6. Globalisation of Media

Question 1

Summary

Answer 1

1. Forms Globalisation Takes
2. Consequences (Postmodernist)
3. Consequences (Marxist)

Question 2

1. Forms Globalisation Takes

Answer 2

(AEIOS)

• Advertisement: Brands have become global. (e.g. Coca Cola – Coca colonization)
- Coca Cola: most widely known consumer product in the world. (recognizable and tastes the same everywhere in the world)

• Entertainment: has become globalised (via satellite TV, advertising etc)
- World’s population engages with much of the same pop culture.

• Internet: Access to the worldwide web
- Means we can access information and entertainment in most parts of the world (However, China forbids access to some parts of the web)

• Ownership of Mass Media: (Seen in previous topic)
- Media companies not restricted by national boundaries… Media moguls (e.g. Murdoch) and media conglomerates (e.g. Time Warner) own hundreds of media companies throughout the world.

• Satellite Television: You can access channels (CNN, FOX, Al Jazeera) from wherever.

Question 3

2. Consequences of Globalisation (Postmodernists)

Answer 3

1. Brings about more choice with regard to identities and lifestyles:
   - Creates new global hybrid styles in fashion, music, consumption
   - This cultural diversity and pluralism will become the global norm.
2. Local cultures are not swallowed by global media, they adapt
   - E.g. Bollywood films are produced by a local film industry with both Hollywood and Indian entertainment values
   - Cohen and Kennedy: cultural pessimists underestimate strength of local cultures. People ‘mix and match’ elements from local and global culture
3. Global Media can inject the developing world with modern ideas and therefore kickstart economic and cultural ideas.
   - More choice is good for the developed and developing world

Question 4

3. Consequences of Globalisation (Marxist / Cultural Pessimist)

Answer 4

1. Marxists: restricts choice because transnational media companies have too much power.
   - Kellner: suggests global media culture is about sameness and that it erases individuality
2. Marxists fear that local cultures are being replaced by global culture
   - Rosenau: “It is the same culture that is present everywhere”
   - Cultural pessimists call this trend ‘Disneyfication’
   - Schiller: claims Brazilian TV is a spiced up copy of Western values
3. Putnam: side-effects of a global culture centred around TV and internet is civic disengagement. (no longer involved in local communities)