Globalization and Mass Media - Essay Example

Globalisation and Mass Media The term globalisation can be identified with a global oneness in terms of diverse social, cultural, political and economic aspects. The impact of globalisation on international economics is a force to reckon with, especially if we look at the voluminous as well as qualitative exchange of ideas and information in the spheres of trade, knowledge and technology. The mass media industry acts as a vehicle through which these ideas and information are circulated across the globe. This paper attempts to throw light on the changes and developments in cultural industries. Mass media has always acquired a prominent position in the first world countries like the United Kingdom and the United States. ‘Marketplace of Ideas’ is the term which is often applied to mass media. This media includes video, film, recorded materials, books, newspapers and magazines. The United Kingdom, like many of the other developed countries, is flooded with communities from almost all the continents. Therefore, much like the USA, a heterogeneous population has been formed automatically in this country. Mass media is a huge political and social motivator and history has proved its unparalleled power time and again. In today’s scenario, the actual influence of mass media in the era of globalisation is particularly noticeable on the field of marketing. Internationalization of marketplaces has considerably influenced the electronic mass media in the United States of America, so also in other first world countries. We can support this argument by keeping a track of revenues generated from film and television industries. In 1991, bulk of revenues came to the capital flow in the US marketplace through film and television industries. Crossing the national borders, it has been possible for the media corporate to reach out for markets in other countries. With the rapid advent of technology, mass media has captured the attention of international audience through services like cable television, multichannel radio and video outputs. Moreover, cultural industries in the US have crossed the linguistic and geographic barriers to reach out to an audience which is heterogeneous in characteristics. (Globalization of the Mass Media, p. 3) Global economic liberalization, deregulation and privatization in recent times have initiated changes in the context of communication. This liberalization is also involved with intellectual property laws. Trademarks, copyrights and legal privileges have been made flexible keeping the issue of international business as the main target. As a matter of consequence, private sector has become the most benefited part in world commerce. The changes, however, has not come in a single day; but through a gradual and continuous process that has eventually come down to the so called developing world from the developed counterparts. Globalised localism and localized globalism have become two major parts of intellectual property law in this course. When a locality turns its atmosphere international, the phenomenon is termed as globalised localism. On the other hand, when the whole world adopts a local culture, which may have been formed by mingling international thoughts, is known as localized globalism. Exchange is the main idea on which the process of globalisation is based. This stands for legislative, sociological and economic scenarios. However, society is the actual milieu which undergoes a change through the alterations brought into the sectors of law and economy. Mass media has changed philosophy of common people, who are now interested in international celebrities, regardless of the status of their country in the global scenario. The idea of stardom has come of age through mass media and the status has got an international repertoire with the progress of globalising processes. (Cliffs Notes, 2000-2009) Economic Impact of Globalisation through Electronic Media: Mass media is a big factor in the economics of a country. International products are something which is nothing new in the market; but globalisation has made way to the revenues coming from different countries. And this is very true for the field of mass media, especially the sections dealing with recorded music, television programmes and motion pictures. Domestic markets in the countries like the UK and the USA have reached the point of saturation and therefore globalisation has made its way into a wider world. According to a recent study, 99% of the US population has television and radio sets in their homes. Telephone connection is also nothing new in their life and there is cutthroat competition among various telecommunication companies in the nationwide market. Globalisation has created a great opportunity for the companies to reach out for the people throughout the world without restricting themselves to their respective national boundaries. Daya Kishan Thussu, in his book International Communication: Continuity and Change discusses his school of thought that focuses on the idea of dependence created by emergence of globalisation. Globalising has its effects on various cultural communities, but their extents are not same in all the cases. In the very first chapter of the above mentioned book, Thussu shows how the colonial powers made the rest of the world dependent through the medium of communication. Reuters from the British Empire is a crucial example he cites. Thussu elucidates how the idea of globalisation varies from the economic structures that were previously well defined by Marxism or Leninism. In a way, globalisation and its effect on mass media have brought on a big blow on many rudimentary Western values. Taking advantages, according to Thussu, has always been a major part of the process of globalisation. He points at the transitional corporations (TNCs), which, in many cases, are associated with mass media. Thussu states that a channel like ESPN is nothing but a product of a TNC. He also criticizes CNN (Cable News Network) for the company’s nature in manipulating the news in their own ways and influencing the rest of the world. This is nothing but taking an unfair advantage of globalisation. International communication, according to Thussu, is a one way process that influences the regional and national cultures heavily. The non-Western countries are always seen from the perspective of the Western mass media and their point of view is powerfully imposed upon the mass belonging to the former. Thussu raises a great debate questioning whether globalisation really brings the whole world under one identity or it actually makes the understanding more complex. However, he does not forget to mention some of the most prominent third world television channels like Zee TV, which, in India, has been able to curb the dominance of Western media to a great extent. Indian movies, on the other hand, are worth mentioning in this context, with regards to their exploits even in the Western world. This is how some of the developing national media are now reciprocating the dominance previously cast by the USA and UK based media. However, Thussu’s overtly idealistic conclusions have always brought controversies upon his theories on the role of globalisation and mass media. His idea of globalisation as a medium to ‘develop and sustain a people-centric capitalism’ has been criticized by the other scholars time and again. (Thussu, p. 294) Globalisation and Mass Media from a Legislative Point of View: The legal aspects throughout the world have been altered a lot as a result of globalisation, thereby making mass media’s role wider than it ever was. Intellectual property agreements have become multilateral increasing the scope for the companies. However, there are conflicts among the rules due to the clash between national and international barriers. The advent of Internet has made the situation more complex as this media has to deal with diverse interests of people and their different claims to rights of freedom. As a matter of fact globalisation has made legal aspects complex in various fields starting from human rights up to religion and private properties. Recently, to avoid the complicacies, it has become a prevalently applicable trend to overlook the obvious tensions in this field. A well established notion says that the first world countries are always the best in producing, possessing and controlling important knowledge. This idea may sound like a cliché, but in reality many policy makers still go by this trend. There are also controversies regarding whether intellectual properties can be considered as valuable parts of modern day economics. Natural resources, as history shows, have ever been regarded as the most vital parts of a country’s economic structure. Having said that, there can be no point in denying the facts that knowledge based properties are most of the times the highest gainers throughout the world. Graham Dutfield, an eminent economist, has shown the example of India becoming economically prominent in the world scenario with the help of the movie industry. This is how mass media can help a country to get rich in no time – a process which can be achieved by other properties only through long and trying times. According to this school of thought, knowledge based industries have made their progress rapidly after the Industrial Revolution. A mercantile system of restricting the resource within the country is not an uncommon phenomenon in the world history, but knowledge is something where this theory becomes almost impotent. It was not later than the mid 19th century that business became an intellectual competition among the companies. Today, with the spread of globalisation, the competition has become much more challenging. Globalisation, on the other hand, is not always a creator of intricate situations, but can be looked as a strategy that is purposefully pressed into service in order to manipulate the market. Knowledge creates wealth in the long run. This process not only helps boosting the economy of a country, but also shows the developing as well as underdeveloped countries the way to attain a secured and healthy standard of living. The economic transformation that necessitates a steadfast adherence to intellectual property laws doesn’t come easy to the poorer nations. The wealth-creating knowledge coming out of art and design studios, corporate set-ups, films and music generates handsome revenues for the economically stable countries. Now if adopted timely and in the right manner, globalisation can have magical effect as far as transforming the economy of a nation. (Dutfield et al. p. 6-7) Globalization and Mass Media in Sociological Context: The use of the word ‘globalisation’ has always been noticed for a wide range, whereas, sociology explains the phenomenon from an altogether different perspective. A change in the concept of world society is the main idea when we try to explain globalisation from a sociological context. There are two main characteristics of globalisation according to sociological understandings. First of all, there are some social elements which have been noticed as global. On the other hand, there are some similar kinds of changes that are taking place in almost every society. There is a great debate regarding if it is at all possible to explain globalisation with the help of very national elements. Social movements and the sociology of the elites – these two are the most important paths to understand how the idea of alterglobalism is explained in sociology. (International Sociology, 2006) An international technology like Internet, which is also a part of mass media, is believed to have initiated an anti-globalisation movement underneath the apparent activities of it. Knowledge, according to sociological understandings, is a democratic element and there is nothing new in making it universal – an idea which was thought by Karl Marx himself. Now, the growing dominance of first world countries through the help of globalisation is gradually taking the shape of feudalism, practising all kinds of manipulations to their fullest. This explains, how, although becoming globalised citizens, people of the developing countries are actually controlled by some particular powers. Automatically, the dubiousness of the situation comes in the limelight. However, the situation should not be treated in a pessimistic light while discussing every aspect of globalisation. There is no point in denying that the process of globalisation has increased the number of knowledge resources. The uniqueness of resources is also a matter of importance as this is controlling the thoughts in the mass’ mind. Globalisation has successfully homogenized the structure of organizations, nature of professions, and even the regional elements. This is how the whole process has made international communication much more effective. The commonest theory about globalisation from a sociologist should be that it is nothing but establishing a global hegemony especially for the benefit of the corporate world. Now, it can hardly be denied that mass media, to state it frankly, is nothing but a product of the corporate sector. This idea goes along with the theory of Thussu. According to Annabelle Sreberny-Mohammadi, an eminent sociologist, understanding globalisation as done by media is not possible without a deep sense of history. According to her, there are certain forms which are followed by any effective media system. These forms have, in a way, threatened the manipulating attitude of the politicians and other power-mongers throughout the world. Here, we get a positive effect done by globalisation. Knowledge, when open to all, becomes a threat for the conspirators and thus, globalising of mass media has undoubtedly helped in awakening of awareness among the common population, invigorating them to stand up against all odds. However, the institutionalization of technology has become a hindrance in the way of smooth exchange of knowledge. (Downing, p. 23) The world has witnessed tremendous dynamicity in knowledge integration, processing and its directed flow, leading to positive implications in the development of technology and trade. Since the nascence of the concept of this dialectic phenomenon of globalization implemented by the Portuguese and Spanish colonists in Asia, Africa and the Americas the universal machinery of international integration has outperformed the existing standards of achievement with the liberalization of economic and social principles, growth of international trade and optimistic changes in political policies. The future of globalization is entirely pivoted on the integrity of communication, the universality in expression and the formidable platform for connection maintained by the mass media network, allowing communities to interact, reflect and even subvert the social and political misrepresentations, for which the media is also losing credibility. New media technologies have made their grand entrance in the global arena and have sought to maintain the essential balance between the complementary forces of localism with globalism, thereby promoting opportunities and newer avenues for empowerment for sustenance of social, cultural and economic integrity through the future. Future regulations and policies should look forward to enhance this equilibrium for widening the collective opportunities for most developing countries to go at par with the global movement industrialization. There are quite distinctive undertones of gray beyond the overtly colorful picture of the phenomenon of media enhanced global cooperation, primarily due to the unprecedented implications, like social alienation, individualism and political apathy, arising from the apparent lack of information control, increased democratic participation, individual empowerment, reinforcement of public opinion and transparency in government policies. Furthermore the image of mass media in supporting global integration through liberalized trade policies, democracy, and government transparency for overall socio-economic development is assessed with a somewhat apathetic outlook. With the free flow of knowledge in globalization the mass awareness has paved the way for public media criticism for its alleged misrepresentation of the socio-political scenario of the world. Increasingly the mass media is losing its credibility due to the effect of some kind of undocumented censorship that it is accused of abiding, leading to a certain extent of information control implemented on the mass, thereby going against their individualistic rights for knowledge access. The phenomenon of communication integrity and universality of knowledge, functional behind the accelerated global awareness in the recent years, are in a way devaluating the formidable stand of media in global communication. References 1. Thussu, D.K. (2006). International Communication: Continuity and Change. London and New York: Oxford University Press. 2. Globalization of the Mass Media. (1994). Darby: DIANE Publishing. 3. Dutfield, Graham & Uma Suthersanen. (2008). Global Intellectual Property Law: Commentary and Materials. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing. 4. Martin, Dominique, Jean-Luc Metzger and Philippe Pierre. (2006) ‘The Sociology of Globalization’. International Sociology. 21, (4), 499-521 5. Downing, John, Ali Mohammadi, Annabelle Sreberny-Mohammadi, Annabelle Sreberny. (1995). Questioning the Media: A Critical Introduction. Thousand Oaks: SAGE. (http://lass.calumet.purdue.edu/cca/gmj/fa07/issuebookreview/gmj-fa07-bookrev-chao-tian.htm) Read More