Media and Globalization

Media and
Globalization
Is it really a small world after
all?
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The 1960s and optimism
about internationalization
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Marshall McCluhan:
“global village” theory
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Disney, “It’s a small
world” pavilion at 1964
World’s Fair
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What’s happened since?
Overview
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Media and globalization
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Cultural imperialism thesis
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Global media consumption
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Key Questions:
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What is globalization and how do media relate to it?
Who are the global media companies and how do
they deal with globalization?
Is globalization Americanization?
What Is Globalization?
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Globalization is “the process by which regional
economies, societies, and cultures have become
integrated through a global network of ideas
through communication, transportation, and trade”
Stages of Globalization:
• 1492 - ~1800: mercantile capitalism “guns,
germs, and steel”
• 1800 - 1945: European imperialism
• 1945 - present: modern globalization
Globalization and
Interdependence
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Crossing the limits of time and space
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Significance of space has been reduced and the
barrier of time has been overcome
Crossing cultural boundaries
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Exchange and intermingling of cultures around the
globe
The globalization of music
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More readily available music from different cultures
Exchange of musical elements among different cultures
A hybrid form of music
Globalization and Media
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Media at the center of globalization
Globalization and media
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Vastly enhanced international communication
networks
Culture and media contents more accessible to a
larger number of people
Control over media is dominated by large, for profit
global corporations
Globalization and Media
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McLuhan’s vision: “Global village”
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“We have extended our central nervous system itself
in a global embrace. We have become irrevocably
involved with, and responsible for, each other”
His vision remains largely unfulfilled, or at least more
complicated and less uniform than he implied it
would be.
The Global Media Industry
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Global products, centralized
ownership
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Ownership and control of
media production are largely
centralized in a few mega
corporations
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“Big three” dominates the global
music industry
Dominance of software
companies
Globalization of reality TV shows
The case of News Corporation
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A global media company
Cultural and Media Imperialism
The Cultural Imperialism
Debate
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Westernization/Americanization thesis
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Products of Western cultures contain messages, values,
and ideologies that may erode the unique identities of
other nations
Western media have substantial budgets whereas most
nations do not have the resources to develop the
infrastructure necessary to produce high productionvalue media
The Cultural Imperialism
Debate
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The fight to preserve local cultures
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Wealthier nations have the resources to produce
alternatives to U.S. media
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“Cultural exception” in Europe
The case of Canadian content
regulation
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the Broadcasting Act of Canada requires
broadcasters air a certain percentage of content that
was at least partly written, produced, presented, or
otherwise contributed to by persons from Canada
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Enforced by the Canadian Radio-television and
Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), e.g.,
requirement that ~35% of broadcast music be
Canadian
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Justifications are both cultural and economic
The Cultural Imperialism Debate
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The imperialism thesis: Some complications
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It does not distinguish between different types of media
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It assumes passive audience
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U.S. is dominant only in some media sectors
Non-Western audiences bring their own filters as they
interpret Western media products
It underestimates the role played by local media
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Bollywood, South Korean film industry, etc.
Mursi tribesman, w
iPod, Southern Ethiopia
The Cultural Imperialism
Debate
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Media corporations know that there are limits to the
appeal of Western culture in other nations
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Media corporations’ strategies
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Promotions of Western artists as global stars
Accommodate local cultures
The Politics of Information
Flow
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Dominance by Western news services
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“A limited perspective reflecting the economic and
cultural interests of the industrialized nations”
New World Information and Communication Order
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A call by poorer nations challenging the Westerndominated model of information flow
Giving expression to oppressed people and countries
Criticized by Western countries as promoting
government censorship
Croteau and Hoynes: Media/Society, 5th Edition © 2015 SAGE Publications, Inc.
Global Media Consumption
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Media are not equally accessible around the
globe
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The term “global media” may be misleading
The digital divide
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Inequalities in media access and use
Regulating Global Media
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Problems with regulating global media
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National governments and international
organizations being pressured by private capital
Global agreements on trade circumvent national
regulations
The borderless nature of the Internet
Regulatory efforts
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ICANN
Internet Governance Forum (IGF)
Citizens’ groups
Croteau and Hoynes: Media/Society, 5th Edition © 2015 SAGE Publications, Inc.
Five big ideas that
organize Soc. 43
I. Structure Matters
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Mass media do what they do in society to a
large degree because of how they are organized
or structured. (The media does NOT just "give
people what they want")
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Some things that determine structure include:
technology, funding and economics,
organizations, institutions, and legal regulation
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Structural determinants can be can be
classified in three interacting layers: 1)
Technical, 2) Logical, and 3) Content.
II. Culture and the
Imagination Matter
• The media do not make things, they make
signs and symbols
• Signs and symbols only work in the context
of a shared culture, a shared system of
meaning
• How people interpret the media is as
important as what the media produce
III. Ideas Matter
• People do what they do, in media and
elsewhere, because of what they (often
implicitly) believe: e.g., what is authorship?
what is intellectual property? is advertising
freedom or oppression? (“Agency”
matters)
• The media are NOT driven just by market
or other external forces; therefore, what
principles people use to understand the
media will shape the way the media are.
IV. The Media are
Changing
• The media have never been that stable, but
they are in a period of dramatic flux now
• How the media matter in modern society,
therefore, will be determined by what the
media become in the future, not just by
what they are now
• How the media change is a matter of
political and social choice, not just a matter
of technology and money
V. Therefore: the media are
not just a thing that happens
to you; if you're willing to
think about it and take some
action, the future of the
media is (at least partly) up
to you.