Media Globalization - Essay Example

Media Globalization Student’s name: Institution: Instructor: Subject: Media Globalization Introduction Media globalization is the trend where media systems are shifting their operations from local and national level to international level (Sean & Sasha, 2004). Advance in technology have significantly contributed to media globalization. New and old media companies can now share huge amount of information with their customers in almost every part of the globe (Wildman & Siwek, 2009). As a result of this, the media companies offer their services to larger geographical regions and therefore large groups of people. The role of the media is to facilitate networked communication. Through this communication, the media becomes an instrument for social control that influences economic, political and cultural development of many parts of the world. When this is done on a global scale, the nature of information dispatched to cross section of society would have mixed impact to those societies (Internet Service Provider's Association, 2001). This essay seeks to discuss the cultural, political and economical implications that results due from media globalization. Politics Media plays a huge role in the political direction of any nation. Medias offers a platform where the political leaders are analyzed by the citizens of the countries. Due to globalization of the media, there is possibility of information distributed being less biased than that which is distributed by media companies that are not global. A foreign media company that broadcasts its information in another country among many other countries may not have any special interest of impartiality in the countries it operates. However, a local media company is likely to have influence from the local politicians who may want to be favored. Media globalization therefore ensures that the population of a nation under which the media operates enjoys impartial information that contributes to making of better decision. For any media to operate on global scale, it needs to invest heavily especially on technology. The technological advancement that comes with globalization of media ensures helps to create an avenue through that the political leaders are kept under microscope at any given time (WSIS Civil Society Plenary, 2003). This pushes the politician to deliver quality services and be responsible in their leadership role. Media globalization also creates an avenue through which nations observes and exchange political ideas to the interest of the citizens. On the other hand, there are some elements of media globalization that have negatively impacted the society politically. Most of the media companies that operate on the global scale are difficult to regulate (Wildman & Siwek, 2009). The policy that drives these media promotes privatization, deregulation and public broadness. As a result, these media may be used by the rich countries to negatively influence politics of a country. Media is a very powerful in influencing the political direction of any country. If the media favors a given group or region, then the distributed information is likely to result to impartiality on how politics are operated in the country. In some situations, the media may broadcast propaganda that would result to citizens judging the leaders wrongly. Responsible media should be able to point out all the issues including the negative issues associated with the media themselves. However, in most situations negative issues that happens within the media, they cannot publically point out these issues since doing so may tarnish their image to the in the eyes of their customers. Economically When Medias enters the global scale, it means they are able to offer their services to larger groups of people and therefore have more customers. This results to high income generation by these companies. Through their ability to access different countries, opportunities for cross selling, cross promotion makes brings them huge incomes (Aurelius, 2003). To the residence of the nations within which they offer their services, they are able understand what goes on in other regions and countries which enables them to generate means of improving their economies. Globalization of media has made it possible for transnational media to contribute to organization of the economic empowerment of certain regions (Wood, 2010). Medias that operates on the global scale understands better the issues facing different nations and how they can be empowered to achieve better economical progress. Through funding agencies and non-governmental organizations, they contribute to facilitation of economic empowerment of these nations. Additionally, when the media operates on a global scale, they impact knowledge to the people whom it serves from the perspective that is updated (Wood, 2010). Issues that bring economic values are shared in different part of the globe through the media within a short time which result to better services for all. Media globalization results to increase in competition to the media industry (Ovid, 1995). Advancement in technology has made it possible for many media to operate at global scale. To advertise a product, an investor would need to involve more than one global media in order to achieve his or her objective. This means, the more the media there are in the market, the higher the cost that would be incurred by the advertisers to reach their audience through the media. By the fact that there is no regulation on the kind of information that is distributed over the media, media globalization is likely to favor the rich at the expense of the poor (Watson & Media Communication, 2003). Media is an industry that relies on audience to gain profit. In the situations where more revenue is generated from regions that have rich people, the media would tend to favor these regions more than it would in regions that generate less or no revenue (Biersteker, 2008). As a result, the economic value of the people earning low income may either never change at all or continue deteriorating. Media globalization has also resulted to them tying of countries in the global economy on the platform of consumption and advertisement (Sullivan, Brin, & Philip, 2003). In this case, some countries may have very little to offer while others exposes the so much of the goods they have. This makes the poor nations to be neglected and negatively perceived since they cannot produce as much as other countries. Cultural Media globalization enables different communities in different regions of the world to exchange their cultural practices. It is through this exchange that promotes cohesion between different communities. Media also plays a very important role in development of the cultural unity. Programs in the media that involves group discussion and education through acquiring of knowledge and understanding strengthens the relationships between the members of the communities in which global media operates. Media globalization also satisfies the quest of people to know what is going around in different communities (Bennett, 2000). When some programs concerning a different community are aired through the media, a person from a different community can be aware of the cultural practice that happens in the other community. This helps in creating better understanding among the communities within which the media operates. Media globalization also eliminates issues of media monopoly. Media globalization also prevents certain media groups from monopolizing a given market (McChesney, 2005). In the situations where there are few media groups operating in confined regions, they may be influential in a way that they monopolizes the market. However, in the situations that media is globalized, the technologies and policies used overrules those used by the traditional media houses therefore preventing monopolization. On the other hand, media has contributed to practices that are negative to the cultures of some communities. Through the global media, anti-social elements such as pornography are being run through these media (Straubhaar & LaRose, 2004). Moreover, information that is against the cultural themes and values and ideals of the societies is being shared. In some situations, many people ends up spending a lot of time on media to the expense of participating in strong cultural activities that promotes socializing. There is also erosion of the cultural practices generated by the media (Klotzer, 2004). In some programs produced and hosted by individuals who practices different cultures, such programs loses the cultural specification. When such program becomes frequent over time in the media, the culture that used to be initially practiced by a given community is slowly eroded to adapt that which is portrayed by the media. Conclusion In this era of media globalization, the main gainers are the media group that embraces technologies in their operations. With development of communication platform like internet, Medias that optimizes use of this technology is able to achieve its objectives better than those who opt to continue using the old technology (McChesney, 2005). As a result the drivers of technology gains when their technologies are used. The media industry is using a lot of resources in order to make its services match those of the global scale. However, due to globalization, those media are able to gain more income since they are able to reach out to more customers (Sparks, 2008). To the society that the media serves, better communication services are offered to it. However, the quality of information may not be guaranteed since there are no strict guidelines in the development and regulation of information to be shared by to the society. Overall, the main reason why the media is in place is to provide a platform of communication to the customers. Though there are some negative implications that comes because of media globalization, media is contributing to better flow of information and therefore improved services by the media. Work Cited Aurelius, Marcus, Meditations Book II, Part 1, London: Modern Library, 2003 Bennett, Lance. 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