Global Corporation - Essay Example

Running head: CRITICAL ESSAY Critical Essay Insert Name Institution Abstract A global corporation is one that transcends the national boundaries to provide international service either in dealing with the global factors or conversion of the national matters to international matters. The British Broadcasting Corporation is an exemplary institution as it is situated in a particular state but serves the entire population globally. This paper will outline the global dimension of the BBC Corporation in precise context to the cultural and political dimension as well as the organization structure in its media role. The paper will outline the different scenarios that BBC has been involved in through its differentiation process and the overall global impact that has been achieved. The information will be of great significance as it will identify the existing gaps and provide recommendations that can be adopted in its bridging. The information will also be useful as it will direct the future researches and will be an important reference tool for all the media corporations either global or national, as they can adopt the strategies that have been used by BBC Corporation in realizing its success. In addition due to the proper scrutiny of the political and cultural view the information will promote unity and understanding that will very likely result to ultimate development. In conclusion the information will be useful to the policy formulators and as well as the general public. Introduction The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) was the first broadcasting corporation in the world and was founded in 1922 by six telecommunication companies namely: Marconi Radio limited, Metro-politan Vickers, General Electrics, Western electrics and British Thompson-Houston. The corporation was created by the British general post office. It is the largest broadcasting corporation and comprises of differentiated products all of which have the common goal of informing and uniting the people at a national as well a global level. The headquarters of this company are in Westminster city in London and has regional offices in all the states of United Kingdom. The corporation has faced numerous changes in both the organization and the operation structure from the time it was founded up to date, all of which have contributed to the success of the global penetration. This paper will outline the corporate structure of BBC Corporation as well as the operation functioning to arrive at the impacts in the national as well as global level. The historical background of the corporation could be important, as this is the basis for the differentiation as well as development. The media corporations also need to focus on the differentiation, because this is a fast way of expansion. This is in addition to scaling up that will be very significant in increasing the coverage rates. More over increased public level will bring about unity among the people in the individual nations as well as globally leading to brand loyalty (Lessig a& Lawrence, 1999). The media corporations should also avoid over leaning at the audience or the market sector at the expense of the public. More over the media corporations should be well aware of the policies and should respect and advocate for them as their operations is greatly influenced by the political situation. For example, the BBC Corporation was closed down at the time of the Second World War due to the political instability (European Broadcasting Union, 2001). Global Media Corporation BBC Corporation is a global media corporation as it can be well manifested in two ways. The corporation that is based in United Kingdom disseminates information and issues that are of global concern to the individual nations. The second global role of the corporation is that of communicating the national issues to the entire population worldwide (Hoffmann & Wolfgang, 2005). The corporation is involved in creating awareness to the entire population on the issues like news, music, sports and other educative information thereby promoting unity that has led to the globalization process. Through the BBC online services everyone has access to the all the information of the different parts of the world that has a positive correlation with the economic growth globally in different industries. For example, the political insecurity situation of individual nations can be broadcasted at a global level and this wide coverage is likely to discourage investors thereby reducing the chances of economy loss and vice versa (Garnham, 2004). On the other hand, the BBC Corporation has a global responsibility of ensuring that the global concerns especially the disasters are well-solved thereby ensuring safety. For example, the environmental disaster like in the case of climate change is a global concern that the corporation has addressed by disseminating the relevant information as well as campaigns against further pollution. In the case of Kyoto protocol, The BBC World wide broadcasted on the measures that had been adopted to reduce the gas emissions that were highly responsible for the global warming and climate change. Despite the unsuccessful Kyoto protocol due to negligence of the countries that were involved it should also be noted that this could be a role of the corporation in identifying the gaps as well as the illustration of the importance of the policies in dealing with the global concerns (Golding, 2006). It is therefore undisputable that the BBC Corporation has so many positive impacts not only in the individual state but also globally. All the media corporate therefore should adopt the strategies that have been used by such a successful corporation despite the level in which it operates. The media has many impacts that can be either positive or negative as it will be discussed below but this should not be a stepping-stone to banishment of even the positive impacts. The corporation is based on an n individual state but the other people from different states should identify with it, as this will bring about unity as well as culture diversity. The corporate structure The governance of the BBC Corporation is divided into different segments, as The Crown publicly owns it and frees it from the government interventions. Despite the independency, the corporation works closely with the British government as it delegates some of its roles to it. The BBC Trust that is chaired by the director manager oversees the operations of the BBC activities. The director manager is concerned with the general management of the corporation and is appointed by the BBC Trust. He is the chief-editor in chief and he chairs the executive board. The BBC Trust was appointed by the British Monarch through the advice of the ministers in 2007 and was meant to replace the Board of Governors. The BBC organization operates under the royal charter that is involved in the licensing and agreements from the Home secretary that spells the terms necessary for the broadcast operation. The review of the charter organization structure is done after every 10 years (Council of the European Union, 2005). The charter outlines that the corporation roles include education, entertainment, promoting the public services as well as culture excellence. The corporation is also concerned with promoting the globalization process and foster citizenship (Graham and Andrew, 2007). The BBC Trust is involve in the laying of the necessary strategies for the corporation, monitoring and evaluation of the corporation performance as well as appointing the director general. The executive board is involved in the operation management and comprises both executive directors and the non-executive directors. The non-executive directors are normally from other companies but are appointed by the BBC Trust while the executive directors comprise of the Director General and other leaders of the subdivisions of the corporation. The operational role of the BBC Corporation is further subdivided among smaller departments (Council of the European Union, 2004). The BBC vision department deals with the BBC television as well as the historical information of BBC as well as the archives. BBC audio and music is concerned with the BBC radio, the music programming of the BBC television and the online services of the music content. The BBC future media specializes in the digital services, the BBC research and development, BBC online services, BBC proms as well as the orchestra. In addition, the BBC operations deal with the employees’ welfare, technology advancement, the marketing strategies, political factors as well as the legal affairs influencing the functioning of the corporation. The BBC finance is concerned with the budgetary allotment to other departments, the overall expenditures of the corporation as well as the license fee. The BBC news is concerned with national and international issues and the non-musical content while the BBC worldwide focuses on the studios and the postproduction of the entire corporation (Calabrese, 2000). Impact on global media cultures Being a global corporation, BBC definitely have so many influences that can result to either short term or long term outcomes on the medial cultures internationally. This can be well understood by the gradual differentiation process of this corporation from the national level to the global coverage. It should be noted that there exist two main categories of the media cultures namely the idea of the public and the public broadcast. The idea of the public is a media culture that has been influenced strongly by corporations and the BBC has positive contribution as well. This refers to the normative notion on the market, the audience and the public that is considered in the coverage. In the past, most corporations focused on the audience sector as it was concerned with sponsorship and therefore censorship of the information was rampant (Hanada & Tatsuro, 2006). This meant that corporations could only broadcast the information that was desirable to the market and not necessarily the truth. The market is closely linked to the audience as it also influences the information dissemination while the public sector has no influence of the information at all. However, the BBC Corporation has reversed this culture and the public sector is now considered as well thereby ensuring a balance in all the three sectors leading to more reliable information (Byers, 2000). The idea of the public broadcast deals with the differentiation of the methods of communication and the effect it has on culture of media. There is advancement in the technology levels that definitely have influence on the content of information that is disseminated to the public as well as method that is used. The BBC Corporation has evolved overtime from the era of the simple electromagnetic sound waves to the sophisticated internet services. This has positive as well as negative influence to media culture, but it should be noted that the positive side has more weight. The message relay is quick and reliable due to the improved technology and there are various styles of the broadcast (Grainger, 2006). This has directly increased the number of the audience as well as the market due to the high rates of coverage. There are also so many competitors of the BBC Corporation and this increases the chances of validity of the information and the reduction of the unnecessary media censorship. On the other hand, there are increased chances of access of immoral information that can lead to moral degradation especially when in a global level, like the access of the pornographic material. This is because there are those states that permit the access such material while others forbid bringing about conflicts. However I would recommend that since the negative impacts on culture are less than the positive regulatory measures like necessary censorship should be adopted instead of banning the entire positive impacts of BBC Corporation on the global media (Bollinger & Lee, 2003). Impacts on the national media policies and cultures The BBC Corporation also has influence on the media policies and cultures at a national level especially due to the fact that globalization can be decentralization of the global concerns to the national level and vice versa. Political institutions like the monarch that ensures that the legal requirements are well taken care of, govern the BBC Corporation. For instance, in the earlier years the domestic fee, that was paid by the residents of UK, funded the corporation and this can act to directly communicate on the importance of paying taxes by the citizens of the individual states due to its success. In addition, the BBC Corporation collects its license from the Home secretary with the spelt terms and conditions of operation, which shows that the corporation is governed by certain policies, and so should be any other corporation either at a national or international level (Barron & Jerome, 2000). In addition, the BBC Corporation has the role of unifying the people in the regional as well as the global level and this can be seen as a way of culture acceptance. The corporation uses 23 different languages and has prospects of increasing the language coverage, which is a way of inclusion of all the cultures in the world. The cultural diversity role would not only increase the coverage rates of the corporation but also contribute to the build of the self-esteem of the individual nations especially the developing ones. Moreover the corporation transcends the nations boundaries and not only broadcast the own but also foreign information. The information that is broadcasted in the corporations advocates for the political as well as cultural dimensions that should be appreciated by the nations as well as at the global level. On the other hand, due to the global coverage every state has the responsibility of ensuring political stability, as instability would lead to slow economic growth because such situations would be broadcasted leading to low score of certain industries like tourism and investments (Andrew & Gavyn, 2005). The individual countries need to think not only at the national level but also at the global level so as to be able assimilate the changes that come with global issues as well as relate the national issues with the global level (Andy ,2000). It should also be noted that the information that is disseminated through the BBC Corporation is in accordance with the human right as well as the international role that states that human beings have a right to be informed. The media corporations should not only focus on the mere compliance of the law but emphasize on the ethical approach as well. This means that media corporations should disseminate valid information not due to the legal judgment but because it is right to do so (Atkinson & Dave.2001). Conclusion The above analysis of the BBC Corporation clearly shows the significance of the global corporations at both the national as well as the global level. Technology is one of the facilitating factors in the advancement of the BBC Corporation. The corporation has a lot of the influence on the media culture as it has replaced the old practice like the target group with a more sophisticated approach that is positive. This has increased the degree of independency by the media and reduced the external influence that tampered with the information by the media. The negative impacts can be controlled and should not be an obstacle as far as the differentiation is concerned. The corporation, as well as the political dimension of the individual nations influences the media culture because it serves the entire world. The media corporations therefore should adopt the strategies that have been used overtime and focus on the improvement of the efficiency of the corporation by promoting culture diversity as well as unity. References Atkinson. H, and Dave, B. (2001) "Public Service Television in the Age of Competition." New York: Oxford Press. Andrew. K and Gavyn .D. (2005) Broadcasting, Society and Policy in the Multimedia Age. Luton: University of Luton Press Andy, N. (2000). Public Service Broadcasting: the Challenges of the Twenty-First Century. Paris: UNESCO Publishing. Barron .C, and Jerome, A. (2000). "Access to the Press - A New First Amendment Right". Harvard: Harvard Press Bollinger. K, Lee. G. (2003) "The Rationale of Public Regulation of the Media." Cambrige: Mass Media Cambridge Press. Byers. K, (2000). Role of the law in international politics. Oxford: Oxford press. Calabrese, A. (2000). Communication, Citizenship, and Social Policy: Re-thinking the Limits of the Welfare State. Totowa: Rowman and Littlefield Press. Council of the European Union. (2005) Draft Treaty of Amsterdam. “Protocol on the System of Public Broadcasting in the Member States.” Brussels: New York Press. Council of Europe (2004) The Media in a Democratic Society. European Ministerial Conference on Mass Media Policy. Prague: Prague press. European Broadcasting Union. (2001). EBU Legal Committee Information Document No. 10(97). Geneva: Geneva press. Garnham, G. (2004) Emancipation, the Media, and Modernity. Arguments about the Media and Social Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Golding, P. (2006). "New Technologies and Old Problems: Evaluating and Regulating Media Performance in the 'Information Age. London: London press. Graham. F., & Andrew, H. (2007). Public Purposes in Broadcasting: Funding the BBC. Luton: University of Luton Press. Grainger, V. (2006). "Broadcasting Coregulation and the Public Good." Luton: University of Luton Press Hanada .J & Tatsuro. B. (2006) "Digital Broadcasting and the Future of the Public Sphere. New York: New York press. Hoffmann, R, & Wolfgang, B. (2005). Regulating Media: The Licensing and Supervision of Broadcasting in Six Countries. New York: Guilford press Lessig, H. & Lawrence, B. (1999). Code and other laws of cyberspace. New York: Basic Books press. Read More