Information and Communications Issues - Essay Example

You 13 March 2008 Information and Communications Recent years, information becomes one of the most important issues of modern life determining relations and transfers between different agents. This process becomes possible because of cultural globalization and economic integrations of the world. In spite of some benefits and advantages of global communication networks and information transfers, media globalization has led to cultural imperialism influencing demands and preferences of mass consumers. Obviously, media 'culture' is a very broad concept; it is frequently used to describe the whole of human experience (Tomlinson 54). When critics talk about 'cultural', they are concerned with the symbolic construction, articulation, and dissemination of meaning. Given that language, music, and images constitute the major forms of symbolic expression, they assume special significance in the sphere of culture. Both processes, media globalization and cultural imperialism, are closely connected with cultural globalization which means expansion of cultural flows across the globe. At the beginning of the 21st century, global media interferes all parts of the world promoting and popularizing western life style and ideas. The exploding network of cultural interconnections and interdependencies in the last decades has led some commentators to suggest that cultural practices lie at the very heart of contemporary globalization (Lee 2002). Yet, cultural globalization did not start with the worldwide dissemination of rock 'n' roll, Coca-Cola, or football. Expansive civilizational exchanges are much older than modernity. Still, the volume and extent of cultural transmissions in the contemporary period have far exceeded those of earlier eras. Facilitated by the Internet and other new technologies, TV shows and mindless advertisements, these corporations increasingly shape people's identities and the structure of desires around the world (Tomlinson 88). During the last two decades, a small group of very large TNCs have come to dominate the global market for entertainment, news, television, and film. In 2000, only ten media conglomerates - AT&T, Sony, AOL/Time Warner, Bertelsmann, Liberty Media, Vivendi Universal, Viacom, General Electric, Disney, and News Corporation - accounted for more than two-thirds of the $250-275 billion in annual worldwide revenues generated by the communications industry (Tomlinson 54). In general, cultural imperialism means promotion and spreading of one culture into another. "Cultural imperialism has been conceptualized variously as a strategy on the part of dominant countries, a local policy on the part of receiving countries, and an effect on the people and practices in the latter. Dominant nations have clear strategies concerning the export of cultural products" (Crabtree and Malhotra 364). As recently as 15 years ago, not one of the giant corporations that dominate what Benjamin Barber has appropriately called the 'infotainment telesector' existed in its present form as a media company. In 2001, nearly all of these corporations ranked among the largest 300 non-financial firms in the world. Today, most media analysts concede that the emergence of a global commercial-media market amounts to the creation of a global oligopoly similar to that of the oil and automotive industries in the early part of the 20th century (Tomlinson 74). The crucial cultural innovators of earlier decades - small, independent record labels, radio stations, movie theatres, newspapers, and book publishers - have become virtually extinct as they found themselves incapable of competing with the media giants. The negative consequences of this shotgun marriage of finance and culture are obvious. TV programs turn into global 'gossip markets', presenting viewers and readers of all ages with the vacuous details of the private lives of American celebrities like Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopez, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Kobe Bryant. Evidence suggests that people all over the world - but especially those from wealthy countries of the Northern hemisphere - are watching more television than ever before. "Globally, there are a small number of "source" countries with the ownership of local media organizations in the hands of, or operating in the interest of, multinational corporations" (Crabtree and Malhotra 364). The values disseminated by transnational media enterprises secure not only the undisputed cultural hegemony of popular culture, but also lead to the depoliticization of social reality and the weakening of civic bonds. Primary documents and reports of companies vividly portray that cultural imperialism is a global phenomena spreading through mass media and entertainment (Time Warner Inc 2008). One of the most glaring developments of the last two decades has been the transformation of news broadcasts and educational programs into shallow entertainment shows (Ritzer 55). Given that news is less than half as profitable as entertainment, media firms are increasingly tempted to pursue higher profits by ignoring journalism's much vaunted separation of newsroom practices and business decisions. Partnerships and alliances between news and entertainment companies are fast becoming the norm, making it more common for publishing executives to press journalists to cooperate with their newspapers' business operations. A sustained attack on the professional autonomy of journalism is, therefore, also part of cultural globalization (Tomlinson 26). On the surface, these principles appear to be rational in their attempts to offer efficient and predictable ways of serving people's needs. However, looking behind the faade of repetitive TV commercials that claim to 'love to see you smile', critics can identify a number of serious problems. For one, the generally low nutritional value of fast-food meals - and particularly their high fat content - has been implicated in the rise of serious health problems such as heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and juvenile obesity (Latouche 1996). Moreover, the impersonal, routine operations of 'rational' fast-service establishments actually undermine expressions of forms of cultural diversity. Cultural imperialism comes through media globalization promoted uniform standards that eclipse human creativity and dehumanize social relations. In the book Jihad vs. McWorld (1996) Barber's underlines that the important recognition that the colonizing tendencies of McWorld provoke cultural and political resistance in the form of 'Jihad' - the parochial impulse to reject and repel the homogenizing forces of the West wherever they can be found (Tomlinson 43). For instance, Time Warner In (2008) creates a unique culture based on American traditions and Western life style and promotes this very culture through all possible media in all parts of the world. it is global strategy is based on the idea to reach global consumers with unique message and unified global culture (Time Warner Inc 2008). It is one thing to acknowledge the existence of powerful homogenizing tendencies in the world, but it is quite another to assert that the cultural diversity existing on our planet is destined to vanish. In fact, several influential commentators offer a contrary assessment that links globalization to new forms of cultural expression. Jonsson and Kinnvall (2002), for example, contend that global cultural flows often reinvigorate local cultural niches. Hence, rather than being totally obliterated by the Western consumerist forces of sameness, local difference and particularity still play an important role in creating unique cultural constellations. Arguing that cultural globalization always takes place in local contexts, Jonsson and Kinnvall rejects the cultural homogenization thesis and speaks instead of 'globalization' - a complex interaction of the global and local characterized by cultural borrowing. The resulting expressions of cultural 'hybridity' cannot be reduced to clear-cut manifestations of 'sameness' or 'difference' (Latouche 12). "While our critique of cultural imperialism is less passionate than those by the active/resistant audience theorists, this study works in the gap they identify by examining the organizational and programming decisions of a new Indian commercial television network, analyzing these processes and outcomes in relationship to the cultural imperialism debate" (Crabtree and Malhotra 364). It is possible to say that media globalization affects tastes and preferences of global consumers. Such processes of hybridization have become most visible in fashion, music, dance, film, food, and language. The contemporary experience of living and acting across cultural borders means both the loss of traditional meanings and the creation of new symbolic expressions. Reconstructed feelings of belonging coexist in uneasy tension with a sense of placelessness (Tomlinson 1999; (Jameson and Miyoshi 51). Those who despair at the flourishing of cultural hybridity ought to listen to exciting Indian rock songs, admire the intricacy of Hawaiian pidgin, or enjoy the culinary delights of Cuban-Chinese cuisine. Finally, those who applaud the spread of consumerist capitalism need to pay attention to its negative consequences, such as the dramatic decline of communal sentiments as well as the commodification of society and nature (Globalization Reconsidered 83). In sum, media globalization has a direct impact on proliferation of ideas and promotion of western values and culture. This process leads to cultural imperialism manifested in expansion of cultural flows across the globe. Cultural globalization has contributed to a shift in people's consciousness and leads to cultural imperialism. In fact, it appears that the old structures of modernity are slowly giving way to a new 'postmodern' framework characterized by a less stable sense of identity and knowledge. Such global media companies as AOL, Warner Brothers, Viacom promote and transfer unified cultural norms and change traditional manifestations of national identity in the direction of a popular culture characterized by sameness; in others they might foster new expressions of cultural changes; in still others they might encourage forms of cultural change. Works Cited 1. Barber, B. Jihad vs. McWorld Ballantine, 1996. 2. Crabtree, R. D., Malhotra, Sh. A Case Study of Commercial Television in India: Assessing the Organizational Mechanisms of Cultural Imperialism. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 44 (2000): 364-366. 3. Globalization Reconsidered: The Historical Geography of Modern Western Male Aattire. Journal of Cultural Geography, 22 (2004): 83-88. 4. Jameson, F., Miyoshi, M. (eds.), The Cultures of Globalization Duke University Press, 1998. 5. Jonsson, K., Kinnvall, C. Globalization and Democratization in Asia. RoutledgeCurzon, 2002. http://en.ciando.com/shop/book/short/index.cfm/fuseaction/short/bok_id/8544/cat_id/168/cat_nav/168 6. Latouche, S. The Westernization of the World Polity Press, 1996. 7. Lee, K. T. Globalization and the Asia Pacific Economy. 2002. http://en.ciando.com/shop/book/bib/index.cfm/fuseaction/bib/bok_id/8545/cat_id/168/cat_nav/168#top 8. Ritzer, G. The McDonaldization of Society Pine Forge Press, 1995. 9. Tomlinson, J. Globalization and Culture. University of Chicago Press, 1999. 10. Time Warner Inc. 2008. http://www.icongrouponline.com/PR/Time_Warner_Inc_US/PR.html Read More