The Impact of Globalization on Mass Media - Essay Example

The Impact of Globalization on Mass Media - The Past and Current Political and Economic Situation in the United s - s Name Subject / Course Date Total Number of Words: 2,261 Table of Contents I. Introduction ………………………………………………………………. 3 II. Literature Review ……………………………………………………….. 4 a. General Information and the Main Purpose of Globalization …………………………………………………… 4 b. Political and Economic Condition of the Modern Mass Media …………………………………………… 6 c. Current Issues Debated by the Mass Media People ………. 8 d. Possible Economic, Social, and Political Consequences of Debated Issues towards the Cultural Industries ……………. 9 III. Conclusion ………………………………………………………………… 11 References …………………………………………………………………… 12 – 14 Introduction Globalization is one of the biggest issues being tackled not only in politics, businesses, and academic world but also in mass media today. (Smith & Yaw 2002, p. 1; Tierney, 2004) Due to the rapid improvements on communications technology, economic freedom and the continuous promotion of trade liberalization (World Trade Organization, 2008), a lot of significant changes can be easily observed with the way the modern mass media operates today. “With the purpose of amusing, entertainng, and informing the ublic with the values, beliegs, and codes of behavior that makes up the institutional structure of a larger society, mass media is a considered a system which enables us to communicate messages and symbols to the public” (Herman & Chomsky 1988, p. 5). One of the most significant impact of globalization towards the mass media is the change in the type of mass media ownership not only from within but also outside the national borders. For instance: Between 1970s and 1980s, the independent newspaper publishers like Washington Star and Philadelphia Bulletin were all earning good profit until the rapid development of information and communication technology existed (Compaine & Gomery 2000, p. 1). Since a large number of newspaper readers are able to gain access to electronic news information, some of the independent newspaper companies were forced to enter into merger contracts or buy-outs in order to make the company financially survive the challenges within the global markets. Over the years, similar changes took place in other form of mass media including book publishing and the magazine, radio, television, cable, film, and satellite industry. Aiming to give the readers a better understanding of the impact of globalization on mass media, a literature review will be provided regarding the main purpose of globalization. Eventually, a social scientific research will be conducted to determine the political economy of the modern mass media. In the process of going through the main discussion, a full overiew with regards to the impact of globalization on mass media will be tackled followed by contextualizing its development which started to occur during the twenteeth century. Prior to conclusion, the most current issues that are being debated by the mass media people aside from the possible economic, social, and political consequences of these issues towards the cultural industries will be thoroughly analyzed and discussed. Literature Review General Information and the Main Purpose of Globalization Globalization is a process of interaction and integration of the world economy, culture, technology, business governance, human resources, companies, and governments of different countries which is driven by international trade and investment through the use of information technology. (The Levin Institute, 2008; Lopez, 2000) Since globalization significantly involves the integration of people with different racial, ethnic, religious, and cultural background, globalization process is not only being powered by the existing technological changes, economic activities, and political forces but also the impact of dealing with a diverse culture that exists in each country (Mcfaul, 2006). During the 20th century, multi-media tools that are commonly used in the American political agendas like the presidential or senate election campaign includes the following: (1) talk radio and television; (2) electronic town meetings; (3) television news magazines; (4) music television (MTV); (5) print and electronic tabloids; and (6) computer networks (Davis & Owen 1998, p. 3; Carey, 1993). Basically, the main purpose of globalization is to promote free trade across the world by removing all possible barriers that will prevent people from allocating the world’s resources more efficiently. (Nanduri, 2006) There are two ways wherein a multimedia company can increase their profitability by tapping the global markets. First, the concept of globalization enables the large-scale companies to maximize their available financial resources and assets by taking advantage of the low-cost products and services that are readily available from developing and under-developing countries (Tasini, 2007). Likewise, globalization gives large-scale multimedia companies the opportunity to tap the global markets. By having a bigger market share, multimedia companies are able to gain more profit and revenues. The huge differences in monetary exchange rate is one of the most significant economic factors that enable the large-scale multimedia businesses based in developed countries to purchase mass media equipments, hire competitive human resources, and establish foreign-based offices at a much lesser price. For this reason, large multimedia companies could easily compete with small-scale local media companies by being able to offer their products and services to its target consumers at a relatively low market price (Jain 2003, pp. 1 – 2). Aiming to promote the global trading of mass media products and services, the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Trade Organization (WTO) among other significant groups exerted a lot of effort to remove all possible global trade barriers in order to increase the economic growth among the developing countries (Mender, Baker, & Korten, 2001). Upon analyzing the entire situation, globalization has something to do with the establishment of a single business culture around the world. For this reason, it is possible to conclude that globalization has a role to play in strengthening the dominance of capitalism within the global economic system which indirectly erodes the importance of local cultures and traditions (Stiglitz, 2002; Kellner, 1998 & 1997). Political and Economic Condition of the Modern Mass Media The implication of globalization on mass media is to strenghthen a media company’s ability to capture more audiences worldwide by entering into merger and acquisitions. With the use of satellite and cable technology, big multimedia companies are able to capture a bigger share in terms of reaching to the local and international audiences. In general, there are positive and negative business consequences that arises from globalization. Because of the merger and acquisitions that take place in media companies, a lot of business imbalances and insecurities took place. This increases the need to implement significant changes in the way traditional business processes are being conducted (Connell & Wood, 2005). Since globalization has made a lot of revolutionary changes in the world market particularly with regards to the issues related to burgeoisie or the employer and the proletariat which pertained to employees, the culture and traditions, social, and economic condition within the mass media society changes. There are so much controversial issues associated with the operation of mass media. Given that the mass media plays a crucial role in the delivery of sensitive information to the public, it remains inevitable for some famous and wealthy individuals to gain interests in having the power to manipulate a particular media company. This particular type of political situation existed even before the era of globalization. Because of the obvious manipulation in the use of mass media in politics, a lot of people throughout the United States lost their trust on the government whereas cynicism towards the politicians increased back between the late 1960s up to early 1970s (Schultz & Lang 2000, p. 51). The players within the political economy of a mass media is usually composed of the ‘dominant elite’ or wealthy and powerful business and political people which includes the media company’s stockholders, directors, bankers have the power to manipulate the media (Herman & Chomsky 1988, p. 1, 5). Prior to globalization, most of the media companies were owned and operated by few individuals. For this reason, the state government and the politicians were able to easily gain a monopolistic control over the local media companies (Herman & Chomsky 1988, p. 1). This gives the state government or any influencial individuals the power to impose censorship over sensitive news and information that purposely expose the malfeasance of their own actions, their personal business, a friend who works as a public servant in the state government or another influencial person. Before the 20th century, a total of twenty-four large-scale media companies were either profit-seeking companies or owned and controlled by wealthy and powerful individuals within the United States (Herman & Chomsky 1988, pp. 5 – 7). Considering that media companies compete for the market in terms of being able to capture a bigger share in terms of having a larger group of audiences, advertisements, and circulation figures, each media company tend to focus on being able to deliver the best and dramatic news reports related to the following: (1) crimes, social and political conflicts; (2) death and disaster response during environmental, political or economic crisis; (3) the presence of political incompetence and corruption; and (4) immorality related to sex scandals among others (Davis & Owen 1998, p. 133; Newton, 1999). Because of the ‘attack journalism’ that occurs among the media companies (Newton, 1999), influencial people gain their personal interest in owning medium- and.or large-scale media companies. In the process of gaining access to mass media, these people tend to spend more money either by investing or owning a media company in order to protect their public reputation and manipulate the news reports that are being extended to the audiences. Current Issues Debated by the Mass Media People Up to the present time, the most commonly debated issue related to mass media is its role in delivering politically bias public news and information especially when it comes to the ownership of large-scale businesses, the promotion of political war, and critiques on political issues among others in order to protect the personal interest, power, and wealth of the few major stockholders or investors of multimedia companies (Petras, 2008). Considering that the public information coming from the media significantly affects the personal outlook and opinion of the people with regards to the political and economic condition of each country, people behind the mass media production often debate the need to ethically provide the readers and audiences with unbiased judgement pertaining each specific political, social, or economic issue. For instance: A political leader such as in the case of President Reagan had used funds coming from the sale of firerms to finance his advertisements and personal interviews on television networks to increase the trust of the general public and convince the people to vote for him during the election day. (Rothman 1992, p. 7) On the other hand, it is made possible for UK writers like Melanie Phillips to focus on publishing speculative political articles related to US presidential candidates like McCain, Obama, and Palin among others because of globalization and the easy access on the Internet (Phillips, 2008). This gives the readers the opportunity to uncover the masks of politicians throughout the United States. Possible Economic, Social, and Political Consequences of Debated Issues towards the Cultural Industries In general, the negative consequences of delivering either a reliable or non-reliable news report to the public are all interrelated in the sense that the act of providing the general public with wrong political, social, and economic news and information could negatively affect the lives of millions of people within and outside a country. Considering the most recent political situation in the United States, each of the presidential candidates have the option to use mass media to enable the general public to hear their voice regarding their personal opinion concerning the social, economic, and political issues. For this reason, there are a lot of instances wherein mass communication tools were used to reveal each of the candidates’ thoughts on how they will lead the country aside from exerting a lot of political effort to counteract a long list of negative remarks that was publicly published by their opponents. In the absence of a strong opposition and supporters of political candidates who works behind the media, the local and foreign audiences can be easily mislead by the information they read through newspapers or heard on the television and/or radio news. As a result, a large number of American citizens may end up voting for a wrong presidential candidate. As a result of voting for an unreliable presidential candidate, there is a higher tendency that the American people would suffer the same fate they have experienced under the President Bush administration rather than being able to immediately solve the U.S. political and economic crisis. In general, people can also experience either positive or negative consequences from the publishing of business and economic reports. Since the Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy was publicly announced, negative economic speculations coming from different countries took place (Mathiason, 2008). Because of investors’ fear of losing their hard earned money, most of them immediately pulled out their investments on public stocks as a way of protecting themselves from further financial loss. It is a good consequence that thousands of public investors were able to immediately pull out their stock investments. On the contrary, the fact that majority of the public investors removed their investment on stocks could significantly hurt the financial standing of the local and international businesses registered under IPO. In the end, the negative economic result of the business news placed not only the U.S. economy but also the global markets into jeopardy. Conclusion Through mergers and acquisitions, it is possible for media companies to easily expand their services globally. Basically, globalization and the use of modern communication technologies enable the media companies to serve a bigger number of audiences worldwide. For many years, mass media – as a form of effective communication tools are heavily used in politics and business. Prior to globalization, it was easier for politicians and influential business people to effectively manipulate the news reports on the news paper and/or on television for their own personal gains. Because of the presence of a global mass media, the general welfare of the people can be protected since there is a higher chance for each publication and news report to have speculative remarks coming from the oppositions. *** End *** References: Carey, J. W. (1993). The Mass Media and Democracy: Between the Modern and the Postmodern. (Power of the Media in the Global System). Journal of International Affairs , Vol. 47, No. 1, pp. 1 - 21. Compaine, B. M., & Gomery, D. (2000). Who Owns the Media?: Competition and Concentration in the Mass Media Industry. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Connell, R., & Wood, J. (2005). Globalization and Business Masculinities. Men and Masculinities , Vol. 7, No. 4, pp. 347 - 364. Davis, R., & Owen, D. (1998). New Media and American Politics. New York: Oxford University Press. Herman, E. S., & Chomsky, N. (1988). Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media. New York: Panheon Books. Jain, S. C. (2003). 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