, Museum Tusculanum Press. Landow, G. P., (2006). Hypertext 3.0: critical theory and new media in an Era of Globalization. Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press. Lule, J. 2012. Globalization and Media: Global Village. Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield. Mjos, O. J. 2010. Media globalization and the Discovery Channel networks, New York: Routledge. Sparke, M. (2013). Introducing globalization ties, tension, and uneven integration. Chichester, West Sussex, UK, Wiley-Blackwell. Sparks, C. (2007). Globalization, development and the mass media. Los Angeles, SAGE. Read More