Remember Five Trends in World Communication
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Transcript Remember Five Trends in World Communication
Remember Five Trends in
World Communication
1.
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5.
Convergence/Digitization
Demassification
Conglomeration/Consolidation
Globalization
Deregulation
Globalization
Transformation of communication
spaces and social relations
Economic phenomena: transnational
corporations (TNCs). Top 200 (89 in
U.S., 25 in Japan) produce between 1/3
- 1/2 of the world's output
Cultural phenomena: texts,
representation, identity
Cultural Globalization
Occurs across national borders
new political and cultural identities
characterized by transnational horizontal
integration of media which structures,
processes, and audience/media interactions
in contrast to vertical integration
(prohibitions against foreign ownership,
restrictions on cross-media ownership
Global Media Systems
commercial news agencies: UPI, AP,
Agence France-Presse, Reuters
TNC's: corporations that maintain
facilities in more than one country,
planning operations and investments in
a multi-country perspective
Global Media…
film: Hollywood!!!
radio: U.S. commercial, public in Britain,
Canada, Netherlands, community radio but
withering support
the Internet: whose rules? developed vs.
developing countries,
dominance of OECD countries in formulating
legal and regulatory environment
Some Definitions
oligopoly (--istic): occurs when only a
few companies dominant an industry
commercialization: when the state
replaces some forms of regulation
based on the public interest and public
service
Horizontal concentration of
ownership
a firm in one line of media buys a major
interest in another media operation not
directly related to the original business;
or when it takes a major stake in a
company entirely outside of the media;
can result in conglomerate ownership
where firms are in different lines of
business
Vertical concentration of
ownership
Concentration of firms within a line of
business that extends a company‘s
control over the process of production
and/or distribution
Who Owns the Media?
Disney
Vivendi
AOL/Time Warner
News Corporation
Bertelessman
Viacom
(see
http://www.mediachannel.org/ownership/)
Media Globalization
new models of media ownership and control
(mergers and acquisitions)
decline of public communication on a global
basis
effects: larger cross-border flows of media
outputs, growth of media TNCs, centralization
of media control,
spread & intensification of commercialization
Pro-Globalists
tends to push stodgy state-controlled
media into 'better' media
dissemination of popular culture into
far corners of the world
Western values (individualism,
skepticism of authority, rights of women
and minorities) can be disseminated
promotes media literacy
Anti-Globalists
extension and proliferation of
commercial model of media
media outputs > commodified, does not
meet needs of citizens
loss of cultural sovereignty as foreign
markets are opened to global market
system
Crit. Of Globalization from
McChesney & Herman (1997)
THE MAGIC OF THE MARKET
market treats audience as consumers
public sphere function is not important
'free choice' is an illusion - audiences are not
free to choose their content
commercial media are dependent on
advertisers, and advertisers want affluent
audiences
centralization of ownership makes it hostile
to dissent & conservative in nature
Cont’d: Professionalism &
Objectivity Rule
Really?, under centralized media
ownership
Case of Conrad Black
Media censorship in Post 9-11
environment
Active Audience?
Is the power of media firms
exaggerated?
Are people brainwashed by Western
media fare, or are they using it
'creatively'?
New ICTs
Does it open the door to new forms of
content and entrants?
Can the Internet become a democratic
mass medium, or is the Internet
becoming corporatized?
Brief History of Media
Globalization- Post WWII
U.S. TNCs dominate
Doctrine of 'free flow of information'
was official policy in UNESCO
Postwar reconstruction of German,
Italian and Japanese media systems
U.S. Voice of America - largest
broadcaster in world
English as the 'official' world language
U.S. advertising agencies dominant
Recorded music industry - concentration
and cross-media corporate control
TV: news and sports fare big for U.S.
broadcasting and for export
1970s
global media system profit driven, TNC
dominated advanced capitalist nations,
particularly the U.S.
Post-Colonialism
NAM - Movement of Non-Aligned
Nations, criticized current media system
for: western monopolization of global
news services; attention to needs of
developed nations
domination of entertainment
programming
undermining of national sovereignty
NWICO Debate
UNESCO and MacBride Commission study of
global communications and suggested
solutions
1978 Mass Media Declaration passed by
UNESCO, called for eliminating global media
imbalances and need for media to meet
national development purposes
rejected state media monopolies
supported freedom of journalists and freedom
of press
U.S., Britain did not have sympathy for
NWICO and UNESCO attacked
they withdrew from UNESCO in 1985
1980s
wave of global liberalization
TNC expansion, many inter-corporate
alliances, international financial alliances
IMF- International Monetary Fund
World Bank - developing country lending
agency, infrastructure building
GATT- General Agreement on tariffs & Trade
WTO- World Trade Organization
1990s
NAFTA - North American Free Trade
Agreement (really late 1980s)
FTAA (Free Trade Agreement on the
Americas)
Currently
Culture and trade debates
Indigenous cultural protection
Right to Communicate platforms
Exacerbated by Internet, but
Digital Divide Issues