Global media trends - Term Paper Example

Global media trends: Introduction: In the last few years, media has developed widely. New trends have appeared such as social media and social marketing. The Internet became available in each home and office which facilitated the popularity of such online social media as Facebook. Advanced technologies in the last few years have been a major cause for the creation of social media. This report, will discuss social media and investigate its impact on Arab and Emirati culture.Social Media:Social media is gaining more and more popularity all over the world in the contemporary age.

Facebook has connected people in the virtual world. Millions of people use Facebook, Orkut and such other forums of social media every day. This trend surfaced only few years ago. There are many causes behind it. The first and foremost reason is the development in technologies and Internet (online) services. This development has helped improve the social media and made it accessible and popular among all people (Nations, 2010).One of the most common and popular social networks in the world is Facebook.

It is widely used by people of different nations, genders and ages. Facebook is a social service that aims at connecting people with one another. There are various networking tools, technologies and applications built into Facebook. These applications and technologies are advanced and useful. For example, the application of sharing photo in Facebook is interesting and widely used.Facebook is able to enhance the social relationships with friends, relatives, and family members. It has positive effects as it strengthens the relationships.

Through sharing photos and videos, it can make the relations more interesting, lovely, friendly and intimate. Facebook networking has many advantages. It is very useful in terms of marketing business as it gives people the chance of creating special pages for their businesses and trademarks. Facebook advertisements are advantageous and useful. (Findlay, 2010).Facebook also has many negative impacts on the society in many ways. People get to know too much about one another and may black mail. Therefore, Facebook is blocked in certain countries such as Syria and Iran (Mamun, n.d.).

It is also blocked at some workplaces to prevent employees from wasting their time in using Facebook services. Some of Facebook`s disadvantages is the issues and matters of privacy. Facebook faced lawsuits from many persons who said that Facebook had stolen their source code and other academic properties. Facebook is also a potential lure to child marauders and other illegal and immoral practices. People can look at profiles and see personal photos. Indeed, any personal information placed on Facebook remains there forever.

It is possible to de-activate an account, but it is impossible to remove it or the personal data.The impact of social media on the Emirati and Arab media:Social media has an impact on all societies and nations since these media are international and accessible for all people in the world. Some of the impacts are negative and some are positive. Internet access is greatly available in the UAE. The use of latest technologies is greatly common in the UAE and other Arab countries. One of the advantages of social networks is that it enhances the relationships between people.

Students help one other in assignments through social media. Some people who have their own business use social media to advertise their trade and business. It is a helpful way to announce for a business. However, social media has also many disadvantages. It is one of ways of wasting time. Some people become addicted to this service and use it to build unnecessary relationships. Facebook can affect relationships. Using Facebook too much may cause people to become addicted.Additionally, Facebook impacts widely on the local society, and traditional culture as it is not accepted in the Emirati conservative society to share personal photos and data publicly.

Immoral persons misuse Facebook services. They use its application in bad ways and for bad purposes. (Findlay, 2010). All the previous facts could be related and applicable to all social networks such as Twitters, My space and Hi5 since all of them are based on the same idea and foundation.Globalization and its Impact on Media Development:The term "globalization" has been coined in order to signify the globally spreading trend among people from different cultures to share with one another their views, norms, technologies, traditions and everything.

The world has recently become a global village. People spread in various parts of the world resemble one another in life style as a result of globalization. Multinational companies sell their products in many rich developed or developing countries. Others, that can not afford to purchase the products are helped by other countries and again, the products become known in poor countries as well. This way, almost all countries make use of same products for same purposes in daily life. This has served to remove the difference among standard of living among the nations.

One can enjoy the same life style in a developing country as one does in a developed country. Globalization has not only caused people to mix in one another physically, but has also served to merge different cultures into one another. Globalization is indeed, both a cause and an effect of social media development. Owing to the increasing globalization of the whole world and merging of different cultures into one another, a need has been felt to help people coordinate and communicate with one another 24 / 7.

Realization of this need has led to the development of such networking websites as Facebook and Twitter. Such websites allow people to meet one another in the virtual world if it is not possible to meet in the real world because of geographical differences. The impact of globalization on Emirati and Arab media development:United Arab Emirates (UAE) is among those nations that have been most influenced by globalization. Millions of people have moved to UAE and other Arab countries as Qatar, Doha, Bahrain, Suadi Arabia from all over the world in search of jobs, status and a better standard of living.

Just like development of social media is both a cause and effect of globalization, much of the development in such Arabic countries is also both a cause and effect of globalization. Countries like UAE have benefited from the brains of highly intellectual people from all over the world and compensated them for their efforts in turn. They found UAE and other Arab countries a better home for themselves, and these countries found talent in them and used it in the right way. A vast majority of the people migrating to UAE and other Arab countries every year are from such Eastern countries as Pakistan, Bangladesh and India.

This is because they are close to the Arabic countries in terms of culture. There are lesser differences between Eastern and Arabic cultures than between the Eastern and Western cultures. However, globalization has impacted the Emirati and Arabic media development in the same way as it has done for many other countries. People are used to such social media forums as Facebook and Twitter. Accordingly, media in Emirates and Arab in general has become more and more social in order to address the concerns in people.

This is evident from the fact that currently, Dubai alone accommodates about 550 media organizations that include but are not limited to CNN Reuters, McGraw Hill Publishing, MBC and Sony Broadcast (Chaker, 2003, p. 4). Conclusion:To conclude, the burst in social media is caused by the high appeared technologies in the last few years. Social media has both advantages and disadvantages on people and society. Social networks aim to construct online communities that consist of persons who share common interests and activities, or persons who like discovering and exploring others` interests and activities.

Social media provides various ways of interaction for their users such as instant messages and e-mail services. Social networks supply creative methods for communicating and sharing information. Recently, there are many of social networks such as Facebook. People enjoy using the social networking forums. References:Chaker, M. N. (2003). The Impact of Globalization on Cultural Industries in United Arab Emirate. pp. 1-10. Findlay, L. H. (2010). Facebook Disadvantages. Retrieved from http://ezinearticles.com/?Facebook-Disadvantages&id=2051499.

Findlay, L. H. (2010). Facebook Advantage and Disadvantages. Retrieved fromhttp://ezinearticles.com/?Facebook-Advantages&id=2051505.Mamun, N. (n.d.). Which Facebook Proxy Should Use To Unblock Facebook Or Proxies Bloked? Retrieved from http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/Which-Facebook-Proxy-Should-Use-To-Unblock-Facebook-Or-Proxies-Bloked-/536136. Nations, D. (2010). What are Social Media Sites? Retrieved from http://webtrends.about.com/od/web20/a/social-media.htm.