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Media Industries and Audiences - Lecture 8

Globalization has intensified the flow of media across borders through increased trade and technology like the Internet. Media acts as both an agent and object of globalization by facilitating it through global corporations while also being affected by globalization through industry changes. While globalization allows for exchange of music, television formats, and ideas, it can also lead to concerns about cultural imperialism and homogenization as well as digital and economic divides between countries. However, audiences are not entirely passive and local media still play a role, leading some to argue that globalization results in a mix of global and local influences, or "glocalization".

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29 views3 pages

Media Industries and Audiences - Lecture 8

Globalization has intensified the flow of media across borders through increased trade and technology like the Internet. Media acts as both an agent and object of globalization by facilitating it through global corporations while also being affected by globalization through industry changes. While globalization allows for exchange of music, television formats, and ideas, it can also lead to concerns about cultural imperialism and homogenization as well as digital and economic divides between countries. However, audiences are not entirely passive and local media still play a role, leading some to argue that globalization results in a mix of global and local influences, or "glocalization".

Uploaded by

Olivia Spichal
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Media industries and audiences – Lecture 8

 Globalization is also about trade, business deals, economic aspect


 Important transformation in economic systems (19 th-20th century),
 Globalization has a longer history: but why are we talking so much about
globalization in the last decade?
 A huge intensification has been noticed in the last decade, due to the Internet,
liberalization of trade
 Media are both an object and agent of globalization
 Agent: media drive globalization, through media globalization is made
possible, is happening (eg airbnb, allows us to travel all around the
world, or events like Olympics heaviliy mediated) = global media
corporations: bringing us technology to communicate
 Object: effects by globalization, media industries are changing due to
processes of globalization, has become easier to consume media
products of countries

o Globalization and popular music:


 Music travels: is available beyond a particular culture
 Exchange of musical elements: different countries borrow music elements
from each other
 Hybrid forms of music: new styles, based upon a mix of different genres
 Example of Cape Verdean music from Rotterdam: in the last
decades many people from
 Globalization of hip-hop

 Globalization and the economics of the media industry


 The high cost of producing media + unpredictability of audience
(economic constraints)
 Changing patterns in ownership
 It makes sense to operate on global scale, because companies can’t bare
these risks and therefore collaborate with local producers = form big
groups

 Regulation versus deregulation


 Less rules for international trade (deregulation)
 Liberalization of trade regulations: global market in tv format
 TV-format: a show that can generate a distinctive narrative and is
licensed outside its country of origin in order to be adapted to local
audiences

 The + of formatting
 Lower risk
 Formats may outperform imports: by importing foreign television shows,
format are interesting because they allow to adapt the show to local
language etc
 Potentially cheaper, can buy from a company and further develop it

 What are the sociocultural consequences of globalization?


 Marshall McLuhan: the medium is the message
 Oral to print culture created a fragmentation between people
 With electronic media, there was a reconnecting of the senses fragmented
by print
 Saw the birth of a global village: through electronic media it became
possible to communicate over long distance: get a world culture “we have
extended our central nervous system itself in a global embrace”

 Critical approaches to globalization


 Global digital divide: a gap in access in media communication technologies
 There are huge inequalities in access through different countries
 Cultural imperialism: the fear that some countries is so much dominating
the field of cultural production/ media production that this form to some sort
of cultural domination
 It’s also about values embedded in products, when people consume these
products they somewhat take over these other values
 The fear that European countries would spread everywhere these
cultures through their products
 Homogenization: everyone becomes similar, national identities are being
threatened

 Limitations of the cultural imperialisms approach


 The cultural imperialism thesis does not distinguish between different types
of media
 Assumes a passive audience: because it’s the idea that there are some
dominant countries and others passively absorb these values
 Underestimates the role played by local media and local cultural industries:
should look at many other centers
 Media corporations adapt their products to make that connection to local
markets: for strategic reasons, started to change their products and work
with local players
 LEAD TO glocalisation: globalization leads to a mix

 Processes of globalization have affected the production, distribution,


contents and consumption of media
 Negative aspects: question of inequality, how people have lost their jobs
because of globalization
 Also some positive aspects
 The debate about the consequences will continue in the years to come

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