GLOBAL MEDIA CULTURE

GLOBAL MEDIA
THE GLOBALIZATION OF CULTURE IS OFTEN CHIEFLY IMPUTED TO INTERNATIONAL
MASS MEDIA. AFTER ALL, CONTEMPORARY MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES SUCH AS
SATELLITE TELEVISION AND THE INTERNET HAVE CREATED A STEADY FLOW OF
TRANSNATIONAL IMAGES THAT CONNECT AUDIENCES WORLDWIDE. GLOBAL
MEDIA ALSO INVOLVES CULTURAL IMPERIALISM THEORY WHICH ARGUED THAT
AUDIENCES ACROSS THE GLOBE ARE HEAVILY AFFECTED BY MEDIA MESSAGES
EMANATING FROM THE WESTERN INDUSTRIALIZED COUNTRIES.
ADVANTAGE AND DISADVANTAGE OF MASS MEDIA
ADVANTAGE OF MASS MEDIA

• The rise of electronic communication, such as instant messaging and email, has
led to an increase of global communication. This increase of global
communication has had a profound impact on society. In fact, society has
become more global as electronic communication has eliminated distance as a
barrier to communication. The benefits of a global society include making the
world a smaller place, increasing business opportunities and improving cultural
education.
MAKES THE WORLD A SMALLER PLACE

• While a cliché idea, the world being a small place has become more evident with the rise of global
communication. Family members separated by distance can stay connected with each other through electronic
communication. Computer mediated communication, like social networking websites, even allow for long-
distance communication without having to dread receiving an expensive long-distance phone bill. Electronic
communication helps to make the world a smaller place by making news stories more accessible as well, by
increasing the amount of international news people have access to. Increases Business Opportunities For
businesses, an increase in global communication means new business opportunities. Effective international
business communication requires an understanding of other cultures. For example, according to Mind Tools, an
online resource for learning business skills, in Eastern countries establishing relationships plays an important
role in business transactions. Therefore, by developing personal relationships with Eastern businesspeople using
electronic communication, you increase your chances of enjoying successful business transactions.
IMPROVES CULTURAL EDUCATION

• The increase of global communication has led to new tools for educating children
about different cultures. For instance, children can learn about other cultures directly
from kids who live in other countries through international pen pal programs. Also,
teachers can use technology to allow political leaders and cultural experts to
educate students on the differences and traditions of other cultures.

•
DISADVANTAGE OF MASS MEDIA

• May lead to individualism

• One of the disadvantages of mass media is that the citizens may degenerate into
individualism. Personal interaction with humans become less and less. This is because
the people tend to spend too much of their time engrossed in what they are doing on
the internet or watching interesting programmes on television that they have little
quality time to spend quality with other human beings. It is common to go for a
meeting and as the attendees are waiting for the commencement of the meeting, they
are busy chatting on their phones instead of chatting with people who are physically
present.
A DECREASE IN NATIONAL PRODUCTIVITY

The mass media contributes toward the reduction in national productivity. Some
of the programmes are so interesting and long that people may devote
precious time to watching these programmes to the detriment of being
productive. An example is the soap opera that people devote at least one hour
of every day to watching. This one hour could be used profitably or channeled
into other productive work but this is not always the case. It is now a common
thing to see television sets placed at workplaces. This may distract workers from
operating at their optimum.
IT MAY NOT BE ACCESSIBLE TO EVERYBODY

• One other disadvantage of mass media is that it may not be available to everyone.
Newspapers, for example, depend on sales in addition to advertisements to keep
making a profit. For this reason, where sales are very low, the media house may stop
sending their papers there. In other words, newspapers are geographically selective.
In the case of television and radio houses, people can only tune in where the signals
are present. Therefore, though the mass media is supposed to be available to all, it
may not necessarily be available to everybody because of technical shortcomings.
•
NEGATIVE HEALTH IMPLICATIONS

• The prolong use of mass media, especially, the radio, television, and the
internet is causing health problems to people. It has now been medically
proven that prolonged exposure to the television and computer screen can
affect a person’s eyesight. In other words, watching television over a long
period of time or using the computer for prolonged periods of time can cause
eyesight problems.
ROLE OF THE MASS MEDIA
ROLE OF THE MASS MEDIA

• Role of the mass media in the globalization of culture Role of mass media in globalization of culture is not objective rather
subjective. Globalization ofculture is driven from rapid growth of the mass media and global cultural flows and Marshall
McLuhan termed it as „the global village‟. 1.Perspective of homogenization Homogenization theories see a global cultural
convergence and would tend to highlight the riseof world beat, world tourism, uniform consumption patterns and
cosmopolitanism. Ritzer‟s McDonaldization is a broader image to understand cultural homogenization that emphasizehyper
consumerism and Westernized cultural uniformity. To him globalization is nothing butculturally meaningful institutions and
practices are locally controlled.

For example
we can saythat though Chinese is foreign food, it does not feel like original Chinese taste rather it is localflavor when we eat in
Bangladesh.Global media allow cultures a distinctive voice to promote awareness and provide publicknowledge and
understanding of their own identities particularly developing countries. Impact of mass media to cultural globalization has
emergence as a global consciousness and can createglobal awareness.
WHAT ROLE DOES MASS MEDIA PLAY?

• Legislatures, media executives, local school officials, and sociologists have all debated this controversial question. While opinions vary as to the
extent and type of influence the mass media wields, all sides agree that mass media is a permanent part of modern culture. Three main
sociological perspectives on the role of media exist: the limited‐effects theory, the class‐dominant theory, and the culturalist theory. The
limited‐effects theory argues that because people generally choose what to watch or read based on what they already believe, media exerts a
negligible influence. Critics point to two problems with this perspective. First, they claim that limited‐effects theory ignores the media's role in
framing and limiting the discussion and debate of issues. How media frames the debate and what questions members of the media ask change
the outcome of the discussion and the possible conclusions people may draw. Second, this theory came into existence when the availability and
dominance of media was far less widespread. Class-dominant theory The class‐dominant theory argues that the media reflects and projects the
view of a minority elite, which controls it. Those people who own and control the corporations that produce media comprise this elite. Advocates
of this view concern themselves particularly with massive corporate mergers of media organizations, which limit competition and put big business
at the reins of media—especially news media. Culturalist theory The culturalist theory, developed in the 1980s and 1990s, combines the other
two theories and claims that people interact with media to create their own meanings out of the images and messages they receive. This theory
sees audiences as playing an active rather than passive role in relation to mass media. One strand of research focuses on the audiences and
how they interact with media; the other strand of research focuses on those who produce the media, particularly the news. culturalist theorists
claim that, while a few elite in large corporations may exert significant control over what information media produces and distributes, personal
perspective plays a more powerful role in how the audience members interpret those messages.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LOCAL & GLOBAL CULTURAL
PRODUCTION
• This groundbreaking collection focuses on what may be, for cultural studies, the most intriguing aspect of contemporary globalization—the ways
in which the postnational restructuring of the world in an era of transnational capitalism has altered how we must think about cultural production.
Mapping a "new world space" that is simultaneously more globalized and localized than before, these essays examine the dynamic between the
movement of capital, images, and technologies without regard to national borders and the tendency toward fragmentation of the world into
increasingly contentious enclaves of difference, ethnicity, and resistance. Ranging across issues involving film, literature, and theory, as well as
history, politics, economics, sociology, and anthropology, these deeply interdisciplinary essays explore the interwoven forces of globalism and
localism in a variety of cultural settings, with a particular emphasis on the Asia-Pacific region. Powerful readings of the new image culture,
transnational film genre, and the politics of spectacle are offered as is a critique of globalization as the latest guise of colonization. Articles that
unravel the complex links between the global and local in terms of the unfolding narrative of capital are joined by work that illuminates
phenomena as diverse as "yellow cab" interracial sex in Japan, machinic desire in Robocop movies, and the Pacific Rim city. An interview with
Fredric Jameson by Paik Nak-Chung on globalization and Pacific Rim responses is also featured, as is a critical afterword by Paul Bové.
Positioned at the crossroads of an altered global terrain, this volume, the first of its kind, analyzes the evolving transnational imaginary—the full
scope of contemporary cultural production by which national identities of political allegiance and economic regulation are being undone, and in
which imagined communities are being reshaped at both the global and local levels of everyday existence.